Following a break of several years, the ninth edition of the horror and fantasy film festival Lună Plină/Full Moon is set to take place in Biertan, in Sibiu county, between August 9 and August 11.

The festival, which targets movie buffs and lovers of nature and heritage alike, has a program that includes film premieres, outdoor screenings of genre masterpieces, its well-known Ghost Hunt, but also outdoor walks, tastings of traditional products, and activities for children.

Biertan, one of the first Saxon settlements in Transylvania (1283), is known for its fortified church, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The festival will open with the premiere of Osgood Perkins's Longlegs – Soul Collector, one of the most awaited horror films of the year. The film stars Nicolas Cage as a serial killer obsessed with the FBI agent trying to catch him. Longlegs premieres in Romania at the festival and will open in cinemas throughout the country starting September 6.

The program also includes indie productions that were also selected at previous editions of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), the largest film event in the country. Among them are Ariane Louis-Seize's Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, a coming of age about an overly empathic vampire teenager; Casas Caye's The Coffee Table, a story about a couple who buy a new seemingly ordinary piece of furniture; and Michel Hazanavicius's zombie story Final Cut.

The public can also watch the Romanian film Ext. Car. Night, directed by Andrei Crețulescu, and starring Șerban Pavlu, Rodica Lazăr and Dorian Boguță.

Jim Sharman's The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of the classics in the program, a film that is screened at every Full Moon edition.

"We have a strong program, with eagerly anticipated premieres. It's easy to say that Full Moon is a horror festival that takes place in an idyllic village in Transylvania in the summer. In fact, it is much more than that. But it must be experienced, not explained," director Oana Giurgiu, the festival's manager, said.

Tickets and passes, including camping, are on sale at Eventbook.

Outdoor screenings take place at the Méliès Garden (the courtyard of the Evangelical Youth Center/Parish House) and at Cinema Vertigo (the courtyard of the Secondary School near the campsite).

(Photo: the organizers)

simona@romania-insider.com