For those of you whose love of good horror flicks (or good movies period) doesn’t end at Halloween, the 2007 Asheville Film Festival has some of today’s most innovative independent horror movies coming your way.

In Alex Orr’s Blood Car, set in the near future, gas prices reach an all-time high, nearing almost $40 a gallon. Archie Andrews, an environmentalist and vegan schoolteacher, is determined to find an alternate fuel source. While experimenting with various wheat-grass concoctions, he accidentally stumbles upon a solution. Blood. Human blood. Archie soon becomes the only person driving a car and attracts the attention of a sex slut named Denise. Unable to turn down her advances, Archie becomes attached to her—and the only way to keep her is to keep the car running.

Blood Car, which will see its North Carolina premiere at the festival, has drawn quite a buzz. It was selected as the closing night film at the Atlanta Underground festival, was in the top 3 on Myspace Movies for some time and was also featured on Ain’t It Cool News. It’s won awards at festivals around the country, including Cinequest, Chicago Underground and Atlanta Horror.

Jeremy Saulnier’s Murder Party is set on Halloween night in Brooklyn. A random windblown invitation leads a lonesome stranger into the hands of a deranged artist’s collective intent on murdering him for the sake of their art. What follows is a gonzo night of mishap, mayhem and hilarity.

Murder Party was touted as “downright f**king hilarious” by Ain’t It Cool News and won the Audience Award at Slamdance and the Best Feature award at the Vail Film Festival.

Seeing it’s U.S. premiere is Charlotte filmmaker Mark Young’s Southern Gothic. A drama/horror set in the South, Southern Gothic chronicles a man who must atone for a tragic mistake by saving a little girl from a band of ruthless, undead killers. This genre-blurring film defies convention by blending art house and slaughterhouse.

Tickets for any of these films are available here