Dundead Halloween: Hollywood 90028

This screening will feature a special recorded introduction from film festival programmer, film journalist and film historian Heidi Honeycutt, author of I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies.

“Grindhouse Meets the Art House” (Indiewire) in this 1974 film by Christina Hornisher (her only feature film) which, until very recently, was somewhere between languishing in obscurity and completely lost to time. 

It took a relentless pursuit by Grindhouse Releasing’s Bob Murawski to track the film down and to begin the process of restoration.

Hollywood 90028 is almost like if Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom was relocated to sleazy 70s Los Angeles and directed by Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 1975). It follows a young, isolated photographer named Mark who makes his money shooting porn films and is also a murderer of young women. The narrative is very slight, and we spend a lot of time following Mark as he wanders around LA; the understated, conversational tone grows increasingly maddening as the film unfolds. The film also arguably anticipates the kind of violent, Vietnam-era nihilism and social isolation typified by films like Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

Hornisher makes parallels that are still being drawn upon today (as in this year’s MaXXXine) about the vacuousness at the dark heart of Hollywood – capping the film off with what has to be one of the most memorable, and most audacious, final shots in horror.

The film has been screened to sell-out audiences in LA, including a run at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverley Cinema, where it has racked up fans including some of modern horror’s brightest luminaries like The Love Witch’s Anna Biller and director of X, Pearl and MaXXXine, Ti West. It has only been screened a couple of times in the UK, so this is a great chance to see a real hidden gem, on the big screen where it belongs. 

Get yourself a pass and see all of our Dundead Halloween films for £38.40.