“The Driftless,” September 1

Tuesday, September 1, 7 p.m.

The Last Picture House, 325 East Second Street, Davenport IA

With Screen Anarchy declaring that his latest film “reinvents the classic horror anthology as a celebration of the landscapes and mythologies of his native Midwest,” writer/director Tim Connery's The Driftless enjoys a special September 1 screening at Davenport venue The Last Picture House, this quartet of terrifying tales the winner of the “Audience Favorite” award at the 2025 Nightmare in the Ozarks Festival and “Debut Feature” prize at the 2025 GrimmFest.

Deep river valleys, tall limestone bluffs sawing through the sky … . Thousands of years ago, this unique portion of the Midwest escaped the crushing effects of the giant Ice Age boulders. But with its scenic beauty, this preserved primal landscape also conceals unimaginable terrors. Connery's The Driftless is a horror anthology that weaves through four terrifying Midwestern tales of the macabre. Guided by a mysterious antique store owner, these stories delve into a Mississippi River cult of masked assassins, a grieving musician's struggle with a cursed bottle of liquor, a motel pool cleaner's uncanny ability ability to retrieve time-altering artifacts, and a woman's bloodthirsty revenge from beyond the grave.

Tim Connery is a Midwestern producer/director/screenwriter from Dubuque. He completed his undergraduate in directing at Columbia College Chicago in 2009, returning home to produce his first feature film shortly afterward. With the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign early in its infancy, 2012's Black Web would go on to have its world premiere at the prestigious Seattle International Film Festival and its international premiere at the leading horror/sci-fi festival, Fantasia, in Montreal. This success paved the way for Connery's career in commercial filmmaking when individuals in the advertising community saw the film at his hometown fest, the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival.

Connery went on to partner with the festival and produce the fest's themed reel for eight consecutive years, further honing his skills and narrative and commercial films while growing up with has become a top 50 film festival, according to MovieMaker Magazine. Since finding his footing in Iowa, Connery has continued to make a career out of commercial filmmaking and produced another feature film, 2021's Death to Metal, to much fanfare in the horror-comedy sphere.

Featured among The Driftless' cast are Torrey Hanson (The Chair Company, 2021's Candyman), Ira Amyx (Stranger Things, A Man Called Otto), and Mike Jimerson (Fargo). Noted Quad Cities performers Justin Marxen and Tristan Tapscott also appear in the film, and following the Last Picture House screening, they and writer/director Connery will participate in a post-show Q&A session.

The Driftless will make its Quad Cities debut in Davenport on September 1 at 7 p.m., and more information and tickets are available by visiting LastPictureHouse.com/movie/the-driftless.