Vampire & Sword 35MM Film Festival

October 24th — Vamp Fest starts at 11am (doors at 10am). Sword Fest begins at 7pm (doors at 6pm).

All 6 films presented on 35mm film!!!

Lineup:
- Vamp Fest: Twilight part 2; The Lost Boys; Blade; Near Dark.
- Sword Fest: Excalibur; The Sword and the Sorcerer.

VAMP FEST: Screening this specific lineup of vampire films (all on 35mm film prints) offers a fascinating journey through the evolution of cinematic horror, romance, and style across three distinct decades. Your marathon kicks off with two masterpieces from 1987 that approach the mythos from polar opposite directions. Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys captures the ultimate peak of 1980s MTV pop-culture, blending a neon-drenched, synth-heavy California aesthetic with a rebellious, rock-and-roll vampire gang. In stark contrast, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark strips away all the glamorous Hollywood glitter, reimagining the vampire coven as a gritty, nomadic family of outlaws drifting across the sun-baked American Midwest in a dust-covered, neo-Western nightmare. Together, these two classics illustrate how the exact same monster can be used to tell completely different stories about youth, family, and alienation.

Moving into later eras, the screening highlights how the genre transitioned into high-octane action and sweeping romantic melodrama. Stephen Norrington’s Blade (1998) redefines the creature feature for the turn of the millennium, infusing the mythos with industrial techno beats, leather trench coats, and slick, martial-arts-heavy superhero action. Chris Weitz's The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) shifts the focus to a melancholic, blue-tinted world of young-adult fantasy, exploring heartbreak, ancient vampire royalty, and rival shape-shifters. Watching all four back-to-back gives a look at how vampires transformed from terrifying leather-clad punks and highway killers into leather-clad superhero hunters and symbols of eternal romance.

SWORD FEST: SWORD Fest erupts onto the screen with a double feature of epic high-fantasy violence, strictly preserved in its ultimate visual format: authentic 35mm film prints. The marathon delivers a clash of cinematic tones, bridging the gap between high-art mythmaking and unapologetic B-movie spectacle. The celluloid presentation brings a tangible, organic warmth to the experience, with grain structure and flicker that evoke the golden age of 1980s fantasy.

The lineup charges forward with John Boorman's Excalibur (1981), an operatic, visually intoxicating retelling of the Arthurian legends, pairing perfectly with Albert Pyun's cult favorite The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), a high-octane adventure packed with triple-bladed firing swords, snake demons, and relentless execution-style fight choreography. Together on 35mm, these two capture the pinnacle of early-80s fantasy cinema.

Tickets and pricing:
- Tickets on sale now: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/palaceonjames/7304/event/1478515
- $40 for Vamp Fest
- $25 for Sword Fest
- $50 for the entire day

Single-movie tickets will be available for purchase at the door only and will be cash only.

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