Austin Horror Anthology Scare Package Comes Home For Other Worlds

Get ready for a surprise! Scare Package, the Austin-made anthology comedy-horror, will get its home town debut next month as part of the Other Worlds science fiction film festival.

The locally-shot anthology (remember when we did a set visit?) features segments by local directors including Emily Hagins (My Sucky Teen Romance, Aaron B. Koontz (Camera Obscura), and Chris McInroy ("We Summoned a Demon") plus UT grads Courtney & Hillary Andujar, and honorary Austinite Noah Segan, plus stories by Baron Vaughn (Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return), and Anthony Cousins. It's a throwback to classic 80s VHS horror, with horror buff and video store manager Chad (Jeremy King) using his tapes to explain the rules of horror to Hawn (Hawn Tran) when he makes the mistake of applying for a job – meanwhile, his sole customer, Sam (Byron Brown) is unimpressed by this turn of affairs.

The film has already received its world premiere at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival, and now makes its local debut as the Centerpiece Film for Other World's Under Worlds horror-centric sidebar. "It’s great to highlight our Under Worlds sidebar with something shot in Austin,” said Dan Repp, Other Worlds Senior Programmer and Event Director, "Scare Packaage is a great representation of what we look for in a Centerpiece film as it is smart and extremely fun. Each segment of this anthology has a different voice, but still feel like they belong together. It blends satire with gruesome horror and still manages to develop characters within the different segments."

The festival has previously announced a special 40th anniversary of chrono-crime romance Time After Time with director Nicholas Meyer in attendance, which will now also be the subject of a live edition of the podcast Science vs Fiction, featuring filmmaker and doctor of astrophysics Steven DeGennaro and film critic Scott Weinberg.

There's also been a first wave that includes Project Greenlight Real Fear Horror Contest pitch winner The Honeymoon Phase. Now along with Scare Package the team has added the rest of its feature lineup, showcasing Other Worlds' signature mix of sci-fi, genre-bending drama, documentaries, festival favorites, and raucous comedies – including two gutbusters from this year's Fantasia, reincarnation laughfest Dead Dicks and the absurdist joy of Lake Michigan Monster (imagine Monty Python's The Lighthouse and you're close).

Other Worlds runs Dec. 5-8 at Galaxy Highland Cinema: Tickets and info at http://otherworldsfilmfest.com. Now here's the rest of the features added this week:

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1BR

D: David Marmor
USA, 2019, 90 min, Texas Premiere
After leaving behind a painful past to follow her dreams, Sarah scores the perfect Hollywood apartment. But something is not right. Unable to sleep, tormented by strange noises and threatening notes, her new life quickly starts to unravel. By the time she learns the horrifying truth, it's too late. Caught in a waking nightmare, Sarah must find the strength to hold onto her crumbling sanity ... or be trapped forever in an existential hell. Cast: Nicole Brydon Bloom, Taylor Nichols, Giles Matthey

A Good Woman is Hard to Find

D: Abner Pastoll
UK, Belgium, Ireland, 2019, 97 min, Texas Premiere
Recently widowed mother of two Sarah is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she’s forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take charge vigilante. Cast: Sarah Bolger, Edward Hogg, Andrew Simpson

Afterlife

D: Willem Bosch
The Netherlands, 2019, 93 min, Texas Premiere
After her mother’s passing, Sam, age 14, took up most of the household responsibilities. When she, too, ends up in the afterlife and finds out she can get a do-over, Sam gives life another try with the sole mission of saving her mother. Cast: Sanaa Giwa, Romana Vrede, Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Jan-Paul Buijs

Around the Sun

D: Oliver Krimpas
UK, 2019, 78 min, Texas Premiere
A film location finder is shown around a repossessed, crumbling French château. Over the course of the afternoon, he slowly falls for both the place and the owner’s flirtatious representative, as she recounts the story of a famous book set there. But is their present-day connection for real, or just a projection of the book’s 17th Century characters? Cast: Cara Theobold, Gethin Anthony

The Ascent

(US Premiere) D: Tom Paton
UK, 2019, 100 min, US Premiere
Special ops squad "Hell's Bastards" are sent to infiltrate a civil war to retrieve intel. The unit soon find themselves trapped on a never-ending stairwell forced to climb or die. To survive, they must revisit their past sins if they ever want to get off. Cast: Rachel Warren, Simon Meacock, Bentley Kalu.

Enhanced

D: James Mark
Canada, 2019, 97 min, US Premiere, Opening Night Film
When a sinister organization declares them illegal, a group of 'enhanced' mutant outcasts including a young woman go on the run. Soon, a super-enhanced serial killer emerges on the scene, and the dynamics between hunter and prey changes. Cast: Alanna Bale, George Tchortov, Adrian Holmes

The Final Land

D: Marcel Barion
Germany, 2019, 113 min, North American Premiere
Two dissimilar men in a small, old spaceship set off in search of a new home. Cast: Milan Pešl, Torben Föllmer

I Am Human

D: Taryn Southern & Elena Gaby
USA, 2019, 90 min, Texas Premiere
A female-directed and produced sci-fi documentary, I Am Human explores the co-evolution of humans and technology.

Lake Michigan Monster

D: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
USA, 2018, 78 min, Texas Premiere
The eccentric Captain Seafield hires a crew of specialists to help him plot revenge against the creature that killed his father. After several failed attempts, Seafield is forced to take matters into his own drunken hands. What began as a simple case of man versus beast soon plunges down a rabbit hole of mysterious unknowns and Lovecraftian hijinks. Cast: Ryland Tews, Erick West, Beulah Peters.

Scare Package

D: Emily Hagins, Baron Vaughn, Noah Segan, Chris McInroy, Anthony Cousins, Hillary & Courtney Andujar, Aaron B. Koontz
USA, 2019, 103 min, Texas Premiere, Under Worlds Centerpiece Film
A meta Horror-comedy anthology film where each segment subverts a different set of Horror tropes, all intertwined around the on-boarding of a mysterious new employee at a struggling genre video store: Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium. Cast: Toni Trucks, Joe Bob Briggs, Dustin Rhodes, Chase Williamson, Baron Vaughn, Noah Segan.

Spiral

D: Kurtis David Harder
Canada, 2019. 90 min, Texas Premiere
A same-sex couple move to a small town so they can enjoy a better quality of life and raise their 16-year-old daughter with the best social values. But nothing is as it seems in their picturesque neighborhood. And when Malik sees the folks next door throwing a very strange party, something very shocking has got to give. Cast: Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen, Jennifer Laporte

Z

D: Brandon Christensen
Canada, 2019, 83 min, Texas Premiere
A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend. Cast: Keegan Connor Tracy, Jett Klyne, Sean Rogerson.