Editor's Note: Visit our Halloween page for more tricks and treats, the costume and horror classics photo galleries, and our own scariest movies.

This week I'm disappearing into the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for eight solid days to attend my yearly bit of fevered insanity called Fantastic Fest. Fantastic Fest is a genre-only film festival that is going to pound my brain with four to six movies a day, every day, and the real kicker is that every one of them will be science fiction, fantasy, crime or horror. I joke that I see more people die in this one eight day period than I probably see all year. But it is probably truer than I would like to believe. And once again, my schedule this year is chock full of horror.

Right now there are a handful of festivals around the country that cater to horror fans, and they are more important now than ever. You see, we're in the midst of a horror renaissance unlike any we've had since the early '80s. Studio analysts and industry watchers are constantly ready these days to pronounce the genre dead again, but to no avail. Every time a studio miscalculates and releases a Hostel 2 or a 28 Weeks Later or a Grindhouse in the wrong part of the year, the voices resound that horror is dead, or at least that rated R horror is dead.

And then someone like Rob Zombie comes along and kicks them square in the teeth with something like Halloween (a film that I still contend would have done even better if released in the sparse distribution of horror of next month). But while studios are focused on remakes, sequels and adaptations, there is a breed of filmmaker out there delivering solid horror for those willing to look. And now there are companies starting to get their backs.

Right now select theaters are showing Hatchet, the low-budget, very self aware fun horror romp that harkens back to the golden age of early, unpretentious '80s slasher films. Brought to the big screen by horror DVD distribution company turned theatrical release company Anchor Bay, who also released the wonderful Behind the Mask earlier this year (on DVD now), we're beginning to see a trend in small boutique horror companies delivering the goods to the fans.

At the same time that Anchor Bay set its sights on the big screen, so too did a small little festival experiment by After Dark Films titled 8 Films to Die For, putting eight otherwise undistributed horror films in theaters nationwide for a weekend. Last year's crop wasn't much to sneeze at, but it only being their first year it can at least be said that it's an ambitious project. This year they're doing it again, for a week rather than a weekend, and I'm hoping there is a marked increase in quality, as I want projects like this to work. Although I do wish they would do this in October rather than November in order to better capitalize on people who want to see horror movies.

But something you can see on the big screen in October, at least if you live in New York City, is a brilliant little horror film titled Murder Party, recently picked up by Magnolia Pictures' new acquisition boutique Magnet Films. The film will get midnight screenings at the Sunshine Theater on Oct. 12th and 13th before its release on DVD for the rest of us on the 16th.

It's a great time to be a horror lover. No matter how often the studios are ready to give up or analysts want to say the age is done, we get together and go out and support it. Are you in the mood for horror? Go check out these films and help make them a success. If you've ever been the type to complain about sequels and remakes, there's original stuff out there waiting for you. It's time to put your money where your mouth is.

C. Robert Cargill - - - Email Me
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Austin-based Cargill, who not only loves but owns The Cutting Edge, writes on movies and DVD five times a week.

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