Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen at Park City at Midnight category of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. every year we cover the event, and every year I have to cram it down your throats; this is the single most important film festival alongside TIFF! Saw premiered at Sundance, as did High Tension, Open Water, The Blair Witch Project, The Signal and many, many more. PAY ATTENTION. Beyond the break you’ll find a list of films playing the Midnight category and they’re really, really good this year.

Director: Rodrigo Cortes; Screenwriter: Chris Sparling
A U.S. contractor working in Iraq awakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it’s a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap. Cast: Ryan Reynolds. World Premiere

Director and Screenwriter: Adam Green
Three skiers are mistakenly stranded on a chairlift, forced to make life-or-death choices that prove more perilous than staying put and freezing to death. This comes from the director of the popular cult slasher Hatchet. Cast: Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers. World Premiere

Director: Vincenzo Natali; Screenwriters: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, and Doug Taylor
From the director of Cube. Clive and Elsa are young, brilliant, and ambitious. The new animal species they engineered has made them rebel superstars of the scientific world. In secret, they introduce human DNA into the experiment. Cast: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac, David Hewlett. North American Premiere

Director: Eli Craig; Screenwriters: Eli Craig and Morgan Jurgenson
Two West Virginian hillbillies go on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin, but their peaceful trip goes horribly awry. Cast: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss. World Premiere

Directors and screenwriters: The Butcher Brothers a.k.a. Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores
From the director of the indie smash The Hamiltons, one night at a secluded farmhouse deep in the Northern California woods, a small group of hardened young bikers and their girlfriends are tormented when one of the girls becomes savagely possessed and a gang of “Rockabillies” seemingly from the 1950’s descends upon them to collect what is growing inside her. The film comes from the producers of Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, along with producers Michael Ferris Gibson and Jeremy Platt. Cast: Cory Knauf, Taylor Cole, Bret Roberts,Christina Prousalis, Tiffany Shepis, Joe Egender.

Director: Daniel Grou; Screenwriter: Patrick Senecal
A doctor seeks revenge by kidnapping, torturing and killing the man who murdered his young daughter. Cast: Rémy Girard, Claude Legault, Fanny Mallette, Martin Dubreuil, Rose-Marie Coallier. World Premiere

Director: John Stalberg, Jr.; Screenwriters: Erik Linthorst, Stephen Susco and John Stalberg, Jr.
A random drug test coincides with a high school valedictorian’s first hit of pot. Cast: Sean Marquette, Matt Bush, Adrien Brody, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks, Mykelti Wiliamson, Andrew Wilson, Yeardley Smith, Michael Vartan, Curtis Armstrong, Erica Phillips. World Premiere

Director: Nick Tomnay; Screenwriters: Nick Tomnay and Krishna Jones
A criminal on the run cons his way into the wrong dinner party where the host is anything but ordinary. Cast: David Hyde Pierce, Clayne Crawford, Helen Reddy, Nathaniel Parker. World Premiere

ALSO….

Director: Michael Winterbottom; Screenwriter: John Curran
Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is a pillar of the community in his small Texan town; patient, polite and well liked, until he starts killing people. Cast: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Simon Baker, Elias Koteas. World Premiere

Director and screenwriter: Tim Rutili
Probably not a film to be covered here on Bloody Disgusting, but it does involve ghosts and our beloved Angela Bettis (May). In the film a fortune teller lives and works in and old house crowded with ghosts. When a mysterious light appears in the woods, the ghosts realize they are trapped and begin to rebel. Cast: Angela Bettis. World Premiere