A splattery splash

If you've seen the posters all over town advertising After Dark HorrorFest 2007 -- they're hard to miss, like that one showing a putrefied ghoul creeping up the backside of a nude woman -- your reaction was probably either "Ewww!" or "Cool!" If it was the latter, you are part of the reason that second annual HorrorFest is poised to land in theaters this weekend with a national splatter.

The six-day, eight-film festival -- beginning Friday and stretched over two weekends -- will bring its collective charms (which include cannibals, Mexican cult killers, spooks, were-rats, a raging mystery virus and enough fake blood to fill a tanker truck) to about 300 U.S. screens. That arguably makes HorrorFest (a.k.a. "8 Films to Die For") a world-class festival -- a sort of super-sized Sundance for sadism.

"It's the biggest on the planet," said filmmaker Courtney Solomon, the festival founder. Well, yes and no; the 2006 festival was actually larger (it was on 468 screens), with a respectable gross of $2.6 million.

But the 2006 HorrorFest (the first festival to rank in the weekly top 10 at the U.S. box office) has certainly cut through to core genre fans and has become viewed as a launching point for DVD releases and more lucrative international deals for the movies that make the cut. A clear indication of its higher profile is the presence this year of "The Deaths of Ian Stone," a film with an $11-million budget, about five times the cost of any movie in the 2006 festival.

"In just a year it's become a real brand name for horror fans, and these are die-hard fans," said James Koya Jones, director of "Crazy Eights," one of the films in this year's festival. "We're very happy to be part of this festival, and we think it will be great exposure for the film."

Fans can buy tickets online or at each theater box office for individual movies or pay an all-you-can-stomach price of $75 and sit through every stabbing. The other films this year: "Tooth and Nail," "Lake Dead," "Unearthed," "Nightmare Man," "Borderland" and "Mulberry Street." While Cannes this year offered Brad Pitt and George Clooney cavorting on the red carpet, After Dark's films are dotted with earthier celebs, such as former porn queen Traci Lords and British tough guy Vinnie Jones.