Lawrence C. Connolly's Blog, page 24

Q&A at The Parkway Theater (Part 2):Nightmare Cinema’s Lost Spider Scene

We concluded our previous post with reference to King Kong’s lost spider scene  — a sequence so horrifying that producer-director Merian C. Cooper insisted that it be removed from the final cut. His reasoning: “It stopped the show.”

A victim of judicious editing, that scene now joins other lost segments of film history, such as the pie fight deleted from Doctor Strangelove and the jitterbug number edited out of The Wizard of Oz — removed because they detracted from the central story.

And now...

Nightmare Cinema:Q&A at The Parkway Theater (Part One)

 “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” — Robert Frost

“This Way to Egress,” the fourth segment of our new anthology film Nightmare Cinema, is about finding a way back home. This weekend, after a year-long tour of international film festivals and a week of theatrical premieres across the country, the movie is having its western-Pennsylvania premiere at the … [read more at The 21st-Century Scop].

Nightmare Cinema:Q&A at The Parkway Theater (Part One)

 “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” — Robert Frost

“This Way to Egress,” the fourth segment of our new anthology film Nightmare Cinema, is about finding a way back home. This weekend, after a year-long tour of international film festivals and a week of theatrical premieres across the country, the movie is having its western-Pennsylvania premiere at the Parkway Theater in Pittsburgh — my hometown.

Scattered among the audience were some old friends,...

Nightmare Cinema:Q&A at Frida Cinema in Santa Anna

 This week’s round of Nightmare Cinema release events concluded with a screening at The Frida Cinema on Saturday night. Sponsored by Horror Buzz and The Horrible Imaginings Film Festival, the event drew an enthusiastic crowd and concluded with a Q&A session where I joined directors Mick Garris, Alejandro Bruges, and Ryuhei Kitamura in a discussion moderated by Miguel Rodriguez of Horrible Imaginings … [read more at The 21st-Century Scop].

Nightmare Cinema:Q&A at Frida Cinema in Santa Anna

 This week’s round of Nightmare Cinema release events concluded with a screening at The Frida Cinema on Saturday night. Sponsored by Horror Buzz and The Horrible Imaginings Film Festival, the event drew an enthusiastic crowd and concluded with a Q&A session where I joined directors Mick Garris, Alejandro Bruges, and Ryuhei Kitamura in a discussion moderated by Miguel Rodriguez of Horrible Imaginings.

Above: The Q&A session following the Nightmare Cinema screening at the Frida Cinema. 

The ses...

Opening Week: Bring on the Nightmares

We have arrived!

The anthology project that Producer-Director Mick Garris first envisioned when his ground-breaking series Masters of Horror concluded its run in 2007, is now playing on big screens across the country and on home screens via VOD (where it is currently closing on Jordan Peele’s top-ranked Us.

Also of note (for me and for those of you following this blog), the segment titled “This Way to Egress” (which David Slade, Charly Cantor, and I began developing in 2000) is finally a real...

Bracing for Nightmare Cinema:This Week & Beyond

This week, five strangers will enter an abandoned theater to watch their darkest fears play out before them. And you can join them.

It all kicks off this Thursday, June 20, when the cast and crew of Nightmare Cinema gather at the historic Hayworth Theatre (2511 Wilshire Blvd) for a special pre-release screening of  the movie that Entertainment Weekly calls “one of the best horror films of the year so far.” The limited number of advance tickets that were available to the public for the pre-rel...

An Evening of Nightmares

With the theatrical release of the new anthology film Nightmare Cinema just over a week away, Cranked-Up Films and Shudder are launching An Evening of Nightmares — a curated screening series that, according to a recent article at Deadline.com, “centers on filmmakers showcasing their own work and the work of …” [read more at The 21st-Century Scop].

An Evening of Nightmares

With the theatrical release of the new anthology film Nightmare Cinema just over a week away, Cranked-Up Films and Shudder are launching An Evening of Nightmares — a curated screening series that, according to a recent article at Deadline.com, “centers on filmmakers showcasing their own work and the work of their creative influences.”

Scheduled for June 14 at the Hayworth Theater in Los Angeles, the first screening in the series will feature three Nightmare Cinema directors, each sharing one...

Unleashing 100 Years of Nightmares

I’m the projectionist, curator of 100 years of nightmares trapped in a silver screen that never forgets.

— Mickey Rourke as the Projectionist.

This month, the new anthology film Nightmare Cinema concludes its successful run on the international festival circuit to open in select theatres around the country.

The film releases on June 21, just a few weeks shy of the anniversary of the film’s packed-house premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival, and since Cranked-Up Films has arran...