Indie
Festival Report: Shriekfest Horror Film Festival
This past weekend SpookyDan took a trip down to Raleigh Studios for the annual Shriekfest Horror Film Festival, which featured dozens of independent horror films and shorts that you could have seen before anyone else. Inside SpookyDan talks about his favorites and reveals the event’s big winners.
After spending the weekend at Shriekfest, anyone in attendance certainly feels the admiration and genuine love for the horror genre that Creator Denise Gossett has. She brings her Hollywood festival a group of fantastic new filmmakers, and an indie spirit that is unrivaled. This year was no exception as the festival was loaded with some fun, scary and interesting films. What really stood out though was the short films that played. At most film festivals the shorts can feel like a chore to get through the bad ones, but here we had a solid grouping of shorts. I wish someone would find a way to release them as a collection on DVD!
The Shorts: Cheerbleeders was f*ucking awesome, Kirksdale was genuinely creepy, and oddly disburbing, Pumpkin Hell even freaked me out! Side Effects, He Dies at the End and Eel Girl were crowd favorites. Not to mention the super fun How My Dad Killed Dracula, and The goofy and kick ass short Burying The Ex, starring Danielle Harris.
The Features: The feature films that were people were buzzing about were The Open Door, which won the crowd favorite award. Hard to beat as it had to have two screens added and people were still unable to get tickets. Lovecraft; Fear of the Unknown, had loads of people talking about the rich amounts of information packed in. Bane, is a slow burn that delivers the blood. Alien Raiders had a packed house that got cheers that could be heard from blocks away, even tough it has a lame title, this is one film that people are going to be digging for years to come. Alien Raiders was the hidden gem in the batch of films, Two films starring genre Favorite Tony Todd (who stopped by to show support) Dark Reel and I Murders, made this festival one that should not have been missed.
The Winners:
Best Under 18 Film: The Perfect Victim directed by Eric Badger
Best Under 18 Screenplay: Big Kids Play Manslaughter written by Kelsey Bollig.
Best Acting Performance: Rhoda Jordan in Rule of Three
Audience choice award: The Open Door directed by Doc Duhame
Pretty/Scary award Side Effect directed by Liz Adams
Best Short Screenplay Making the List written by Jesse Kyle Reisman
Best Fantasy Feature Screenplay: The Hercynian Orchid written by Melisa Ford
Best SciFi Feature Screenplay: Scavengers written by Diana Kemp Jones
Best Horror Feature Screenplay The Great American Nightmare written by Tom Manning
Best Supershort film: Eel Girl directed by Paul Campion
Best short film: Kirksdale directed by Ryan Spindell
Best Thriller Feature film Alien Raiders directed by Ben Rock
Best Horror Feature film Bane directed by James Eaves
Congrats to all the winners!
If you get a chance, sign up to the email list to find out about the monthly filmmakers networking event that Shriekfest hosts in Hollywood. It’s free, it’s fun and you get to meet the next batch of filmmakers – whether you make films or not, everyone is welcome!
Look out for our BDTV video coverage of the event next week only at Bloody Disgusting.
The Wayans are out to cancel the Cancel Culture with Scary Movie, and the cast assures it will do just that.
“They sort of have an across-the-board style,” Anna Faris tells EW. “It’s always been a part of the Wayans Brothers, their electricity. ‘Can we offend you? Will you still love us? Come on, you still love us, don’t you?'”
Regina Hall concurs, promising the “boundary-pushing” sixth installment in the horror parody franchise will “offend everyone.”
EW has shared a batch of behind-the-scenes images from Scary Movie, which hits theaters June 5 via Paramount.
Faris and Hall are joined by fellow franchise favorites Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, and Jon Abrahams in the legacy sequel.
The ensemble includes Damon Wayans Jr., Gregg Wayans, Kim Wayans, Benny Zielke, Cameron Scott Roberts, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Ruby Snowber, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, Kenan Thompson, and Felissa Rose.
Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House) directs from a script by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, original Scary Movie director Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans (Scary Movie 2), and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House).
The film will slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t final.
Scary Movie launched in 2000, followed by Scary Movie 2 in 2001. The Wayans’ involvement ended there, but the series continued with 2003’s Scary Movie 3, 2006’s Scary Movie 4, and 2013’s Scary Movie 5.
Regina Hall & Marlon Wayans on the set of ‘Scary Movie.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures.
Anna Faris on the set of ‘Scary Movie.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures.
Marlon Wayans & Regina Hall on the set of ‘Scary Movie.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures.
Michael Tiddes & Anna Faris on the set of ‘Scary Movie.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures.
Marlon Wayans on the set of ‘Scary Movie.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures.
Regina Hall & Anna Faris on the set of ‘Scary Movie.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures.
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