AFTER DARK HORRORFEST Ò

CROWNS MISTRESS MALICE as MISS HORRORFEST 2007

The official spokesperson for After Dark Horrorfest Ò

was crowned at Los Angeles Launch Party

November 9, 2007 – Los Angeles – The 2007 Queen of Scream was crowned last night at the Los Angeles launch party for After Dark Horrorfest Ò2007 at Basque in Hollywood. Mistress Malice takes the crown as this year’s Miss Horrorfest 2007, where she will serve as the official spokesperson for After Dark Horrorfest Ò.  The four finalists for Miss Horrorfest 2007 were Countess Bathory, Mistress Malice, Nixon Suicide and Sweet Dead Sarah. Log on to http://www.youtube.com/horrorfest and watch the top 4 contestants in their fight for horror’s most illustrious crown. [photo: Staci Layne Wilson]

After Dark Films’ CEO Courtney Solomon stated, “We are thrilled to have Mistress Malice as the new Miss Horrorfest.  She was definitely a favorite among the YouTube voters, and we are confident that she will be a great representative for After Dark Horrorfest Ò.” 

Last year, the Miss Horrorfest contest proved to be one of the most successful contests in YouTube history. Over the last month, contestants have submitted 90-second videos on YouTube and participated in live auditions across the country in the hopes of winning the coveted title of Miss Horrorfest 2007. YouTube users had the ability to influence the selection of Miss Horrorfest by viewing the entries and ranking them with stars. This year’s Miss Horrorfest 2007 wins $50,000 and a one-year contract as After Dark Films’ spokesperson.

Along with its partners AMC, Regal and Cinemark, After Dark Horrorfest Ò2007 will screen “8 Films To Die For,” including Borderland, Crazy Eights, The Deaths of Ian Stone, Lake Dead, Mulberry Street, Nightmare Man, Tooth and Nail and Unearthed over the course of one week (2 weekends) from November 9 – 18 on over 300 screens across the country, making it the largest commercial film festival in the world. This unique national festival is the first of its kind celebrating the horror genre by showcasing films that run the spectrum of horror from thrillers to gore to the supernatural. After achieving groundbreaking success in its inaugural year, now After Dark Films is back with an even bigger and better Horrorfest.

In 2006, After Dark Horrorfest Ò became the first film festival in history to break into the top 10 at the national box office, grossing over 2.5 million dollars, on only a quarter of the screens of any other film in the top ten that weekend.  The “8 Films to Die For Ò” package, released on DVD by partner Lionsgate Films, has reached great success with 1.8 million DVDs in circulation.

For more information on After Dark Horrorfest Ò 2007, including how to purchase tickets and all access passes to this hair-raising national event, please visit the official website at http://www.horrorfestonline.com/

2007 After Dark Horrorfest Ò Lineup

BORDERLAND (based on true events)

DIRECTED BY: Zev Berman

WRITTEN BY: Zev Berman

CAST: Brian Presley, Rider Strong, Jake Muxworthy, Beto Cuevas, Sean Astin

SYNOPSIS: In BORDERLAND, three Texas University seniors, on the eve of their graduation, road-trip to a Mexican Border town for a final weekend of drinking and debauchery. Their vacation becomes a living nightmare as the trio runs afoul of an ancient blood cult looking for human sacrifice. Based on true events, Borderland blends the raw fear of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the gritty true crime realism of In Cold Blood, evoking a world of paranoia, death and terror.

CRAZY EIGHTS

DIRECTED BY: James Koya Jones

WRITTEN BY: Dan Deluca, James Koya Jones with additional screenplay rewrites by Patrick Moses, Ji-un Kown and James K. Jones

CAST: Traci Lords, Frank Whaley, Dina Meyer, Gabrielle Anwar, George Newbern, Dan DeLuca

SUMMARY: Six people are brought together at the funeral of a childhood friend.  While settling the estate, they discover a map, which leads them on a search for a long forgotten time capsule, at the request of their dead friend.  What they discover reawakens repressed childhood traumas and leads them on a journey through their long abandoned childhood home: a home with a terrible secret and a mysterious dead girl who will lead them to their strange fates.

THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE

DIRECTED BY: Dario Piana

WRITTEN BY: Brendan Hood

CAST: Mike Vogel, Jamie Murray, and Christina Cole

SYNOPSIS: On an otherwise ordinary night, the young Ian Stone encounters a mysterious creature and is forced him into the path of an oncoming train.  Rather than facing certain death, Ian finds himself reborn into a new life that feels strangely familiar.  After his second death, it becomes apparent that Ian is being hunted by an evil presence, and will be forced to die every day until he can solve the mystery of his own life.

LAKE DEAD

DIRECTED BY: George Bessudo

WRITTEN BY: Daniel P. Coughlin

CAST: Edwin Craig, Pat McNeely, James C. Burns, Kelsey Crane, Jim Devoti

SYNOPSIS: Three beautiful sisters learn of a long lost grandfather, but only make this discovery upon the news of his grisly death.  Enticed to visit grandpa’s old home after hearing of an inheritance, the sister’s head to the back country with some friends.  We quickly follow the group of friends through the gates of a redneck infested hell.  The psychotic family occupying the inherited property goes on a long awaited, and much enjoyed killing spree.  As the family’s twisted motives unravel, the sisters discover a terror worse than death. 

MULBERRY STREET

DIRECTED BY: Jim Mickle

WRITTEN BY: Jim Mickle, Nick Damici

CAST: Laurel Astri, Kim Blair, Ron Brice, Bo Corre, Nick Damici

SYNOPSIS: The city that never sleeps may shut its eyes for good when a deadly infection turns its residents to savage creatures.  There is only hope for a small few, including six recently evicted tenants who must protect their crumbling apartment complex as the city around them is thrown into chaos.

NIGHTMARE MAN

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Rolfe Kanefsky

CAST: Tiffany Shepis, Blythe Metz, Luciano Szafir, James Ferris, Hanna Putnam, Jack Sway, and Richard Moll.

SYNOPSIS: When a woman orders an ancient fertility mask to help her conceive, her quest for motherhood turns into a quest for survival as it becomes clear the mask is possessed by a demonic spirit. Will anyone survive the NIGHTMARE MAN?

TOOTH AND NAIL

WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND EDITED BY: Mark Young

CAST: Rachel Miner, Rider Strong, Nicole Dupont, Michael Kelly, Alexandra Barreto, Emily Young, Zack Robidas, Kevin E. Scott, with Robert Carradine, and Vinnie Jones and Michael Masden

SYNOPSIS: A small group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world take refuge in an empty hospital with plans on re-building society.  They rescue a young girl who is the victim of a brutal attack, but soon discover that they were followed by a savage band of cannibals known as Rovers. The Rovers begin to kill them one by one, and the trapped survivors must find a way to outwit their stalkers.

UNEARTHED

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Matthew Leutwyler

CAST: Emmanuelle Vaugier, Luke Goss, Beau Garrett, Charles Q. Murphy, Tonantzin Carmelo,

Whitney Able, Tommy Dewey, M.C. Gainey, Russell Means, and Miranda Bailey

SYNOPSIS:  After a sinister crash occurs off the highway of a small desert town, things take a horrific turn for its residents.  As people vanish and nature dies, the local sheriff investigates, only to discover that the fate of her town rests just below the earth.