On Halloween Eve—Friday, October 30—HIFF46 is kicking off Halloween weekend with something louder, stranger, and bloodier.
THE BLOB: A NIGHT OF GORE & SCORE pairs Chuck Russell’s gloriously gooey 1988 horror classic with an original live score performed by Hawai‘i musician, composer, and actor Holden Mandrial-Santos, who will remix and synchronize music live to the film for a one-night-only audiovisual experience.
For fans of THE THING and TREMORS, THE BLOB is an underrated gem of ’80s horror that deserves to be rediscovered on the big screen. Directed by Russell and co-written with Frank Darabont, the film takes the premise of the 1958 sci-fi classic and drenches it in the glorious excess of the era. Its inventive creature design, gruesome transformations, and spectacular practical effects remain astonishing nearly four decades later. No weightless CGI here: this Blob is tactile, disgusting, and very, very hungry.
For HIFF audiences, Holden is already family. Born and raised in Kahalu‘u, Mandrial-Santos has become a fixture in Hawai‘i’s interconnected indie film, music, and arts scenes. He composed original music for Alika Tengan’s EVERY DAY IN KAIMUKĪ, which premiered at Sundance in 2022, and later stepped in front of the camera with a powerful lead performance in Tengan’s MOLOKA‘I BOUND, a major HIFF presentation in 2024.
His work moves freely between music, film, performance, and visual art, making GORE & SCORE a particularly HIFF kind of experiment: a cult movie reimagined through the perspective of a Hawai‘i artist, live and in the moment.
Check out Holden’s soundscapes on Spotify!
It also celebrates the creative cross-pollination that defines Hawai‘i’s independent arts community, where musicians become actors, actors make music, and artists continually find new ways to collaborate. This time, it just happens to involve a flesh-eating organism from outer space.
Start your Halloween weekend one night early. On Friday, October 30—Halloween Eve—come experience THE BLOB the way it should be seen: on the big screen, with an audience, incredible practical effects, and a brand-new score performed live.
THE BLOB is part of the AFTER DARK section presented by Cweature Features.
THE BLOB: A NIGHT OF GORE & SCORE
Halloween Eve — Friday, October 30 at 8:45 PM
Consolidated Theatres Kahala
Come for the gore. Stay for the score!!!
