This Saturday, Oceanside International Film Festival (OIFF) will host a special screening of Stephen King's "Thinner" at the Star Theatre with some of the cast and crew in attendance.
OIFF had planned this reunion for last summer as its annual special event to mark the halfway point to the film festival. But the writers' and directors' strikes forced the festival to cancel the event. Rescheduling now means extra work for the festival just before its main event next month but the organizers are grateful it is finally coming together.
Lou Niles, OIFF executive director, is excited to now be bringing the film's director Tom Holland, actors Robert John Burke and Joe Mantegna, and make-up artist Vincent J. Guastini to downtown Oceanside to celebrate the film.
King's 1984 novel centered on a greedy and obese lawyer named Billy (played by Robert John Burke in the film) who gets distracted while driving, and accidentally hits and kills a woman on the street. On the steps of the courthouse, the woman's father places a curse on Billy by touching his face and uttering "thinner." Then Billy starts to lose weight without dieting. At first, he welcomes the weight loss but then he starts to worry that he may wither away to nothing.
The film is directed by Holland, best known for such cult horror classics as "Child's Play" and "Fright Night."
In regards to "Thinner," Niles noted, "It's a little bit of camp. Tom will talk about this. They could have gone this way with how the film went, but they did it a little campy, and it's a fun film. If you like Stephen King and his horror you will like it, if you like Tom Holland horror with a Chucky vibe, then you’ll like it."
"Thinner" was chosen because Niles’ wife and OIFF creative director/co-director of programming, Carly Starr Brullo Niles, worked on the film.
"She was the assistant prop master and on set prop master," Niles explained. "So she worked with all the crazy stuff. You'll see the blood, the goo, the pies."
Oh yes, the pies! If you are not familiar with the film then you will find out about them on Saturday. And if you know the film then you can ask her about all that after the screening.
The event starts at 4:00 p.m. with a red carpet reception, then the movie followed by a Q&A and a signing of the new 4K Blu-ray release of the film.
"Plus, we'll have a specially designed limited edition poster by the artist Scrojo," Niles added. "And all the funds from buying tickets or buying the posters, it's all for the nonprofit film festival and goes right back into running the festival and doing events like this."
Join OIFF this Saturday for Stephen King’s "Thinner," more terror, less filling, and fully satisfying.
