Reel Worth

From local shoots and films made in (and about) Texas to screenings at Alamo, Coyote Drive-In, Texas Theatre, and all our other favorite spots, if it’s got roots here, it’s … Worth your time. This new column will take a closer look at films made in, set in, or shaped by the people and places of North Texas and let you know where to see them in Fort Worth or in our cinematic sister cities. Welcome to Reel Worth.

In the fourth installment of the series, we explore the annual film festival that recently took place at one of North Texas’ best art house theaters in our adopted sister city of Oak Cliff. After you read Andie’s thoughts, stick around, and we’ll tell you where you can see these great films. — Elaine Wilder

Over the first weekend of August, the 15th Oak Cliff Film Festival (OCFF) ruled the intersection of Jefferson and Zang boulevards. “A love poem” to Oak Cliff, according to the playbill, OCFF held feature-length and short-film screenings, some with Q&As from the creators, as well as workshops and parties. The community outwardly received that poem with an open heart.

Throughout the four-day event, hundreds of film enthusiasts packed the multiple venues that hosted the festival’s programming. Although participating locations included Arts Mission Oak Cliff, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Kessler Theater, Oak Cliff Cultural Center, and more, Texas Theatre was undoubtedly the star of the show.

A historical community staple, with its white stucco walls, old-school red velvet fold-down seats, and comforter-sized hand-painted movie posters, Texas Theatre showed the first spotlight film of the festival, The Sun Never Sets, and hosted its opening-night gathering. On the final day of the festival, a line wrapped around the block to ensure an ideal pick in the open-seating format to see Pulp Fiction with a Q&A after the show with co-screenwriter Robert Avery.

Those who missed the festival may feel relieved to learn that Q&As with film creatives are not an OCFF exclusive. Texas Theatre often hosts special events of that nature. In 2021, I caught The Green Knight with after-the-film feedback from local producers James M. Johnston and Toby Halbrooks, but I was devastated to miss a sold-out screening of Scream with commentary from the original Ghostface duo, Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard, earlier this year. However, after the credits rolled for Pulp Fiction, Robert Avery explicitly said, “I love Texas Theatre and would absolutely come back.”

OCFF even enabled Texas Theatre to showcase some of the venue’s more distinct offerings: a showing of a silent film — in this case animated The Adventures of Prince Achmed — with a live score, this one by the Anvil Orchestra, but past Texas Theatre silent film screenings have included Nosferatu (1922) to the music of The Invincible Czars, who will return to Texas Theatre on Fri, Oct 30.

The crowd at the theater outwardly embraced every film’s whimsy with a generous disposition, laughing even at too-often repeated jokes, leaning into the dark humor of modern classics, and wiping moisture from their eyes at the moving documentaries.

“We were impressed with the variety of films [that the OCFF] showcased this year,” said North Texas horror director and screenwriter Bradley Steele Harding. “The entry that surprised us the most was David Kittredge’s engaging documentary Boorman and the Devil. My husband was moved to tears by its unexpected emotional turn at the end.”

And while I wasn’t able to catch all the screenings, a few that I saw (below) really stood out.

In the same 1977 summer that saw the release of major blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars, Exorcist II: The Heretic wowed moviegoers in the worst way possible, and Boorman and the Devil captures what went wrong along the way. In what I learned is not an urban legend but an actual true story, told through interviews with two different eyewitnesses, a full theater turned into a literal mob and chased three people “responsible” for the film out of the theater and down the street at an early screening of Exorcist II.

Though the screenplay — a mere “suggestion” to be “thrown away,” according to Exorcist II director and documentary namesake, John Boorman — followed The Exorcist’s pivotal character, Reagan, after her possession, Boorman insisted that his film’s failure was due in part to the marketers’ push to title “The Heretic” “Exorcist II.” From his perspective, because of its severe tonal shift from the source material, The Heretic should not have been labeled a sequel.

With further commentary from The Exorcist star Linda Blair, Academy Award–winning actress Louise Fletcher, and horror darling Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep), the documentary humorously explores this flop of a film, but as the screentime count rose, the audience’s aura shifted from holier-than-thou chuckles to quiet sniffles. What might have happened to cinema if Boorman had hid in shame after this failure instead of bringing crowd-renowned pieces like Excalibur and Hope and Glory into the world? What can other creators take away from this message?

An independent film with a small cast and a dazzling production design, Cramps! A Period Piece is a horror/comedy set in the ’60s and a metaphor for the director’s experience with endometriosis. In addition to writing and directing the movie, Brooke H. Cellars also plays Teddy, a hairstylist who subverts the Good Christian Southern Girl trope as a Good Satanic Southern Girl. “Curse your heart” and mentions of “Our Dark Lord” grace most conversations with main character Agnes (Lauren Kitchen), who cannot even mention her period without blushing through a euphemism. The central conflict in the film exposes Agnes’ strange feminine issues: During blackouts, a sparkly, red, gelatinous mass scurries out of her skirt and murders her enemies. Cramps! A Period Piece won the award for the festival’s Narrative Feature category.

This film is cleverly named by subverting what has become a popular phobia: Instead of centering scary clowns, Fears of a Clown focuses on a professional clown in his 60s as he navigates red-tape hurdles to open the world’s largest clown museum, in California, which greatly exacerbates his OCD symptoms. However, Steve, the Downtown Clown, does feature a room in his museum for scary-clown memorabilia — with a full wall dedicated to, of course, John Wayne Gacy. Steve is a lovable character who must maintain a series of rituals to ease his own compulsive fears: eating a certain combination of fruits every day, countering bad thoughts with good thoughts, touching salad dressing bottles again and again until he believes he can stop. Despite the amusing events in his early adulthood that led him into clowning, the events in his childhood that triggered and then worsened his OCD are gut-wrenching. In the Q&A after the show, director Bart Vandever revealed that he keeps in contact with Steve: After texting him before the screening, Vandever reported that Steve felt glad to “get the story out.”

Starring Dakota Fanning, Jake Johnson, and Cory Michael Smith, The Sun Never Sets details a messy — and arguably unnecessary — break between Wendy (Fanning) and Jack (Johnson) and the love triangle that forms when Wendy’s ex-boyfriend, Chuck (Smith), moves back into town. Before the film began, award-winning director Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, V/H/S, Happy Christmas) shared that the breakup is based on true events but set in Anchorage, Alaska, simply because he had always wanted to shoot a movie there. Despite the stress of watching three emotionally immature adults make a series of mistakes — I had to glimpse certain scenes through my fingers — the film is also surprisingly funny and tender. Of the tone, Swanberg explained, “I didn’t want to punish people with how dark or hard life can get, because life is awesome.”

The 15th Oak Cliff Film Festival saw a nearly 50% revenue increase from the record-breaking previous year, so the odds that you will get to enjoy the festival next year are looking as good as this season’s promotional graphics. — Andie Carver

What//When//Where

While Cramps! A Period Piece and Fears of a Clown will both be on the festival circuit for a while yet, follow the films at Facebook.com/TheCrampsFilm and Facebook.com/FilmFreeway for updates on future wider releases. Meanwhile, here are some of the OCFF films you can see at home or IRL.

The nearest showing of Boorman and the Devil is the national release at a few select cities on Fri, Sep 4. The closest for us is Houston, so consider a road trip for this one, or wait for it to go to streaming. For a great dinner-and-a-movie night, check out Lucille’s (“Just Add Water,” Mar 4, 2026) while you’re down there. Additional local commercial bookings have not yet been finalized. For updates, keep an eye on Facebook.com/YellowVeilPictures.

The 1994 cult classic Pulp Fiction can be streamed on any number of platforms, including Amazon Prime and Paramount+, but if you are looking for an in-person experience, IPIC Theater (321 Town Plc, Fairview, 972-886-3400) is hosting special screenings at 3pm Sun, Aug 16, 6:30pm Mon, Aug 17, and 6:30pm Wed, Aug 19.

The Sun Never Sets will see a wider release in a few key cities on Fri, Aug 28, then open in other major markets on Fri, Sep 4. Since hosting the festival premiere and frequently programming titles from Independent Film Company (IFC), Texas Theatre (231 Jefferson Blvd, Dallas, 214-948-1546) is likely to bring it back for a full theatrical run. As the parent company of the IFC, AMC regularly programs its films as well, so check soon to see if you can do dinner-and-a-movie at AMC Dine-In Clearfork (5015 Trailhead Bnd Wy, Fort Worth, 817-769-6762).