Fade to Black

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.

Host Scott Forrest presents a curated compilation of eight independent short films in this rapid-fire science-fiction feature. Genres collide, narratives twist, aesthetics clash, and even humor, both campy and dystopian, showcase the vast creative possibilities of each story's individual world, offering the viewer a brief glimpse into the lives of every character's attempt to survive the otherworldly chaos around them. Released in 2001, the selected shorts span original creation dates of 1997 to 2001; most of the featured filmmakers also appear as themselves in short video interviews to talk about their inspirations, creative process and motivations while working on their individual shorts.

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

A starry-eyed actress with a troubled past faces her harshest critic during an interview gone wrong.

Ted, an unlikable office manager, is one day kidnapped by Jeremy, a bereaved recluse, and forced to play-act his dead brother David. Slowly gaining Jeremy's confidence, Ted discovers his captor's true intentions and makes a plan to escape.

Abbys world crumbles around her she becomes unhinged eventually convinces her coworkers to help her kill her former crooked boss

To escape her overprotective drug-dealing stepfather, an introvert flees to NYC with her pet flying squirrel. After successfully reinventing herself through the help of some "found family," she realizes she must return home and confront her dark past, to truly be free.

Peter Weller stars as Baton Morris, a drifter suspected of murder, in this crime drama. A widow (Kathy Baker) living in West Virginia takes in the man (Weller) whom she believes murdered her husband. As she spends more time with him, she begins to fall for him, but continues to question whether or not she can trust him. Directed by David Saperstein and based on a novel by Robert Houston, A Killing Affair features twists and turns up until the end.

Joe Gavilan and his new partner K. C. Calden, are detectives on the beat in Tinseltown. Neither one of them really wants to be a cop, Gavilan moonlights as a real estate broker, and Calden is an aspiring actor moonlighting as a yoga instructor. When the two are assigned a big case they must work out whether they want to solve the case or follow their hearts.

William Brown, a neurotic, self-absorbed musician determined to finish his prog-rock magnum opus, faces a creative roadblock in the form of a noisy and grotesque neighbor named Vlad. Finally working up the nerve to demand that Vlad keep it down, William inadvertently decapitates him. But, while attempting to cover up one murder, William’s accidental reign of terror causes victims to pile up and become undead corpses who torment and create more bloody detours on his road to prog-rock Valhalla.

An A.I. therapy tool helps a lonely and depressed man confront the darkest parts of himself.

Four childhood friends, now in their 30s, take a weekend trip to a rural farmhouse in Pennsylvania. Expecting a relaxing weekend of excess, the group soon comes to find out the house has something else planned. It was fun... until it wasn't.

A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.

After a catastrophic global war, a young filmmaker awakens in the carnage and seeks refuge in the only other survivor: an eccentric, ideologically opposed figure of the United States military. Together, they brave the toxic landscape in search of safety... and answers.

An homage to a lost horror film starring Lon Chaney, A Blind Bargain is inspired by a handful of remaining old photographs and newspaper reviews. This version is set in 1970 but commits to the same sense of dread and catastrophe as the original story about a young man who allows a psychotic doctor to experiment on his mother.

As the 4th of July comes fast approaching, a group of teens find themselves to be the targets of a patriotic killer.

Plot TBA. The fourth installment in the Terrifier franchise.

A former child star torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.

A blood-thirsty Santa wreaks havoc on the set of an eccentric adult film director's latest production.

Chili Palmer is a Miami mobster who gets sent by his boss, the psychopathic "Bones" Barboni, to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer who specializes in cheesy horror films. When Chili meets Harry's leading lady, the romantic sparks fly. After pitching his own life story as a movie idea, Chili learns that being a mobster and being a Hollywood producer really aren't all that different.