Hallucinations

Our Hallucinations series kicks off its four film sub-series of Seaside Horror with the 1981 shocker Dead & Buried! The story follows a small town sheriff (James Farentino from The Final Countdown) who is baffled by a sudden series of grisly murders. A familiar plot to some, but director Gary Sherman ups the creepiness factor with a spooky setting and uniquely morbid sense of humor. Unfairly ignored during its original theatrical release, Dead & Buried is one of those movies that was lucky enough to find a second life in the home-video market and is now considered a cult classic. Nearly forty years later, Grindhouse Releasing has released a brand new 4K restoration for us to enjoy on the big screen!  Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.

Echoing everything from Herk Harvey's Carnival Of Souls to Mario Bava's Kill, Baby...Kill!, Messiah Of Evil is a swirling vortex of Lovecraftian terror and grisly bloodshed from the team who'd later go on to make Howard The Duck! That perfect storm of madness makes it a perfect entry into our Hallucinations series! After receiving a string of unsettling letters from her father, Arletty arrives in a sleepy California coastal town called Point Dune. Dad is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Arletty finds a town full of drugged-out burnouts, barren shopping centers, and...something else.   Marianna Hill (High Plains Drifter), Michael Greer (Fortune And Men's Eyes), and Elisha Cook Jr. (The Maltese Falcon) star in this unjustly overlooked major work of independent American horror that's primed for (re)discovery. Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.

Our seaside horror Hallucinations mini series continues with a brand new 4K restoration of the 1961 gem Night Tide! Night Tide presents a world in which undefined realms float around, blurring boundaries between reality and fantasy. Dennis Hopper is profoundly charming in his portrayal of Johnny, a young sailor who is spellbound by Mora, an enigmatic woman who performs as a mermaid at the Santa Monica Pier carnival. Set near the water in Santa Monica and Venice Beach, Night Tide dives into the purgatory domain of dreamy love, which is cursed by doomed imagination, like a beautiful nightmare underwater. Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.

Our Hallucinations series heads to the seaside one final time (for this sub-series, at least) for director Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout! Adapted from Robert Graves’ short story, The Shout follows a mysterious traveler, Crossley, who takes advantage of a young couple’s hospitality. Claiming to have learned an Aboriginal ‘terror shout,’ Crossley threatens the couple’s safety and sanity.  Skolimowski’s film is dreamlike and disorienting, playing out like a hallucination (see what we did there?). It's not a conventional horror movie by any means, using fractured timelines and the barren English coastal to slowly create an existential nightmare.  Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.