Zompire: The Undead Film Festival

In 2006, Andrew Migliore, the man behind the longstanding H.P. Lovecraft Filmfest decided that there just weren’t enough opportunities to watch the undead eat brains or immortals suck blood from necks on the big screen. So he created Zompire: The Undead Film Festival. If zombie and vampire flicks are your idea of a rockin’ time (then you’re like me) you might want to head out to the Hollywood Theatre this weekend for a very special assemblage of gore and screams.

Migliore, who has run the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival for the last 13 years, created the Zompire festival three years ago as a way to screen some films outside the Lovecraft genre. Those other films just happened to be filled with zombies and vampires. Hence the name, Zompire. This year, Migliore is also holding a costume contest, with prizes for the winners from festival sponsors.

Friday’s lineup starts with Vampire Circus, a classic film from 1972 about a traveling carnival of vampires that prey on a small village in 19th century Europe. And finishing off the festival is Wasting Away, a regional premiere that flips the traditional zombie movie lens by showing us the world from the zombie’s point of view.

Here’s the full schedule:

FRIDAY
7:00 pm Shorts: Prombies!, Harvest Moon, The Heist
Vampire Circus
9:00 pm From Dusk till Dawn (1996, Rodriguez/Tarrantino)
11:00 pm Brain Dead (2008)

SATURDAY
7:00 pm Shorts Block
9:00 pm Dawn of the Dead (2004)
11:00 pm Wasting Away (2008)

Zompire: The Undead Film Festival
Hollywood Theatre (4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd.)
May 9 to 10 from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.
$10 for all-evening pass