Sundance Institute Announces First Nine Films for 06 Sundance Film Festival

Park City, UT - Adrenaline junkies and genre film-lovers know the real fun at the Sundance Film Festival starts at midnight. Sundance Institute tonight offers a first look at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival by announcing the nine feature films that will screen in its iconic Midnight section, which has launched films including The Blair Witch Project, SAW, Super Troopers, The Babadook, Black Dynamite, What We Do In The Shadows, Dead/Alive, Delicatessen, The Descent and Hard Candy. Explore this year's nine Midnight films - seven of which feature badass leading ladies - in more detail on the Festival's Digital Program Guide.

(L-R) The Blackout Experiments, Credit: Michael j. Pepin; Sundance Film Festival, Credit: Jonathan Hickerson; Yoga Hosers, Credit: Allan Amato.

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In 1991, the Festival described its first Midnight section as a special showcase of the most challenging but rewarding film experiences from around the world brought to you at the most arduous hour. That curfew-breaking, genre-reinventing spirit continues today with audiences filling theaters for these fun, late-night offerings.

This year's Festival will also include a program of Midnight short films; Those and other Festival selections will be announced in the weeks ahead. The Festival takes place January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

MIDNIGHT

From horror flicks to comedies to works that defy any genre, these unruly films will keep you on the edge of your seat and wide awake.

31 / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Rob Zombie) - 31 tells the story of five carnies kidnapped on Halloween morning 1976 and held hostage in a remote industrial hell. While trapped, they are forced to play a violent game called 31. The mission is to survive 12 hours against an endless gang of grease-painted maniacs. Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Brake, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Meg Foster. World Premiere

Antibirth / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Danny Perez) - In a desolate community full of drug-addled marines and rumors of kidnapping, a wild-eyed stoner named Lou wakes up after a crazy night of partying with symptoms of a strange illness and recurring visions. As she struggles to get a grip on reality, the stories of conspiracy spread. Cast: Natasha Lyonne, Chlo Sevigny, Mark Webber, Meg Tilly, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos. World Premiere

The Blackout Experiments / U.S.A. (Director: Rich Fox) - A group of friends discover the dark underworld of the ultra-scary, psychosexual horror experience called Blackout. But what starts as a thrill ride through the unknown becomes deeply personal, developing into an obsession that hijacks their lives and blurs the line between reality and paranoid fantasy. World Premiere

Carnage Park / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Mickey Keating) - The year is 1978. A team of wannabe crooks botch a small-town bank heist and flee with their hostage deep into the California desert, where they inexplicably find themselves in a harrowing fight for survival against a psychotic ex-military sniper. Cast: Ashley Bell, Pat Healy, Alan Ruck, Darby Stanchfield, James Landry H bert, Larry Fessenden. World Premiere

The Greasy Strangler / U.S.A. (Director: Jim Hosking, Screenwriters: Jim Hosking, Toby Harvard) - When Big Ronnie and his son Brayden meet lone female tourist Janet on Big Ronnie's Disco Walking Tour-the best and only disco walking tour in the city-a fight for Janets heart erupts between father and son, and the infamous Greasy Strangler is unleashed. Cast: Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo, Gil Gex, Jesse Keen, Joe David Walters. World Premiere

Outlaws and Angels / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: JT Mollner) - With a notorious bounty hunter closing in on their trail, a gang of cold-blooded outlaws invades the home of a seemingly innocent frontier family, where an unexpected game of cat and mouse ensues throughout the night, leading to seduction, role reversal, and ultimately bloody revenge. Cast: Chad Michael Murray, Francesca Eastwood, Luke Wilson, Teri Polo, Madisen Beaty, Nathan Russell. World Premiere

Trash Fire / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Richard Bates Jr.) - When Owen is forced to confront the past hes been running from his whole adult life, he and his girlfriend, Isabel, become entangled in a horrifying web of lies, deceit, and murder. Youll laugh. Youll cry. Youll be scarred for life. Cast: Adrian Grenier, Angela Trimbur, AnnaLynne McCord, Fionnula Flanagan, Matthew Gray Gubler, Ray Santiago. World Premiere

Under the Shadow / United Kingdom, Jordan, Qatar (Director and screenwriter: Babak Anvari) - Tehran, 1988: As the Iran-Iraq War rumbles into its eighth year, a mother and daughter are slowly torn apart by the bombing campaigns on the city coupled with the countrys bloody revolution. As they struggle to stay together amidst these terrors, a mysterious evil stalks through their apartment. Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Ray Haratian, Arash Marandi. World Premiere

Yoga Hosers / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Kevin Smith) - Colleen Collette and Colleen McKenzie are teenage besties from Winnipeg who love yoga and live on their smartphones. But when these sophomores get invited to a senior party by the school hottie, the Colleens accidentally uncover an ancient evil buried beneath their Canadian convenience store. Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Harley Quinn Smith, Johnny Depp, Justin Long, Austin Butler, Tyler Posey. World Premiere

The Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Boyhood, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Twenty Feet from Stardom, Life Itself, The Cove, The End of the Tour, Bl

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