Morbido 2018: Festival Lineup and Guest List Announced!

Andrew Mack, Editor, News; Toronto, Canada (@Mack_SAnarchy)

It’s the most, wonderful time, of the year. In two weeks I will be returning to my happy place, CDMX, for the 2018 edition of the Morbido Film Fest. 
 
As always mi Familia de Morbido have put together a top notch program this year. I look forward to seeing who will win the battle of the Giallo projects, the Onetti Brothers’ Abrakadabra or Mirada de cristal from Ezequiel Endelman y Leandro Montejano who will be at the festival this year. I also look forward to discovering and giving focus to the other IberoAmerican films during the festival.
 
International titles coming to CDMX include Lifechanger, The Ranger, the amazing One Cut of the Dead, Mandy, Starfish, Cam, Luz, Violence Voyager and the sensually dangerous Knife + Heart! There are many more titles in the mix, just that these ones in particular have stood out over the festival season. 
 
The guest lineup is pretty strong as well. From a legacy standpoint Peter Medak, director of The Changeling, will be in town for a special screening of his film. Ashley Laurence from the Hellraiser films is coming to town. And Don Mancini, creator of the Child’s Play films is coming to the festival to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary. You can bet we will see Chucky come to life and be present at the festival this year. 
 
Locally, my friend Justin McConnell is coming with his film Lifechanger. I also get to hang out with Jenn Wexler and Heather Buckley again, who are coming with Wexler’s punk rock slasher The Ranger. Someone who I have not met yet but look forward to seeing at the festival is Jon Schnitzer, director of Haunters: The Art of the Scare, because his virtual reality project Flatline Experience will also play at the festival. It is also worth noting that Morbido has been running an Overlord themed haunted house in La Feria de Chapultepec, a local amusement park which guests will get to visit during the festival. 
 
And as is always the case the festival sports another incredible poster for this year’s edition. Featuring a fierce battle between a jaguar and an eagle I look forward to swapping out last year’s poster for this one for the year long display cycle in my art gallery, aka. living room. 
 
The complete press release is below this smashing poster.
 
 
Morbido Film Fest 2018 opens its 11th edition in Mexico City.
 
CDMX, October 2018. Grupo Morbido’s CEO Pablo Guisa Koestinger presented all guest and programming for the 11th edition of Morbido Film Fest to be held from October 31st to November 10th.
 
Special guests: Peter Medak, director of “The Changeling”; David Gregory, distributor of “The Changeling”; Ashley Laurence, actress of “Hellraiser” and “Hellbound, Hellraiser II”; Dominik Hartl, Austrian director of “Party Hard, Die Young”; Jon Schnitzer, director of “Haunters: The Art Of The Scare”; Jenn Wexler director of “The Ranger”; Heather Buckley, producer of “The Ranger”; Justin McConnell, director of “Lifechanger”; Avi Federgreen, producer of "Lifechanger"; Paulo Biscaia Filho, director of “Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains”; Paco Plaza, director of “REC” and “La posesión de Verónica”; Ezequiel Endelman y Leandro Montejano, directors of “Mirada de Cristal”; Camila Pizzo, actress of “Mirada de Cristal”; Seth Michaels, actor and producer of “St. Agatha”; Carlos Vermut, director of “Quien te cantara” and Nathalie Cohen, Italian graphic artist.
 
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Child’s Play” we’ll have Chucky himself and Don Mancini, creator of Chucky.
 
This year Morbido Film Fest 2018 venues will be:  Cinépolis Diana, Biblioteca Vasconcelos, Casa del Lago, Metro Zapata, Cinemanía, Centro de Cultura Digital and finally La Feria de Chapultepec joins this year.
 
This year La Feria de Chapultepec sums up as a new venue for the festival, where there will be related events with some of the movies from our selection such as the documentary “Haunters: The Art Of The Scare” from director Jon Schnitzer which shows Haunted Houses culture in The United States.
 
Schnitzer who is the creator of horror attractions, RV and Immersive Experiences for clients such as Tim Burton, Youtube Red Studios and TASCHEN Books, as well as produced ghost illusions in 3D for the first Barack Obama´s Halloween Party at The White House. Jon also directed and produced Flatline Experience, a reality virtual project that brings the audience the opportunity to become active participants on a experience that takes you close to death. This screening will take place next-door La nueva Casona del Terror with Morbido designed for this season. We will give a special tour to all our guests including Chucky for who we have a special surprise. 
 
To celebrate the 200 anniversary of Frankenstein (novel), Morbido Film Fest and Grupo Planeta have a special event at Biblioteca Vasconcelos where Pablo Guisa will interview the monster of Frankenstein to talk about his first 200 years. This event is free and will happen next Saturday November 3rd at 13:00 pm.
 
Celebrating Morbido´s Day, next Sunday 4th of November, Casa del Lago, The Chapultepec Park opens its doors for different activities for all public such as: Puppetry´s play, Latin American witches legends, reading circles, short films screenings, we will be presenting “Cygnus” a new book and our already traditional AAA Lucha Libre show. 
 
As a part of its mission to spread horror, Grupo Morbido launched Morbido TV, Pay TV channel that can already be seen in Mexico and by the end of this month will opens its signal over South America in countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Perú.
 
Morbido Film Fest thanks support to Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, Biblioteca Vasconcelos, Casa del Lago Juan José Arreola, Cinemanía, Museo del Juguete Antiguo Mexicano, el Foro Cultural de Austria, el Instituto Italiano de Cultura, la AAA, el Sistema de Transporte Colectivo Metro. 
 
Latin American Feature Films Official Selection for this year are:
 
Abrakadabra
Dir: Luciano Onetti, Nicolas Onetti
Cast: Germán Baudino, María Eugenia Rigón, Gustavo D`Alessandro
Argentina| 2018 | 80 m | color |
 
Anya
Dir: Erik Zavála
Cast: María Fernanda Tovar, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Ricky Gut Mad, Diana Lein
México| 2018 | 90 m | color |
 
El Vampiro del Lago
Dir: Carl Zitelmann
Cast: Miguel Angel Landa, Sócrates Serrano, Eduardo Gulino, Abilio Torres
Venezuela| 2018 | 102 m | color |
 
Fiesta Niburu
Dir: Manuel Facal
Cast: Verónica Dobrich, Luciano Demarco, Emanuel Sobré, Carla Quevedo
Uruguay| 2017 | 71 m | color |
 
Inquilinos
Dir: Chava Cartas
Cast: Danny Perea, Erick Elías, Gabriela Roel, Noé Hernández
México| 2018 | 92m | color |
 
La Casa Lobo
Dir: Cristobal León, Joaquín Cociña
Cast: Amalia Kassai, Rainer Krause
Chile| 2018 | 75m | color | animación
 
Mirada de cristal
Dir: Ezequiel Endelman, Leandro Montejano
Cast: Silvia Montanari, Anahí Politi, Erika Boveri, Claudio Armesto
Argentina | 2017 | 82m | color |
 
Morto Não Fala (Nightshifter)
Dir: Dennison Ramalho
Cast: Daniel de Oliveira, Fabiula Nascimento, Blanca Comparato
Brasil | 2018| 110 m | color |
 
 
Rest of the world Feature Films Official Selection for this year are:
 
CAM
Dir: Daniel Goldhaber, Isa Mazzei
Cast: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Melora Walters, Devin Druid,
EUA| 2018 | 94 m | color |
 
Crisis Jung
Dir: Jeremie Hoarau, Baptiste Gaubert
Cast: Karim Tougui, Pauline Moingeon, Martial Le Minoux
Francia | 2018 | 70 m | color | animación
 
Deadtectives
Dir: Tony West
Cast: Chris Geree David Newman, José María de Tavira, Martha Higareda
EUA | 2018 | 90 m | color |
 
Haunters: The Art of The Scare
Dir: Jon Schnitzer
Cast: Shar Mayer, Donald Julson, Russ McKamey, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska,
EUA | 2017| 88 m | color |
 
One Cut of the Dead
Dir: Shinichiro Ueda
Cast: Yuzuki Akiyama, Takuya Fujimura, Ayana Gôda, Takayuki Hamatsu
Japón | 2017| 97 m | color |
 
Lifechanger
Dir: Justin McConnell
Cast: Lora Burke, Jack Foley, Bill Oberst Jr., Elitsa Bako, Sam James White
Canadá | 2018| 84 m | color |
 
Lucid
Dir: Adam Morse
Cast: Billy Zane, Sadie Frost, Toni Beard, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Cristian Solimeno
Reino Unido | 2018| 86 m | color |
 
Luz
Dir: Tillman Singer
Cast: Luana Veils, Jan Bluthardt, Julia Riedler, Nadja Stübiger, Johannes Benecke
Alemania| 2018| 70 m | color |
 
Mandy
Dir: Panos Cosmatos
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache
EUA | 2018| 121 m | color |
 
Mutafukaz (MFKZ)
Dir: Guillaume Renard, Shojiro Nishimi
Cast: Tay Lee, Mark Ryan Haltom, Ray Chung.
Francia| 2017| 90 m | color | animación
 
Parallel
Dir: Issac Ezban
Cast: Ami Ameen, Martin Wallstrom, Georgia King, Mark O’Brien, Alyssa Diaz
Canadá | 2018| 104 m | color |
 
Party Hard Die Young
Dir: Dominik Harti
Cast: Elisabeth Wabitsch, Antonia Moretti, Alexandra Schmidt, Chantal Pausch, Marlon Boess, Markus Freistätter, Michael Glant Schnig
Austria| 2018| 90 m | color |
 
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich
Dir: Sonny Laguna, Tommy Wiklund
Cast: Thomas Lennon, Jenny Pellicer, Michael Paré, Barbara Crampton, Udo Kier.
EUA| 2018| 84 m | color |
 
Quién te cantará
Dir: Carlos Vermut
Cast: Najwa Nimri, Eva Llorach, Carmen Elìás
España | 2018| 124 m | color |
 
St. Agatha
Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman
Cast: Sabrina Kern, Carolyn Hennesy, Courtney Halverson
EUA| 2018| 102 m | color |
 
Starfish
Dir: A.T. White
Cast: Virginia Gardner, Christina Masterson, Eric Beecroft, Natalie Mitchell.
EUA| 2018| 101 m | color |
 
The Changeling
Dir: Peter Medak
Cast: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos
Canadá | 1980| 109 m | color |
 
The Cleaning Lady
Dir: Jon Knautz
Cast: Alexis Kendra, Rachel Alig, Stelio Savante, Elizabeth Sandy,
EUA| 2018| 90 m | color |
 
The Man with the Magic Box
Dir: Bodo Kox
Cast: Olga Boladz, Piotr Polak, Sebastian Stankiewicz
Polonia | 2017| 103 m | color |
 
The Ranger
Dir: Jenn Wexler
Cast: Chloe Levine, Granit Lahu, Jeremy Pope, Bubba Weiler,
EUA| 2018| 77 m | color |
 
Tumbbad
Dir: Rahi Anil Barve, Adesh Prasad
Cast: Sohum Shah, Deepak Damle, Harish Khanna, Anita Date, Mohd Samad
India,Suecia | 2018| 104 m | color |
 
Un Couteau dans le Coeur/ La Daga en el Corazón
Dir: Yann Gónzalez
Cast: Vanessa Paradis, Kate Moran, Nicolas Maury,
Francia | 2018| 110 m | color |
 
Violence Voyager
Dir: Ujicha
Cast: Saki Fujita, Shigeo Takahashi, Naoki Tanaka
Japón | 2018| 84 m | color | animación
 
Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains
Dir: Paulo Biscaia Filho
Cast: Kelsey Pribilski ,Elizabeth Maxwell, Ezekiel Z Swinford, Don Daro
EUA| 2018| 94 m | color |
 
What Keeps you Alive
Dir: Colin Miniham
Cast: Hannah Emily Anderson, Brittany Allen, Martha MacIsaac
Canadá| 2018| 98 m | color |
 
Mórbido will also present on its selection a total of 64 shortfilms divided by 9 theme blocks of 17 different countries.
 
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