Nigeria's film industry, Nollywood, is the third largest in the world— an unstoppable economic and cultural force that has taken the continent by storm and is now bursting beyond the borders of Africa. Nollywood cinema was born of the street markets of Lagos, Nigeria's largest metropolis. Unfazed by low production values and shoe-string budgets, enterprising filmmakers created a brash, inventive and wildly popular form of cinema. In these films, voodoo and magic infuse urban stories, reflecting the kinetic collision of traditional mysticism and modern culture. This highly entertaining documentary digs deep into the Nigerian film industry's phenomenal success. Propelled by a booming '70s soundtrack of African underground music, Nollywood Babylon drops viewers into the chaos of the Idumota market. Here, among the bustling stalls, films are sold and unlikely stars are born.

Irresistible.” Film Threat

Playing: Daily 7pm & 9pm
Additional Shows Sat and Sun 3pm & 5pm

"Better to rest in peace in the warm body of a friend than in the cold ground"

This is it! The mother of all cannibal movies! Years before Blair Witch, Cloverfield and all that garbage, Italian director Ruggero Deodato pioneered the "movie you're watching is found footage" gimmick in this epic tale of jungle survival. Four young documentary filmmakers travel deep into the South American rain forest to film the reclusive Yanamamo and Yacuma tribes. Soon after, they go missing. Dr. Henry Moore is sent to find them by their TV station employers, but returns with only their grisly footage. This ground-breaking splatter-fest features special effects that shocked audiences so much that the filmmakers were put on trial for murder (no joke)! Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most notorious films of all time. A smart and savage indictment of the modern media.

WARNING!: This film contains scenes of extremely graphic violence and real animal death.

No one under 17 admitted.

Late Nights: Fri and Sat 11pm

There was no warning before it happened... a catastrophe of unparalleled scale overwhelmed the entire globe. This event, known as "The Second Impact", caused half the population of the Earth to perish. All that remains of Japan is Tokyo-3, a city that is now under attack by giant alien creatures (called Angels) determined to destroy mankind. Humanity's only hope for survival is NERV, a special government agency that has secretly developed a gigantic humanoid weapons system to combat the Angels. With the fate of the world resting on the shoulders of a fourteen year old boy; will he be able to fight? What is the truth behind "The Human Instrumentality Project", an operation somehow related to the "Second impact"? And who is the true enemy? The Angels? NERV? The mysterious SEELE, or the demons held within the hearts of the people involved? All these questions and more will be answered in this thrilling, big-screen version of the wildly popular Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series form the 90s. Dubbed in English

Playing: Daily 7pm & 9pm
Additional Shows Sat and Sun 3pm & 5pm

Larger than life and ten times as handsome! The Grand Illusion pays tribute to two of Hollywood's greatest heroes, Burt Lancaster and Burt Reynolds, with this special double feature. We start with Burt R's most accessible and thrilling film Deliverance. Based on the novel by James Dickey, four city-slicker friends (Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Jon Voight and Ronny Cox) set out on a weekend adventure of white-water rafting down the Cahulawassee River in the Georgia back country. What starts out as fun getaway quickly turns into a hellish nightmare in which nature and mankind conspire to send them through a crucible of danger and degradation.

“Each of the four lead performances is exceptional, none more so than Burt Reynolds' beefy, supercilious Lewis.” TIME Magazine

Playing: Daily 7pm
Additional Shows Sat and Sun 3pm

Then we change gears a bit as we present one of Burt L's finest performances. Ned Merrill (Lancaster) is a well to do New England socialite. After being away for most of the summer he returns home to a pool party at a friend's house. During the course of conversation someone notices that swimming pools dot the landscape all the way down into the valley where Ned lives. Driven by tremendous inner forces that only he can understand, Ned decides to "swim" all the way home using the network of pools. As his journey unfolds, each encounter he has begins to strip away layers of his psyche until he's laid bare in the face of the powerful revelation that awaits him at the end. Based on the short story by John Cheever, with an uncredited directorial assist by Sydney Pollack.

Playing: Daily 9pm
Additional Shows Sat and Sun 5pm

"She's sweet, sixteen, and she simply loves her daddy..... she'll slaughter you if you love him too."

Julie is a pretty, young girl. She loves her daddy oh so much... a little too much! Julie's infatuation with her father (Anthony Franciosa) is very unhealthy. Especially to her mother and anyone else who tries to get too close to papa. When an intruder breaks into their house one night, Julie seizes upon her chance to be the only woman in his life. Through her inaction, Julie's mother is killed by the attacker. Life moves on and so does Julie's father when he takes a new wife (Sybil Danning flashing her boobs again!). This time, Julie not only has to figure out how to dispose of her new mommy, but an annoying little step-brother too. This unsettling and rarely seen psycho-thriller pulls no punches all the way up to the shocking end!

Co-presented by Code Red DVD.

Late Nights: Fri and Sat 11pm

The Grand Illusion loves sci-fi! So we salute the golden age of the genre (1950s-1970s) with a selection of classics showcasing the best from each decade. First up, from the fabulous 50's is the original War of the Worlds! On a quiet night a strange fireball streaks across the sky over a small southern California town. At first the townsfolk are excited about the unusual event, but their mood soon turns to sheer terror as they realize the true nature of the cosmic oddity. It's the first of hundreds of Martian spaceships on a mission to invade the Earth! One by one all the major cities of the world are obliterated by the unstoppable Martian force. Invulnerable to all forms of Earth weaponry, including atomic bombs, the swan-like alien war machines easily trample the human defenses. All is lost! With no hope of defeating the invaders, mother nature offers up a chance for survival. With two Oscar wins for George Pal's special effects work and two nominations for editing and sound recording War of the Worlds is one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time!

Playing: Daily 7pm & 9pm
Additional Shows Sat and Sun 3pm & 5pm

The 60s brought about a shift from the paranoia based films of the 50s to a more cerebral and sometimes psychedelic brand of sci-fi. In 1967 England's Hammer Studio, known largely for it's gothic horror films, struck sci-fi gold with the terrifying Five Million Years to Earth. While digging a new subway line in London, a group of workers uncovers the skeletal remains of large-headed, humanoid creatures. After further excavation they discover what they think is an unexploded German bomb from WWII. Professor Bernard Quartermass is called in to investigate the scene. When the interior of the "missile" is exposed, a dead locust-like creature that resembles the devil is found. It is determined by Quartermass that these "locusts" are evil Martians who altered the brains of our simian ancestors to eventually lay claim to the Earth. When Quartermass's suspicion that the missile can reactivate the dormant evil in humans is confirmed, all hell breaks loose!

Playing: Daily 7pm & 9pm
Additional Shows Sat and Sun 3pm & 5pm

Two high school kids explore an abandoned sanitarium while ditching classes one day. Deep in the basement, in a secret chamber, they find what seems to be a dead girl strapped to a gurney. Seems to be because she isn't quite dead... she's not quite alive either. Many horror films feature teenage characters but these people are generally nothing more than corpses in waiting. This is a shame as teenagers face unique psychological and physiological disrputions that are ripe for tales of horror. Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel apparently understand this; their film DEADGIRL mines the recesses of the hormone-wracked adolescent mind to create one of the most original American horror films in recent memory.

Late Nights: Fri and Sat at Midnight!
* SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT. One weekend ONLY!

Finally we reach the 70s, when filmmakers really pushed the boundaries of sci-fi. The genre became more grown-up. Taking us to new and strange places with everything from epic "space operas", throwbacks to the 50s, to social commentaries and straight-up weirdness. Famed title sequence designer Saul Bass took a minimalist, and nihilistic, approach with his stunningly visual Phase IV. In the not too distant future mankind has ruined the Earth with pollution. A small group of scientists have set up camp in a metal tee-pee of sorts to observe and study an ant colony in the desert. Slowly they realize that the ants seem to be developing a collective consciousness. After witnessing the gruesome death of one of their colleagues at the mandibles of the advancing ants, the remaining scientists must use figure out how to stop millions of tiny enemies before it's too late. Bass' incredible use of macro-camera techniques on the ants brings the terror they represent to startling life!

Playing: Daily 7pm & 9pm
Additional Shows Sat and Sun 3pm & 5pm

Before you get your fill of great and classic sci-fi offerings, take a bite of this, one of the worst pieces of baklava ever made! The Grand Illusion remembers the time when the mythic struggle of a good rebellion fighting against an evil empire filled our young little minds with visions of epic space battles and action figures. While we eagerly awaited to see how it would all play out, young kids on the other side of the world were marveling at an alternate universe. One where the hero was a fat, hairy Turkish guy who works out with boulders to hone his skills, instead of a scrawny kid with a feathered blond quaff who uses a wrinkly, green midget to hone his. A galaxy far, far away where instead of loveable Abbott & Costello-esque robots, and a sinister, black-caped menace you get shag-rug monsters, toilet paper mummies and an honest to goodness goateed, red devil! It's all so strange and different, yet so familiar. Oh yeah... that's because this film straight-up steals scenes and music from those big Hollywood blockbusters that you grew up with. Truly amazing! In Turkish w/English Subtitles.

Late Nights: Fri and Sat 11pm