Exhumed Films is an American "organization devoted to showing
horror movies
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoc ...
for the benefit of their fans."
History
Based in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, Exhumed Films was founded in 1997 by Dan Fraga, Joseph A. Gervasi, Harry Guerro and Jesse Nelson to exhibit obscure horror and exploitation films. Their first screening took place on October 24, 1997, at the Harwan Theatre in South Jersey and consisted of a double feature of films by
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
director
Lucio fulci
Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he ga ...
: ''
Zombie
A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...
'' and ''
The Gates of Hell
''The Gates of Hell'' (french: La Porte de l'Enfer) is a monumental bronze sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the '' Inferno'', the first section of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. It stands at ...
''.
With the earnings from the first show, the group planned another event the following February and officially took on the name "Exhumed Films." Since its founding, Exhumed Films has hosted "over 70 film screenings in seven different theatres across New Jersey and Philadelphia" as well as working with Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Exhumed Films screens film prints instead of digital video for aesthetic reasons.
Screening locations
Exhumed Films originally presented screenings at the Harwan Theatre in Southern
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, with a one-off 3-D presentation of ''Friday the 13th 3-D'' at the now-defunct GCC North East Theater in Philadelphia. When the Harwan closed, exhumed moved on to present screenings at a nearby Hoyts Theatre until that location also closed. Following the closure of Hoyts, Exhumed screenings took place at Cinemark Theater in Somerdale, New Jersey. In 2002, Exhumed began screenings at the Broadway Theatre in
Pitman, New Jersey
Pitman is a borough in Gloucester County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 8,780, a drop of 231 from the 2010 census count of 9,011,International House Philadelphia
24-Hour Horror thon
Exhumed Film's annual 24-Hour Horror thon is a 24-hour program of horror
features
Feature may refer to:
Computing
* Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch
* Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob
* Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...
,
shorts
Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...
, and
trailers
Trailer may refer to: a
Transportation
* Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle
** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers
** Full-trailer
** Semi-trailer
**Horse trail ...
. The Horror-thon has previously been held the weekend before or after Halloween, although the 2010 program took place October 30–31. The 2008 Horror thon took place over the weekend switchover for Daylight Saving time, making that year's program 25 hours instead of 24.
The first Horror thon took place in 2007 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Exhumed Films. Each Horror thon has taken place at th International House Philadelphia
The lineup for each year's Horror thon is kept secret.” Attendees are given a booklet with clues as to what films will be shown. For the 2011 show, the film ''The Dead'' (2010) was shown in its Philadelphia premiere, marking the first time any of the films in the show lineup had been announced in advance.