By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The upgrade of the Spanish fever dream is coming to theaters next month.
Drafthouse Films has released a trailer for the 4K restoration of THE BIRTHDAY, which became a lost movie following its Sitges International Film Festival premiere in 2004. Since then, it has built a cult following, and the new version played Sitges (and will soon screen at Fantastic Fest) this year. It has its theatrical premiere October 1 with one-night-only theatrical showings in over 20 Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas nationwide, followed by openings in select cities starting October 11.
Directed by Eugenio Mira (GRAND PIANO) from a script he wrote with Mikel Alvariño, it stars Corey Feldman, Spanish genre star Jack Taylor, Erica Pryor, Rick Merrill, Richard Felix, Dale Douma and Robert Long. The synopsis: “Not everything is as it seems at the old Royal Fulton Hotel. Norman Forrester [Feldman] is finally going to meet his girlfriend’s family at her father’s lavish birthday party. But what was supposed to be an important step forward in their relationship doesn’t exactly go as planned; he’s not on the guest list, his girlfriend is ignoring him, and her father doesn’t like him at all. Rejected and heartbroken, Norman wanders away from the party, only to find something far more sinister than his girlfriend’s family lurking deep within the churning bowels of the ailing hotel: an ancient evil that threatens to bring about the end of the world.”
