FrightFilter

October 4, 2007 5:14 PM

Some friends and I would like to put on a small horror film 'revival festival' in a (large town) in Ireland...

We'd like to screen a series of classic films such as The Exorcist, Halloween, Evil Dead, Nightmare on Elm St. etc.

We have a couple of venues in mind, but we're unsure as to where we go from there, ie. who would we talk to in order to get the films screened legally (film distrubutors?) and what kind of costs would we be looking at in order to do so?

We're not looking to make any money, just to screen some great movies as they were meant to be.

Has anyone attempted anything like this before? Are we looking up the proverbial dead horse's arse?

Thanks, as always.

posted by ReiToei to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

I'm assuming you're looking to screen 35mm prints, not get permission to show these films on video. If so, I set up a mini-festival like this once (also horror films!). I doubt this was the most efficient method, but I checked IMDB for the distribution company for each film I wanted, tracked down a number for them, and called. I eventually ended up talking to the archive or library of whatever company it turned out had bought the company that bought the company that...ad infinitum, for each film.

Some film companies have their own distribution systems for older films, and some job this out, but you can essentially rent prints of older films, usually for a per-screening fee. These can be steep - 7 or so years ago, it was $250 for a screening (of Evil Dead 2, as a matter of fact).

You may need to secure your venue first, because if I recall correctly, every company I talked to needed to verify the movie theater I was calling from - I remember this because the theater was new, and small, and I had to go through some shenanigans to get them to believe in us. I don't know how/if this will be complicated by your location, since most of the films you mentioned will be with US-based distributors.

Good luck and hooray for scary movies!
posted by hilatron at 7:44 PM on October 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

you could always contact the people who run Frightfest in London for some pointers?
posted by ascullion at 5:01 AM on October 5, 2007