News
Complete programme of MOTELX’s 11th edition announced: “Super Dark Times” and “IT” bookend the Festival
The 11th edition of MOTELX takes place between 5 and 10 September and offers more than
70 sessions to showcase the best of Portuguese and international horror.
Workshops, activities for children, presentations and masterclasses with Roger
Corman and Alejandro Jodorowsky complete the Festival’s programme. Before the
start of MOTELX there are Warm-Up events: open-air screenings, concerts and a tribute
to George A. Romero.
The Lisbon International Horror Film Festival, MOTELX, starts in two weeks. The opening session on 5 September brings “Super Dark Times”, an «alternately sensitive and gory»
coming-of-age film by the american Kevin Phillips that has been compared to
“Stand by Me” and “Donnie Darko”. “IT”, an
adaptation of Stephen King’s best-seller
by Andy Muschietti, closes the
Festival on 10 September. Already making history as the film with the most watched
trailer on its release day (197 million views), “IT” marks the return of
Pennywise, the terrifying clown of our nightmares.
But there is a lot more to see in the six days of MOTELX, beginning with films by Roger Corman and Alejandro Jodorowsky, two living legends who are the Festival’s guests of honour. The “Cult of the Living Masters” starts on 6 September with a masterclass and an autograph session with Corman, followed by the interesting and unusual “X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes”. Considered the pinnacle of his eight adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, “The Masque of the Read Death” is screened on 7 September.
Jodorowsky’s masterclass and autograph session is scheduled for 9 September and precedes the screening of “Santa Sangre”, an incomparable display of genius that is both bizarre and erotic. 10 September brings “El Topo”, the mystical film of gangsters, blood and carnage with which the Chilean psycho-magician pioneered midnight screenings. MOTELX presents an unmissable opportunity to see it in 35mm.
8 films are in competition for the MOTELX Award for Best European Feature/ Méliès d’Argent, all shown for the first time in Portugal. They are: “Animals”, by Greg Zglinski (Switzerland/Austria/Poland); “Cold Hell”, by Stefan Ruzowitzky (Germany/Austria); “Kaleidoscope”, by Rupert Jones (United Kingdom); “Lake Bodom”, by Taneli Mustonen (Finland/Estonia); “The Limehouse Golem”, by Juan Carlos Medina (United Kingdom); “The Night of the Virgin”, by Roberto San Sebastián (Spain); “Prey”, by Dick Maas (The Netherlands); and “Rift”, by Erlingur Óttar Thoroddsen (Iceland). The other competitive section of the Festival is the MOTELX Award for Best Portuguese Horror Short Film / Méliès d’Argent, whose 9 finalists were announced in July.
For the documentary film enthusiasts, the Doc Horror section presents “78/52” and “King Cohen”. Alexandre O. Philippe deconstructs the 78 setups and 52 cuts of Psycho’s iconic shower sequence, while Steve Mitchell tells the story of writer, producer, director and all-around maverick Larry Cohen.
MOTELX’s Room Service section presents the best horror films from the last 2 years. From the 33 films selected in 2017, highlights include the psychological horror of “Bliss”, “Lowlife”, described as a “Tarantino variation for the Trump era” and “Train to Busan”, a zombie movie that became a box-office hit in South Korea. But there are many other films to discover, such as the already announced “The Bar”, by Álex de la Iglesia, and “The Untamed”, by Amat Escalante. Both are part of a festival-wide programme associated with the celebrations of Lisbon as the Ibero-american Capital of Culture.
In the parallel events, news include a live reading of the script of Manuel Pureza’s “Linhas de Sangue”, a presentation of Kier-La Janisse’s book about Jean Rollin and a VHS session with the bizarre low-budget cult movie “Nasty Hunter”. In the Big Bad Wolf section, a conversation with renowned psychologist Prof. Eduardo Sá after the screening of “The Book of Life” is also announced.
The complete programme of MOTELX’s 11th edition is available at www.motelx.org.
Warm-Up
The Warm-Up events that lead to MOTELX start this month. On 31 August there is an open-air screening of “Jodorowsky’s Dune”, a documentary by Frank Pravich about the failed adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, planned by Jodorowsky in the 70s. Before the screening there is a concert by Acid Acid inspired by the conceptual universe of the director.
On 1 and 4 September, MOTELX brings “The Strange World of Latin Horror” to the Portuguese Cinematheque-Film Museum, also in association with the Ibero-american Capital of Culture. There will be a selection of cult classics, two presented for the first time there: “El Vampiro”, by Fernando Méndez (1 Set, open-air screening) and “¿Quién puede matar a un niño?”, by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (4 Set). “À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma”, José Mojica Martins’s film where the famous Joe Coffin character was born, can be seen on 1 September.
The highly-anticipated open-air screening at Largo de São Carlos, one of Lisbon’s most iconic squares, happens on 2 September and takes the form of a tribute to George A. Romero, the great master who visited MOTELX in 2010 and recently passed away. Romero fans are invited to watch “Dawn of the Dead” dressed as their favourite zombies and monsters. After the screening, the night continues in nearby Sabotage Club with a concert by Glockenwise, a rock band that has taken the Portuguese indie scene by storm.
But there is a lot more to see in the six days of MOTELX, beginning with films by Roger Corman and Alejandro Jodorowsky, two living legends who are the Festival’s guests of honour. The “Cult of the Living Masters” starts on 6 September with a masterclass and an autograph session with Corman, followed by the interesting and unusual “X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes”. Considered the pinnacle of his eight adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, “The Masque of the Read Death” is screened on 7 September.
Jodorowsky’s masterclass and autograph session is scheduled for 9 September and precedes the screening of “Santa Sangre”, an incomparable display of genius that is both bizarre and erotic. 10 September brings “El Topo”, the mystical film of gangsters, blood and carnage with which the Chilean psycho-magician pioneered midnight screenings. MOTELX presents an unmissable opportunity to see it in 35mm.
8 films are in competition for the MOTELX Award for Best European Feature/ Méliès d’Argent, all shown for the first time in Portugal. They are: “Animals”, by Greg Zglinski (Switzerland/Austria/Poland); “Cold Hell”, by Stefan Ruzowitzky (Germany/Austria); “Kaleidoscope”, by Rupert Jones (United Kingdom); “Lake Bodom”, by Taneli Mustonen (Finland/Estonia); “The Limehouse Golem”, by Juan Carlos Medina (United Kingdom); “The Night of the Virgin”, by Roberto San Sebastián (Spain); “Prey”, by Dick Maas (The Netherlands); and “Rift”, by Erlingur Óttar Thoroddsen (Iceland). The other competitive section of the Festival is the MOTELX Award for Best Portuguese Horror Short Film / Méliès d’Argent, whose 9 finalists were announced in July.
For the documentary film enthusiasts, the Doc Horror section presents “78/52” and “King Cohen”. Alexandre O. Philippe deconstructs the 78 setups and 52 cuts of Psycho’s iconic shower sequence, while Steve Mitchell tells the story of writer, producer, director and all-around maverick Larry Cohen.
MOTELX’s Room Service section presents the best horror films from the last 2 years. From the 33 films selected in 2017, highlights include the psychological horror of “Bliss”, “Lowlife”, described as a “Tarantino variation for the Trump era” and “Train to Busan”, a zombie movie that became a box-office hit in South Korea. But there are many other films to discover, such as the already announced “The Bar”, by Álex de la Iglesia, and “The Untamed”, by Amat Escalante. Both are part of a festival-wide programme associated with the celebrations of Lisbon as the Ibero-american Capital of Culture.
In the parallel events, news include a live reading of the script of Manuel Pureza’s “Linhas de Sangue”, a presentation of Kier-La Janisse’s book about Jean Rollin and a VHS session with the bizarre low-budget cult movie “Nasty Hunter”. In the Big Bad Wolf section, a conversation with renowned psychologist Prof. Eduardo Sá after the screening of “The Book of Life” is also announced.
The complete programme of MOTELX’s 11th edition is available at www.motelx.org.
Warm-Up
The Warm-Up events that lead to MOTELX start this month. On 31 August there is an open-air screening of “Jodorowsky’s Dune”, a documentary by Frank Pravich about the failed adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, planned by Jodorowsky in the 70s. Before the screening there is a concert by Acid Acid inspired by the conceptual universe of the director.
On 1 and 4 September, MOTELX brings “The Strange World of Latin Horror” to the Portuguese Cinematheque-Film Museum, also in association with the Ibero-american Capital of Culture. There will be a selection of cult classics, two presented for the first time there: “El Vampiro”, by Fernando Méndez (1 Set, open-air screening) and “¿Quién puede matar a un niño?”, by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (4 Set). “À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma”, José Mojica Martins’s film where the famous Joe Coffin character was born, can be seen on 1 September.
The highly-anticipated open-air screening at Largo de São Carlos, one of Lisbon’s most iconic squares, happens on 2 September and takes the form of a tribute to George A. Romero, the great master who visited MOTELX in 2010 and recently passed away. Romero fans are invited to watch “Dawn of the Dead” dressed as their favourite zombies and monsters. After the screening, the night continues in nearby Sabotage Club with a concert by Glockenwise, a rock band that has taken the Portuguese indie scene by storm.