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Abertoir Festival Raises Money for Charity with Help of ‘Friday the 13th’ Director Sean Cunningham
The genre festival circuit is just ramping up at the moment, but the end of the season always bows out on a high in Wales with Abertoir.
Abertoir Horror Film Festival raised over £600 for local hospice care, thanks to generous donations from its attendees during the 2018 edition of the festival. The fundraising came as a result of the festival’s guest of honour, cult director and producer Sean S. Cunningham, best known for Friday the 13th, whose most recent project is a short documentary film, The Nurse With The Purple Hair, about an American hospice nurse, Michelle Lasota.
A large portion of the funds raised came from the auction of a horror-themed teddy bear which made reference to Friday the 13th. The teddy bear was donated by festival attendee Alan Jones, and signed by Sean S. Cunningham before it was put to auction. Julian Neilson was the winning bidder, and his bid was match-donated by Kristen and Jeff McGorry.
Elsewhere at the festival, attendees made optional donations during an autograph signing session with Sean S. Cunningham. The sale of second-hand DVDs, donated by several attendees, over the course of the six days of the festival, also raised money through an honesty box system. Between the auction, signings and the DVD sale, the Abertoir festival audience raised a total of £620.
The funds have been donated to two local hospice care providers, North Ceredigion’s HAHAV, which provides practical, social and emotional support to patients who are living with advanced, incurable and progressive illness in the comfort of their own homes; and the Skanda Vale hospice, located in Llandysul, which is predominantly staffed by volunteers. The hospice is now also in touch with Cunningham, and hope to host their own screening of his film in the new year.
Abertoir Festival director, Gaz Bailey, said “We were thrilled to be able to raise so much money for such a good cause. Our festival goers have always been among the kindest people you could ever hope to meet, and their generosity confirms that. We were really touched that such a meaningful and important subject such as hospice care could be embraced so warmly by our attendees.”
Abertoir Horror Festival took place 13-18 November, 2018 at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
While you wait for Alien: Romulus, the folks over at Devilworks have cooked up their own slice of “mockbuster” fun with Alien Hunt, and we’re debuting the trailer here on BD this morning.
This brand-new sci-fi horror from director Aaron Mirtes (The Bigfoot Trap, Painted in Blood) is set for its US premiere on May 14, and you can find it on digital thanks to Devilworks.
You can exclusively watch the official trailer for Alien Hunt below, which looks to combine elements of Alien and Predator. This particular “mockbuster” has very little interest in hiding its inspirations, with the alien designs plucked straight out of H.R. Giger’s beautiful brain. Hey, if you’re going to pull from other movies, might as well take from the all-time greats!
In Alien Hunt, “On a hunting trip in the wilderness, a group of siblings discovers an abandoned military outpost on their land, but is it what it seems?
“Their trip takes a sinister turn when they find themselves facing off against a relentless army of extra-terrestrial beings. Suddenly, the hunters become the hunted.
“The formidable squad of alien soldiers will stop at nothing to wipe out the enemy and in an all-out, brutal battle for survival, it’s kill or be killed in Alien Hunt.”
Barron Boedecker (Escape Pod, The Bigfoot Trap), Brent Bentley (The Perfect In-Laws, Haunt Season), Deiondre Teagle (The Visitor, Painted in Blood, Death Ranch), Chelsey Fuller (The Bigfoot Trap, The Silent Natural), Jesse Santoyo (A Nashville Country Christmas, Potter’s Ground), and Adam Pietripaoli (The Bigfoot Trap, The OctoGames) star.
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