MUMBAI: Chinese film The Matrimony will have its North American premiere when it features as the closing night feature at the International Horror Film Festival (Spooky Movie Film Festival), Washington, D.C. on 25 October.

A thrilling film that has an amalgamation of romance and horror The Matrimony stars Hong Kong top singer Leon Lai, Taiwanese actress Rene Liu and mainland Chinese beauty Fan Bingbing.

The third feature film by new generation director Teng Huatao, The Matrimony unfolds an eerie love story set in 1930s Shanghai. Rich young man Junchu (Leon Lai) cannot pluck up his courage to propose to his broadcaster girlfriend Manli (Fan Bingbing), who dies in a traffic accident before becoming his wife. In deep regret, Junchu locks himself up in his creepy old mansion.

His mother marries him to a young woman Sansan (Rene Liu), hoping to alleviate his grief but with little success. To their surprise, Manli‘s ghost still lingers in the house and even possesses Sansan‘s body in order to have a taste of finally being Junchu‘s wife. This is now the third year that Spooky Movie has closed the festival with an "Extreme Asia" premiere.

In addition to The Matrimony, the horror fest will screen ten new features including Herschell Gordon Lewis‘ The Uh-Oh Show!, the terrifying Dark Souls, Oz-ploitation, ElL Monstro Del Mar!, The Echo Game, Stephen King‘s Everything‘s Eventual, the documentary on the career of Count Gore De Vol, Every Other Day Is Halloween, double features Colin and Broken Springs and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

In addition to the 11 features, 31 outstanding and diverse international shorts from nine countries will also screen. Horror, comedies, suspense, science-fiction, ghosts, experimental, vampires, animation, creepy kids, musicals, werewolves, maniacs and even a zombie western will accompany the feature films for each block, giving the lucky Spooky Movie patrons a fuller festival experience.

The Spooky Movie Film Festival runs from 21 to 25 October.