EAU CLAIRE — Midwest WeirdFest is gearing up for its 7th annual event and have announced some of the programs viewers will see at the festival in March.
WeirdFest is a cinematic celebration of all things fantastic, frightening, paranormal and just plain weird. So far, seven feature films have been announced as part of the schedule for the 2023 film festival, which is slated for March 3 to 6 at the Micon Downtown Cinema.
“The weirdest festival of the season is less than two months away, and I’m delighted to announce some of the genre, underground and esoteric gems we’re offering audiences this year,” MidWest WeirdFest founder and programming director Dean Bertram said in a press release. “From brand new UFO and Bigfoot documentaries, through offbeat and ultra-violent comedies, to nightmare inducing films featuring an assortment of witches, cyber terrors and gore-splattered serial killers... and that’s just in the fest’s first programming wave.”
The first seven feature films are:
‘Accidental Truth: UFO Revelations’
Directed by Ron James, this film brings a mainstream audience up to speed on the modern UFO topic. Narrated by Matthew Modine, this eye-opening documentary presents revelations on UFOs / UAPs from government insiders that have never been previously shared with the public.
Colonel John Alexander, Lue Elizondo, Christopher Mellon, Nick Pope, Garry Nolan, Congressman Tim Burchett, Donald Schmitt, Michio Kaku and others help to “accidentally” weave a story that leaves no doubt that another intelligence is somehow operating around us, above us in our atmosphere, beneath our seas and in outer space.
‘Agatha’
This visually stunning and deeply unsettling film, directed by Roland Becerra and Kelly Bigelow Becerra, follows “The Professor,”a man suffering from a terminal disease, who by a twist of fate, witnesses an incredible event involving his mysterious neighbor Agatha.
Hoping to find a cure to his sickness, he agrees to follow her on a strange and risky journey into a forgotten but not entirely deserted urban wasteland, one which is haunted by conspiracies and witchcraft.
‘Bigfoot and Marty’
Director Ronnie Ferguson gives viewers a peek into the work and world of two-time U.P. Poet Laureate and “Bigfoot poet,” Marty Achatz.
The film features poetry readings by Achatz, as well as candid interviews with Bigfoot experts and other mystery hunters at the 2021 U.P. Bigfoot Conference. A Bigfoot documentary like no-other, one which transcends the cryptozoological and speaks to the very human.
‘Hundreds Of Beavers’
In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, directed by Mike Cheslik, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
‘Kick Me’
A nightmare comedy directed by Gary Huggins about a school counselor whose compassion, generosity and dedication destroy the lives of everyone around him. Its frenetic and relentless pace, which tracks the protagonist’s ordeal over one crazed night, evokes Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours” in the style of an early Robert Rodriguez action flick.
It’s easy to see why director Huggins was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
‘Murmur’
From acclaimed writer and director Mark Polish comes this edge-of-your seat techno-chiller.
When five Bay Area friends venture into the Redwood National Forest to play the augmented, mixed reality game Murmur, their own reality becomes dangerously distorted.
Polish’s visionary filmmaking, combined with a fantastic young cast, including Mark’s daughter Logan Polish, results in a mesmerizing cinematic experience that you don’t want to miss.
‘Pig Killer’
The latest nightmarish thrill ride from multi-time fest alum Chad Ferrin is based on the terrifying true story of Robert ‘Willy’ Pickton, the farmer-cum-ladykiller whose horrific crimes shocked the world.
The film graphically depicts Pickton’s felonious farmhouse of rape, torture, slaughter and dismemberment of almost fifty women. With his herculean hog, Balthazar, by his side, Willy, portrayed here by Jake Busey in a bravura performance, terrorized Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for almost two decades.
Discounted passes to Midwest WeirdFest are on sale now at filmfreeway.com/MidWestWeirdFest/tickets.
Individual tickets to each film will go on sale closer to the festival date on the event’s website or directly from the Micon Downtown Cinema.
For more information, visit midwestweirdfest.com.
