Horror films take center stage at Sunset Film Festival

ASHEBORO — Ty Brueilly, the organizer behind the Mightier Than The Sword Awards at Sunset Film Festival, announced last week that, for first time ever, the cult classic “Mutilator” films will be shown back-to-back in a theatrical setting when it hits the screen at Sunset Theatre on Saturday night of the three-day event set for Aug. 7-9 at Sunset Theatre in downtown Asheboro.

Buddy Cooper, the director of both movies, and cast members from the film will be on hand for a meet-and-greet and post-show, on-stage Q&A.

The cult classic double feature includes “The Mutilator” (1984) and the follow-up film released in 2023, “Mutilator 2.” There will also be a three short film introduction of “Kharver,” “Litterbug” and “Buzzby.”

Established in 2023 by Asheboro native Brueilly, the MTTS event is Asheboro’s first-ever film festival. It was created to recognize and include many facets of the arts, culture and entertainment world, with its main focus on film. 

Brueilly’s vision is not limited to just the medium of film, but includes an opening night concert, a comedy hour, the cult classic double feature and an award ceremony recognizing local citizens for work in and contributions to the community.

This particular festival will concentrate more on North Carolina films, both short and feature films. The first two festivals showed some 100 films each. Those first festivals were held in January but weather  didn’t cooperate with them, so Brueilly moved them to August this year.

Each day is filled with films, music, comedy and more for about a 12-hour period. A schedule can be found at www.filmandfashionbybrueilly.com/mttsawards.

Attendance at the event is in the form of daily passes: $15 for Friday and $20 for Saturday and $20 for Sunday. Or get a three-day pass for $45. Bearers of passes and come and go throughout the day.

The first year of the festival included a “Deadly Double Feature” that began with the first 50th anniversary showing of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” with members of the cast watching with the audience and ended with the Sean Haitz top 10 of Screambox cult hit, “Cannibal Comedian.” 

The second year included the first 45th anniversary screening of “Forbidden Zone” with Hollywood royalty and Oingo Boingo co-founder Richard Elfman in attendance followed by his wife Anastasia’s leading role film “Bloody Bridget.”

This year, Buddy Cooper, director of both of the “Mutilator films,” will be in attendance with at least a half dozen other members of the cast/crew with props from the films on display and for sale.

“The backbone of cinema and film-making is the horror genre, it’s the most watched genre, and from my experience has the tightest knit community and fanbase of any other genre and there is an extreme appeal to films with lesser budgets that break traditional guidelines,” Brueilly said in a press release. 

“The late ’70s and ’80s were a really special time for these movies, and certainly paved the way for filmmakers such as myself to experiment and push limits and boundaries, and also not to rely on major studios, instead shifting their focus independently. In realizing the importance of this impact, I felt the necessity to pay tribute to these movies in our film festival each year, with a mainstay “Deadly Double Feature” segment.”

Cooper noted that “this screening will be the first time these two movies have ever been shown as a double header. ... Maybe it will start a trend. That would be welcomed.

“I look forward most to the simple interaction with fans — shaking hands, taking selfies and such.”