A truly bizarre yet imaginative product of the 1960s, THE FOOL KILLER (aka VIOLENT JOURNEY) is a darkly poetic Western set in the pastoral post-Civil War South. Directed by Mexican filmmaker Servando González, the film stars Anthony Perkins in a Norman Bates-like role as philosophizing wanderer-turned-ax murderer Milo, who takes under his wing a 12-year-old runaway named George (Edward Albert). George, not unlike Huck Finn, has faced so many dangerous characters in his life - including his abusive foster parents - that he gladly accepts the unhinged yet oddly affectionate Milo as his sole friend. Together they roam the country without a care – except for George’s fear of the “Fool Killer,” an 8-foot-tall boogeyman rumored to be lurking the roads.

A mining mishap in Mexico unlocks an ancient curse of a demon that only possesses people’s left hand. Once it takes hold of the appendage, it causes pain, suffering and gory death. The only way the possessed can free themselves is by cutting off their hand. In the tradition of Oliver Stone’s THE HAND and EVIL DEAD II comes the ultimate killer-hand film.

Legendary production designer Polly Platt (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT) wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of William Inge’s novel about a high school Latin teacher (Anne Heywood), whose life is upended by an abusive affair with a black student (John Lafayette). A searing tale examining race and sex in 1950s America, the film costars Donald Pleasance, Robert Vaughn, and Ronee Blakeley.