DEDfest!

Thrills, chills, laughter and booze make for a great night!

BY COLIN ENQUIST

It is that time of year again. Halloween is right around the corner. Horror films are beginning to take over the cinema world for a few weeks and if you live in a city big enough, you probably have a horror film festival that you could attend. Some are world famous, others, not so much. Last Friday night I attended DEDfest (Day 2 of 4), Edmonton, Alberta’s horror film festival. To be fair, this is the first year of the festival, although it is run by some of the same group that ran last years Deadmonton festival.

The Friday showing consisted of two big showings: Neighbor and Return of the Living Dead. It is the first time since 1985 that Return of the Living Dead has been seen in Canada on 35MM. Like many horror fests, short films were spread throughout the two marquee films. Here is a quick review for each film I saw that night.

To get the crowd in the laughing mood, Clowning Around was unleashed on us. It was a terrible looking trailer that really just played off the title of the film, essentially it was just like the faux trailer Don’t, in front of the Grindhouse double feature. I am still not sure if this is an actual film or just a trailer made for laughs.

Next up was the short film, Thirsty, based off of a Joe Knetter story. It was directed by Andrew Kasch and stars Wrong Turn 2 director Joe Lynch, Michael Bailey Smith (The Hills Have Eyes) and Tiffany Shepis (a scream queen herself of many horror films!). Lynch is on a cross-country drive when he starts to crave a frozen slushy. His destiny seems to not want him to get his slushy, as it keeps providing complications attempting to thwart his slushy efforts. This is full of laughs from the start and was one of the best shorts at the festival.

Next up was a few trailers of older films, Savage Streets, Punk Rock and another I cannot recall. These looked terrible but the Linda Blair exploitation/revenge flick Savage Streets is supposed to be quite good.

Every year Adam Green makes a Halloween short film. The Tiffany Problem, King in the Box and last years The Tivo are fantastic. This year’s film is Jack Chop, it is a real short short, running just over two and a half minutes but it is so entertaining. Jack Chop is just a parody of the Slap Chop infomercial but I can say I was laughing (and so was most of the audience) for the entire two and a half minutes. Take a gander at it below!

Finally we reached our first feature film, the debut (at least to Edmonton) of Neighbor. This film prides itself with the tag on one of the posters as the film that “caused its own editor to vomit”. I can see why, my guess is that the editor was male and he vomited during the “love scene”. I was looking away during the sequence of events that I would never wish on anyone! The image will haunt me (and probably most of the audience) for a few evenings. The film was created by writer/director Robert A. Masciantonio (Cold Hearts). Christian Campbell (who also was in Cold Hearts) and America Olivo star in the sadistic horror film. Olivo simply plays “The Girl”, a crazed psychotic who breaks into neighbours houses and tortures them. She uses a wide array of household items that now scare the living hell out of me. I will never look at a pizza cutter the same way ever again!!! Typically I am not a big fan of the torture horror films, this one is not really an exception either but I did enjoy it more then the others that would fall into this same category. I felt that, unlike most torture films, Neighbor created an unreal amount of character development in the opening that I was actually concerned for the group of friends. Masciantonio does not just make us cringe but feel an attachment to Don (Campbell) during his ordeal. The film does get a bit muddled throughout with an obscure set of flash backs and flash forwards. Never really understanding why he chose this at first, but after thinking about it, I realized that the director wanted to remind us about the emotional attachment we were feeling for the characters earlier in the film. It still was mystifying to an extent, never explaining if the flash forwards were a hallucination or just a possible future. I would probably file this in with most other torture porn films, but it would go to the top of my list if I was forced to watch one, although I would probably “excuse” myself from the room so I wouldn’t have to sit through the “love scene” again!

Intermission time led to a quick bathroom break. What can I say, beer goes right through me. A few speeches from the gracious hosts of the festival (beer in hand!) and we were back on track.

The 3 short films showed before the big finale was all Alberta made to some aspect. Two of the films, Escape From Death Planet and Fallow were shot in Edmonton. Both were from Edmonton directors as well. I wouldn’t call these films great but Fallow at least had a sense of creepiness to it that caused a few shivers. Deadwalkers was a quick-draw western zombie film from Calgary. If the sound was matched up better with the picture I would have said this short was made extremely well, even though it was not very entertaining.

Finally the big finale, Return of the Living Dead! How can you not love this film? Of course it isn’t what it was back in 1985 but it is still worth viewing! This film probably juggles the humour and horror aspect better then any film. Dan O’Bannon’s fanboy take on George A. Romero’s lifeblood is fantastic. The dialogue crackles on screen and the film is filled with quotes that last still to this day. Not to mention the kick ass soundtrack of Billy Idol, The Cramps, 45 Grave and SSQ. See this film if you have not already, before a zombie eats your BRAAAAIIIIINNNNSSSSSSSSSS!

I had an excellent time during DEDfest even with a few of the films not being my cup of tea. Already I am wondering what next year will bring. This proves that even if the films are good, terrible or not worth your time, a good crowd and some alcohol can still make the night worthwhile.