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An enthusiastic crowd gathered well in advance of Nightmare Cinema<\/em>\u2019s premiere. By 9:00 last night, the line already stretched around the block, assuring a full house for a project that producer-director Mick Garris began dreaming up over a decade ago.<\/p>\nShortly before 10:00, Festival Programmer Tony Timpone took the stage to introduce directors Mick Garris, Alejandro Brugues, Ryuhei Kitamura, and Joe Dante. (David Slade is in the UK working on the upcoming season of Black Mirror<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Before the film, Joe Dante was honored with the Festival\u2019s Lifetime Achievement Award, a presentation that included a montage of scenes from Joe\u2019s five decades of filmmaking.<\/p>\n After Joe\u2019s acceptance, the lights dimmed, and the 800 seat auditorium filled with animal sounds \u2013 mostly mewing \u2013 as it the audience members had suddenly transformed into cats. The mewing is a Festival tradition, and I must admit it\u2019s pretty cool.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t review the film here. I’m too heavily\u00a0invested in the project to\u00a0be objective.<\/p>\n Instead, I encourage you to take a look at some of the reviews that have followed in the wake of last night\u2019s premiere.<\/p>\n Here are some highlights:<\/p>\n That\u2019s just a sampling. Check them out if you like, and while you do, I\u2019ll be putting together some reflections on how the Nightmare Cinema<\/em> segment “This Way to Egress“<\/em> compares to the original story \u201cTraumatic Descent.\u201d<\/p>\n Stop back here tomorrow for more updates from the Festival. We’ll save you a place.<\/p>\n Images:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The standing ovation for Joe Dante’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Photo by Joe Dante.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Alejandro Brugues, Mick Garris, Ryuhei Kitamura, and Joe Dante outside the Auditorium des Diplomes\u00a0de la SGWU. Photo by the 21st-Century Scop.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Thirteen members of the <\/em>Nightmare Cinema team on the red carpet following the premiere. Fantasia Film Festival.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Lunch before the premiere (clockwise from lower left)\u00a0<\/i>Alejandro Brugues, Kyle Newmaster, Ryuhei Kitamura, Lawrence Connolly, Stephanie Caleb, Mick Garris, Sandra Becerril, Joe Russo, Joe Dante, and G. Brandon Hill. Photo <\/em>by <\/em>Sergio Becerril.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An enthusiastic crowd gathered well in advance of Nightmare Cinema\u2019s premiere. By 9:00 last night, the line already stretched around the block, assuring a full house for a project that producer-director Mick Garris began dreaming up over a decade ago. Shortly before 10:00, Festival Programmer Tony Timpone took the stage to introduce directors Mick Garris, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-cat-21st-centuryscop","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[888,863,864,977,8,866,861,862,889,7,132],"class_list":["post-12423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-centuryscop","tag-alejandro-brugues","tag-anthology-films","tag-david-slade","tag-fantasia-film-festival","tag-horror","tag-joe-dante","tag-mick-garris","tag-nightmare-cinema","tag-ryuhei-kitamura","tag-science-fiction","tag-this-way-to-egress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Directors-in-front-of-theatre-2-300x206.jpg\")
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Then came Nightmare Cinema<\/em>, the result of a collaborative effort of many producers, directors, writers, actors, and technicians (that’s 13 of us on the red carpet on the left).<\/p>\n\n
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<\/p>\n