The Spooky Movie International Horror
Film Festival announced this week seven of the twenty-one features that will
screen at the seventh annual festival, held this year at the AFI Silver Theatre
in Silver Spring, MD from October 10-18, 2012.

International festival hit, EXCISION
will open Spooky Movie 2012 on Wednesday, October 10 at the AFI Silver Theatre.
EXCISION, from Northern Virginia native Richard Bates Jr., premiered this year
at Sundance and has gone on to great acclaim all over the world, at some of the
most prestigious festivals.

“I love the Spooky Movie Film Festival!”
said Bates. “I’m from Virginia and the short-film version of my new feature screened
there back in 2008.”

On Thursday, October 11 Spooky Movie
presents the filmed spook show, PLAY DEAD, starring Todd Robbins and
co-directed by Shade Rupe, author of Dark Star Rising, and Teller (from Penn
and Teller).

"I'm so looking forward to
having PLAY DEAD at Spooky Movie!” Teller said. “I love the idea of
bringing more lying, evil, and skullduggery to Washington, D.C.!”

Jennifer Lynch’s controversial new film,
CHAINED, screens on Friday, October 12 at Spooky Movie.
"CHAINED is, I hope, a disturbing and sometimes awkwardly humorous
exploration into how Monsters are made,“ Lynch told us. “Along with telling the
story of a boy being raised by a serial killer, I hope to be exposing the
reason...not the excuse, for why humans continue to hurt each other.  We
cannot ignore our own hand in building killers."

Things get out of control on Saturday,
October 13 with the DC area premiere of the Tribeca Film Fest hit, RESOLUTION,
which Sight on Sound called “A deeply original horror masterpiece!”

All good things come to an end, and on
Thursday, October 18 we begin our closing night with the U.S. Premiere
of the modern Brazilian masterpiece, NERVO CRANIANO ZERO, from director
Paulo Biscaia Filho, who will be present for a crazy Q&A.

NERVO CRANIANO ZERO will not be the only
premiere at the festival, however:

On Sunday, October 14, the festival is
proud to announce the inaugural Spooky Movie Local Filmmaker Summit, moderated
by Eduardo Sanchez.

The Mid-Atlantic region – home of cult legends John Waters, George Romero, Don
Dohler, Jeff Krulick and more – has long been fertile ground for creative
independent filmmaking.  In the first-ever Spooky Movie Local Filmmaker
Summit, area filmmakers will come together to discuss the making of films (of
all genres) in the area.

Eduardo
Sanchez, co-director of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and director of 2011’s LOVELY
MOLLY, will host a 90-minute roundtable discussion/Q&A about all aspects of
true independent filmmaking, including casting, production, marketing and
“making it.” Joining him will be several local filmmakers, including Justin
Timpane (NINJAS VS Trilogy), Eric Thornett (A SWEET AND VICIOUS BEAUTY), Matt
Lockhart (THE WATERMEN, Spooky Movie 2011), Jamie Nash (TWO FRONT TEETH, Spooky
Movie 2006) and many more. Participating filmmakers will also present clips
from their newest films.

Following the
discussion will be two World Premieres – the Gothic A SWEET AND
VICIOUS BEAUTY and the horror/comedy NINJAS VS. MONSTERS,
both from Mid-Atlantic filmmakers.

In all there will be twenty-one features
and thirty-one shorts programmed over the course of nine nights at the largest
Spooky Movie Film Festival yet. The full schedule will be announced in early
September. At the same time, tickets and passes will be available through the
AFI Silver box office and website (www.afi.com/silver).

Founded in 2006, the Spooky Movie
International Horror Film Festival is Washington, D.C's only genre-based film
festival. Recognized as one of D.C.'s premiere festival events, as well as
"the world's premiere horror film festival" (BadLit.com), Spooky Fest
works closely with our partners to offer year round screenings of feature and
short films, in addition to our signature festival event every October. More
information can be found www.spookyfest.com.