An exploration of terror and the fantastic from Northern Manhattan.  “Dimensions of Darkness” is a four-part series exploring the horror, science fiction and the fantastic, with a focus on filmmakers, writers and performers from or associated with the northern Manhattan and surrounding areas.  Curated and hosted by production and screening collective KHLOARIS and Inwood Art Works.

Dust Devil is equal parts sexy, gory and metaphysical, with themes exploring the region’s fraught racial politics of the time. A surreal, violent horror-western from South Africa about a murderous demonic shapeshifter, hunting lonely travelers in the desert. The film was purchased by Miramax for American distribution, but released in a cut that director Richard Stanley was unhappy with. We’ll be presenting the “final cut,” approved by the director. Titular Dust Devil star Robert John Burke was born in Washington Heights and appeared in a number of other horror and science-fiction films, including Nightmare Weekend, Robocop 3, Thinner and No Such Thing. Mr. Burke remains a busy working character actor on the small and large screens, and is a certified and active New York State firefighter, a certification he earned after his rescue work during and after 9/11.

From Edgar Allan Poe’s explorations of undeveloped northern Manhattan wilderness to H.P. Lovecraft’s documented walking tours of then-Inwood Forest (which Lovecraft described as “…a forest primeval, with winding paths, gigantic trees, and not a mortal in sight.”), the northern Manhattan area has been home to countless famous and unusual imaginations. The beginnings of the film industry were right across the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, where luminaries like famed magician Harry Houdini hung from the Palisades cliffs in early film serials; the origin of the term “cliffhanger”.

(Doors at 7:00pm) The Stuff and Dust Devil are both R-rated, and not suitable for children. Dracula and Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park are either unrated or PG-rated. After each screening, we’ll hang out to connect and talk about the films.