How did you get into this line of work?
It started by accident years ago – I was always a horror fan as a kid. I grew up in a split family and one half of the family was very interested in horror and horror pop culture and that kind of stuff. So I sort of grew up with it my whole life. I wasn’t interested in being a film maker so I didn’t realise there were jobs that were related to films that weren’t making films. I had a horror related fanzine and I worked in a video store and I would buy a lot of bootleg VHS tapes and review them in my fanzine and then people would sort of complain because they couldn’t see the films that were reviewed in the magazine! There was a local micro cinema so I went to him with a list of films and I said “If you show any of these films I can promote it through my fanzine.” A couple of months later I got an email from him and he’s like “Ok what were the dates you wanted for your horror film festival?”
I just got my student loan so I spent my whole student loan putting on the first festival. It bought a lot of people out of the woodwork, just horror films fans in Vancouver that thought they were the only ones. So I just kept doing the festival and then it grew a little more each year. Everything else I’ve done has all been because I did that so…y’know it was probably a better use of my student loan than going to school!
First film you remember seeing that left an impression
It was Horror Express - it’s a British film that had Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas in it where they’re on a train the whole time and there’s some kind of mysterious cargo on the train that’s a Neanderthal man that’s possessing people on the train and making them kill each other. There was a Russian priest in that movie and he got possessed at some point and his eyes were glowing and that became like the character of my nightmares all through my whole childhood. It had a huge impact on my imagination.
What is on offer at this year’s festival?
We went after a lot of Australian premieres for the festival but then we have a lot of curated repertory side bars to that too. We’ve got a television side bar with a few different things in it, we’ve got like 4 different talks that are kind of like multimedia lectures that are free that are happening as part of the festival that are all television related and that section is called Frequencies and then there’s a couple of ticketed events that are happening in the theatres that are television related too.
There’s also some local scholars who are doing a presentation on the local production Homicide and they’re focussing on this episode called Witch Hunt and it’s set in the 60s and all about this real fear that there’s suburban witches in Melbourne and the cops are trying to break this coven. But it’s amazing and the episode begins in Hawthorn which is where the festival takes place.
Then we have our Cult of Monster all night marathon. I’m really interested in cult deprogramming films. There were a lot that came out around in the early 80s. That’s’ part of the Rituals section, some of the new films from the competition fall into the ritual section too. There’s been a lot of indie movies about cults and people trying to escape from cults in the last few years. Even just dramas, it’s just been very topical.
The art is always a big highlight of the festival – what can you tell us about this year’s very neon-esque offering?
The artwork for this year has a connection to the themes in the programming but the artist we worked with is Matt Tobin and he’s Canadian. I saw some his work and we proposed it to him and this was very early in the year when we were still getting the films together. So it’s kind of amazing it turned out exactly how I wanted it. The colours even I just said I want it to be purple and blue with florescent pink. Monster Fest has almost always has a woman as a central figure. But she is wearing a cloak instead of a bikini and Neil Foley (Monster Fest company director) said, “You’re going to be forever known as the girl that took the tits out of Monster Fest! I thought we should break it up a bit from year to year and have a diff style so people are always looking forward to ‘what’s the art direction going to be’?
What films would you recommend for a Monster Fest newcomer?
Definitely not Playground! Playground is probably the most disturbing film in the festival so if you are trying out for the first time don’t try that one! The opening night movie Raw – it’s gross, there’s people who fainted when that was played – but it’s also very accessible. It’s a cannibal movie but it’s a coming of age movie too. The Autopsy of Jane Doe is solid and if you like horror movies its probably the most traditional of the films at the festival that hits all those beats of what a horror audience expects. Even Safe Neighbourhood – it’s a partially Australian film and its’ a Christmas horror movie. That’s a good solid film too. It’s got a good twist in it. If you don’t like horror you could always go to the All You Can Eat Cereal Cartoon Party which were all on TV at some point so it’s safe for kids.
Is there anything you think Maniacs readers would like in particular?
It’s called Dead Hands Dig Deep. The film maker is called Jai Love and he’s actually from Sydney and he was 19 when he made the film. It’s a documentary about Edward Borsheim who’s the lead singer and frontman from an extreme metal band from the States called Kettle Cadaver. The band doesn’t really exist anymore but Edwin Borsheim has sequestered himself in the fortified compound in the desert and it’s literally a black building with no windows that he lives in. But he’s a very extreme character and you get the sense watching the film that the film makers are potentially in danger from the person they are filming. As a showman on stage he was into self-mutilation and it’s very graphic but at the same time the film goes beyond that and it becomes very poignant and you start to feel for him (Edwin) and you’re pulling for him to get it together. It’s a pretty mature documentary with how sensitively it handles sensationalist subject matter. It is sensationist if people want to see gory performances you will see them but it’s more than that.
The festival offers up some alternative fare for those squeamish at the sight of blood or looking to avoid traditional horror fare with in the form of Weekend At Bernie’s, the Sylvester Stallone classic First Blood and even crime films like Hollow Point.
It’s kind of a horror geek’s vacation!
We all need a vacation from time to time! For more on Monster Fest check them out on line and scare yourself happy this weekend! https://monsterfest.com.au/2016/
- HW
