This year was the 10thannual Horrible Imaginings Horror Film Festival. For the second year, the festival has been hosted by the non-profit theater The Frida Cinema and this year I managed to attend 2 of the 3 day run time. I am sad that I missed Friday but day-job commitments are paramount.
Saturday started with a block of short films programed around the theme ‘A Shock to the System’ where the horror lies more in systemic and cultural issues than a beastie or man with a knife. There were 11 films in this block and many were quite compelling. The film that most disturbed me was Off Fleek which centered in a young woman and the terrible effect of the cyber-abuse she endured. It is a film that haunts the mind well after its brief running time has ended. Per haps most entertaining was Kathy a film about growing up gay in a fundamentalist household where demons and possession are common dinnertime discussions. And most artistic visually striking of the block was LVRS a film without dialog that symbolically explored the nature of abusive relationships.
The next block continue the theme with the longer films Conversion Therapist and What Daphne Sawand included a panel discussion about the issues of ‘reparative’ therapy and human trafficking. We rounded out Saturday with two feature films but the one I enjoyed the most from that evening was Reborn starring Barbara Crampton and Michael Pare.
Sunday again started with a block of short subjects, this time the theme being Monsters, Sci-Fi and Beyond. Nest was a ‘found footage’ style short that understood brevity if powerful in that model of filmmaking. How to be Alone was a wonderful exploration of isolation and the mental toll that can take on a person while Ulysses presented perhaps the best mermaid design I have ever watched.
Then we were treated to a long form short film block where instead of running times between 2 and 12 minutes the films were along the lines of a half an hour including a lovly film about a séance in the White House at the height of the Civil War. Though perhaps my favorite of that black came from Brazil For My Cat, Mieze where justice comes paired with a fine wine.
We rounded out the day with two feature films, Antrum – the Deadliest Film Ever Made which included as part of its conceit a mini-documentary about the fictional film Antrum and the deaths associated with it, but the film struck me as more gimmick that story. The final feature was Pornoa movie about religious teenagers who accidentally summon a succubus in the theater where they work. It’s over-the top, bloody, sexy, and funny, providing one of the festival’s’ most memorable line of dialog; “I’m not going to get excited by your exploded testicles!”
All in all the festival was a grand time well worth the 3 hours of drive time each day.
