Paragon theaters to host free film with director and actors present

Paragon Theaters in Naples is set to host a free screening of the independent film “The Occult” by director Peter Hyoguchi.

The thriller follows a young man who finds himself seduced by a fortune teller and inevitably gets lured into her dark, mysterious world.

Hyguchi said the film was inspired by rumors he heard while growing up in Hollywood, California.

“I started to hear rumors in Hollywood about rituals that people were doing,” said Hyoguchi. “I started researching about it, and I talked to a few people who were involved, and they told me some crazy stories. I started doing more and more research and found that this is really going on.”

The passion project was entirely funded by Hyoguchi and took seven years to finally come to fruition.

Hyoguchi describes the theme of the film as “the horror of love.”

“When you fall in love with someone you are not only emotionally vulnerable, but you’re also physically vulnerable,” he said, “and you’re letting someone into your most private part of your life, and you’re susceptible to great danger if you don’t really know that person. I think that everyone is sort of afraid of love because of that because you know, who knows what secrets people have?”

Although Hyoguchi has already screened the film in several theaters across the country, he says the Naples audience will be the first to see the final version of the movie.

The screening will take place July 1 at Paragon, with two showings available, one at 4 p.m. and a second at 7 p.m.

Anticipation for the film was so great that the screening had to be moved to a larger theater; going from 70 seats to 90 seats to accommodate the demand.

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Hyoguchi said it was important for him to share his film with theater audiences because he believes that the power of movies comes from seeing something with an audience.

“You go to the movies so that you can be with other people, sharing a shared dream. You know, you’re collectively experiencing a living dream, a waking dream,” said Hyoguhci, “and so it’s not just the movie. It’s seeing the movie with an audience that’s valuable.”

The screening will be followed by a Q&A segment with the director and actors of the film.

More information about the film and reservations are available here.