Bloody January, Part 2

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 12, 2009 4:10PM

Need more evidence that wintertime in these parts is enough to make Chicagoans feel homicidal? Here you go: our city has two festivals of horror movies occurring more or less simultaneously. Horrorfest III runs at Piper's Alley through Wednesday, and next weekend the Horror Society presents B-Movie Madness at the Portage Theater. The lineup boasts four horror flicks that definitely fall on the wacky, schlocky end of the spectrum.

Better Off Undead, a "stoners vs. zombies" saga, was shot in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and includes industrial-strength tunes by The Lemurs, Lead Me Not, Johnny and the Phux, and The Suicide Machines. Cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara's grinder from 1979, The Driller Killer, also gets a showing. A stressed-out artist goes off the deep end and ... you can guess what happens (you can also probably guess that there's a remake currently in production). A dismembered body part doesn't take kindly to being discarded in Lou Vockell's Stalking Hand, which also includes horny teenagers and a nutso preacher with a chainsaw. Fun for the whole family. The final movie on the schedule is It's My Party, and I'll Die If I Want To. The teenagers-frolic-in-a-haunted-house plotline is given a novel twist: a Choose Your Own Adventure-style structure lets the audience determine what happens. And we'll bet that includes deciding which characters die bloody deaths.

William Castle would be proud. Many of the filmmakers will put in appearances during the festival, and there will be several vendors on hand to sell you scary stuff. It runs Saturday from 5pm till 12am; tickets are $15 at the door or $10 online. More info at the Horror Society MySpace page.