KCSB-FM Sponsors the SBIFF Riviera’s “After Hours” Weekend Cult & Genre-Film Series!

After Hours Series at the SBIFF Riviera (April 2024)

Starting tonight (Friday, April 5th), the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Riviera Theatre will host “After Hours” screenings of cult-classics and first-run genre films, every Friday and Saturday night at 9pm. The leadership of 91.9 KCSB-FM in Santa Barbara is excited for our independent station to be serving as a media partner for this series.

In 2016, the nonprofit SBIFF acquired the beautiful, historic, Eichler-designed Riviera Theatre (2044 Alameda Padre Serra, above the Mission at an earlier UCSB campus), and renovated it into a state-of-the-art, year-round home, with films screening daily. Its sound, laser projection, and ventilation systems are unparalleled in our area.

Late Night with the Devil (2023) by Colin & Cameron Cairnes

A revival of similar, pre-pandemic programming there, SBIFF’s “After Hours” kicks off later this evening (Friday, April 5th, and then again on Saturday, April 6th) with the new release, Late Night with the Devil, written and directed by the Australian brother-team of Colin and Cameron Cairnes.

This well-reviewed, found-footage-horror tale, is set on October 31st, 1977. Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) hosts a syndicated late night talk show, Night Owls, a longtime, trusted companion to insomniacs around the U.S. — but a year after the tragic death of Jack’s wife, ratings have plummeted. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other, but unwittingly he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.

Dawn of the Dead 45th Anniversary Poster

Next up, April 12th and 13th feature a 4K restoration of Dawn of the Dead (1978), George Romero’s original social-allegory / horror masterpiece. A standalone sequel to Night of the Living Dead, Romero’s groundbreaking 1968 classic, Dawn stars David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross as four survivors of a widespread zombie apocalypse, who take refuge in a suburban, late-1970s shopping mall.

Largely shot on location around the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this 45th North American anniversary release of Dawn of the Dead is a rare opportunity to see this hard-to-find masterpiece, again on the big screen. (Dawn has been nearly impossible to find, officially, on any streaming platforms.) Its acclaimed progressive-rock original score is courtesy of the Italian group, Goblin, longtime collaborators of Dario Argento, who coproduced the film.

James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989)

Two more 4K rereleases follow. Writer-director James Cameron’s early, deep-sea science-fiction project The Abyss (1989), with Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn, screens on April 19th and 20th. In Cameron’s follow-up to The Terminator and Aliens, a civilian diving team is enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and faces danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.

John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981) with Kurt Russell

To close out the month, on April 26th and 27th, Kurt Russell stars in director John Carpenter’s dystopian science-fiction thriller, Escape from New York (1981), set in 1997 in a war-torn, futuristic world faced with the threat of nuclear conflict between the three major Superpowers. When Airforce One is hijacked by terrorists, the U.S. president (Donald Pleasance) crashes an escape pod onto the island of Manhattan, which is now a giant maximum-security prison. Officials recruit war hero and convicted felon Snake Plissken (Russell) to glide into the dangerous city to rescue the president.

With a cast that also features Lee Van Cleef, Harry Dean Stanton, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, and Adrienne Barbeau, Escape from New York‘s screenplay is co-written by Nick Castle and Carpenter, who likewise composed the film’s standout synthwave music.

Again, all After Hours screenings at the Riviera Theatre — 2044 Alameda Padre Serra — are on Friday and Saturday nights each week at 9pm. Tickets and more info can be found at SBIFFriviera.com. After Hours screenings also include a special discount rate for students: $7 with a current ID!

After Hours at the SBIFF Riviera Theatre (April Schedule)

Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes’s LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL
April 5th and 6th – 9:00pm

George A. Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD
45th Anniversary 4K Restoration
April 12th and 13th – 9:00pm

James Cameron’s THE ABYSS
New 4K Restoration
April 19th and 20th – 9:00pm

John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
4K Restoration
April 26th and 27th – 9:00pm