FRIGHT NIGHTS
Featured March 06Andrea Wren tests her nerves as horror film festival season descends.
FORGET ANYTHING AS CLICHÉD AS WAITING FOR THE 31ST OCTOBER TO HAVE THE LIFE FRIGHTENED OUT OF YOU, because the UK’s only film festival dedicated to scaring your pants off will take place from the 20th-23rd April for four days of terror, repulsion and a slightly creepy feeling down the back of your neck.
Edinburgh’s Dead by Dawn festival – which runs in association with Filmhouse (www.filmhousecinema.com) – is a long weekend of cinematic horror classics and independent films guaranteed to leave you wondering if it’s safe to leave the building when the time comes to head off home, sometime in the small hours. The festival is the brainchild of film buff Adele Hartley who began Dead by Dawn in 1993 as a dare. “There was nothing for horror fans then,” says Adele, “so a friend challenged me to put a festival together. It was supposed to be a one-off but it quickly sold out and has done ever since!”
Dead By Dawn is not for the faint-hearted, but Freddy fanatics will undoubtedly find many like-minded friends here. “Horror is so theatrical,” says Adele. “It brings people together. If you’re in a cinema with everyone screaming and jumping at the same time, you end up turning to the person nearest you when you get scared!”
Horror fans will get a chance to watch over 96 menacing hours and around 20 spine-chilling screenings of films they wouldn’t normally see in the cinema. Adele says: “As a 'discovery’ festival, we have a reputation for screening the very best independent movies that we can find, which often go on to be a great success around the world.”
Dead by Dawn, which celebrates its 13th birthday this year, never fails to fill the cinemas. Around 60 percent of the worldwide audience have been attending since the festival’s birth. 52-year-old Mac Poole has claimed a seat for the past seven years and feels there is a great balance between the types of horror shown, whether psychological or special effects led.
“For me, the key to making this event so special is the personal touch that’s created,” says Mac. “It isn’t faceless like some international film festivals I’ve been to and the guest stars mingle at the bar with everyone else.”
Also bitten by the festival vampire, Bryan Douglas was a Dead by Dawn virgin until recently. He attended for the first time last year and was so spooked by the event that he reserved his 2006 pass almost immediately after emerging, somewhat jumpy, from the after-party.
“I was struck by how many people seemed to know each other. The testament to the pulling power of Dead by Dawn is that once you attend, you keep coming back,” says Bryan. “The festival had kicked off with a brilliant zombie cow flick from Ireland called Dead Meat and what made it all the more special was the intro to the film by the director himself.”
Previous guests have included actors, directors and producers such as Neil Marshall, director of Dog Soldiers and The Descent, as well as Robert Englund (Freddy in A Nightmare On Elm Street), Erik Palladino (CSI) and writer/actor Ramsey Campbell. This year’s festival opens with horror story readings and a book launch – special guest to be confirmed – ensuring a disquieting start, with a post-festival party to round off proceedings.
THE GORY GEMS
Determined to seek out innovative Japanese genre movies, the 2006 Dead by Dawn festival is hosting the UK premiere of Shinya Tsukamoto’s Haze. Organiser Adele Hartley says: “In the wake of the huge success of Hideo Nakato’s Ringu, the inevitable copycat movies have flooded the market,” – so it’s worth seizing the opportunity to see unique material such as Haze. Of the independent features, Blood Trails has also been confirmed.
Directed by Robert Krause and produced by Oliver Simon, Adele says: “It boasts a real attempt to generate suspense the old-fashioned way, instead of resorting to the lazy shrieks and jumps relied on so much by the mainstream.”
And which of the classics will get a look in? Fans will be able to relive Omen I and Omen II – being shown to promote the release of Omen 666 which is coming out globally this year on – of course – the 6th day of the 6th month 2006 (6/6/6).
Convinced you want a dose of the heebie-jeebies? As horror flick fan Bryan Douglas says: “If you love horror don’t think about coming to Dead by Dawn – just do it”
THE FEAR SPREADS
It isn’t just in Edinburgh where you can hear shrieks in the night throughout April. The really dedicated can also find themselves shaking in their shoes at other events organised by the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation (www.melies. org) – of which Dead by Dawn is part. In Germany, The Fantasy Filmfest Nights tours in March and April, reaching Hamburg on the 8th and 9th of April, provides an appetiser to the full-blown Fantasy Filmfest, later in the summer (July-August). Event organiser Gudren Horstmeier says that confirmed films for this year’s festival include Hostel, Death Trance-Versus II and Wolf Creek, with more to be announced.
Gudren says: “Many of today’s well-known genre hits and modern classics like The Silence of the Lambs, Scary Movie, Face/Off or Scream have premiered at the Fantasy Filmfest.
In addition to presenting mainstream Hollywood productions – the festival can look back proudly on premieres such as Jeepers Creepers, Freddy vs. Jason, Pulp Fiction and American Psycho – we also keep our eye out for the latest international independent masterpieces.”
In Amsterdam, the 22nd edition of the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (AFFF) will take place around the Leidseplein from 19 April until 26 April. Horror fans will get their fill, but films within the fantasy, thriller, cult, anime (Japanese animation) and science fiction genres will also be screened. If that’s not enough, this festival will present a themed programme called “Marx Attacks!” consisting of rarely-seen science fiction films from behind the Iron Curtain.
Organiser Yael Goudsmit says that films already confirmed include September Tapes, “a clandestine military operation in Afghanistan”, and Wild Blue Yonder, a film in which “Werner Herzog tells the story of an expedition to Andromeda with NASA footage”.
Guest of honour at the 2006 AFFF and receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award will be American producer/ director Roger Corman, who was responsible for the careers of filmmakers and actors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Jonathan Demme and Peter Fonda.
FESTIVAL INFO:
Dead by Dawn: www.deadbydawn.co.uk The Fantasy Filmfest Nights: www.fantasyfilmfest.com Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival: www.afff.nl
DEAD BY DAWN FESTIVAL - STAYING IN EDINBURGH:
The luxurious five-star Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa (1 Festival Square, EH3 9SR. International freephone: 00800 325 35353) is within shouting distance of the Filmhouse.
The contemporary and chic Apex City Hotel (61 Grassmarket, EH1 2JF. Tel: +44 (0) 131 243 3456) is within easy walking distance from the cinematic action and affords great castle views.
Both can be booked online through www.hotelopia.co.uk.
THE END
A First for Faro
For light relief from terror, the first ever festival of Mediterranean cinema will be held in Portugal’s Algarve from March 9 to 18 in Faro. Initiated by the Algarve Film Commission, the festival celebrates the rich diversity of life as lived in countries around the Med. The films can be seen at Salas SBC, The Forum, Faro. For more information about screening times and locations visit www.algarvefilmfest.com.
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