Small Country, Good Films. HOFF, The Genre Festival In Estonia, Announces Lineup

On the 24th of April, this year, the only genre film festival in the Baltic countries, Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival (HOFF) will start, opening with Adam Wingard's You're Next. Now, when the small festival has revealed it's line-up, we encourage you to get acquainted with its program. Why? Because it is hot.

HOFF also pays its tribute to Tobe Hoopers legendary Texas Chain Saw Massacre for its 40th birthday with a mini retrospective. Giving out a Lifetime Award (The Golden Axe) to the master, HOFF plays also besides the restored version of Texas Chain Saw Massacre, his Salem's Lot, a film that will be shown on a big screen for the very first time in Estonia.

Being the only genre fest in the region, the full line-up does not surprise us much, but we are happy to bring out the great titles lined up for the audiences there and those interested to know. The much buzzed Sundance hit The Babadook. One of this years Berlinale highlights, dark Norwegian thriller, with Stellan Skaarsgard in the leading role, In Order of Disappearance plays along another thriller, Jorge Dorado's feature film debut Mindscape. There is the anticipated Lionsgate horror opus The Quiet Ones. Escape from New York on 35mm playing at the "80ties coming back" slot and the oddball midnight cult movie The Room, which is presented together with a rare documentary about making the film. The Room is another flick, never screened on a big screen in the country before. Rigor Mortis from Hong Kong and SXSW buzzed Wetlands. Then there is The Rambler, Brazilian zombie-horror El Mar Negro, our man Iguchi Noboru's Nuiglumar-Z and a whole program dedicated to the most legendary horror films in the USSR.

Along other titles, the festival that premiered in Europe films like Beyond the Black Rainbow, VHS or Aggression Scale, this year brings home the International premiere of Beyond the first horror film from... Kyrgyzstan. Yes, you heard right. The Japanese head-banging zombie flick on metal and zombies in Dead Banging has its European premiere, along the fully recycled and mad film President Wolfman from the makers of Sex Galaxy at HOFF.

If this all is not enough, the extreme film screening every year bringing together the hard-core fans has this year a title, which once seen, can not be unseen - the absolutely unsettling Men Behind the Sun.

Oh, and this all happens in a small town, once a renown summer retreat of the Russian Czars for its healing mud and seaside, now a picturesque area, a celebrated spa town, and the home of infamous Baltic ghost - the White Lady, who lives in the medieval castle in the middle of the city, this is a pretty good setting for a genre fest. Those Europeans...

Check the festival up here: http://2014.hoff.ee/eng

And give a good look to the festival's trailer, where Morpheus is played by the Eurovision winner, Dave Benton.