Genre fans living in the LA area are in luck. From June 17-27, the 16th annual Los Angeles Film Festival will be premiering new films from around the globe, several of which are hotly anticipated genre flicks such as MONSTERS, THE LAST EXORCISM, BITTER FEAST and ALL ABOUT EVIL, as well as CENTURION, the bloody Roman epic from writer/director Neil Marshall (THE DESCENT, DOG SOLDIERS).

Friday, June 18 marks the debut of BITTER FEAST (also showing Sunday the 20th), the Glass Eye Pix/Dark Sky Films collaboration about a scorned chef and his culinary revenge on one of his most spiteful critics (go here for more info); writer/director Joe Maggio will attend the screening.

Then, on June 24-25, the festival hosts the North American premiere of THE LAST EXORCISM (pictured above), the Eli Roth-produced saga of a preacher whose spent his life faking exorcisms for his flock, only to wind up in over his head when he realizes the latest girl he’s helping is actually possessed (click here to see the trailer). Roth and director Daniel Stamm will be on hand. Also showing those two days is ALL ABOUT EVIL (pictured right), Joshua Grannell’s dark horror/comedy about a movie-theater proprietor who begins creating her own personal snuff films and showing them to her unsuspecting audiences. As the bodies pile up and the questions keep growing, things start to get out of hand. Grannell and his gang will introduce the festivities.

The new sci-fi/horror hybrid MONSTERS will make its West Coast debut June 23 and 26, with first-time writer/director Gareth Edwards in tow. The movie concerns the plight of a photojournalist charged with getting his boss’ daughter across the U.S. border. The catch? Lying between Mexico and the States is “the infected zone,” a wide swath of uninhabitable land overrun with alien creatures. Last (though certainly not least) is Marshall’s CENTURION, premiering June 25. The film follows a group of Roman soldiers in 117 A.D. who are cut off behind enemy lines and must make their way back home while being hunted down by the notorious Pict clan, with plenty of severed limbs and high-octane thrills along the way.

In addition to the features, a highlight of the LA Film Fest will be the School of Corman, a 100-minute sit-down discussion with genre legend Roger Corman that will reunite him with some of his old protégés, moderated by acclaimed filmmaker Curtis Hanson. For the fairly cheap price of $12 (the cost of most of the festival’s events), you can have a chance to listen in on this discussion with the independent legend. The Southland event, for which tickets just went on sale, will take place in various downtown venues; more info can be found here.

 

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