Fear & Faith Horror Film Fest at the Orinda Theater
Schedule
Fri, 20 Feb, 2026 at 05:00 pm to Sat, 21 Feb, 2026 at 08:00 pm
UTC-08:00Location
Orinda Theatre | Orinda, CA
Two Nights of Ancient Horror!Co-presented by Amoeba Music!
Friday Feb 20th
5:00 pm Def by Temptation
A deadly succubus is preying on libidinous black men in New York City, and all that stands in her way is a minister-in-training, an aspiring actor, and a cop who specializes in cases involving the supernatural. Blood, gore, and non-PC humor ensue.
The seasoned cast includes Samuel Jackson, Bill Nunn (Radio Raheem in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing), and Minnie Gentry (Black Caesar).
“Def By Temptation is smart, sexy, chaotic, and weirdly progressive..” (Sharai Bohannon, Dread Central)
Directed by James Bond III
1990, 90 min
7:00 pm Return of the Great God Pan
A baby of mysterious origin disrupts the lives of a troubled suburban couple and brings a renegade priest and a Pagan cult into a conflict that threatens to end the Christian era.
Who will emerge victorious?
Inspired by Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan, with music by Los Saicos, the Phantom Surfers, and Bobby Beausoleil (Lucifer Rising). An official selection of Mexico City's Sinister Film Fest.
Directed by Brett Stillo
2024, 90 min
9:00 pm Jigoku (Sinners of Hell)
A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell. Not much fun for them, but a party for every gore-hound!
Rarely screened, Jigoku's fascinating and extremely graphic (predating H.G. Lewis’s Blood Feast by several years) depiction of Buddhist Hell, along with its noir-esque tone and surreal elements, has deservedly made this a cult classic. Absolutely mandatory!
“Jigoku is more than merely a boundary-pummeling classic of the horror genre—it’s as lurid a study of sin without salvation as the silver screen has ever seen.” (Chuck Stephens, The Criterion Collection)
Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
1960, 101 min
Saturday Feb 21st
12pm Image of the Beast
Image of the Beast’s depiction of the terrors of an Antichrist-run One World Government where those who refuse to receive the Mark of the Beast are guillotined by UNITE (United Nations Imperium for Total Emergency) stormtroopers gave nightmares to more than a few Baptist children who saw it in Sunday School.
Mark IV Productions’ Thief in the Night films of the 1970s and 1980s were hugely successful evangelical thriller and horror films despite being fairly obscure outside of their target audience.
Image of the Beast is the third and wildest film in the series, with surprisingly proto-cyberpunk aspects and the fulfillment of (some) Apocalyptic prophecies inventively depicted on a budget somewhat lower than DeMille employed for the Plagues of Egypt in The Ten Commandments.
Directed by Donald W. Thompson
1981, 93 min
2pm Cavalcade of Shorts
We begin with some highlights of “Christsploitation” masters Ron and June Ormond’s collaborations with Pastor Estus E. Pirkle, providing a compelling contrast with the comparatively refined approach of Image of the Beast. “Blood will flow like water!”
Directed by Ron Ormond
1971, 1974, 12 min
Mud and Fire: Turkish Theological Horror
We then hop across the globe for scenes of exorcism and a mystic mano a mano in the fiery underworld from two Turkish horror movies that seek to elucidate the relation between humans, demons, and Allah.
Directed by Metin Erksan and Hasan Karacadağ
1974, 2008, 30 min
Reliquary: Confession
Peer into the abyss where dread ancient gods dwell and demand that faith in them be demonstrated,
Directed by Lindsay Morrison
2024, 11 min
The Data is Wrong
Imagine a cross between two classic works of the Twentieth Century: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s science fiction novel Hard to Be A God and the Alice Cooper song “Second Coming.”
Directed by Austin Charlesworth
2025 7min
A Portrait of God is Dylan Clark’s disturbing response to the age-old question, “What does God look like?” As YHWH (or “I Am”) says in the Book of Exodus, “No man shall see me and live.”
2022, 7 min
4 pm Eyes of Fire
An adulterous preacher and his followers flee to “the promised land” of the American colonial frontier only to enter a valley of lust, madness, pagan vengeance and hallucinatory terror.
“As if The Scarlet Letter had zoomed into the future and collided with the movie version of The Exorcist.” (Caryn James, New York Times).
Directed by Avery Crounse
1983, 86 min
6 pm Eye of the Devil
The persistence of pagan practices among the French peasantry in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region presents a sticky wicket for David Niven. When times are tough...human sacrifice!
Starting David Niven, Sharon Tate, Deborah Kerr, and Donald Pleasance
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
1966, 96 min
8 pm God Told Me To
A jaw-dropping horror/science fiction/police procedural starring Tony Lo Bianco (The Honeymoon Killers, The French Connection) with golden age of Hollywood star Sylvia Sidney (whose film career spanned 1926 to 1998!) and a brief appearance by Andy Kaufman.
We don't want to even hint at the the twists and turns of God Told Me To for the sake of those unfamiliar with it (of whom there seem to be more than a few: it made Rolling Stone's list of the “20 Scariest Films You've Never Seen”).
“God Told Me To is a film of contrasts, most notably between queer and straight, male and female, heaven and hell, hope and hopelessness, repression and progression, and law and anarchy.” (Chuck Bowen, Slant)
Directed by Larry Cohen
1976, 91 min
10 pm Alucarda
An incredible visionary masterpiece of Satanism and demonic possession from one of Mexico’s all-time great cult directors.
“The strongest, most imaginative, and visually stunning witch movie since Ken Russell's The Devils...More blood, loud screaming, and nudity than any other horror film I can think of.” (Michael Weldon, Psychotronic)
Directed by Juan López Moctezuma
1977, 78 min
Where is it happening?
Orinda Theatre, Orinda Theatre, 2 Orinda Theatre Sq, Orinda, CA 94563, United States
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