Preparations are now well in hand in Edinburgh for the annual horror fest which, for fans of the genre, has become the Cannes of contemporary chillers. Dead by Dawn breaks on March 30 and ends with the rising sun sometime on April 2.
The festival gets off to a suitable hair-raising start with an evening of story reading. Naturally these are not of the bedtime-reading variety.
This year, Dead by Dawn is thrilled to be focussing on Spanish and Japanese cinema, two areas which are keeping the genre alive with exciting, innovative, beautiful horror movies.

Just a few plums plucked from a rich and varied programme….
Attic Expeditions kicks off the all-nighter at 11pm on 31 March at Filmhouse One with a personal appearance by director Jeremy Kasten.
Festival closer is a must for devilish film fans, the truly dramatic Faust.
Other details below, followed by the latest schedule update.

HYPNOSIS, Masayuki Ochiai's 1999 movie is a gruesome, psychological movie about a series of bizarre deaths which seem to have hypnosis at their source.

UZUMAKI Higuchinsky's movie from this year is a dark, lush, surreal film based on a comic book. Unsettling, imaginative and delightfully gross, Uzumaki is destined to be one of the hits of the festival.

ROT WOMAN This short movie is shot entirely in a public bathroom, without a word of dialogue. It transpires that a woman has taken refuge in this green-tiled sanctuary from the marauding zombies outside. Thinking herself safe, her life is about to take a messy and destructive turn.

Other Japanese movies to be confirmed.
NAMELESS This spectacular feature debut from Spaniard Jaume Balaguero is based on the Ramsey Campbell novel. Unbelievably dark and breathtakingly cruel, there are moments in this film to leave you completely speechless. A treat from start to finish, the film will make you glad you're a horror fan! It is with great pleasure that Dead by Dawn is able to announce that the film's Director will be in attendance to introduce the film, and answer questions afterwards.

VAMPYRES This 1974 Spanish classic has hot, sexy vampires luring the unsuspecting
to their castle and drinking buckets of blood. Yum! Creatures of the Night rejoice!
And there are more Spanish pleasures to be added soon.

In addition, Dead by Dawn is running it's first short film competition, and that means screenings of fantastic movies culled from all over the world for you to vote on.

There are also a handful of wonderful short movies being played throughout the festival - as well as the Zombie flick Rot Woman, there's Black XXX-Mas with Don Warrington as the kind of Santa you never want to run into, and Frazer Lee's movie On Edge starring Doug Bradley, and guaranteed to put you off going to the dentist FOR EVER. Frazer and Doug will both be there, too, to intro the movie.

Add to the programme the Italian classic The Horrible Dr Hichcock starring the divine Barbara Steele, and it's all shaping up to be a glorious weekend for horror fans!

Of course there will be the horror story readings as ever, and more previews, features, guests and events to be announced over the coming months.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE

(last updated 15/02/2001)
Please note that some screening times may be subject to slight change. Any alterations will be on the site.

FRIDAY 30 MARCH
18.00 - Filmhouse
Horror Story Readings

23.00 - Filmhouse One
Nameless (Spain) + PA with Director, Jaume Balagueró

SATURDAY 31 MARCH
13.00 - Filmhouse One
Hypnosis (Japan)

15.30 - Lumiere
CUTTING EDGE SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Bowl of Oatmeal (US)
Run Monkey Run (UK)
The Collector (NZ)
Evil of Dracula (US)
Creepy Crawly (UK)
Green Fingers (UK)
Purgatory (AUS)
44 (Argentina)
The Lonely Widow (Scotland)
Rot Woman (Japan)

18.30 - Lumiere
The Horrible Dr Hichcock (Italy)

23.00 - Filmhouse One
ALL NIGHTER
Attic Expeditions + PA from Director Jeremy Kasten
On Edge (short)
Uzumaki
Schneider's 2nd Stage (short)
Black XXX-Mas (short)
ReAnimator
Dr Butcher MD
Gates of Hell

SUNDAY 1 APRIL
13.00 - Lumiere
Stygian (independent) (AUS)
Cloven Hoofed (US)
Silent Invasion (independent) (Canada)

15.30 - Lumiere
Vampyres (UK)
Daughters of Darkness (Belgium/France/W Germany/Italy)

19.30 - Lumiere
Blood: The Last Vampire (Japan)
Premutos (Germany)

23.00 Closing Movie: Filmhouse One
Faust

Please note that Filmhouse bar has a late licence for all three nights of the festival, and so will be open until 3am.
For updates, please check the site regularly
All inclusive Passes are £25 (£20 conc with proof) and are available from February 1 from Filmhouse box office if you are in Edinburgh, and if you're not, the address is Dead by Dawn, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9BZ and please make sure that all postal orders or cheques are made payable to FILMHOUSE LTD.
More festival information is available at info@deadbydawn.co.uk, by phone on 0131 221 9458
http://www.deadbybawn.co.uk