“A Fear Too Beautiful to Resist!”...

The wild, insane, over-the-top, ghost story horror-comedy, HOUSE (HAUSU) begins a run at Living Room this Friday, April 2. Playing once nightly at 9:30 pm, House is directed by Nobuhiko Obayahshi. A cult classic made in 1977, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen! Though the film defies description, it concerns seven teenage girls who are summoned to an old woman’s bewitched mansion where one by one each is murdered by the house by psychedelic, surreal, and ghastly means.

Distressed by her widowed father’s plans to remarry, Angel sets off with six of her schoolgirl friends in tow for a summer getaway in her aunt’s isolated mansion. But all is not well – in this house of dormant secrets, long-held emotional traumas have terrifyingly physical embodiments and the girls will have to use all their individual talents if any are to survive.

Absurd and nightmarish, House is filled with an odd childlike logic. And no wonder, the director says the idea for the film came from his eleven-year-old daughter! Filled with non-stop cinematic invention House is not to be missed! Watch the trailer below.

RED RIDING TRILOGY begins!...

The first film in the Red Riding Trilogy, Red Riding – 1974, begins Friday, March 26 at Living Room Theaters. Sure to be one of the cinematic events of the year, Red Riding is a mesmerizing neo-noir epic based on factual events and adapted for the screen by Tony Grisoni from David Peace’s electrifying series of novels. Acclaimed by c ritics as an eminent accomplishment, the trilogy follows several characters in intertwining storylines united by the horror wrought by the “Yorkshire Ripper,” a serial killer who terrorized northwest England in the 1970s and ’80s. The three films are directed by three notable filmmakers and each boasts a stellar British cast.

Read Shawn Levy’s review from the Oregonian HERE.

The trailer for the trilogy can be seen HERE.

Red Riding – 1974 is the first entry in the ambitious, dark, and thrilling trilogy of interlinking films set in Yorkshire in the 1970s and 80s. It’s Yorkshire in 1974, and fear, mistrust and institutionalised police corruption are running riot. Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to search for the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions.

When young Clare Kemplay goes missing, Eddie and his colleague, Barry, persuade their editor to let them investigate links with two similar abductions in the last decade.

But after a mutilated body is found on a construction site owned by a local property magnate, Eddie and Barry are drawn into a deadly world of secrecy, intimidation, shocking revelations and police brutality.

One Night Only: LUNCHFILM...

Join us March 27 at 7:30 pm for a one-time screening of a shorts film package that truly encapsulates the indie film spirit: Lunchfilm. Lunchfilm captures the raw, unpolished, independent spirit of DIY film ma king. This shorts package was instigated by former Sundance Film Festival programmer, Mike Plante. Mike purchases lunch for a filmmaker and that filmmaker in turn must make a film that not only address certain topics discussed during the the lunch, but must also be made with a budget that matches the meal tab. The result is a truly mixed-bag of cinematic expressions from the trenches by filmmakers ranging from Bobcat Golthwait to Naomi Uman.

NW filmmaker Randy Walker will be in attendance with his short Whiskeypriest #1 which features Portland musician Jeffrey “Chairman” Couch (see photo below) of the bands The Chair Project and Drats!!!, who will also be in attendance. If you’re tired of stale, predictable Hollywood fare, Lunchfilm is for you! A complete list of films in the package is below.

Screening is on March 27 at 7:30 pm.

Films and total cost:
$29.51 made by Nick McCarthy. (aka “Chinese Box”, 2009, 10 minutes)
$35.44 made by Kelly Sears. (aka “Jean”, 2008, 3 minutes)
$43.43 made by David Fenster and David Nordstrom. (aka “The Call”, 2009, 10 minutes)
$26.79 made by Bobcat Goldthwait. (aka “Goldthwait Family Home Movies (Anniversary Edition)”, 2008, 7 minutes)
$20.28 made by Sam Green. (aka “Clear Glasses”, 2008, 4 minutes)
$48.96 made by Sarah Soquel Morhaim. (aka “All Day All Night”, 2008, 3 minutes)
110 zloty made by Aza Jacobs (aka “Letters Real/Names Not”, 2009, 10 min)
$67.50 made by James Graham (aka “Friends”, 2009, 3 min)
$43.05 made by Brent Green. (aka “Weird Carolers”, 2009, 4 minutes)
$35.00 made by Braden King. (aka “Home Movie”, 2009, 14 minutes)
$41.32 made by Naomi Uman and Lee Lynch. (aka “Tin Woodman’s Home Movie #2″, 2008, 5 minutes)
$27.73 made by Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin. (aka “Whiskeypriest 1″, 2009, 16 minutes)
$22.07 made by Mike Gibisser. (aka “Springtime Wound Motor”, 2009, 10 minutes)
$43.19 made by Tom Barndt. (aka “Offshore Bank”, 2008, 4 minutes)

A midnight success, and Living Room’s first ...

The midnight screening of “Alice in Wonderland” brought 3D delight to a near capacity crowd in theater 3 at Living Room tonight. This movie is the first major studio film that Living Room has been ‘allowed’ to open.  Up until now, Regal Entertainment Group (the near-monopoly theater chain in Portland) has used an industry practice known as ‘clearances’ to prevent us from playing other movies while they are playing at either the Pioneer Place Mall, the Broadway Metro 4 or the Fox Tower.

With ‘Alice’, Disney gave us the opportunity to open the film because we are offering the only 3D experience in downtown Portland.  Help show your support of ‘local’ establishments by getting as many of your family/friends to come see “Alice in Wonderland” at Living Room Theaters.  A solid opening with this film will ensure that we can continue to bring you other exciting 3D movies in the months to come.  Our XpanD system has the cleanest and sharpest 3D images that you will see anywhere in Portland.

We’d love to hear the comments from anyone who was in attendance at the midnight screening.  Would you come to other midnight opening nights if we had them?  What do you think of Living Room playing more commercial films along side the foreign and independent films that we love and will continue to program?