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This year’s IX Semana Internacional de Cine Fantastico y de Terror de Estepona Fantasy and Horror Film Festival will be held from Monday, 1st to Saturday, 6th September.

[Latest Festival pictures available HERE]

Now in its ninth year this prestigious festival brings together the top names in this genre of the film industry to show off their latest works, some of which have their international premieres at the festival. Last year awards were presented to actors Christopher Lee and Michael Pare, as well as to directors and writers such as Stuart Gordon and Uwe Boll.
The Festival has a number of different activities including nightly screenings of films in their original language, a cinema shorts competition, exhibitions and lectures, which are broken down into a number of sections: Awards Section; Official Section; Days of the Full Moon; Commemorative Publications; and Parrallel Activities. The Festival also has a different theme each year, with ‘The Myth of the Mummy” being this year’s. Another new feature for the IX edition of the festival is an award for the best Television ScFi series which will be awarded to the highly popular ‘Heroes’.

There will be three venues for screenings over the festival, two at the Palacio de Congresos and one at the Padre Manuel Cultural Centre. Most films are shown in their original language. Please bear in mind that the following timings are ‘flexible’!

Programme

Monday, 1st September

8 pm - Official inauguration of the Festival at the Palacio de Congresos including at 10 pm the award of the Golden Unicorn to actress Kristanna Loken, for her roles in “Terminator 3”, “Bloodrayne” and “In The Name of The King”.

Kristanna Loken in "Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines"

Before this award is made there will be the opening of the exhibition “Myth of the Mummy: Science and the Cinema” followed by the screening of the silent classic “The Eyes of The Mummy” with musical accompaniment by pianist/composer Arsenio Martins.
Screenings: Room 1 at 11 pm - “In the Name of The King” (2008).
Directed by Uwe Boll and starring Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Kristanna Loken, Leelee Sobieski, C. Forlani, M. Lillard, J. Rhys-Davies.

Plot: A man named Farmer sets out to rescue his kidnapped wife and avenge the death of his son - two acts committed by the Krugs, a race of animal-warriors who are controlled by the evil Gallian.

Room 2 at 10 pm - “The Mummy’s Shroud” (1967).

Directed by Don Gilling and starring Andre Morell, John Phillips, David Buck, Elizabeth Sellars, Catherine Lacey, Maggie Kimberly and Michael Ripper.
Plot: 1920 an archaeological expedition discovers the tomb of an ancient Egyptian child prince. Returning home with their discovery, the expedition members soon find themselves being killed off by a mummy, which can be revived by reading the words off the prince's burial shroud. A classic Hammer Films production.

Tuesday, 2nd September

Room 1 at 10 pm - “War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave” (2008)

Directed by C. Thomas Howell and starring C. Thomas Howell, Christopher "Kid" Reid, Kim Little Fred Grifftih Jonathan Levit.
Plot: Two years after the Martian invasion, George Herbert's worst fears are realized: The Aliens have returned. As a second wave of Martian walkers lay waste to what's left of Earth, an alliance of military forces prepares a daring attack on the Red Planet itself. Once again, the future of mankind hangs in the balance.

Room 1 at Midnight - “En Silencio”

Directed by Francisco Javier Millán and starring Carmen Cuello, Pilartxo Iribas, Cristina Yañez, Ricardo Joven and Pilar Doce.
Plot: A series of strange phenomena are occuring in a convent, and when Sister Concepcion is found dead in her room, her sister, Eva, must travel to the convent for the funeral. It is there that she discovers that a dark secret is hidden behind the wall of the convent.

Room 2 at 10 pm - “Aatma” (2006)
Directed by Deepak Ramsay and starring Kapil Jhaveri, Neha, Vikram Kumar, Amriena and Deep Dhillon.
Plot: This is the story of a doctor, Aman, and his wife, Neha. The doctor has to certify the death of a man, murdered by his brother, his lawyer and other accomplices. This murderous group kidnap Neha to force the doctor to falsify the report and put the death down to natural causes.
The ghost of the deceased decides to punish the doctor and possesses the body of his beloved Neha to exact his revenge

Wednesday, 3rd September

Room 1 at 10 pm - “Plaguers” (2008)

Directed by Brad Sykes starring Steve Railsback, Alexis Zibolis, Noelle Perris and Jared Michaels.
Plot: When a band of sexy space pirates hijack a fuel-transport vessel bound for Earth, an alien virus known only as "Thanatos" is accidentally released. The contagion mutates its victims, transforming them one after another into ravenous, demonic creatures. Pirates and crew must join together to destroy the undead PLAGUERS as the ship nears Earth, threatening to infect the entire planet.

Room 1 at Midnight - “Blindspot” (2008)
Directed by Ad Bol and starring Maike Moller, Johnny Melville, Micky Hoogendijk, Hugo Metsers and Jango Edwards.
Plot: A dark film telling the story of a man obsessed by the psychological web of two women recounting their experiences. One is tempestuous and adulterous and the other bitter and vindictive.

Room 2 at 10 pm - “The Revenge of the Mummy” (1973)
Director Carlos Aured and starring Paul Naschy, María Silva, Jack Taylor, Helga Line and Rina Ottolina.
Plot: A fanatic revives a mummy with a coctail of blood from a young virgin.
The evil pharoah Amenhotep and his ambitious descendent Assad Bey embark on a reign of blood and terror.

Thursday, 4th September

Room 1 at 10 pm - “Dark Reel” (2008)
Directed by Josh Eisenstadt and starring Lance Henriksen, Tracey Walter, Tiffany Shepis, Mercedes Mc Nab, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Jake Grace, Emmanuel Xuereb, R. Baker, M. Bushell, K. Orsini, B. Lyons, R. Riffel, A. Holden, Tony Todd and Edward Furlong.
Plot: Murder, mystery and mayhem as B movie fan, Adam Waltz, wins Walk on Role in a film Featuring Scream Queen, Cassie Blue (Tiffany Shepis). Thinking his luck had changed for the better he steps into chaos with a killer loose and no one on the production safe. Adams role gets bigger with the murder of an actress, studio chief's (Henriksen) low-budget thriller becomes big with the new publicity... Everyone is a suspect. Who is the killer? Why are they doing this? and who is next?

Room 1 at midnight - “Filmatron” (2007)
Directed by Pablo Pares and starring Walter Cornás, Laura Azcurra, Ricardo Chiesa, Berta Muñiz, Paulo Soria, Esteba Prol, Ignacio Huang, Esteban Galíndez and Secuaz.
Plot: In a not-so-distance future, the world is ruled by a government which carries a dictatorial censorship out to recreate images, so there are no films at all. Nothing except bizarre TV-shows, aired on in order to "entertaint and instruct" specially about the food, all of it made of artificial ingredients. In this extremely bizarre world there are daredevil gangs that tries to stand their liberty out with stolen cameras and creativity. When one of these groups fall, another rise to save the lost idea. In this scenario, a bunch of different underdog characters unite themselves to accomplish their mission of broadcast a film about an amazing superhero, "filmatron", interrupting a government made feature in the process.

Room 2 at 10 pm - “Santo en la venganza de la momia” (1971)
Directed by René Cardona and starring César Del Campo, Eric Del Castillo, Mary Montiel and Santo, el Enmascarado de Plata.
Plot: Santo and friends battle a mummy hell bent on revenge.

Friday, 5th September

Room 1 at 9 pm - “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” (2006)

Directed by Jonathan Levine and starring Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Michael Welch, Aaron Himmelstein and Robert Earl Keen.
Plot: A group of high schoolers invite Mandy Lane (Amber Heard), a good girl who became quite hot over the summer, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities rage on, the number of revelers begins to drop quite mysteriously.

Room 1 at midnight - “Mil Mascaras versus The Aztec Mummy” (2005)
Directed by Jeff Burr and starring Mil Máscaras, Jeffrey Uhlmann, Willard E. Pugh, El Hijo Del Santo, Gary Ambrosia, Steve Christopher, Andrea Kennedy, Richard Lynch, Gwenda Pérez and Justin Powers.
Plot: Mil Mascaras is a renaissance man of international repute. He is a connoisseur of the arts, a scholar of science and humanity, and a masked wrestler. Like his fellow luchadores, El Santo and Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras is often called upon to assist the authorities in combating threats to mankind, whether they are seductive vampire women, lycanthropic madmen, or invaders from other worlds. However, no threat has ever been greater than that posed by the Aztec Mummy. In this story, the Aztec Mummy is resurrected by the power of the gem of Tonauac. Using its power, the Aztec Mummy is able to control the minds of men, even those of strong pedigree and erudition. Determined to lead the ascendancy of the Aztec nation over the descendants of its past conquerors, the Aztec Mummy conspires to manipulate men of power for his own ends. Whether Mil Mascaras can be corrupted by the influence of his undead adversary is not clear, but the answer hinges upon the secret of his mask - a mask which has been passed down to him from his ancestors since time in memoriam.

Room 2 at 10 pm - “Infraterrestre” (2001)
Directed by Héctor Molinar and starring El Hijo Del Santo, Diana Golden, Luis Felipe Tovar and Blue Panther.
Plot: Santo's son has to fight a secret group of aliens who have lived beneath Earth's surface for some time after he figures out that his friend, The Blue Panther, is being mind controlled by them somehow. A must for fans of Mexican masked wrestlers!