2016 Zombiefest II - 3 Days of 35mm Zombie Movie Drive-In Madness

They're back from the grave and ready to party! This Memorial Day weekend (May 27th-29th), ZOMBIEFEST returns to the Mahoning Drive-in theater! Like last year's awesome event, Exhumed Films and the Mahoning will be presenting three big nights of living dead triple-bills featuring your favorite zombie classics on the largest outdoor movie screen in the area. All films will be screened on glorious 35mm and will be preceded by vintage genre movie trailers. Be advised: ZOMBIEFEST II is definitely not for the squeamish! Tickets for each night are $10 per person. Camping on the drive-in lot is an additional $10. *** Friday, May 27th: GATES OF HELL (1980)- The suicide of a priest unlocks the gates of hell and allows the dead to rise, a woman to vomit her guts out, maggots to rain and brains to be drilled spectacularly. Director Lucio Fulci's splatterific follow-up to ZOMBIE is a mad assemblage of nightmarish vignettes oozing with atmosphere, supernatural presence and pustulant, walking corpses. Starring Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Giovanni Lombardo Radice and Fabio Frizzi's fabulous score. BURIAL GROUND (1981)- Love it or really love it, this is a movie that you will remember for the rest of your natural days -- and quite possibly should you ever dig your way out of the grave. This fan favorite has everything a rabid gore-hound can ask for (and more), and nothing resembling smart characters, plot or budget to get in the way of all the insane, bloody zombie carnage. There's also Peter Bark. NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES (1980)- Could this incredible night of Italian zombie gut-munchers get any crazier? Answer: yes, it certainly can. Here's director Bruno (RATS: NIGHTS OF TERROR) Mattei's and screenwriter Claudio (TROLL 2) Fragasso's chomp at DAWN OF THE DEAD. Join a group of sweaty commandos as they fight flesh-eating zombies in New Guinea to the tune of Goblin's score for the Romero film. Saturday, May 28th: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)- The events depicted in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD were real, and the folks at Uneeda Medical Supply can prove it. Of course they may inadvertently turn you into a brain-eating creature of the undead, and you'll go chasing your friends around the local mortuary, but at least somewhere in what's left of your mind you'll know zombies exist. Dan O' Bannon's ghoulishly awesome punk zombie romp returns with all the music by THE CRAMPS, TSOL and THE DAMNED you crave, kiddies. THE CHILDREN (1980)- A bus full of innocent school kids passes through a cloud of nuclear radiation turning them all into little creeps with black fingernails who can kill with a touch. Watch out mom and dad! A bizarre, irreverent, spooky, fun treat. Harry Manfredini supplies the score that sounds a lot like his FRIDAY THE 13TH music. THE DEATH WHEELERS [aka. PSYCHOMANIA] (1973)- The Living Dead, a gang of misanthropic, hell-raising bikers, make a pact with the devil (in the form of a frog!) for immortality to live (?) up to their name and continue their rip-roaring, two-wheeled rampage against everything. Directed by Don (KISS OF THE VAMPIRES) Sharp, this film is a pure exploitation kitsch delight. Featuring a memorable score by John Cameron. Sunday, May 29th: THE BEYOND (1981)- Lucio Fulci's grand masterpiece is back, and the gateways to hell are open again, leaving all sorts of rotting zombies, killer beasts and weird characters to do their thing. A non-stop, phantasmagorical assault of violent set-pieces, overblown bloodshed and eerie gothic strangeness centered around an old hotel built over a doorway to eternal damnation; confidently produced on a small budget and hauntingly scored. Starring David Warbeck, Catriona MacColl and Al Cliver. DEATHDREAM (1974)- Bob (A CHRISTMAS STORY) Clark follows up CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS with this perfectly creepy and impressive update of "The Monkey's Paw" as a Vietnam war PTSD allegory. Effective early effects work by Tom Savini and a sound cast including John Marley, Lynn Carlin and Richard Backus make this low-budget shocker a true gem of '70's horror. SHOCK WAVES (1977)- The most striking underwater Nazi zombies (goggled, covered in yuck) you'll ever see stalk a group of unlucky vacationers (including THE DEAD ZONE's Brooke Adams) on a godforsaken island inhabited only by Peter Cushing's crazed SS Commander. Yep, you gotta see this one. Also starring John Carradine. Directed by Ken Weiderhorn.