ROSS FRIGHT FEST
Ross Fright Fest returns in 2024 with a month of classic, campy, thrilling, surreal, and unsettling horror films. New this year are family-friendly options, a 3D double feature on Halloween, and two live performances by the Anvil Orchestra!
Fright Fest films will show on Fridays and Sundays in October, with an extra double feature on Halloween and special live performances by the Anvil Orchestra on October 25 & 26.
TICKET INFO
FRIGHT FEST: $8 General Admission | $5 Members & UNL students
ANVIL ORCHESTRA: $30 General Admission | $25 Seniors, Military | $20 Members, Students | $5 UNL students
PERFECT BLUE
Friday, Oct 4 – 7:15 p.m.
A retired pop singer’s sense of reality starts to crack as she is stalked by an obsessed fan, in the groundbreaking and rarely screened first film from the legendary director Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Paranoia Agent). 1997 | d. Satoshi Kon | 81 min | Not Rated (viewer discretion advised for strong adult content including graphic violence & nudity | Japanese with English Subtitles
THE HOST
Friday, Oct 4 – 9:15 p.m.
When a creature emerges from the South Korea’s Han River and sinks its ravenous jaws into local residents, one victim’s loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches. A riveting blend of comedy, satire, and horror from acclaimed director Bong Joon Ho (Parasite). 2006 | 120 min | Rated R for creature violence & language | Korean with English Subtitles
PARANORMAN
Sunday, Oct 6 – 3:00 p.m.
*Family Friendly*
Norman Babcock never asked to see ghosts, but his strange inherited talent is now the only thing standing between the cursed town of Blithe Hollow and an all-out zombie apocalypse in this stop-motion animated feature from LAIKA studios. 2012 | d. Chris Butler & Sam Fell | 92 min | Rated PG for scary images, thematic elements, rude humor & language
THE FLY
Sunday, Oct 6 – 5:00 p.m.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. From body horror master David Cronenberg, THE FLY follows a brilliant but eccentric scientist (Jeff Goldblum) who begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. 1986 | 96 min | Rated R for violence, gore, language, & sexual content
THE THING
Sunday, Oct 6 – 7:10 p.m.
In a remote Antarctic research station, a group of scientists discover a long-buried UFO and are hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. John Carpenter’s horror classic is a tense sci-fi thriller with memorably gruesome practical effects. 1982 | 109 min | Rated R for language, violence, & gore
POSSESSION
Friday, Oct 11 – 7:00 p.m.
A woman (Isabelle Adjani) starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister. A disturbing cult classic from director Andrzej Zulawski. 1981 | 124 min | Rated R for nudity, gore, violence, & intense scenes
RAW
Friday, Oct 11 – 9:30 p.m.
Vegetarian Justine undergoes a startling transformation after a veterinary school hazing ritual causes her to crave human flesh. One of the most unsettling horror films to come out of the Cannes Film Festival, Julia Ducournau’s bloody directorial debut puts a shocking twist on the coming-of-age genre. 2016 | 99 min | Rated R for bloody and grisly images, sexuality, nudity, language & drug use | French with English Subtitles
PIT AND THE PENDULUM
Sunday, Oct 13 – 3:00 p.m.
A delightfully chilling visual treat, PIT AND THE PENDULUM unites genre masters Roger Corman and Vincent Price in the story of an Englishman who travels to a sinister castle in Spain to investigate the strange circumstances of his sister’s death. 1961 | 80 min | Not Rated
BUBBA HO-TEP
Sunday, Oct 13 – 5:00 p.m.
An aging Elvis (Bruce Campbell) joins forces with a fellow nursing home resident who believes he’s JFK (Ossie Davis) to fight the soul-stealing mummy menacing their East Texas nursing home in this cult horror-comedy from director Don Coscarelli. 2002 | 92 min | Rated R for language, some sexual content & brief violent images
TALES FROM THE HOOD
Sunday, Oct 13 – 7:00 p.m.
Creepy mortician Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III) attempts to scare a group of teenage drug dealers straight by telling them four horrifying stories in Rusty Cundieff’s sharply satirical horror-comedy anthology. 1995 | 98 min | Rated R for graphic brutal violence & strong language
BLOOD & BLACK LACE
Friday, Oct 18 – 7:15 p.m.
One of the pillars of the “giallo” horror genre, Mario Bava’s moody and hyper-saturated BLOOD AND BLACK LACE takes place at an Italian fashion house filled with backstabbing, blackmail, and a faceless maniac who is murdering the models. 1964 | 88 min | Not Rated (viewer discretion advised for scenes of gore, violence, & drug use)
DEEP RED
Friday, Oct 18 – 9:15 p.m.
A jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after witnessing the brutal murder of a psychic. The kinetic camerawork and over-the-top gore that made Dario Argento famous are on full display, but the addition of a compelling, complex story makes DEEP RED a giallo masterpiece. 1975 | 105 min | Rated R for violence, gore, & frightening scenes
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Sunday, Oct 20 – 3:00 p.m.
*Family Friendly*
When long-lost Uncle Fester reappears after 25 years in the Bermuda Triangle, the Addams family plans a celebration to wake the dead. But Fester’s unusually “normal” behavior raises suspicions that things are not what they seem. Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, and Christina Ricci star in this dark comedy classic from director Barry Sonnenfeld. 1991 | 99 min | Rated PG-13 for comic violence, dark themes, & suggestive content. Suitable for children 13+.
CHESS OF THE WIND
Sunday, Oct 20 – 5:10 p.m.
Screened just once in 1976 before it was banned and lost for decades, this rediscovered jewel of Iranian cinema is one of the most astonishing works of the country’s prerevolutionary New Wave. A hypnotically stylized murder mystery awash in atmosphere, CHESS OF THE WIND unfolds in an ornate, candlelit mansion where a web of greed, violence, and betrayal ensnares the heirs to a family fortune. 1976 | d. Mohammad Reza | 93 min | Not Rated | Farsi with English subtitles
CRIMSON PEAK
Sunday, Oct 20 – 7:10 p.m.
After marrying the charming and seductive Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), young heiress Edith (Mia Wasikowska) is swept away to a remote gothic mansion haunted by dark secrets and ghostly visions. 2015 | d. Guillermo Del Toro | 120 min | Rated R for bloody violence, some sexual content & brief strong language
THE ANVIL ORCHESTRA
Featuring musicians Terry Donahue (Alloy Orchestra, Concussion Ensemble) and Roger Clark Miller (Alloy Orchestra, Mission of Burma, Trinary System), The Anvil Orchestra – formerly The Alloy Orchestra – performs unique live musical accompaniment to silent films, transforming the viewing experience for audiences across the United States and abroad. The Anvil Orchestra will be performing at The Ross for two special Fright Fest screenings: THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI on October 25 and A PAGE OF MADNESS on October 26.
ANVIL ORCHESTRA
CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
Friday, Oct 25 – 7:30 p.m.
A crazed doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in this quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema from director Robert Wiene. Arguably the first true horror film, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI set a brilliantly high bar for the genre and remains terrifying nearly a century after it first stalked the screen. 1920 | 67 min | Not Rated
ANVIL ORCHESTRA
A PAGE OF MADNESS
Saturday, Oct 26 – 7:30 p.m.
A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife in this surreal experimental silent horror gem from director Teinosuke Kinugasa. 1926 | 70 min | Not Rated
THE OLD DARK HOUSE
Sunday, Oct 27 – 3:00 p.m.
New 4K Restoration. A group of stranded travelers (Melvin Douglas, Charles Laughton, Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) stumble upon a strange old house and find themselves at the mercy of a highly eccentric and potentially dangerous family. This humorous and atmospheric thriller from Director James Whale features an unforgettable post-Frankenstein horror role for Boris Karloff and became the template for all spooky-house chillers to come. 1932 | 72 min | Not Rated
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Sunday, Oct 27 – 5:00 p.m.
A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves inside an old farmhouse to escape a horde of flesh-eating ghouls in George A. Romero’s slyly political and highly influential directorial debut that started the zombie film genre. 1968 | 96 min | Rated R for violence, gore, & frightening scenes
CARNIVAL OF SOULS
Sunday, Oct 27 – 7:10 p.m.
After surviving a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances, Mary begins seeing visions of a fiendish man who lures her to a deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. CARNIVAL OF SOULS offers delightfully chilling proof that when it comes to telling an effective horror story, less can often be so much more. 1962 | d. Herk Harvey | 80 min | Rated PG for frightening themes
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
Thursday, Oct 31 – 5:00 p.m.
*3D Screening*
A group of scientists try to capture a strange prehistoric beast lurking in the depths of the Amazonian jungle in this classic B-movie featuring one of cinema’s most iconic monsters. 1954 | d. Jack Arnold | 79 min | Rated G
DIAL M FOR MURDER
Thursday, Oct 31 – 7:00 p.m.
*3D Screening*
Boasting an unforgettable performance from Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock’s chillingly sinister 3D masterpiece follows a former tennis pro whose carefully-orchestrated plan to have his wealthy wife murdered goes unexpectedly awry. 1954 | 105 min | Rated PG for violence & thematic material