The traditional Surprise Marathon reveals its films

‘Bad Times at the El Royale’, ‘Illang: The Wolf Brigade’ and ‘Victor Crowley’ are the components of a fantastic marathon

Late night Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday, Sitges will be experiencing one of the moments most anxiously awaited by its fans: the ‘Surprise Marathon’. Three very different projects where there’s no lack of action, mystery, comedy and gore. Bad Times at the El Royale, the new movie by Drew Goddard, director of the big hit The Cabin in the Woods; to be followed by Illang: The Wolf Brigade, the live action adaptation that Korean filmmaker Kim Ji-woon shot of the anime by Mamoru Oshii, Jin-Roh. The screenings will end with Victor Crowley, the fourth installment of the Hatchet slasher with which American director Adam Green returns with more gore than ever.

Anyone who thought that Sitges 2018 would be ending with the screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey was very wrong. Because the Festival still has more surprises in store. Like the ones concealed in Bad Times at the El Royale, Drew Goddard’s latest movie. If for his previous film, The Cabin in the Woods, the filmmaker teamed up with Joss Whedon to revolutionize teen horror movies, on this occasion he penned a screenplay himself that plays with the clichés and references associated with film noir. An all-star cast including Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, John Hamm or Chris Hemsworth.

Korean director Kim Ji-woon didn’t want to pass up the chance to return to the Festival that’s always welcomed him enthusiastically. This year, the latest work by the director of A Biteersweet Life will be part of the surprise marathon. Illang: The Wolf Brigade, a Netflix production, is a very eagerly awaited film, because it is the live action adaptation of Jin-Roh, a manga by Mamoru Oshii, which had its animated version in 1999 made by Hiroyuki Oikura. The story, set in a dystopic future, speculates on the possibility of the two Koreas being unified, but a powerful terrorist group will try to stop it.

If the science fiction short film Flotando, directed by the Italian-Argentinean filmmaker residing in Barcelona Frankie de Leonardis and starring actors Daniel Hovarth, Secun de la Rosa and actress Itziar Castro, will be opening the marathon, the film that will be closing the showing was shot by an old Festival acquaintance. We’re sure that the fans filling these late screenings will remember Victor Crowley, the psychopath featured in the three installments of Hatchet. Adam Green steps behind the cameras again in Victor Crowley, this fourth part of the saga where blood and gore will delight the audience.