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Chris LaMartina’s Spirit Tasting Hits the Road with Deadly Pours and New Year’s Fears

Ed Sum

Chris LaMartina‘s Spirit Tasting is off on a roadshow, and if you’re lucky to watch this movie on the big screen, I’m sure you’ll be celebrating festive cheers way before others. In this story, three former punks (Sean Doherty, Melissa LaMartina, and Trevor Wilhelms) toast their late bandmate at a distillery on New Year’s Eve. When a strange sommelier (Matt Lake) invites them to a top-shelf tasting, they discover there’s only one catch: Every bottle requires a “wish.” But as each of their desires twist into doom, these old friends discover that every pour at the Red Bat Distillery comes at a deadly price.

From the Press Release:

Director Chris LaMartina appeared last Friday, October 23rd, on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs to screen his modern seasonal classic WNUF Halloween Special, and first noted there that his new film would be out before the end of the year. SPIRIT TASTING was formally announced this morning at Variety. This film was shot in just four days for $40K to celebrate his 40th birthday and he said this sobering horror/comedy is about life at its midpoint, in order to wrestle with the “what ifs” of the past and the aspirations of the future…

It’s the stuff every middle-aged adult has pondered at some point.

And why four days, you ask? Inspired by romantic tales of B-movie maverick Roger Corman shooting features like The Little Shop of Horrors and The Terror (our movie review link here) in less than a week, LaMartina had always wanted to attempt the same feat. With the big 4-0 approaching, and the days of throwing blood around the backyard rapidly disappearing into the rearview, he decided it was time to “get the band back together” for one helluva bloody birthday.

Celebrating its seasonal setting, this movie will screen as a roadshow across America from Nov through early Jan with the filmmaker and select cast appearing at all screenings for introductions and Q&A’s. Coinciding with the tour, the film pours onto Blu-Ray with top-shelf bonus features, including a feature-length making-of documentary. The date has not been announced yet.

Directed and edited by Chris LaMartina with a script by LaMartina and Michael Varrati, Spirit Tasting stars Sean Doherty, Matt Lake, Melissa LaMartina, Trevor Wilhelms, Matt Baughman, Cate Paris, and Tatiana Nya Ford with cameos from Grady Hendrix, Clay McLeod Chapman, Peaches Christ, and Henry Zebrowski. It is produced by Melissa LaMartina, Chris LaMartina, Michael Varrati, and Ted Geoghegan, and Executive Produced by Ryan Graveface.

Spirit Tasting‘s Roadshow
Dates and Locations Are as Follows:

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