Zombie Room

Hey to all you night owls and movie geeks! We are starting a countdown to Night Visions Film Festival here in Zombie Room. Night Visions focuses on horror, fantasy, science fiction and cult movies and is the biggest genre film festival in Finland. Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3009 is held here in Helsinki 28.10.-1.11.2009 and this year the festival has expanded to five days, which means more awesome movies and of course less sleep. I can personally guarantee a great line-up of genre films and a couple of incredible international filmmaker guests joining the festival.

Established in 1997, the festival has been organized in Helsinki usually twice a year, the first Night Visions event of the year taking place in the spring around February/March and the second one around Halloween in late October. The festival’s main venue is the historically and architecturally significant cinema Maxim in the very heart of Helsinki. Active non-stop since 1909, Maxim is the oldest cinema still operating in Finland.

And with that note let’s start with the most important thing, the movies. I went trough the whole selection and here’s a few tip’s on what to see at the festival. You can buy tickets by pressing the screening time link.

JENNIFER’S BODY
Jennifer’s Body is a dark comedy and horror film written by Diablo Cody. She is the writer behind Juno and United States of Tara, which is a TV series I’m super hooked on right now. Jennifer’s Body tells a story of Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and her best friend Jennifer (Megan Fox), the smoking hot cheerleader who turns into a blood thirsty killer. I’m expecting lots of blood and guts, spiced up with some snazzy dialogue à la Cody.

Screening 28.10.2009 19.00 MAXIM 2

Check out the Red Band trailer here.

Read my blog entry here.

DEAD SNOW
For me Dead Snow is definitely the most exiting movie of the whole festival and it’s about time we got this film to Finland. I was lucky enough to see the movie already, but that won’t stop me from going to see it again. In Dead Snow a ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies!!!

We also have a few treats in store for all you Dead Snow fans, but more of that later

Screening 28.10.2009 21.00 MAXIM 2
Screening 31.10.2009 01.30 MAXIM 1

Check out the trailer here.

Read Timo’s blog entry about the Nazi Massacre Championships 2009 here

THE BOX
I have been waiting for this movie like crazy. It’s Richard Kelly’s chance to redeem himself from the last movie mess he made (Southland Tales) and get back on track that he started with his first feature film, the amazing Donnie Darko.

A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a married couple, who open it and become instantly wealthy. Little do they realize that opening the box also kills someone they do not know…

Screening 31.10.2009 21.00 MAXIM 1

Check out the trailer here.

THE ROAD
The Road is directed by John Hillcoat and it is based on a book by Cormac McCarthy (writer of the novel No Country for Old Men). Hillcoat is most known from his work with Nick Cave, for example Ghosts… of the Civil Dead and The Proposition. Now he has taken on a post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible.

Screening 31.10.2009 23.15 MAXIM 1

Check out the trailer here.

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AND A VERY SPECIAL TREAT…

YÖN SAALISTAJAT
And last but not least, we have the amazing Finnish exploitation movie (or Finnsploitation) from the 80′s Yön Saalistajat, directed by Visa Mäkinen. The movie is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary and Night Visions is organizing a gala screening for it. Do I really need to say more..?

Screening 28.10.2009 22.45 MAXIM 1

Just look at this awesome trailer! It is in Finnish, but I think you get the picture…

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Keep in mind that most (if not all) of these movies screened at Night Visions might never get distributed theatrically here in Finland, so this just might be your only chance to see them! So I advice you to buy your tickets now, before they are all sold out! Also all films in Night Visions Maximum Halloween lineup are eligible for the festival’s Audience Award. You can cast your vote after each screening. I think it goes without saying that my vote will go to Dead Snow, because there just can’t be anything more awesome than that!!!

During the festival The Zombies will be posting a daily festival diary, photos and we even have a couple of cool surprises in store, so stay tuned!

For the complete list of movies, events, schedules and ticket information visit the official site www.nightvisions.info

See you at the festival!

Ein! Zwei! Die!

Tags: Dead Snow, Diablo Cody, Jennifer's Body, John Hillcoat, Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3009, Richard Kelly, The Box, The Road, Visa Mäkinen, Yön Saalistajat

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 22:59 and is filed under Countdown, Film festivals, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.