I wish I had written my thoughts on the events I attended sooner. Now that a week has passed since the festival started, it’s a mostly fuzzy memories of watching movies. Although…

Thursday: NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 

Now that there’s some distance between me and this event, I feel like I can write more honestly about it. I was feeling extra polite because Heather Langenkamp’s face had filled up the theater screen for about 30 minutes prior to the show and she seemed like a nice lady.

Then we watched the movie. 

Holy shit, the acting was terrible. I knew to expect it, but Jesus.

I also realized that Langenkamp must’ve fielded too many questions in the nineties about what it was like to work with Johnny Depp, which explains why no one asked during the live Q & A. Good on them. There was only one awkward moment where someone exclaimed, “Hi Heather – I went to elementary school with you!” But that was all.

I thought the scariest part of the movie was in the alley when Freddy Krueger extended his arms to an unnatural length and went after his victim. Legit nightmarish and unsettling.

And I did love the final girl’s proactive attitude. The victim went on the offensive, and I’ve always found that to be an exceptionally delicious and rare moment in horror. It’s so relatable. Monsters, bullies, tyrants… They’re all on borrowed time. People can only stand being victims for so long before they get tired of some asshole wielding all the power. It’s not something in our nature that can be counted on, though, so it makes sense that it’s rare.

“What is bravery, really, but the potent combination of rage and fear?”

Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good, Corey Taylor, 2012

And because I’m talking about horror, I frame everything in reference to the pinnacle horror experience that is Silent Hill 2. James had that rare, delicious moment where he stopped being afraid, got off his knees and faced down his nightmare. I actually cheered at the top of my lungs when that happened.

I may not have liked Elm Street as much as the other people who were there; I didn’t share their early experience of being too afraid to fall asleep after watching it. It was laughably awful to me because I hadn’t seen it until just this month, so I know these comments mean fuckall.

I do appreciate the impact it had on the genre; the effects of which rippled out to my beloved SH2. The creepiness of boiler rooms: those rusty, alien, subterranean guts of nowhere. And the victim who realizes she/he has the power – and has always had the power – to end nightmares. I realize that someday, kids are gonna think of Silent Hill 2 the way I think of The Beatles: Yeah, they got the ball rolling, but by today’s standards that shit is weak-sauce so who cares?

Elm Street ended on a creepy note, and I plan to watch the rest of the series as part of my Horror Movie Marathon Month schedule. In fact, I’ll be talking about Elm Street 2 in my next blog when I conclude the rehashing of my MHHFF experience with Sunday’s panel on LGBT in Horror.

Friday: SILVER BULLET

This screened at 11:50 PM Friday night. I had to go to the office the next morning to do some catch up work, but I had to make this showing. Why? Because WEREWOLVES, bruh. You got me? I can’t not go to a thing about werewolves. Not ever.

There was no pre-show interview to be had this time, but Fangoria.com’s managing editor, Ken Hanley, emceed a little bit before the reels spun. He was promoting his upcoming book and he was really funny, which is a damn shame because the row behind me was full of fucknuts who wouldn’t even lower their voices when Ken got up on stage and started talking. So I’ll be buying his book, The I in Evil, to hopefully enjoy some more of that wit I was deprived of.

Now it may have been that I just saw Nightmare on Elm Street the night before, but Silver Bullet was much better than I remembered. I have a love/hate relationship with Stephen King’s work: love the tense horror, hate the corny characters. And he kind of sucks at diversity except I can’t really say that because the hero of Silver Bullet is a kid with a mobile disability. WHO ELSE HAS DONE THIS SINCE? And this was the mid-eighties!

I was impressed with King’s script. Not only were there creepy moments so intense that I was wide-eyed and fidgeting with terror, but there were some hilarious moments, too (thanks to some campy characters). Nothing in this world pleases me more than a movie that can terrify me and make me laugh.

Saturday: SHORTS (F)

The MHHFF is the first weekend in October at the Alamo Drafthouse in Littleton’s Aspen Grove.

Surprise! There’s also a lot-choking antique fair there on the first Saturday of the month, which made parking for the 11:10 AM showing a goddamn nightmare. It took me ten minutes to find a spot (about a block away from the theater) when I had planned to just pull up and run in with enough time to order a drink and some fried pickles.

Instead I was late and had to sit in between two strangers. (The Alamo’s seating system is effective, but weird. They don’t give a shit about buffer zones.)

I’m glad I was able to take my seat despite the theater’s policy on tardiness. Ever since I found out this festival was a thing, I’ve wanted to catch a block of short horror films. I wasn’t disappointed.

Of course, I didn’t have any expectations either. I approached it like I do any anthology: it’s a fun trick-or-treat grab bag that yields a variety of experiences. I tend to prefer the short form to features or novels because I have an attention span of about two seconds.

The F block of shorts was very moody, but I did come in at the end of a short that had everyone in the audience laughing. These little films were of good quality; nothing I saw was done using an iPhone or some bullshit. One short cost the filmmaker $42k to make. It was only eight minutes, but she was also using it as a promotional tool to attract investors for a feature version. I can’t remember her last name, but she sounded German and I think her first name was Pablo. The entry was filmed in Japan and had a Japanese name that sounded like “she.” (The Alamo’s page on this show has expired and the MHHFF’s website is woefully uninformative. Also I forgot to pick up a program schedule.)

This filmmaker was available for Q & A after the screening and regaled us with anecdotes about the spooky parts of contemporary Japanese culture. She talked a little about the suicide forest, of course. Thanks to Bracken MacLeod’s contribution to the excellent Shock Totem issue #9, I already knew about the seriousness of that place; how there are signs posted along the trails advising people to call a hotline and remember the people who love them. The audience member on my left issued a shocked laugh and looked over at me, incredulous. But I’d already heard about it.

What I didn’t expect was this filmmaker to confirm that there was something extraordinary about the forest. MacLeod pointedly mentioned “the call of the void” in his story and his brief essay on why he wrote “Thirteen Visions of the Suicide Woods,” but Pablo confirmed this feeling. She said there was something off about that place. When you go there, you become hopeless. You get l’appel du vide.

On a lighter note, she also said that the height of summer is when Japan favors horror, because scary stories give you goosebumps. They make chills run down your spine, right? And there’s plenty of horror to go around in that country because the summers, Pablo said, are very hot and very humid.

***

1,400 words is good enough for one blog, no? I have some research to do before commenting on the panel I attended Sunday; it was on an intersection of subjects I love and I want to do it justice.