PollyGrind to showcase 13 grindhouse films

April 15, 2010 - PRLog -- Thirteen films and more than 30 trailers, music videos and shorts will play over five days at the first ever Polly Staffle Grindhouse Fest, which takes place May 12-16 at the Sci-Fi Center (2520 State Street) in Las Vegas.

Festival creator and director Chad Clinton Freeman, who has been called the "new champion of unabashed B-movie sleaze" by ArrowintheHead.com, announced the PollyGrind’s lineup live via a special Podcast from Hell with HorrorNews.net’s Dai Green on Tuesday.

Five features will get world premieres, seven will have their Las Vegas premieres, and one will be a U.S. premiere.

Filmmaker Creep Creepersin will world premiere his films Vaginal Holocaust, Caged Lesbos A-Go-Go, and Orgy of Blood on May 15 in a special Saturday night “triple featuresin.”

The rape-revenge film Vaginal Holocaust and the women-in-prison feature Caged Lesbos A-Go-Go both have all-star indie casts. Sean Cain (Silent Night, Zombie Night), Elissa Dowling (Live Evil), Elske McCain (Killer Biker Chicks) and Shane Ryan (Amateur Porn Star Killer) star with Natasha Talonz (Black Devil Doll) in Holocaust. Caged Lesbos features most of the same players, minus Talonz, plus Monique Dupree (Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned), Elina Madison (Someone's Knocking at the Door) and Ariauna Albright (Bloodletting). The erotic vampire tale Orgy of Blood features Albright, Dowling and Madison, along with Domiziano Arcangeli (Werewolf in a Women's Prison) and Jeff Dylan Graham (Dorm of the Dead).

John R. Hand’s sci-fi arthouse film Scars of Youth kicks off the festival with its world premiere. Scars of Youth, the follow up to Hand’s cult hit Frankensteins Bloody Nightmare, will screen with the Las Vegas premiere of Greg Lamberson’s Slime City Massacre, the sequel to the 1988 cult classic Slime City, for a “Post-Apocalyptic Nightmares” double bill on May 12.

Hand said he was quite excited about being paired with Lamberson’s new film. “A few hours ago you told me about this and I was like wow,” Hand said on the podcast. “I didn’t even know they made a sequel. Slime City is such a classic film.”

Slime City Massacre is a hybrid of science fiction horror and action. It stars Debbie Rochon (The Good Sisters), Lee Perkins (KatieBird *Certifiable Crazy Person) and Brooke Lewis (Mondo Holocausto!). It also features original Slim City actors Robert Sabin and Mary Bogle, and Roy Frumkes of Street Trash fame.

“It’s ten times the film the first one was,” Lamberson said of his sequel during the podcast. “It was definitely conceived as a throwback to the 80s films. And you’ll hear a lot of filmmakers talking about doing that, but I’m somebody that made the 80s films, so the sleaze is natural in my blood. It’s not something I’m aspiring to.”

The Dead Undead world premieres May 13 to jump start a living dead triple feature dubbed “Zombies-A-Go-Go!” Stuntmen Matt Anderson and Edward Conna, who both have more than 100 stunt credits, co-directed The Dead Undead, which stars Luke Goss (Hellboy II: The Golden Army), Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior), and Spice Williams (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). Soldier vampires take on zombie vampires in the action-horror joy ride.

“I’m nervous and anxious to see what people think of it,” Anderson said of his film on the podcast. “We haven’t screened it anywhere. There have been few people that have seen it.”

The U.S. premiere of German Magariños’ zombie film Zombie Apocalypse Now: A Zombie Hunter will also play May 13. The Argentina import from the creator of Sadomaster caps the night, which also will feature the Las Vegas premiere of Henry Weintraub’s Melvin. Zombie Apocalypse Now can be classified as a comedic torture porn about an outcast zombie hunter, while Weintraub says Melvin is a Revenge of the Nerds zombie film.

Other features at the festival will include the Las Vegas premieres of the cool action film Dead Hooker in a Trunk (the directorial debut of the Twisted Twins Jen and Sylvia Soska), the 70s and 80s horror throwback Frat House Massacre (Alex Pucci), and the anthology Terror Overload (Brant Johnson, Kevin Myhre and Jason Stephenson). Terror Overload, which stars Rachel Grubb (Why Am I In A Box?) and Scarlet Salem (Incest Death Squad), caps the May 14 “Menage a Trois de la Terreur” with a midnight screening.

The Soskas describ their film as Weekend at Bernie’s by way of Quentin Tarantino and admit it started off as a fake trailer. The sisters were inspired by Nova Scotia filmmakers Jason Eisener, John Davies and Rob Cotterill, and their Hobo with a Shotgun trailer, which won Robert Rodriguez's South by Southwest Grindhouse trailer contest.

Screenplay writer Draven Gonzalez said Frat House Massacre is his and Pucci’s answer to the 80s film Sorority House Massacre. Gonzalez likens it to Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left and calls it a twisted, brutal revenge story that is filled with blood, gore, sex, drugs, rock and roll, and some disco.

Grubb, who plays four roles as a homage to Karen Black in Trilogy of Terror, called Terror Overload a good midnight movie. “I think it’s a really good festival for that film. A lot of horror festivals were unable to show it because it was pretty graphic, and has a lot of nudity,” Grubb said on the podcast. “It’s definitely grindhouse and I think it’s going to fit in well. ”

The Las Vegas premieres of Horrid (James Pronath) and Red Velvet (Bruce Dickson) close the fest on May 16 with a “Killer Party” double feature. Three friends travel to the woods for a bachelor party weekend filled with beer, booze, babes and the spread of a cannibalistic disease in Horrid, while a madman slices up a birthday party in Red Velvet.

Henry Thomas (E.T.), Kelli Garner (Bully), Cristen Coopen (Cameron Romero's Staunton Hill), and Eric Junmann (Robert Englund’s Killer Pad) highlight Dickson’s film, which is best described as part romantic arthouse dark comedy and part deconstructive slasher.

“It was born out of mine and my partner’s feelings that we were seeing more and more horror films, but enjoying them less,” Red Velvet producer Sean Fernald explained on the podcast. “What we set out to do was make a horror film with a sense of humor.”

Red Velvet also features one of the last cameos of Forrest J. Ackerman, who passed away in 2008. Ackerman, often referred to as Uncle Forry, coined the term “sci-fi” and appeared in more than 100 films. He also cameos in The Dead Undead.

Ackerman is second only to Lloyd Kaufman as the personality that pops up the most in films screening at the PollyGrind. Kaufman appears in Slime City Massacre, Caged Lesbos A-Go-Go, Zombie Apocalypse Now: A Zombie Hunter, Melvin and Weintraub’s short Depraved.

Tickets for the event are $10 per day. Five day passes and three day passes can be purchased in advance for $40 and $25.

Freeman explained on the podcast that this event is being put on with no budget and hopes sponsors, advertisers, donors, etc. will step forward to make PollyGrind the best it can be. All sponsorships and donations will go to Sci-Fi Center maintenance, as well as awards and prizes for winning films, and giveaways for attendees. Freeman said his dream is to also have burlesque, go-go, belly dancers and variety acts perform at the event.

“This is the start of the PollyGrind,” Freeman said. “To make the first year as good as it can be, I’d like to have some other people on board with us. So if there are people that love independent, genre and grindhouse films that want to get involved, I’d love to hear from them.”

Freeman can be reached at CCF@PollyStaffle.com. More information on his event can be found at PollyGrind.com and TheSciFiCenter.com.

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PollyGrind celebrates the darker side of cinema, as well as individuality, diversity, creativity and empowerment.