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DEAD BY DAWN
30th April - 3rd May 2009
All screenings in Cinema One
Thursday 30 April
THE ROOM + Guests + BLOOD RIVER
2315 – 0130
Friday 1 May
WHAT YOU MAKE IT Shorts + feature
FROM INSIDE
I LIVE IN THE WOODS + NEXT FLOOR + WISH +
ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS + Q&A
THE FORBIDDEN DOOR
COLD STORAGE + Q&A
TAMAMI: THE BABY’S CURSE
Saturday 2 May
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
CUTTING EDGE Short Film Competition THE PEARCE SISTERS + Guest + SAUNA
CREEPS + Q&A
HOW MY DAD KILLED DRACULA + NIGHT OF THE
All-Nighter:
PIB & POG + LAST OF THE LIVING
OCULUS + DEAD SPACE: DOWNFALL
THERE ARE MONSTERS + BRAINDEAD
Sunday 3 May
MISERY
Classic Shorts Programme
DAWNING
HOME MOVIE
idiocy
Give -aways, shit film amnesty & general sleep -deprived
HEART OF KARL + LES DENTS DE LA NUIT
1300 – 1445
1515 – 1715
1800 – 2000
2045 – 2245
2315 – 0100
1300 – 1435
1515 – 1715
1800 – 1945
2045 – 2300
0000 – 0145
0230 – 0430
0445 – 0645
1400 – 1600
1630 – 1730
1915 – 2030
2130 – 2255
2330 – 0000
0000 – 0150
Some times may be subject to slight change
ts of the festival until 3am
Filmhouse has a late licence for all four nigh
Welcome to Dead by Dawn!
As a discovery festival, the programme is full of the very finest new independent horror. As we are
devoted fans of classic cinema, there’s also a selection of some of our enduring favourites and for those of
you who like your nightmares bite-sized, we bring you a glorious collection of shorts, including some of
the biggest hits from past festivals.
From the squirm-inducing agonies of DIY surgery to death-by-cutlery, from a blood-drenched postapocalyptic wasteland to Santa-cide, it’s all here.
We hope you have a great festival!
Adèle
Adèle Hartley
Festival Director
We’d like to thank all these organisations for their support:
Catalogue designed by Andy Lobban at Nonimage.com
James
James McKenzie
Chief Operations Officer, Filmhouse
Misery
Stephen King adaptations are, I reckon,
like little girls with curls – when good,
they are very, very good and when bad,
they go beyond horrid. Misery joins the
shorter, better list and remains, for me,
one of those films that still makes me
squirm, even though I know exactly
what’s lurking in store.
Cruelty has become so common and
the element with which to outdo the
competition in so many contemporary
horror films that I wanted to go back to
a movie that puts cruelty and torture in
an intimate, isolated context, rendering
it more subtle, more effective and
ultimately more disturbing than
anything with a contraption, a timer
and the kind of editing that only serves
to fast-track a migraine.
Kathy Bates turns in a sublime
performance as Annie Wilkes, devoted
admirer of both Paul Sheldon and of his
creation, Misery Chastain.
Having ticked the secluded-writer box
by locking himself away to finish a new
novel, Sheldon (James Caan) is driving
back towards civilisation when his car
skids on ice and lands upside down in a
snowdrift in a blizzard. His chances of
rescue seem slim.
Regaining consciousness in Annie’s
home, it first appears that luck is on
his side. In a casual conversation with
his apparent saviour, Paul confides
that he’s killed Misery off in the latest
book and that’s when he finds his
recuperation will come at a cost.
Bates has the extraordinary and deeply
unsettling talent to switch from a
skipping, gleeful, adoring fan to a
creature of such fury that I love to
watch the black clouds darken her eyes
and hear her voice change pitch and
feel some of Sheldon’s adrenaline and
panic over what she might do next.
USA / 1990 / 107 mins
Director: Rob Reiner
Producers: Rob Reiner,
Andrew Scheinman
Writer: Stephen King (novel),
William Goldman (screenplay)
Music: Marc Shaiman
DoP: Barry Sonnenfeld
Editor: Robert Leighton
F/X: Howard Berger, Bruce S. Fuller,
Robert Kurtzman, Rick LaLonde,
Greg Nicotero
Cast: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard
Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, Lauren
Bacall, Graham Jarvis, Jerry Potter, Tom
Brunelle, June Christopher
Yudai Yamaguchi’s latest film, Tamami:
The Baby’s Curse or Akanbo Shojo
belongs to the rarefied subgenre of
monster baby films, for which, luckily,
I have a soft spot. Akanbo Shojo
successfully mixes the gross-out oddity
of imports like Devil Fetus with the
more emotional horror of Larry Cohen’s
It’s Alive, while adding a strand of
jealous rivalry from sibling-based horror
films like Basket Case and the Shaw’s
Siamese Twins.
Yoko has been missing since she was
separated from her father, Keizo Nanjo,
during an attack in the last days of the
war. Nanjo now lives in semi-seclusion
with his collection of European
medieval artefacts (including a healthy
selection of battle axes and the acid
used to polish them, extraneous items
which ought to set a horror fan’s radar
pinging). The only other inhabitants
seemingly are his mad wife Yuko and
frigid housekeeper.
Akanbo Shojo actually plays to some
extent like a creative collection of
gothic and modern horror’s greatest
hits. There’s the mad shut-in relative
as in Wuthering Heights; frequent use
Nevertheless, Yoko quickly comes
to suspect the presence of another
member of the family - a mysterious
baby whose presence is denied by
all members of the household. She
Raimi of Japan. Previous films like
Cromartie High School and Battlefield
Baseball shared hyper-stylized school
settings, while Meatball Machine
prefigured the Cronenbergian body
horror of this film. Here, though,
Yamaguchi’s pairing with legendary
horror manga author Kazuo Umezu
(known for visceral but cerebral works
like Drifting Classroom – viewers of
Uzumaki will recognize his influence
on that story’s author, Junji Ito) leads
to a more controlled and atmospheric
piece. It may not be Bava, but it is a
nod in that direction.
For a film that wears its penury on its
sleeve, Akanbo Shojo is a remarkably
Tamami: The Baby’s Curse
of the subjective Evil Dead cam; and
a malevolent housekeeper straight
out of Rebecca. Fortunately, good use
is made of these influences, which
are incorporated instead of being
highlighted.
Like so many films, we are only given
a brief prelude in the ‘normal world’
before moving into the realm of horror.
Once Yoko arrives at her destination,
the Nanjo property in the middle of
the woods, the rules of the real world
are left behind and she is trapped in
Yamaguchi’s surreal and nightmarish
territory.
is attacked on her first night in the
mansion when she wanders into
the wrong room – an attack soon
followed by crying sounds, bloody claw
marks on walls, and a beheaded doll.
Inconveniently, the baby turns out
to be Yoko’s mutant sister Tamami
who likes to lurk in the walls and rip
people’s faces off. Tamami’s intentions
toward her sister are unclear for a
while but eventually the two sisters are
locked in a struggle to the death..
Yamaguchi is an interesting director –
his commitment to slapstick, gore and
sci-fi make him something of the Sam
handsome production. Yes, the
effects are cheap, but they are not
shoddy – Yamaguchi continues his
impressive track record of making a
lot out of very little. The effects and
the story actually come together quite
nicely to create an effective horror
experience. While the film is probably
not intended to be serious, Yamaguchi
keeps his tongue planted firmly in
cheek, allowing Akanbo Shojo to enjoy
a certain wackiness while retaining the
necessary atmosphere.
From a review by David Austin at
Cinema Strikes Back
www.cinemastrikesback.com
Japan / 2008 / 100 mins
Director: Yûdai Yamaguchi
Producer: Shin Torisawa
Writers: Hirotoshi Kobayashi,
Kazuo Umezu
F/X: Yoshihiro Nishimura,
Tsuyoshi Kazuno
Cast: Asami, Atsuko Asano, Keisuke
Horibe, Etsuko Ikuta, Itsuji Itao, Nako
Mizusawa, Gorô Noguchi,
Takumi Saito, Teru
CUT TING EDGE SHORTS
MAMA
THE KILLER
un-nerved when a stranger comes
It’s a small town, so a local clerk is
all thought was just another tourist.
calling, inquiring after someone they
, the stranger becomes even more
Tracking him to the only B&B in town
determined not to leave town with
unfinished business
USA / 2007 / 8 mins
Director: David A. Nelson
YOU BETTER WATCH OUT
store he
work at the department
One night when Santa has finished
need to share with him their
encounters two brothers who feel the
s mornings. It seems that some
own memories of long past Christma
disappointments just don’t fade
with time.
Australia / 2008 / 22 mins
Director: Steve Callen
HOLD YOUR FIRE
a fog-covered battlefield targets
A ghostly soldier wandering through
more dangerous than originally
a Japanese girl who turns out to be
foreign hospital, he lives with the
anticipated. Years later, in a tomb-like
legacy of that encounter.
USA / 2008 / 8 mins
Director: Wes Benscoter
erate sister who urges her to leave
Lili is abruptely awakened by her desp
to grab their pet and creep out
the house. The girls have enough time
back, waiting for them downstairs
into the dark stairwell. Someone is
and nothing could be more
important than getting out the
house.
Spain / 2008 / 3 mins
Director: Andres Muschietti
THE UGLY FILE
a living taking pictures of children.
Photographer Roy Hubbard makes
ren but it’s a commission from
child
These, however, are no ordinary
etion and willing. Want to see
discr
a client who pays very well for his
what’s in The Ugly File?
USA / 2009 / 10 mins
Director: Mark Steensland
ADVANTAGE
a big night out and decide to sneak
A young couple stumble home after
they can make out undisturbed.
into a suburban tennis club, thinking
played, and how can you win when
But this is a place where games are
you don’t know the rules?
Australia / 2007 / 11 mins
Director: Sean Byrne
LF
WHEELCHAIR WEREWof O
mutilated
KIRKSDALE
amongst ancient oaks, rests
In the deep south of 1960’s Florida,
d mental asylum, it was intended
Kirksdale Hospital. A plantation turne
environment to ease their inner
to provide patients with a calm, rural
turmoil. Unfortunately for a new
female patient arriving with her
police escort, things have not been
town, leaving a trail
An evil werewolf terrorizes a small
tity. Who could it be? Almost nobodies but not a single clue to his iden
monster!
one can escape the clutches of this
USA / 2008 / 3 mins
Director: Joe Avella
running smoothly at Kirksdale.
USA / 2007 / 22 mins
Director: Ryan Spindell
with the
The Horribly Slow Murderer
pon
Extremely Inefficient Weatless murderer of all time.
r with what could be the most relen
The epic story of one man’s encounte
USA / 2008 / 10 mins
Director: Richard Gale
LES
DENTS
DE LA
NUIT
Luxembourg/Belgium/France / 2008 /
85 mins
Directors: Stephen Cafiero,
Vincent Lobelle
Producers: Walid Ben Youssef,
Thierry de Ganay, David Gauquie
Writers: Jean-Patrick Benes, Stephen
Cafiero, Vincent Lobelle, Allan Mauduit
Music: Gast Waltzing
DoP: Olivier Cocaul
Editor: Stéphane Pereira
F/X: Jérémy B. Caravita,
Pierre Olivier Persin
Cast: Patrick Mille, Frédérique Bel,
Julie Fournier, Vincent Desagnat, Sam
Karmann, Hélène de Fougerolles,
Antoine Duléry, Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus,
Tchéky Karyo
When a lounge lizard spots a vulnerable
Alice sobbing at the bar over yet
another break-up, he passes her an
invite to a very exclusive event – La
Nuit Medicis.
Her friends Sam and Prune are never
comfortable with the idea of missing
a party and are ecstatic when they see
what she’s got - these parties are the
stuff of legend and an invite is rarer
than gold-dust. It is not something
they intend to miss. Sam and Prune
soon connive to get themselves invited
too and it’s not long before all three are
on their way, by private helicopter, with
only a tiresome civil servant Edouard
for company.
All the guests arrive in similar style,
including the beyond-sleazy Serge
Krinine, dentist to the stars, and
Jessica, a gangster’s moll who would
win awards, if being spoiled and thick
was worthy of a prize.
On arrival at the spectacular castle
on an obligatory dark and foreboding
mountaintop, Sam, Prune and Alice
find there are two entrances, but
their invite only grants access to one.
Heading for the bar and the dancefloor, Sam is so intrigued by the
forbidden VIP area that he is willing to
try almost anything to get in.
Unfortunately for our three friends,
they are about to discover what really
goes on behind closed doors on this
very special night, when their host and
his closest friends have just one night
to slake their thirst.
Co-directors Vincent Lobelle and
Stephen Cafiero got the job because
the producers thought they would
‘combine an Anglo-Saxon intelligence
and visual bravado with unusual
casting, while adding just the right
dose of madness.’ Judge for yourself
whether they fulfilled their job
spec. Hélène de Fougerolles says,
of playing Jessica, ‘She (Jessica) is a
perfect moron, and she’s fantastic to
play. If you have to interpret an idiot,
you might as well do it as plainly as
possible!’
BRAINDEAD
The Citizen Kane of Oedipal zombiecannibal-comedy-love stories. Kiwi
auteur Peter Jackson takes the
shopworn flesh-eating zombie genre
by its rotting horns, adds a dash of
Monty Python, and comes up with a
film so gleefully over-the-top that it’s
decidedly hard not to gag while you’re
laughing yourself incontinent.
Rivers of gore, entrails, and ambulating
body parts surround poor nebbish
Lionel (Balme), a mama’s boy whose
mama (Moody) just happens to
have been bitten by a Sumatran Rat
Monkey and consequently degenerates
into a flesh-hungry omnivore with a
keen knack for oozing pus in front of
the houseguests. Before you can say
George Romero, she’s snacking on the
neighbors, and Lionel’s up to his neck
in overly-mobile cadavers.
Though he tries valiantly to keep them
sedated, it’s not long before all hell
breaks loose in a 30-minute climax that
makes Re-Animator look like Captain
Kangaroo on a bad hair day. Add to
this Lionel’s newfound love interest,
Paquita (Penalver), his scheming uncle
Les (Watkin), and a zombie infant that
makes abortion seem like a really, really
good idea, and you have quite literally
the most disgusting comedy ever.
Jackson, obviously aware of the clichéridden dangers of “horror comedies,”
chucks convention and good taste out
the window and goes for the gusto (or
is that “gutso”?) with uncanny results.
The film moves from gag to gore to
gag again like a rocket from the crypt
and never lets up - just when you think
you’ve seen the worst, Jackson tops
himself and there you are squirming
in your seat again (and loving every
minute of it). Sick. Perverse. Brilliant.
From a review by Marc Savlov for The
Austin Chronicle
New Zealand / 1992 / 104 mins
Director: Peter Jackson
Producers: Jim Booth, Jamie Selkirk
Writers: Stephen Sinclair,
Frances Walsh, Peter Jackson
Music: Peter Dasent
DoP: Murray Milne
Editor: Jamie Selkirk
F/X: Richard Taylor, Steve Ingram,
Bob McCarron
Cast: Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver,
Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin, Brenda
Kendall, Stuart Devenie, Jed Brophy,
Stephen Papps, Murray Keane, Glenis
Levestam, Lewis Rowe, Elizabeth
Mulfaxe, Harry Sinclair, Davina
Whitehouse, Silvio Famularo, Brian
Sergent, Peter Vere-Jones
I can positively guarantee that no
other film in the Festival this year
will simultaneously recall the films
of Andrei Tarkovsky and Eli Roth
– let alone to such powerful and
riveting effects. Antti-Jussi Annila’s
Sauna marries these two divergent
approaches to cinematic narrative in a
way not seen since, well, his
previous film, Jade Warrior,
which sought a middle
way between Chinese
historical martial arts
films and Kaurismäkiinspired Finnish slacker
road movies.
Like any decent
transcendentalist horror film, Sauna is
set at a particular, contested moment
in history. It is 1595. Brutal wars have
just ended in an uneasy peace between
Protestant Sweden and Orthodox
Russia. Finland has been trampled
over and buried. The film concerns
the spiritual defeats of two conquered
Finnish brothers, one a hardened
near-psychopathic war hero, the other
a gentle scientist in an age with no use
for such men. They find themselves
in the swampy interior, demarcating
the new border with a unit of sadistic
Russians.
The film begins with a moment
of affection marred by an
act of cruelty. This is an
act that will haunt the
brothers as their travels
take them into eerier
territory. When they reach
an undocumented town,
populated by an ethnically
indistinct but practically childless
sect, the brothers’ spiritual anxieties
escalate, awakening a dark force that
feeds off bloody borderlands and the
moral vacuums such locales create.
The centre of this force is in an
otherworldly structure, a kind of protosauna appropriately housing a vengeful
Scandinavian demon.
Annila is a master of shifting tone.
The early scenes have an alienating
coldness about them, as we come to
know these pitiful siblings. While
their spiritual prison begins to make
its weight felt, the film takes on an
intense claustrophobia and an almost
unbearable sadness, alleviated only
by the onset of extremely violent,
haunting horror, featuring imagery that
will occupy your nightmares for days.
This is a director who has something
new and fresh to say about the formal
properties of genre, and his film is a
case study in the modernist project
of creating and releasing existential
anxiety.
Noah Cowan, Toronto International
Film Festival 2008
Finland / 2008 / 85 mins
Director: AJ Annila
Producers: Jesse Fryckman,
Tero Kaukomaa
Writer: Iiro Küttner
Music: Panu Aaltio
DoP: Henri Blomberg
Editor: Joona Louhivuori
Cast: Ville Virtanen, Tommi Eronen,
Viktor Klimenko, Rain Tolk, Kari Ketonen,
Sonja Petäjäjärvi, Vilhelmiina Virkkunen,
Taisto Reimaluoto, Ismo Kallio, Kati
Outinen, Dick Idman, Ivo Kubecka
HOME
MOVIE
The Poes are your average, middleclass American family, living in a
remote area of upstate New York.
Clare is a psychiatrist. David is a
Lutheran minister. Ten-year-old twins
Jack and Emily (played brilliantly
by actual brother and sister Austin
and Amber Williams) are out of their
minds. Clare recently bought a video
camera to document her sessions, but
neither parent can resist co-opting it
to use for home movies. Everything
we see is limited to what they have
shot of each other. And it isn’t pretty.
Their footage at first seems fairly
typical until Jack throws a rock into
his father’s face. Shortly afterward, a
tender moment is interrupted when
Emily quietly kills a frog. Listening to
the parent’s conversations, we begin
to realize that the Poe children have
always been violent. And it appears
that their behaviour has lately been
getting far more dangerous. After a
particularly savage incident (trust
me, it will freeze your blood), Clare
tries to do home counselling with her
own children as patients, but this fails
miserably. Medicine fails. Religion fails.
The children are utterly, irrevocably
cruel — the very definition of the word
‘evil’, in fact — and there is absolutely
nothing their parents can do except
continue documenting their behaviour.
The most mature and provocative
entry yet in the current wave of ‘reality
horror’ filmmaking, HOME MOVIE
takes us into the troubled household
of the idealized American familynext-door, laying bare their darkest
power struggles and most disturbing
transgressions. Ferociously smart and
frightening, it recalls the ’70s cycle of
horror films that deconstructed the
family unit in horrifically revealing
ways (think THE BROOD, IT’S
ALIVE...), told with a millennial verité
aspect that lends chilling potency
to everything. It’s an unbelievable
accomplishment for first-time writer/
director Christopher Denham, burning
USA / 2008 / 80 mins
Director: Christopher Denham
Producers: William M. Miller,
Andrew van den Houten, Robert Tonino
Writer: Christopher Denham
Music: Ryan Shore
DoP: William M. Miller
Editor: John T. Miller
Cast: Adrian Pasdar, Cady McClain,
Amber Joy Williams, Austin Williams
with genuine horror and enforced
by perfect performances that never
fail to convince. The film is also shot
through with fascinating subtext
and grisly irony. For one, the camera
itself is an agent of empowerment,
those holding it attaining a degree of
control that they clearly lack without
it. Denham also cleverly fleshes out
his film’s twins-oriented universe with
the use of reciprocating situations and
iconography.
You won’t consciously recognize it at
first, but these devices are employed
from the very first moments, and they
are ingenious. HOME MOVIE goes
places few modern horror films dare.
If you’re a parent, or for that matter
anyone that has ever tried to forgive
a loved one who’s done something
indefensible, it will absolutely mortify
you.
—Mitch Davis, Fantasia Film Festival
www.fantasiafest.com
Dawning takes place at a Northern
Minnesota lake cabin where a brother
and sister (Najarra Townsend) visit
their father and step-mom. As the
first night unfolds with uncomfortable
small-talk and tension, tragedy strikes
as the beloved family dog is found
wounded.
Almost immediately, a stranger,
potentially under the spell of some unseen ‘presence’, appears in the cabin
and tells the family that he has come to
save them...but from what?
The man’s arrival upsets what at best
was only a tentative balance and the
pretence at civility begins to crumble.
Soon, their lack of trust in each other
and their inability to cope with any
new pressure exposes their weaknesses
and what the stranger has started,
whatever is waiting in the dark may
finish.
Filled with the chaotic and unknown,
‘Dawning’ takes a cerebral approach to
horror which your average hack-andslash film just doesn’t provide. Instead
of relying on action-fueled horror
movies and shock gimmicks, Dawning
relies on atmosphere and mood to lend
tension to an already troubled family,
surrounding them with no answers...
except that we all die.
Gregg Holtgrewe was born and raised
in Moorhead, Minnesota and started
making movies at the age of 14. After
graduating from college in 2000,
Holtgrewe moved to Minneapolis,
Minnesota to continue his filmmaking
career. In 1999 Gregg won a ‘Best
Director’ award for his short film ‘The
Party Gnome’ and has since made
two features and six shorts which
have screened at various festivals
around the United States. This will
be the first screening for a film by
Holtgrewe outside of the U.S. and he
looks forward to encountering a new
audience.
Colin Covert of the Minneapolis StarTribune says, “I loved Holtgrewe’s
mastery of suspense technique.
From the opening road-to-the-woods
shots, to the claustrophobia of the
cabin, to the fear of the dark in
the outdoors, holding some shots a
few beats too long, cutting others
abruptly...Holtgrewe gave the piece
a skin-crawly feeling just through
solid craftsmanship. I liked the lack
of music,and the atmosphere of
uncertainty throughout the piece.
I thought the acting was generally
strong. The way each major character
succumbed to stress according to
his/her individual weakness was
intriguing.”
USA / 2005 / 70 mins
Director: Gregg Holtgrewe
Producers: Gregg Holtgrewe,
Brendan Reynolds, Danny Salmen,
Michael D. Howe
Writers: Gregg Holtgrewe,
Matthew Wilkins
Music: Nick Mortek
DoP: Thomas ‘TJ’ Schwingle
Editor: Mike Kolloen
F/X: Jennifer M Kelly
Sound Mixer: Tom Hambleton, C.A.S.
Cast: Najarra Townsend, Jonas Goslow,
Christine Kellogg-Darrin, David Coral,
Danny Salmen
“Well, I got good
news and bad news,
girls. The good news
is your dates are
here. The bad news
is they’re dead.”
1986. It’s Pledge Week and shy dweeb
Chris Romero and his wisecracking
disabled pal ‘J.C.’ Hooper are cruising
the various frat houses when Chris
spots (and instantly falls head over
heels for) sorority girl
Cindy Cronenberg. In
true Animal House nerdmovie-style our hapless
geeks reckon the only way
to get Chris nearer the girl
of his dreams is to try and
pledge to the Beta House
fraternity. Of course it’s
home to the hardiest of
bullish jocks and when
their initiation ceremony
plans go horribly wrong (a failed
attempt to steal a corpse from the
college morgue, “at least we don’t have
to have sex with a farm animal”) the
laughs and gore come thick and fast in
this comedy splatter zombie gem.
Part 1950’s sci-fi B movie, part 1980’s
teen frat house comedy and homage
to all things horror, Fred Dekker’s
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS is a true
sleeper horror comedy classic and very
much deserved of its Dead By Dawn
Classics screening this weekend.
On paper, NIGHT OF THE
CREEPS could very well look to be a
catalogue of groan-worthy plagiaristic
stereotypical 1980’s Z-Grade fodder.
Sure, they named most of the lead
characters, as a wink to genre fans,
after many of the fields favourite
directors - Landis, Raimi, Romero but
that doesn’t justify why the film was
often overlooked on its original release.
Happily on closer inspection (some 23
years on) you’ll soon find that NIGHT
OF THE CREEPS is in fact a loving
and well crafted tribute
to our beloved genre that
pleases no end.
Dekker’s script is both
enthralling and fun with
some great character
development; geek
double team Romero
and Hooper’s dialogue is
up there with the best
of John ‘Breakfast Club’
Hughes work pre-dating the whole
‘bromance’ concept by some years
but it’s Tom Atkins performance as
embittered angry cop Detective Ray
Cameron that truly steals the show.
Every time he opens his mouth another
piece of verbal cinematic gold is
thrown onto the screen.
Essentially though, and perhaps
most importantly for all die-hard
horror-loving Dead By Dawn regulars,
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS delivers
from the word go with pure genre
entertainment and enough blood and
gore to keep even the most hardened
of splatter fans sated (and keep a
close eye onscreen as even genre
legend Dick Miller makes a cameo
appearance).
As Detective Cameron would say,
“thrill me.”
Alan Simpson, SexGoreMutants
Dead by Dawn would like to thank Sony for
making this screening possible
We are delighted to welcome director Fred
Dekker to Dead by Dawn
USA / 1986 / 88 mins
Director: Fred Dekker
Producers: Charles Gordon,
Donna Smith
Writer: Fred Dekker
Music: Barry De Vorzon
DoP: Robert C. New
Editor: Michael N. Knue
F/X: Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman,
David B. Miller
Cast: Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill
Whitlow, Tom Atkins, Wally Taylor, Bruce
Solomon, Vic Polizos, Allan Kayser, Ken
Heron, Alice Cadogan, June
Harris, David Paymer, David Oliver,
Evelyne Smith
NIGHT OF THE
creeps
COLD STORAGE
Clive (Searcy), a mentally disturbed
mountain man, meets Melissa, the
girl of his dreams, and commits to
spending the rest of his life with her.
Unfortunately, she’s already dead,
having suffered a fatal injury in a car
accident near Clive’s isolated shack.
Still, Clive isn’t the sort of guy to let
a little thing like decomposition get
in the way of happiness. Nor will he
allow anyone else to get between him
and his true love, especially the living
who might come looking for her, such
as her strong-willed sister and her
looking-to-reconcile ex-boyfriend.
This is a movie that could easily
have been yet another slasher movie
about city folk meeting hicks in
the backwoods who - when they
aren’t breeding with their sisters
- are killing strangers who happen
along. Thankfully, director and coscreenwriter Tony Elwood created a far
better film than that. In fact, he used
the rural setting of the film as a means
to make it even more suspenseful by
playing against the typical Hollywood
image of anything outside Chicago, Los
Angeles, or New York City.
By making Rainerspoint a typical small
town inhabited mostly by friendly
people, Elwood makes the creep factor
(and ultimately the horror factor) of
the happenings at Clive’s shack that
much more frightening and intense.
The weirdness of Clive isn’t diluted
by surrounding him with equally
weird and scary neighbours - with
one exception - and that neighbour is
probably worse than Clive. Elwood
further deploys set and lighting design
to contrast the normality and the town
with Clive’s private world in the forest;
the scenes in the town are all in clean,
brightly lit places and the sun always
seems to be shining on the street, but
Clive’s place is full of filth, deep and
dark shadows and it always seems to
be overcast or raining. It’s a powerful
approach, and it’s one that shows that
productions and scripts developed
with thought and care will deliver
powerful experiences no matter what
the budget.
Nick Searcy gives a spectacular
performance as the deranged Clive that
makes us feel sympathy even when his
behaviour becomes inexcusable. It’s a
performance that displays acting of a
calibre that is all-too-rarely seen.
From a review by Steve Miller for
Rotten Tomatoes
Tony D. Elwood began polishing his
craft at the age of 11, starting with
the production of Super 8 films.
Tony knew as soon as he projected
his first roll of film that he was going
to become a filmmaker. He began
his professional career at the age of
17, while still in high school, as a cel
painter for an animation company in
Charlotte, North Carolina. This whet
his appetite, causing him to move into
the field of special effects, an area
where his expertise is still called upon
today. Tony’s FX credits include Evil
Dead II, Cat’s Eye, Now and Then,
and The Journey of August King. He
soon began to experiment with his own
films, producing and directing over
seven short films, all dealing with the
genres he knows best: horror, mystery
and suspense.
In 1989, Tony raised the funds to
produce his first feature film, Killer.
Killer went on to great success,
grossing more than 50 times its
production costs, allowing Tony to
produce his second feature film, Road
Kill. Cold Storage is Tony’s third
directorial effort. He also co-produced
the low budget sci-fi/horror film Night
Feeders, and has directed numerous
commercials and music videos.
USA / 2006 / 92 mins
Director: Tony Elwood
Producers: Paul Barrett, Tony Elwood,
Bert Hesse
Writers: Tony Elwood, Mark Kimray
Music: David Helpling
DoP: Lyn Moncrief
Editor: Tony Elwood
F/X: Scott Kiesling
Cast: Nick Searcy, Matt Keeslar, Joelle
Carter, Brett Gentile, Casey Leet, Jeffrey
Pillars, Terry Loughlin, Rebecca Koon
We are delighted to welcome director Tony Elwood
and producer Paul Barrett to Dead by Dawn
CLASSIC SHORTS
Over recent years, the shorts programmes at this festival have increased in popularity, allowing me to continue to
expand the number included each year and also to run special screenings like the retrospectives for film-makers
like Rob Morgan and Sam Walker.
There are now three sections at every Dead by Dawn. The main section includes all the short films shown
accompanying feature films and the Cutting Edge Short Film Competition is designed to showcase debut and
emerging directors. When the What You Make It programme was introduced, it was designed to screen films
which might not traditionally be defined as horror, but which are unsettling, disturbing or twisted in their own
right.
As part of this year’s festival, I figured that it was time to revisit some of the best shorts we’ve shown over the last
16 years. It’s by no means a definitive list, of course, as I chose some of my favourites, but I hope some of your
favourites are in there, too!
Rather than spoil the surprise, I’m keeping the line-up a secret but you can pick up a listing of all the titles shown
from the Dead by Dawn desk after the screening.
their way to deliver the good
news of Summer’s pregnancy
to her parents, one of their
tires blows out and leaves
them stranded in the middle
of nowhere. Though Clark is
sure he packed the spare, none
is to be found in the trunk,
so they make their way to the
small town of Blood River,
about 5 or 6 miles from their
accident.
Shortly after they arrive in the
ghost town, a drifter named
Joseph (Howard) also wanders
into the town. At first he
seems like he just wants to
help the couple, but as soon as
he gets Summer alone, he lets
her know his true intentions:
Adam Mason is a unique case study in
independent filmmakers; to date, each
one of his movies, Broken, The Devil’s
Chair and now Blood River, has had
production values far greater than the
budget Mason had access to. He’s also
a filmmaker willing to take chances
and create something outside of typical
mainstream horror films. Because
of that it seems he’s never been too
concerned with making something
commercially viable, but rather the
kinds of films he
would want to see,
and it’s sad how
rare a trait that is in
our genre today.
Blood River is his
latest foray into
indie cinema that
looks anything
but indie, and it
is by far his crowning achievement to
date. It is a texturally rich film that is
absolutely gorgeous to behold thanks
to its bleak desert setting brought
to life by the formidable skills of
cinematographer Stuart Brereton, who
helped shoot Devil’s Chair and is DP
on Mason’s latest, Luster, as well.
As happy couple Summer and Clark
(Panzer and Duncan, respectively)
make their way across the desert on
What’s so great about Blood
River, and to a lesser extent all of
Mason’s films, is that nothing is spelled
out for the audience. Your hand is not
held nor your steps guided through this
plot; there is a thick layer of ambiguity
shrouding everything, from characters
to situations, that allows the viewer to
come to his or her own conclusion as to
what is really happening.
Even though solid answers are never
given and an easy
way out is never even
explored, let alone
taken, there was
enough to keep me
enthralled from start
to finish. Though the
build-up to Joseph’s
arrival takes a little
longer than I would
have liked, once he is
with the couple and hell follows on his
heels, any missteps made previously
can be forgiven.
Of course, such a lofty film
could never be pulled off if
the talent involved wasn’t
up to snuff, but that’s not
a concern at all. All three
leads turn in fantastic
performances, no easy task
considering the wide range
of emotions each one of them has to
hit upon throughout. Mason’s casting
choices have always been solid for the
most part, but the way this trio pulls
off such an emotionally draining slice
of cinema is the best I’ve seen yet.
Hopefully some wise distributor will
be picking up Blood River soon, and
when they do, with any luck they’ll
be smart enough to realize this is a
film that needs to be seen on the big
screen; even the best home theatre
system would not be able to do it the
full justice it deserves. No matter
the fate of Blood River, it is very clear
that Mason is director who makes
brave, risky decisions regarding his art
and thankfully has all the talent and
resources to hedge his bets every time.
From a review by Johnny Butane for
Dread Central www.dreadcentral.com
USA / 2009 / 104 mins
Director: Adam Mason
Producers: Shaked Berenson, Timothy
Patrick Cavanaugh, Mary Church,
Patrick Ewald, Lee Librado, Adam Mason
Writers: Simon Boyes, Adam Mason
DoP: Stuart Brereton
Editor: Adam Mason
Original Score: Martin Grech
F/X: Tristan Versluis, Sam Meyer
Cast: Andrew Howard, Tess Panzer, Ian
Duncan, Sarah Essex, Dillon Borowski,
Sandy ‘Red Dog Lil’ Johnson
A New York harbour turns into
a bloodbath when a seemingly
abandoned ship from the desolate
island of Matoul arrives to dock and
unleashes a bald, flesh-eating zombie
on the investigating police officers.
The boat’s origin catches the interest
of snoopy young Anne Bowles (Farrow,
Mia’s look-alike sister who appeared
in ‘Anthropophagous’ (aka ‘The Grim
Reaper’) and the excellent ‘Fingers’)
and reporter Peter West (McCulloch),
who discovers that Anne’s father is
now on the same island at the mercy
of some mysterious, sinister force.
Soon the New Yorkers set off for the
sunny seas and encounter a vacationing
couple on a boat, Brian (Cliver) and
uninhibited scuba diver Susan (Gay)
who tangles with a hungry shark and an
even hungrier aquatic zombie. Their
arrival at Matoul reveals a wasteland
thanks to rampant contagion and all
the zombies rising out of the ground,
with the only scientific aid provided
by the suspicious Dr. Menard (‘The
Haunting’’s Johnson, looking more
than a little soused) whose wife (the
show-stopping Karlatos) ends up on
the wrong end of a massive wooden
splinter. Soon the island is consumed
by increasingly ancient, hungry corpses
bursting from the earth, leaving our
heroes scrambling for a way home and
hurling Molotov cocktails at the rapidly
growing army of the undead.
Lucio Fulci’s most famous contribution
to the horror genre still ranks as one
of the goriest features ever released
to mainstream audiences. Originally
released under the title ‘Zombi 2’ in
Italy, Fulci’s epic was intended as a
pseudo-sequel to George Romero’s
profitable living dead classic, ‘Dawn
of the Dead’ (released in Europe as
‘Zombi’) and was released stateside as
‘Zombie’ by Jerry Gross complete with
an effective ad campaign emphasizing
the graphic, unrated levels of gore on
display. However, Fulci drops Romero’s
satiric, modernist approach and goes
straight for the jugular (literally in
one scene) with a primal story more
indebted to traditional voodoo-inspired
classics like ‘White Zombie’. Actingwise the film is middling at best;
Farrow and McCulloch have little to
do besides look neurotic, and Johnson
skulks about in a haggard fashion and
grumbles about the dead disturbing
his work. However, the film still
possesses a palpable sense of decay
and doom that casts an eerie spell to
this day; despite a draggy first third,
Fulci really delivers the goods with
this one, and the final two acts are an
admirable escalation of pure nightmare
on film. The nasty but bloodless final
scene in particular still offers a vicious,
apocalyptic punchline.
This first and most widely recognized
of Fulci’s zombie canon features all
of his regular contributors: gifted
cinematographer Sergio Salvati,
doing his usual stellar scope work;
composer Fabio Frizzi, providing a
foot-stomping main theme so catchy it
later resurfaced near the end of Fulci’s
‘City of the Living Dead’; and gory FX
favourite Giannetto De Rossi (‘Haute
Tension’), pumping out enough of
the red stuff to keep the Red Cross in
stock for months.
Review by Nathaniel Thompson; this is an
edited extract from the book DVD Delirium
Volume 1 Redux, published by FAB Press.
Dead by Dawn is delighted to welcome Ian
McCulloch as our guest this year
Italy / 1979 / 91 mins
Director: Lucio Fulci
Producers: Fabrizio de Angelis,
Ugo Tucci
Writers: Elisa Briganti,
Dardano Sacchetti
Music: Giorgio Tucci, Fabio Frizzi
DoP: Sergio Salvati
Editor: Vincenzo Tomassi
F/X: Giovanni Corridori, Gino De Rossi,
Roberto Pace
Cast: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch,
Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay,
Stefania D’Amario, Olga Karlatos
ZOMBIE FLESH-EATERS
S
When the idea for Dead Space:
Downfall hit my radar, I must admit
I was quite worried. A feature length
animated film tie-in prequel to a video
game? While intriguing, it could have
gone horribly wrong, possibly ending
up as an eighty-minute commercial
brought to us by the fine folks at
EA Games. Yet, the company had
other ideas. They wanted to release
something visceral and not just a
quick cash in. To help make this task a
reality, they brought aboard animation
veteran Chuck Patton to take the
directorial helm and comic book
geniuses Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin
Gray to do the screenplay. The end
result? It’s dead on, baby!
USA / 2008 / 74 mins
Director: Chuck Patton
Producers: Joe Goyette, Jim Wyatt
Writers: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti
Music: Seth Podowitz
F/X: Brent M. Bowen, Rick Moser
Cast: Kirk Baily, Jeff Bennett, Bruce
Boxleitner, Jim Cummings, Grey DeLisle,
Nika Futterman, Kelly Hu, David Allen
Kramer, Maurice LaMarche, Phil Morris,
Bob Neill, Shelly O’Neill, Jim Piddock,
Kevin Michael Richardson, Lia Sargent,
Hal Sparks, Keith Szarabajka
We meet the crew of the USG Ishimura
as they head off to check out what’s
happened on a remote planet that is
home to a deep space mining colony.
The residents have inadvertently
unearthed a huge religious relic that
is thought to provide proof of the
existence of God. The big problem
at hand? This thing is anything but
holy. From within the relic a dormant
strain of body possessing aliens
emerge, and as a result absolute
and total carnage ensues. The
Ishimura is decimated. Twisted,
once human monsters roam its
high-tech halls, and that, my
friends, is exactly where the
video game takes up.
Let me start by saying this ...
Wow. If you’re going into this
expecting some cutesy bit of
sci-fi anime, you’re in for a
shock. There’s nothing bright and
sunny about Dead Space: Downfall. It’s
brutal, unrelenting, and savage. Bodies
are torn, eviscerated, and mutilated
with the kind of reckless abandon
you’d expect from Ed Gein on supercrack. This is no kids’ show. Patton,
Palmiotti, and Gray are obviously
not content with just pushing the
proverbial envelope; they are here to
push it, paint it red with gore, and then
tear the fucker in half. Holy shit, have
they succeeded!
While mainly targeting the gamers out
there who will no doubt be picking up
Dead Space, this feature transcends
that audience by delivering a slice
of animated horror that stands on its
own as one hell of a ride. Not since
the original Heavy Metal and Vampire
Hunter D have I seen an animated
film so provocative. Kudos to all those
involved and again ... Wow.
Dead Space: Downfall is the animated
surprise shocker of the year. Filled with
twists, turns, and more hard core gore
scenes than you could ever imagine,
this interstellar spooker belongs in
your horror collection. Here’s to the
possibility of a sequel that will reunite
Patton, Palmiotti, and Gray. Now if
you’ll excuse me, there’s some strategic
dismemberment action waiting for me
in my 360! Fuck yeah!
From the review by Uncle Creepy for
Dread Central www.dreadcentral.com
Charles Laughton’s ‘The Night of the
Hunter’ is one of the greatest of all
American films, but has never received
the attention it deserves because of
its lack of the proper trappings - great
directors, actors who come draped in
respectability and prestige, a realistic
setting - but ‘Night of the Hunter’ is
an expressionistic oddity, telling its
chilling story through visual fantasy.
Yet what a compelling, frightening
and beautiful film it is! And how well
it has survived its period. By setting
his story in an invented movie world
outside conventional realism, Laughton
gave it a timelessness. The town it
takes place in looks as artificial as a
Christmas card scene, the family’s
house with its strange angles inside
and out looks too small to live in, and
the river becomes a set obviously
artificial.
Everybody knows the Mitchum
character, the sinister ‘Reverend’
Harry Powell. Even those who haven’t
seen the movie have heard about the
knuckles of his two hands, one with
the letters H-A-T-E tattooed on them,
the other L-O-V-E.
Many movie lovers know by heart the
Reverend’s famous explanation to the
wide-eyed boy (‘Ah, little lad, you’re
staring at my fingers. Would you
like me to tell you the little story of
right-hand/left-hand?’). And the scene
where the Reverend stands at the top
of the stairs and calls down to the boy
and his sister has become the model for
a hundred other horror scenes.
But does this familiarity give ‘The
Night of the Hunter’ the recognition
it deserves? I don’t think so because
those famous trademarks distract
from its real accomplishment. It is
one of the most frightening of movies,
with one of the most unforgettable of
villains, and on both of those scores it
holds up well after four decades.
The story, somewhat rearranged: In
a prison cell, Harry Powell discovers
the secret of a condemned man (Peter
Graves), who has hidden $10,000
somewhere around his house. After
being released from prison, Powell
seeks out the man’s widow, Willa
Harper (Shelley Winters), and two
children, John (Billy Chapin) and the
owl-faced Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce).
They know where the money is, but
don’t trust the ‘preacher’. But their
mother buys his con game and marries
him, leading to a tortured wedding
night inside a high-gabled bedroom
that looks a cross between a chapel and
a crypt.
Charles Laughton showed here that
he had an original eye, and a taste for
material that stretched the conventions
of the movies. It is risky to combine
horror and humour, and foolhardy to
approach them through expressionism.
For his first film, Laughton made a film
like no other before or since, and with
such confidence it seemed to draw on
a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled
by it, the public rejected it, and the
studio had a much more expensive
Mitchum picture (‘Not as a Stranger’)
it wanted to promote instead. But
nobody who has seen ‘The Night of the
Hunter’ has forgotten it, or Mitchum’s
voice coiling down those basement
stairs: ‘Chillll . . . dren?’
Read Roger Ebert’s full review of this classic
at www.rogerebert.suntimes.com
Directors: Charles Laughton,
Robert Mitchum
Producer: Paul Gregory
Writers: Davis Grubb (Novel), James
Agee, Charles Laughton (Screenplay)
Music: Walter Schumann
DoP: Stanley Cortez
Editor: Robert Golden
Photographic F/X: Louis De Witt,
Jack Rabin
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters,
Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn
Varden, Peter Graves, Don Beddoe, Billy
Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, Gloria Castilo
the Night
of the Hunter
F R O M
USA / 2008 / 71 mins
Director: John Bergin
Producer: Brian McNelis
Writer: John Bergin
Music: David Edwards, Jeff Rona
Sound Design: Dustin Blegstad
Cast: Corryn Cummins
I N S I D E
The world is a scorched and brutal place, nothing but wreckage after the
inevitable arrival of the nuclear apocalypse. Twisted metal, crumbled buildings,
carcasses of man and animal litter the ground. The seas have turned to blood, the
sky has turned to ash. All that remains of humanity are the passengers of a solitary
train pushing onward, ever onward, through the devastation. Nobody knows where
they are going or even why, all they know is that there is no going back. This is
the world of FROM INSIDE, a world that we share with one passenger on the
train—a pregnant woman robbed of everything and everyone valuable in her life by
the apocalypse, struggling to come to terms with what it means to bring a new life
into such a hopeless world.
Coming from the mind of John Bergin, FROM INSIDE is a bleak but powerful
vision of the world to come, a cautionary tale against the myth of progress and
blind faith in our political masters. Bergin himself is a sort of multi-pronged
artist—a musician who appeared on the soundtrack to THE CROW and who has
done collaborative work with Jarboe from Swans, Bergin is also a highly soughtafter graphic designer and visual artist who spent years animating FROM INSIDE
himself on his home computer, using the imagery from his own graphic novel of
the same name as a starting point. A powerful debut feature, FROM INSIDE
marks its creator as one of the most unique and potent voices to emerge in
American animation in years.
Review by Todd Brown for Fantasia 2008
www.fantasiafest.com
MAIN SHORTS
HEART OF KARL
Karl can be a little too much to handle and one day his brother abandons
him in a foul institution, just to get some breathing space. When he
returns, he and Karl find their exit blocked by an endless sea of freakish
inmates and staff.
Canada / 2008 / 19 mins
PIB & POG
ce
Two characters in what is ostensibly a children’s programme experien
ly
desperate
other
terrible jealousy when one has a beautiful seashell the
wants to play with.
UK / 1994 / 6 mins
Director: Peter Peake
Director: Steven Kostanski
THE PEARCE SISTERS
Lol and Edna Pearce are a couple of weather-lashed old spinsters who
live on a remote and austere strip of coast. They scrape out a truly
miserable existence from the sea in a tale of love, loneliness, guts, gore,
nudity, violence, smoking and cups
of tea. We are delighted to welcome Luis
Cook to Dead by Dawn
UK / 2007 / 9 mins
HOW MY DAD KILLED DRACULA
It’s Hallowe’en and over their haul of candy, four boys discuss a terrible
secret. Two of the boys swear their father killed Dracula, but their
cousins see it for what it can only be - a Hallowe’en wind up. The father
has no choice but to show them
the truth.
USA / 2008 / 14 mins
Director: Sky Soleil
Director: Luis Cook
THERE ARE MONSTERS
THE ROOM
Sam wakes in a locked, dingy room, the floor streaked with blood. A
microphone allows her to communicate with her unseen captor and a
camera watches her every move. Sam cannot remember how she came
to be in the room and no amount
of pleading gets her any closer to
When a little girl appears in their garden, Garth and Maddie think it’s
nothing more than a curious local kid. When Garth goes shopping,
however, something odd seems to be happening in the grocery store.
USA / 2008 / 10 mins
Director: Jay Dahl
being released. We are delighted to
welcome Diego and Andres Meza-Valdes
to Dead by Dawn
USA / 2007 / 21 mins
Directors: Andres Meza-Valdes,
Diego Meza-Valdes
WHAT YOU MAKE IT
NEXT FLOOR
During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with hordes of
to
servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears
universe,
e
grotesqu
and
absurd
this
In
carnage.
ic
be ritualistic gastronom
an unexpected sequence of events
destabilizes the endless symphony
of abundance.
Canada / 2008 / 11 mins
Director: Denis Villeneuve
I LIVE IN THE WOODS
A woodsman’s frantic journey, driven by happiness, slaughter
and poetry into a confrontation with America’s god.
USA / 2008 / 4 mins
Director: Max Winston
WISH
Two girls, knowing they will be home alone for the evening, have invited
a couple of boys round. Although everyone’s nervous the drink makes
things a little easier but this is still a game where nobody wins.
UK / 2007 / 8 mins
Director: Matt Day
New Zealand would seem to be the
ideal place to ride out the end of the
world, at least it is for the survivors
in Last of the Living, a shameless
zombie-comedy that unleashes a
plague of flesh-munching undead onto
the Garden City.
Post-apocalyptic life is sweet for
Christchurch’s only survivors,
bickering friends Morgan and Ash and
unreformed rock’n’roller Johnny. With
their pick of well-appointed houses
to occupy, free rein at the local PakN-Save and ample free time to play
videogames or read a good book, life
could be worse.
In fact, aside from the odd zombierelated problems it’s the lack of dating
opportunities that most irks our heroes.
So when a beautiful young scientist
shows up, they’re quickly enlisted into
her risky scheme to save the world.
New Zealand / 2008 / 88 mins
Director: Logan McMillian
Producers: Logan McMillan,
Michael D. Sellers, Jamie R. Thompson
Writer: Logan McMillan
Music: Ben Edwards, Kurt Preston
DoP: Kirk Pflaum
Editor: Logan McMillan
Cast: Morgan Williams, Robert Faith,
Mark Hadlow, Emily Paddon-Brown,
Ashleigh Southam
My thanks to all those without whom…
Mike Adams, Joseph Alberti, Joko Anwar, Joe Avella, Kathleen Barber, David Barclay, Paul Barrett, Conor Barry, Axel Behrens,
Wes Benscoter, Shaked Berenson, John Bergin, Eleanor Bird, Ali Blaikie, David Boyd, Sylvie Bringas, Lisa Brown, Matt
Brown, Helen Brunsdon, John-Paul Burgess, Johnny Butane, Steve Callen, Anne-Claire Caurier, Ali Clark, Lucy Cleary, Luis
Cook, Eddie Cousins, Morvern Cunningham, Jay Dahl, Matt Day, Rianne de Vries, Fred Dekker, Christopher Denham, Phil
Dennett, Craig Docherty, Donna du Carme, Tony Elwood, Harvey Fenton, Jayne Fortescue, Richard Gale, Pablo Gomez,
Sarah Gyldenvand, Justine Hall, Alasdair Hamilton, Anna Higgs, Gregg Holtgrewe, Robert Howie, Kier-la Janisse, Sarah Jex,
Nik Jardine, Claire King, Steven Kostanski, Neil Lamb, Louise Lauder, Tim League, Jenny Leask, Danny Lennon, Andy
Lobban, Adam Lowe, Seth McAnespie, Ally McCrum, Donna McCrum, Ian McCulloch, James McKenzie, Allan Macraild,
Natalie Martin, Lara Matthews, Jerome Mazandarani, Andres Meza-Valdes, Diego Meza-Valdes, Brenda Mills, Richard
Moore, Rob Morgan, Emma Morton, Txema Muñoz, Edward Murphy, David Nelson, Peter Peake, Chris Rice, James Rice,
Ewan Robertson, Alan Simpson, Jenni Sitonen, Paul Smith, Sky Soleil, Ryan Spindell, Mark Steensland, Travis Stevens, Essi
Suomela, Sheila Timothy, Anthony Timpson, Akiko Uchida, Theresa Valtin, Andrew van den Houten, Jovanka Vuckovic, Marc
Walkow, Rod White, Max Winston and the SB, of course.
We’d like to thank all the producers, distributors and sales agents for their assistance in putting this year’s programme
together.
Thanks also to all the Front of House and Bar staff at Filmhouse cos they are just magic. And thanks to you for making the
effort to be here. To anyone I’ve missed out – your help and support does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.
The Forbidden Door
The director of KALA is back and boy is this one twisted. Like a 19th century
gothic novel adapted by Alfred Hitchcock and directed by David Lynch, this
movie about a sculptor and the horrible things he does to become successful is
one of the sickest, slickest, kinkiest movies we’ve ever screened. Graceful, gliding,
with a Saul Bass-inspired opening credits sequence and a Bernard Herrmannesque score we feel confident when we say you’ve never seen evil look quite so
beautiful.
From the Subway Cinema review for the
New York Asian Film Festival
Indonesia / 2009 / 115 mins
Director: Joko Anwar
Producer: Sheila Timothy
Writer: Joko Anwar, based on the novel
by Sekar Ayu Asmara
Music: Bembi Gusti, Haris Khaseli,
Aghi Narottama, Gascaro Ramondo
DoP: Rahmat Syaiful
Editor: Wawan I. Wibowo
Cast: Fachry Albar, Marsha Timothy,
Ario Bayu, Tio Pakusodewo, Henidar
Amroe, Verdi Solaiman, Putri Sukardi,
Ade Firza Paloh, Atiqah Hasiholan