Dead on Film Festival 2014

So once again The Rio Theatre's Dead on Film Festival, featuring short films where someone has to die, has come to pass. Well one of the people to die was me, in the short film Dangerous Waves! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get there in time to see it since it was the second film to be shown, but I saw it today and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Game of Thrones Burlesque: Rude, Crude and a bit less nude

Well last Saturday was quite the night. I went on a solo mission to see the Tourette's Without Regrets Game of Thrones Burlesque show at The Rio Theatre and it was well worth the awkward feeling of sitting beside a stranger. To be fair I at least knew one of the people performing in the show, my friend Jesse Inocalla was playing Tyrion Lannister (the imp) and did so hilariously. You might be thinking "but isn't Tourettes Without Regrets from California?" and you would be right, but probably half the cast was made up of Vancouverites including the fan favourite Little Miss Risk (as Melisandre), the adorable Voodoo Pixie (as Bran) and the demonic Bloody Betty (as the Executioner and Ramsay Snow).

Cheap Thrills on the Cheap

The world of horror tends to go through phases, often movies with very similar ideas and themes will come out around the same time. We are currently experiencing the "How far would you go for money" phase. It started with Would You Rather and has continued with Cheap Thrills and an upcoming film called 13 Sins. Netflix is currently offering Would You Rather and recently I had the pleasure of watching Cheap Thrills on one of the "Cheap Date Nights" at The Rio Theatre.

Fiction Factions: Heroes of Horror, Masters of Macabre

Last night I attended the best live show I've seen so far this year. It was called Fiction Factions and was a competition between Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and some other author who's books I haven't read (that would be you H.G. Wells) embodied by JJ Webb, Stephen W.B. Blakley Mason and Tyler James Nicol in that particular order. They used every form of performance possible to prove they were tops (much like Poe's 12 year old cousin/bride) starting with the always lovely art of women taking their clothes off to music. The lovely ladies who danced their arses off for the authors were Sherry Hymen (crystal egg themed performance), Voodoo Pixie (Dagon, culty tentacle themed) and Melody Mangler (macabre, Victorian tell-tale heart themed). Is it just me or is burlesque infinitely better when it's dark and sinister?

Lords of Salem

I've been procrastinating with the writing of this post for over a month, so finally without further ado let's talk about Salem. I keep wanting to call this movie Salem's Lot, but it is nothing like Salem's Lot, there's not a single vampire to be seen. The Lords of Salem is Rob Zombie's latest offering and his take on the subgenre of witches and satanism. Of course it stars his wife Sheri Moon Zombie as the recovering drug addict/radio DJ Heidi Hawthorne who's family has a dark secret.

Now we the film opens with some gratuitous nudity, but not from the buxom young women most horror aficionados are accustomed to. These women are hardcore witches living in the woods outside of the beloved Salem Massachusetts (not Salem Oregon) and time has certainly had an effect on their devil worshipping bodies. Of course after our history lesson in events of the past we are brought to the present day and a local radio station where our protagonist works alongside a dirty hippie guy and the actor who was in Dawn of the Dead and From Beyond, if you want to know who that is IMDb is quite fun and easy to use.

First time I watched it I thought the movie was about an adorable dog coping with the shortcomings of it's master.

Now our DJ's receive a strange record from "The Lords" which, because this is a horror movie and nothing bad can come of it, they play on the radio. The song on it has a strange effect on the town and drives most of the plot from here on out. We also meet some rather strange women who have a special interest in Heidi Hawthorne.

Today's lesson: Unless it's from your Grandmother, free teatime should never be trusted.

So you're watching the movie and you're pretty sure that you understand what's going on... then the last 20 minutes arrive. If you are able to just lose yourself in the imagery and forget about the plot it's great, but I was left with a feeling of confusion and gratitude that I wasn't epileptic by the end of the movie. Because I knew the plot pulls a disappearing act my second viewing of the film was much more pleasant as I could just revel in the twisted, artsy shots that served as the climax and ending of the movie. I would say that while I would have loved a more satisfying ending, it was still one of the better horror movies I've seen this year, so if given the opportunity you should give it a chance.

If I get a pet goat Satanists will leave me alone right?

VIFF 2013: A Field In England

Five men, a hole and some hallucinogens. The latest creation from the mind of Ben Wheatley, known best for Kill List and Sightseers, A Field In England is a period piece with very authentic costume design from what I could tell. The men actually looked grubby, as if they didn't own very much clothing in the first place. The movie grabs your interest from the very beginning with a battle leading to violence and gore within the first ten minutes.

"This is so much fun!" Yes, following what appears to be a possessed person on a leash is always fun!

The film truly illustrates the things people will do for beer. The plot starts with men abandoning the battle to escape to a tavern. Except for our protagonist, the rest of the motley crew are very crude men especially in their rude form of humour. That just adds to the feeling of accuracy the film has. The plot can be rather confusing at points, with alchemists and buried treasure and what not.

Please, please, just one pint good sir.

A few times a rather artsy technique was used where the actors held still as if they were the people in a painting. Just when I thought that that looked cool things really got into the artsy trippy realm. There was actually a disclaimer before the movie telling people to not watch the film if they might suffer from seizures. Good thing they had that disclaimer, it really did get that trippy. For a while I just thought the movie was weird for the sake of being weird, but then I remembered, most of the characters are high on a certain type of a hallucinogen that you might find in a field in england. If you enjoy strange movies, definitely check this out, less confusing than Eraserhead and with some great comedic moments.

VIFF 2013: Willow Creek

Now here is the case of me buying a ticket for something that I really had no idea what it was about except for one word "Sasquatch" and yes I call it Sasquatch not Bigfoot because I'm Canadian yo. When I sat down in the theatre I had forgotten that it was a found footage film which was an unpleasant surprise until the film actually started, but I'll get into that later. Even the director's identity eluded me, Bobcat Goldthwait, I wasn't sure if he was who I thought he was or not. Turned out it was.

This is the role I know him the best for, I feel less bad about my lack of certainty.

Turned out Willow Creek focussed on a couple first exploring the Bigfoot-centric community of Willow Creek, then heading to the sight of the Patterson-Gimli "Bigfoot" footage. Of course they ignore the warnings of locals and as the classic adage goes, bad things happen to good people, well, stupid good people. The chemistry between the two leads felt honest and I was happy to see my second favourite officer from Death Valley get some more work. As well in the beginning of the film it seemed that they were actually using real locals to play the locals rather than actors who may have judged the characters. For instance did you know that there are more songs about Bigfoot than just the one by Tenacious D? I certainly didn't.

I used to be worried about aliens when camping, now I have to worry about Sasquatch too?

Watching this film felt very reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, except this time I actually cared about what happened to the characters. They took the original found footage movie, learned from it and improved on it. In his introduction Bobcat was very proud of the limited amount of edits they used in the film and when it gets to the tent sequence it pays off. The tension in that scene was enough to put even a horror hound such as myself on the edge of my seat. I can honestly say that this is one of the best found footage movies I've seen, so if it comes to your town I would highly recommend getting yourself a ticket.

Dead on Film Festival, Zombies, Guns and Jane Levy

Well August was quite the busy month. First there was the Dead on Film Festival at The Rio Theatre which was a festival of short horror films where the only requirement was that somebody had to die. Now it was all local films, some of which made specifically for the festival and let me tell you there was quite a variety of quality levels. The best by far though, which also won the festival, was Halloween vs. Battle Royale by LuchaGore Productions. As you can probably guess it was about what would happen if Michael Myers were to choose some of the girls from Battle Royale to be his next victims. We were also treated to some horrific burlesque as the audience votes were tallied and I must say burlesque is so much more interesting when fake blood is involved.

The next big thing to happen in August was my first time being paid to be on set! I was an extra on a tv show who had completed a zombie walk (I'll tell you the show once the episode has come out). I had to come in my own costume and makeup for the part:

Selfie!

I also took another step towards becoming "The Most Badass Woman You Know" by going out into the country to shoot a gun for the first time. Turns out I'm not as terrible at it as I had expected. I apparently got a few "kill shots" on my target. While I didn't get to fire them I also got to handle a cross-bow as well as some more powerful guns than the one I was shooting.

To finish off the month I think I had a celebrity encounter of relevance to this blog. I'm pretty sure I ran into Jane Levy (of Evil Dead remake fame) while I was walking home from work. It felt like a scene out of mean girls as we locked eyes and I started to recognize her. It wasn't until I was out of earshot that I realized who I thought it was and my friend asked if I would like to go back and say hi. Nope, wasn't going to embarrass myself like that!

Soska Night, an Evening Filled with Baseball Bats and Amputated Arms

Later on the fought it out to see what was better, Marvel or DC.

Every once in a while a friend posts a photo on facebook of themselves with a dvd of a movie you want to see. Even rarer is when this coincides with the theatrical release of a film from the same directors. Well this is what happened recently and gave birth to what was dubbed Soska Night. It was a wonderful evening that started out with a Dead Hooker in a Trunk and ended with American Mary at the wonderful Rio Theatre. We laughed, we were confused, we were shocked, but most of all we had fun. Read more about the adventure (mostly about American Mary) after the break.

The ABCs... OF DEATH!

On the 14th I had a great time watching The ABCs of Death at the Rio Theatre's first screening of the film. Incase you don't know the concept behind it The ABCs of Death is 26 short films made by filmmakers around the world, each one with a different letter of the alphabet and a word starting with that letter. So as you can expect the film was a VERY varied bunch. Now because I don't want to give away what the shorts are about, or what the word for each letter is I'll just reveal what letters were some of my favourites.

The letter D was nearly silent and great!

I would definitely rank D, R, S, V & X as some of the best. There were a few in the bunch that didn't seem very horror like and some such as O, W and Z that had me scratching my head and may induce seizures in some (the end credits could also have the same effect). Then there were the segments that made me squirm, so be prepared when you watch L, X(yes it was also one of my favourites) and Y. I also found Ti West's contribution a little disappointing considering how much I enjoyed some of his features.

If you base what the word for R is on this shot, you would probably be wrong.

This movie may have been two hours long but I can only think of one point where it felt like it was dragging on and on, mostly because it was an uncomfortable short to watch. While there were a few exceptions, overall the shorts were great quality with some awesome effects and make-up. The only thing that disappointed me was that not many of the segments had supernatural or occult elements. Yes this has been another short article, I forgot to take notes... so just watch it yourself and form your own opinion!