The Full Moon Horror and Fantastic Film Festival, presented by the Transilvania International Film Festival, returns to Biertan for its 11th edition, bringing three days and three nights of premieres, cult films and open-air screenings.

The festival opens with the Romanian premiere of The Carpenter’s Son, starring Nicolas Cage. Another highlight of this year’s edition will be the cine-concert Trenul Fantomă, featuring live music by Dubase, preceded by an acoustic performance by Ana Coman and her guitar as part of Full Moon Unplugged.

At Bastion Open Air, the programme kicks off on Friday, August 14, with Nightborn, the new film by Finnish director Hanna Bergholm, known to horror audiences for Hatching. Selected for the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, the film follows a couple who move into an isolated house in the Finnish woods, where the arrival of their first child awakens a disturbing presence. The evening continues with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the horror musical that has become one of cinema’s great cult phenomena. The story behind the film will also be explored from behind the scenes in the documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, screening on Saturday at Cinema Ion Hobana.

On Saturday, Bastion Open Air will screen Her Private Hell, the new film by director Nicolas Winding Refn, as well as the original Dutch version of the thriller The Vanishing. The programme also includes the 1993 American remake, also directed by George Sluizer, giving audiences an opportunity to compare the two versions.

On Sunday, Carrie returns to the Bastion screen. Directed by Brian De Palma and based on Stephen King’s novel, the classic marks 50 years since its release.

On Friday, August 14, Méliès Open Air will host the Romanian premiere of The Carpenter’s Son. Directed by Lotfy Nathan, the supernatural thriller stars Nicolas Cage as Joseph, alongside FKA twigs as Mary and Noah Jupe as their teenage son.

On Saturday, August 15, audiences are invited to the cine-concert Trenul Fantomă. Made in 1933 by Jean Mihail, the first Romanian-language talking film tells the story of travelers forced to spend the night at a railway station believed to be haunted. The film will be screened with live music performed by Dubase.

The Méliès programme concludes on Sunday, August 16, with The Virgin of the Quarry Lake, directed by Laura Casabé. Inspired by the prose of writer Mariana Enríquez, the film blends adolescence, jealousy and black magic against the backdrop of Argentina’s 2001 crisis.

The selection continues at Cinema Karloff and Cinema Ion Hobana, with titles including The Turkish Coffee Table, Gaua, Species, Roqia, Veins, The Uncertainty Principle, Feels Like Home, Anemoneciacs and Transylvania Tapes.

The program also includes Romanian short films, the documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, and repeat screenings of The Carpenter’s Son, Nightborn and Her Private Hell.

The festival takes place between August 14 and August 16.

(Photo: still from The Carpenter’s Son, from press release)

simona@romania-insider.com