Daily Mini-fests & Prime Time Movies Salute Monsters, Past & Present
JERICHO, NY, September 4, 2002 – AMC will once again be the ultimate television destination for monster movies and themed original programming with the network's sixth annual Halloween event, Monsterfest 24/7, October 25 – 31. The festival will feature the premieres of Short Screamers with John Carpenter, a collection of horror movie shorts, airing midnight on Halloween, and Backstory: HALLOWEEN, a new episode of the weekly series that follows a popular movie on its journey from script to screen. The 7-day, 154-hour-long scare-a-thon will also feature more than 50 films, spanning seven decades — from the Universal Studios classics that gave birth to the screen legacies of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Mummy — to more modern movies like FRIGHT NIGHT, THE BRIDE, PREDATOR 2 and HALLOWEEN 4 – 5.
"Short Screamers with John Carpenter" is a half-hour special of the best and brightest horror movie shorts, hosted by legendary horror director John Carpenter (HALLOWEEN). Ranging from terrifying thrillers to malevolent monsters and all points in between, the shorts run approximately one-minute each and will be featured on-air and on-line (www.amctv.com). They reflect and reinterpret filmmaking trends and offer an extraordinary glimpse into the future potential of horror films and moviemaking. This is AMC's first outreach to the amateur filmmaking community.
To produce "Short Screamers," AMC contacted many emerging film directors and industry up-and-comers, including the L.A. based "filmmaking collective," Group 101 Films. Each filmmaker was commissioned to produce a unique interpretation of horror and monster movies. AMC's Monsterfest 24/7 is the premiere venue for their extraordinary creativity and talent.
Each of the "Short Screamers" will also air interstitially in prime time throughout Monsterfest 24/7.
AMC's weekly series about popular movies will premiere Backstory: HALLOWEEN on October 26 at 10 PM. This latest installment of AMC's weekly original series about popular movies will profile HALLOWEEN, the 1978 film that created one of the longest-running horror franchises in movie history. Through exclusive interviews and never-before-seen footage, the one-hour show will detail how this low-budget movie launched the careers of actress Jamie Lee Curtis and director John Carpenter.
Monsterfest 24/7 will chart the cinematic careers of every Hollywood monster who matters, past and present. Fans of Dracula are advised to set their alarm clocks for October 29 at 1:00 AM when AMC features a 20-hour marathon of vampire movies that span the decades, beginning with FRIGHT NIGHT (1985), in which a teenage boy enlists his favorite TV horror show host to kill a real-life vampire. AMC's Dracula salute will range from the original DRACULA (1931) starring Bela Lugosi to kitschy variations like SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES (1962). On October 28 at 12:00 AM, Universal Studios' genre-defining FRANKENSTEIN (1931) with Boris Karloff begins a 20-hour salute, which culminates with a 5:30 PM airing of THE BRIDE (1985), a remake of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, co-starring Sting and FLASHDANCE star Jennifer Beals. Monsterfest 24/7 will also feature mini-festivals dedicated to Godzilla, the Wolf Man, the Mummy and more.
More recent popular horror favorites of the 1980s and 1990s are also included in Monsterfest 24/7. PREDATOR 2 (1990) finds an A-list cast, led by Danny Glover, out to kill a murderous group of spacemen who are stalking modern day LA. The film begins AMC's week-long Halloween festival on Friday, October 25 at 8 PM.
AMC is a premiere 24-hour movie network dedicated to the world of American film. With one of the finest, most comprehensive libraries of popular films, and a diverse blend of original series, documentaries and interstitials, AMC offers an elegant and contemporary entertainment destination. AMC is a fully distributed network reaching over 83,000,000 U.S. homes (as of July 2002) and ranking #16 in size among all 55 networks.
Since its launch in 1984, AMC has been dedicated to deepening the movie experience for its viewers, featuring film-loving celebrity hosts and an increasingly visible, critically acclaimed slate of original programming. AMC has more than doubled its original programming over the past three years and garnered many of the industry's highest honors, including seven Emmy awards.
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*All times Eastern/Pacific.