THE BUZZ IS BACK!

THE SAW IS BACK! Wyrd War is bringing cult actor Bill “Chop-Top” Moseley to Portland for a special one-night-only screening of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986)! Tickets available HERE! There will be a chili cook-off contest before the film at the Wyrd War gallery! 

When a radio DJ accidentally airs the violent murder of two football fans heading to the Texas Cotton Bowl, it soon becomes clear that the cannibalistic Sawyer Family is up to their dirty deeds again! Dennis Hopper stars as Lieutenant Lefty Enright, an unhinged former Texas Ranger who must enter a terrifying underground hellscape of carnival detritus in an effort to destroy the feral clan once and for all. Naturally, it does not go well. Often described as “the most Tobe Hooper film,” TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 is a subversive middle finger to Cannon Films that gleefully transgresses all restraint and expectations. Featuring a blistering performance by Bill Moseley as Chop-Top, and co-starring Caroline Williams as DJ Stretch, Bill (FUTURE KILL) Johnson as Leatherface and veteran Jim Siedow, who gleefully reprises his role as the award-winning BBQ chili cook, and with grisly gore effects by Tom Savini – all set to the music of The Cramps, Oingo Boingo, The Lords of the New Church, Concrete Blond and Stewart Copeland – THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2…goes farther! 

Bill Moseley will be in attendance to spin tales of madness and mayhem in a Q&A moderated by Dennis Dread immediately following the screening. Advanced tickets are recommended. (If the ticket link above doesn’t work, just go to the Hollywood Theatre website, click “coming soon” and scroll down to July 16)

NO BUM STEERS!

My good friend Shaun Astor has done it again! He recorded my onstage interview with director, writer, producer and podcast extraordinaire Mick Garris live at Portland, Oregon's historic Hollywood Theatre on April 16, 2022 and edited it down to a very listenable 40 minutes! You can stream the conversation here!  

THERE WAS A WORLD ONCE

Mission accomplished! We fulfilled our wild fantasy of serving "soylent green" to an audience of 300 at our screening of Richard Fleischer's dystopian sci-fi classic SOYLENT GREEN (1973)...in the year 2022...when the film takes place...on the week that the film was originally released 49 years ago! Thank you to Missionary Chocolates for indulging us and creating the most delicious vegan truffles we have ever tasted. Thank you to everyone who came out. Long live Edward G. Robinson! "There was a world once, you punk...People were always rotten. But the world was beautiful." Indeed.

THE FUTURE IS NOW!

Join Wyrd War on Friday May 13, 2022 for this one-night-only 49th anniversary screening of legendary Hollywood director Richard Fleischer’s classic dystopian science fiction thriller SOYLENT GREEN (1973). Tickets on sale here. 

The year is 2022. The place is New York City. The population is 40,000,000. Climate change, pollution and overpopulation have precipitated ecological disaster and the slow collapse of democratic society. With natural resources nearly depleted, and dying oceans no longer capable of producing plankton, the mostly illiterate masses are ruled by a sequestered elite and sustained by a mysterious processed food substance produced by the Soylent Corporation. Charlton Heston reprises similar performances from earlier sci-fi blockbusters THE PLANET OF THE APES (1968) and THE OMEGA MAN (1971) as Detective Thorn, a rugged survivor whose stubborn investigation of the death of a corporate board member leads him into a treacherous cat and mouse fight for his life as he uncovers the terrible secret of Soylent Green. Loosely based on the novel Make Room! Make Room! by former EC horror comic illustrator Harry Harrison, and predicting many of the climate change catastrophes we are currently contending with, SOYLENT GREEN also features the final performance from Golden Age screen star and outspoken antifascist Edward G. Robinson who died just days after filming his onscreen fictional death as the retired professor and keeper of civilization’s history, Sol Roth. The future is now!

Wyrd War will be serving delicious “Soylent Green” in the lobby before the film while supplies last!

LEAVE SOMETHING WITCHY

“The people of Bellenac are deeply rooted in the past. Their traditions of worship are ancient. Some of these traditions may seem strange to an outsider.” 

Seven years before THE WICKER MAN (1973), J. Lee Thompson’s 1966 occult thriller EYE OF THE DEVIL cast the clandestine primitivism and unfettered sensuality of fictional pagan worship across the big screen in striking chiaroscuro. When a French nobleman (David Niven) is urgently summoned to his ancestral estate to contend with failing crops, his concerned wife (Deborah Kerr) follows with their two children, only to be plummeted into a hallucinatory nightmare of malevolent witchcraft and deadly ritual. Sharon Tate makes her effortless feature film debut as the mysterious estate sorceress, while Donald Pleasance brilliantly smolders as the lurking high priest of Bellenac and its many foreboding rites. EYE OF THE DEVIL is a liminal folk horror noir that is perfectly poised at the threshold of genre; the threshold of codified filmmaking technique and the brave new world of experimental expressionism; the threshold of monochrome celluloid and the technicolor explosion that was just on the horizon (this would be the final b/w film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer); and, perhaps in retrospect, the threshold of uncomplicated innocence and the catastrophic upheaval that was coming down fast by the late 1960s. “What was that ceremony up there in the tower?” Join Wyrd War for our Seventh Annual Walpurgisnacht Film Festival this Saturday April 30 and uncover the dread secret of…EYE OF THE DEVIL! Tickets on sale HERE. 

Saturday April 30, 2022

7:30pm

Hollywood Theatre 

KILL KRITES!

Wyrd War & Mick Garris by A.K. Wilson.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by A.K. Wilson.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Thanks to our sponsor BST vodka. Photo by Shaun Astor.  

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by A.K. Wilson.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

Photo by Shaun Astor.

The amazing Wendi Vecciarelli is an invaluable member of the Wyrd War family. Photo by A.K. Wilson.  

A.K. Wilson of SagaVisual has been with me since day one of Wyrd War (and long before)! Photo by Wendi. 

Our amazing daughter Kallisti showed up as the Easter bunny and the room went nuts. Photo by Shaun Astor. 

Photo by A.K. Wilson. 

Photo by Meadow (I think).

Photo by Shaun Astor.

THANK YOU to everyone who came out this weekend to welcome WYRD WAR back to Portland's historic Hollywood Theatre for our first movie event of 2022! I had the time of my life screening CRITTERS 2 (1988) with director Mick Garris and an audience of 366 killer Krites! Here are some amazing photos of the evening courtesy of our dear friends Shaun Astor and A.K. Wilson of SagaVisual. Very special thanks to the inestimable Mick Garris, the entire Wyrd War Crue, Odessa Godoy for sharing her critters, all of the local bands, businesses and friends who contributed to our massive Easter egg hunt before the film and, as always, everyone at the Hollywood Theatre for taking such good care of us. Next up is Wyrd War's Seventh Annual Walpurgisnacht Film Festival on Saturday April 30 featuring J. Lee Thompson's obscure folk horror masterpiece EYE OF THE DEVIL (1966)! Tickets are available HERE. See ya at the movies. 

CRITTERS 2: THE MAIN COURSE

FIRST WYRD WAR MOVIE EVENT OF 2022! 

Join Wyrd War on Easter Weekend for CRITTERS 2: THE MAIN COURSE (1988) with director, writer and podcast extraordinaire Mick Garris in attendance! This screening will feature an adult egg hunt in the main theater at 7:30pm with amazing prizes courtesy of Wyrd War and our sponsors! Film starts at 8pm. Tickets on sale here! 

Return to Grover’s Bend where the insatiable space critters known as Crites (conceived once again by practical effects wizards the Chiodo Brothers) have hatched just in time to wreak havoc on this pastoral town’s Easter celebrations! Shapeshifting intergalactic bounty hunters Ug and Lee are back in all their 80s blow-dried glory, along with Charlie and Brad, to battle the carnivorous rolling aliens in this explosive horror comedy sequel to the 1986 hit that started it all.  

Mick Garris will join me on stage immediately after the film to discuss all things Critters! Doors 7pm. Egg Hunt 7:30pm. Film 8pm. 

STEVE DE JARNATT IN CONVERSATION WITH DENNIS DREAD (August 14, 2021)

Thanks to my good friend Shaun Astor, who had the forethought to record it, I have uploaded the complete onstage dialogue between myself and brilliant director/writer Steve De Jarnatt from Wyrd War's "Summer Bummer Double Feature" that took place August 14, 2021 at Portland's historic non-profit Hollywood Theatre. We screened both of Steve's feature films, MIRACLE MILE (1988) and CHERRY 2000 (1987), and this conversation took place between films. If you were unable to attend this amazing event, now you can listen to me laugh very loudly into the microphone in the privacy of your own COVID-free home. It is streaming HERE. Happy Holidays!  

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT...FOREVER!

You are cordially invited to join WYRD WAR on Saturday December 18, 2021 at Portland's historic non-profit Hollywood Theatre for our one-night-only double feature MANIAC COP (1988) and MANIAC 2 (1990) with very special guest Laurene Landon in attendance! Tickets are available HERE. 

New York City circa 1988 was a maelstrom of crime and corruption, and exploitation horror auteur William Lustig tapped into this gritty zeitgeist to create his absurdly entertaining MANIAC COP franchise. Written by Larry Cohen, and boasting a stellar cast of genre luminaries including Robert Z’Dar, Bruce Campbell, Tom Adkins, Richard Roundtree, William Smith and the very talented Laurene Landon, this supernatural slasher DOUBLE FEATURE mainlines dopamine directly into the viewers’ sleaze receptors! Shot on location in pre-Rudy Giuliani Manhattan, and featuring some of the most striking stunts of the decade, MANIAC COP tells the story of a violent police officer who returns from the dead to exact his revenge on the system that betrayed him…and anyone else who crosses his path! In 1990, Lustig and Cohen doubled down on existential urban dread with a sequel that sees the titular zombified menace teaming up with a serial killer to paint “The Big Apple” red once again! Come for the ridiculous body counts, stay for the ham-fisted social commentary! Wyrd War’s Dennis Dread will moderate an onstage Q&A with Laurene Landon between films.

The Hollywood Theater requires proof of vaccine or proof of negative COVID test. Masks are required for a safer socially distanced experience. This event is also our birthday celebration for my darling companion of 25 years, and Wyrd War co-founder, Tiffany Kenaley (whom many of you know by her childhood nickname "Meadow"), so who knows what wild shenanigans shall transpire when MANIAC COP comes to town... 

Saturday December 18, 2021
Doors 6pm

Maniac Cop 7pm

Laurene Landon 9pm

Maniac Cop 2 9:30pm
The Hollywood Theatre

JUG FACE

TONIGHT! Wyrd War proudly presents composer/songwriter Sean Spillane’s haunting and hypnotic original motion picture soundtrack for the independent American folk horror film JUG FACE (2013) on vinyl for the first time with a special screening at Portland's historic STAR THEATER! Doors at 7pm. Movie at 8pm. Director Chad Crawford Kinkle’s JUG FACE intelligently transcends the popular tropes of backwoods rural-based horror as it follows a teen’s desperate attempts to escape the macabre traditions of her isolated Appalachian community that worships an unseen chthonic force that inhabits an earthen pit. Exploring themes of neurodiversity, poverty, social isolation, incest, domestic violence and the dark shadow of religion, Spillane’s compositions evoke complex emotions with minimalist tools. Newly sequenced by Wyrd War for maximum long playing impact, side one is an atmospheric slow burn that rumbles, plods and slinks with beautifully textured acoustic dirges, thick with cascading delay effects that suggest the mottled light of dense woodlands, including three previously unreleased tracks. Side two erupts with startlingly contrasting diegetic alt-country stomps, that can be heard by the characters on screen as the story unfolds, replete with horns and vocal drawls that recall Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s lyrical wit for Quincy Jones’ IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT soundtrack. Mastered for vinyl by Timothy Stollenwerk and highlighting original artwork from the film by Zach and Hannah Passero, JUG FACE is pressed to stunning “Appalachian Gold” vinyl in a limited edition of 400. Available tonight at the Wyrd War merch table or online here. The pit wants what the pit wants!

"KILL THE BABY."

October is a very busy month here at Dread Headquarters, but I would be remiss if I did not pause to celebrate what was possibly the most amazing event I have organized to date. On Saturday October 9, 2021 we sold out the Hollywood Theatre for the first time since 2019 with our screening of Wes Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977), and we flew legendary character actor Michael Berryman all the way across the country to be with us for the occasion! The day began with an intimate signing at the WYRD WAR gallery, and ended with a roaring standing ovation while Mr. Berryman treated our audience to his signature ear wiggle salute (yes, we played the Smoking in the Boys Room video on the massive 50' screen at Hollywood and the place erupted into an impromptu dance party!). Thank you to everyone who came out to support us, our Wyrd War Crue for the support and A.K. Wilson for capturing most of these pics as always! "Kill the baby."