Film events celebrate horror, sci-fi

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If it’s October, it must be horror movie season.

But the range of weird, bizarre and otherwise offbeat movies playing the second annual PollyGrind film festival, which begins a 10-day run Friday at the Arts District’s theatre7 , extends far beyond horror, according to Chad Clinton Freeman, PollyGrind’s founder and director.

When audiences hear the words “cult” or “grindhouse” or “exploitation” — frequent descriptions for the independent films PollyGrind spotlights — “people think horror, but there’s actually more to it,” Freeman explains, citing dramas, thrillers and other genres represented during the festival.

“A couple of shorts are Westerns,” he notes, while others qualify as “campy grindhouse tribute kind of stuff.”

Some 35 features — including “Godfather of Gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis’ latest, “The Uh-oh Show” — will play during PollyGrind, alongside more than four dozen shorts and music videos. Four of those features and 26 music videos and other shorts represent the work of local filmmakers, Freeman says.

“I really wanted to get the film community here in town involved,” he says, especially so visiting filmmakers and audiences “can see what Vegas has to offer.”

Among the fest’s special guests: Henderson resident Beverly Lynne , who stars in the closing-night attraction, “The Atonement of Janis Drake” (directed by Lynne’s husband, Glen Meadows) and “The Las Vegas Abductions,” which screens next Wednesday.

Included in the PollyGrind lineup: seven world premieres, two U.S. premieres and 25 Las Vegas premieres.

“It’s very much a tribute to independent filmmaking in general,” Freeman says. “They’re the ones really pushing the boundaries in the indie world.”

Complete information on PollyGrind, including schedule and ticket details, is available online at http://grindhousefest 2011.pollystaffle.com.

Meanwhile, at the Sci-Fi Center in Commercial Center, the Black October Art & Film Invasion launches its three-day run Friday.

Just don’t call it a festival, cautions Sci-Fi Center owner William Powell.

“A festival is when you have a bunch of movies, one after the other,” he says. “Ours is more of an event,” Powell adds, with makeup and special-effects workshops and a body-painting exhibit among the scheduled activities, along with the world premiere of “Area 51 Confidential.”

The Sci-Fi Center wanted to present the event later in October, Powell says, but “a lot of guys were doing haunted houses” or other events closer to Halloween “so we couldn’t make that one happen,” setting the stage for the early-October event.

Full details on Black October are available online at http://thescificenter.com.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.