Exhumed Films

Based in Philadelphia, Exhumed Films was founded in 1997 by Dan Fraga, Joseph A. Gervasi, Harry Guerro and Jesse Nelson. Saddened by the lack of local venues for obscure horror and exploitation films, they decided to organize a venue themselves. Their first screening took place on October 24, 1997 at the Harwan Theatre in Southern New Jersey and consisted of a double feature of films by Italian director Lucio Fulci: Zombie and The Gates of Hell.

With the earnings from the first show, the group planned another event the following February and officially took on the name "Exhumed Films." Since its founding, Exhumed Films has hosted "over 70 film screenings in seven different theatres across New Jersey and Philadelphia"[1] as well as working with Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Exhumed Films is firmly committed to screening film prints in their programming:

"...people are considered film programmers because they hit a play button. There’s no element of trying to track [the film print] down. The look, the texture, of film is really important. What makes it unique is that it’s very fragile. Every time you’re playing it, it’s getting a little worse. Oftentimes, the films that we’re showing is different than what’s on video--there’s a little bit missing here, there’s a little bit added there--so we felt like film from the beginning and we want to stick with film until the end."[2]

Exhumed Films originally presented screenings at the Harwan Theatre in Southern New Jersey, with a one-off 3-D presentation of Friday the 13th 3-D at the now-defunct GCC North East Theater in Philadelphia. When the Harwan closed, Exhumed moved on to present screenings at a nearby Hoyts Theatre until that location also closed. Following the closure of Hoyts, Exhumed screenings took place at Cinemark Theater in Somerdale, New Jersey. In 2002, Exhumed began screenings at the Broadway Theatre in Pitman, New Jersey. Exhumed screenings took place at the Broadway from 2002 until 2005. Since 2005, Exhumed Films's primary venue has been the International House Philadelphia, although they sometimes make use of other venues as well.[3]

Exhumed Films is perhaps most widely known for its annual 24-Hour Horrorthon. This event is a 24-hour program of horror features, shorts, and trailers. The Horror-thon has previously been held the weekend before or after Halloween, although the 2010 program took place October 30–31. The 2008 Horrorthon took place over the weekend switchover for Daylight Saving time, making that year's program 25 hours instead of 24.[4]

The first Horrorthon took place in 2007 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Exhumed Films.[5] Each Horrorthon has taken place at the International House Philadelphia.

The lineup for each year's Horrorthon is a closely guarded secret. According to Gervasi: “I think if the people knew what they were seeing they would pick and choose and chart when they were going to be there,” explained Gervasi. “It creates a sense of excitement where you have no idea what you’re going to see.”[6]

Attendees are given a booklet with clues as to what films will be shown, but otherwise only the members of Exhumed Films know the lineup in advance. For the 2011 show, the film The Dead (2010) was shown in its Philadelphia premiere, marking the first time any of the films in the show lineup had been announced in advance.[7]

• Exhumed Films - Exhumed Films Official site
• Diabolik DVD - Diabolik DVD
• Exhumed Films on Facebook
• Unofficial Horrorthon Fan site