Sacramento Horror Film Fest 2009 Event Report
I was recently in sunny Sacramento, CA for the third annual Sacramento Horror Film Festival that took place at the historic Centennial Theatre from October 22nd to the 25th. I had a great time at this festival and was able to see many other inspiring indie horror films, as well as make new friends. If you love horror, the Sacramento Horror Film Fest was the place to be.
The fest kicked off on Thursday night with The Lobotronic Film Show, hosted by Mr. Lobo, a horror host whose TV show, Cinema Insomnia, is syndicated in over twenty cities. Lobo displayed a sincere love for the genre and a hearty sense of humor all through the festival. He introduced a beloved CA-area punk band called The Secretions, who in turn were followed by The Common Men. The evening capped off with a screening of psychotronic film selections straight from an ancient 16mm projector. Jet lag caught with me as the wacky clips played, so I called it a night.
On Friday, I arrived just in time to catch a beautiful, haunting short called Danse Macabre, directed by Pedro Pires. This experimental film had some gorgeous cinematography as it followed the journey of a suicidal woman into the great beyond. The Hell Patrol was an impressive zombie short by CA-local filmmaker Turner Van Ryan, who went to great expense to tell the story of a post-apocalyptic band of militia survivors that make a last stand at a desert ranch. Van Ryan mentioned that he’s working on turning the short into a feature. Glitch was a technically adept short about a man hunted by multiple versions of himself, while the metal music video Clown Vs Ninjas featured a gang of ninjas slicing and dicing a bunch of clowns; that one had some fun gore effects. Last on this shorts program was my own, The Waterboard. It screened well and there was an interesting Q&A right after. Thanks to the host, filmmaker Chris R. Notarile, for being thoughtful about the film’s realistic subject matter of torture.
Things then took an interesting turn as the fest staged a zombie beauty contest. Over twenty fetching contestants took the stage with one lucky winner named Whitney taking the crown as Miss Hot Zombie Chick 2009. One of the judges was none other than WWE wrestler Chris Jericho, who was featured in the evening’s main-event film, Albino Farm. Jericho proved to be a very entertaining personality, as he drank “apple juice” and slammed the next evening’s screening of Repo! The Genetic Opera. He also made what became the fest’s most infamous quip, as he referred to host Mr. Lobo as “hachi,” a insulting term. In general, Jericho meant it all in good fun. His film, Albino Farm, was also quite strong. The slasher concerned four twenty-somethings taking a journey into the deep south and finding a grotesque, small-town culture and inbred horrors. The film, directed by Joe Anderson and Sean McEwen, features a horrid lead monster called Pig Bitch and some inventive kills. It’s available now on DVD.
Saturday started with the Build-A-Zombie Workshop by Morb-X FX. The video presentation covered a lot of FX basics I was already familiar with as a horror filmmaker and movie lover, but there were plenty of good tips for beginners. Short films then resumed. Strings of Clarity was a nifty, stop-motion metal music video by Paul Stevens. The dark comedy Death in Charge was a particularly well-made short by LA filmmaker Devi Snively about Death, incarnated in a woman, babysitting a girl who innocuously wishes for her absent mother’s death. The short ends with a sharp, bloody, darkly comic punchline that makes me want to see more from Snively (who is currently shooting a feature). This block of programming ended with Cryptic, by Danny Kuchuck and John Weiner, a feature with one impressive script. It’s an original time-travel movie about a young woman who discovers her old cell phone can reach her younger self on her unfortunate 9th birthday on which her mother dies in a freak accident. She sets out to prevent her mother’s death by calling her younger self, only to cause ripples of changes into the present that don’t necessarily turn out for the better. It’s a smart indie film that should see a DVD release in the future, though I was left wishing it had a bigger budget. In any case, bravo to the filmmakers. Cryptic won the best feature film award at the fest.
Saturday continued with another grouping of innovative, fascinating, and darkly comic horror shorts. Methodic 1.5, by New Jersey filmmaker Chris R. Notarile, continued the tale of the Dollman murderer from his feature film, Methodic. Auburn Hills Breakdown, by Canadian Geoff Redknap, was a hilarious game-changer, featuring a family of demented backwood murderers tormented by an overnight stay with a suburban family. Remote was yet another film with a time-travel twist, about a man whose TV allows him to spy on a young woman who lived in his apartment 30 years earlier, resulting in him witnessing her murder. Yet another impressive Canadian piece was Patrick Bolvin’s La Quelounne, about a clown who rises as a zombie when a mixture of soda and pop rocks seeps into his coffin. The clown finds his way back to a nearby village, inadvertly kills a local woman, tries eating her raw but has to cook her flesh instead to make it edible, and ultimately manages to clear away his makeup and rejoin society. The absurd, comedic short ends with the reveal that as he walks back out into the village, there are many other ‘covert’ zombies just like him trying to go back to normal. Max Karson’s Black Out was another laugh-inducing short about a set of college students having the typical alcohol-fueled party when one of them binge-drinks, passes out, and comes back to find out he’s killed everyone at the party. When the police barge in to arrest him, he drinks some more, and comes back to find out he’s brutally murdered the cops. A simple, darkly funny idea kept brief and to the point.
The organizers of the festival did a great job of mixing things up on Saturday evening. Out of all things, there was a horror wedding. SHFF’s day host Bethany married her sweetheart Will onstage, and I must confess that I got a little misty-eyed seeing the ceremony. Mr. Lobo conducted the ceremony with a good dosage of humor also. The evening culminated with a packed screening of Darren Lynn Bousman’s Repo! The Genetic Opera, brought to life beyond the silver screen by a ‘shadowcast’ — a bevy of goth kids would get onstage, dance along, and run around the theater during certain sequences . Myself, I’m not into the goth thing (being Puerto Rican and all), but I like the film and could appreciate the kids’ excitement. They rejoiced even more when Terrance Zdunich, Darren Smith, Andreja Punkris, and Alisa Burket, from the original stage production, made an appearance. The fans were delighted with a lively Q&A . Zdunich spoke about how a sequel to the film might be possible depending on the fans and their continued support for the film.
Following the screening screening, I had to say goodbye to the Sacramento Horror Film Fest. On Sunday, I missed a lecture by Zdunich on his creative process, as well as a local film competition. But I did have a great time, and I sincerely hope to be back to this fest, either to screen my own future films or to watch others. I strongly recommend to horror filmmakers to consider this film as a choice festival to screen their work at. Keep an eye out on this growing fest! My sincere thanks go to Tim Meunier and the SHFF staff for staging a great festival and to Mr. Lobo for being such a gracious, entertaining host. Further thanks to the Pine Cove Tavern in the heart of Sacramento for providing so many refreshing drink tokens. Lastly, do check out Mr. Lobo’s Cinema Insomnia, both the website and the syndicated TV show. The Sacramento Horror Film Festival is a fine destination for the dedicated horror fan. Its mantra of “love horror” rings true.
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