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Posted on Sat, Oct. 24, 2009 10:15 PM
Two film festivals salute the awful and the scary
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If you pay attention only to the top box-office moneymakers, you’re probably not aware that the Kansas City region is a hotbed of demonic cinematic activity.
Don’t know if it’s the water or the wide open spaces, but area filmmakers are cranking out some very innovative horror titles. So far none has earned a significant theatrical run (mostly film fests and DVD releases), but that day is surely coming.
In the meantime you can see what all the fuss is about at KC CreepFest, a new film festival spotlighting homegrown horror.
Unfolding Thursday and Friday at the Tivoli Theatre and Westport CoffeeHouse (just in time for Halloween), CreepFest features feature-length and short films, some memorable B-movies of yesteryear, a seminar on mini-budget moviemaking and performances by local bands.
Tickets to Tivoli programs are $8.50 ($6.50 for seniors). Admission to Westport CoffeeHouse programs is $6 ($5 with a donation of four canned goods for Harvesters).
Event highlights:
•4 p.m. Thursday, Westport CoffeeHouse: “The Killer Shrews,” one of the great “bad” horror films. James Best and Ken “Festus” Curtis star in this 1959 low-budgeter. Joe Bob Briggs has written that the killer shrews of the title “look like sheep dogs with throw rugs strapped on their backs.”
•5:30 p.m. Thursday, WCH: Screening of selections from the KC CreepFest Short Horror Film Contest.
•7 p.m. Thursday, WCH: Performance by local rockers Mr. Fish, whose music has been featured in locally made horror films. Admission: $10.
•8:30 p.m. Thursday, WCH: Big Atom Productions offers a seminar on micro-budget filmmaking and will screen its locally lensed “Cadaverella.”
•4 p.m. Friday, Tivoli: Ty Jones’ “Last Breath” (one of my favorite films of last spring’s Kansas City FilmFest) will be screened with the shorts “The Evil Inside” (by John McGrath) and “Next Caller” (by Lawrence’s Emmy-winning auteur Patrick Rea).
•4 p.m. Friday, WCH: Second screening of the CreepFest contest entries.
•5 p.m. Friday, WCH: Topeka filmmaker Jake Jackson will screen the current print of his new feature, “The Hunter.”
•6:30 p.m. Friday, WCH: Classic double feature: George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” (’68) and the Lawrence-lensed “Carnival of Souls” (’62).
•6:45 p.m. Friday, Tivoli: Timothy Friend’s award-winning cult feature “Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula” will be shown with Brian Boye’s short “Bride” and the KC premiere of Rea’s “Do Not Disturb.” Also on the bill: a screening of the winning short from the fest’s filmmaking contest. The winner receives $100 in film rental equipment donated by Lights on Kansas City.
•9:15 p.m. Friday, Tivoli: Local premiere of Kendal Sinn’s “Shadow Falls Memorial,” a follow-up to his successful Internet series on the Horror Channel. Also scheduled: “Full Plate” (from Emmy-winner Todd Norris).
•10 p.m. Friday, WCH: Kansas City premiere of Jeff Chitty’s “Survive!”
Throughout the evening Friday, McCoy’s Public House (4057 Pennsylvania) will hold a festival afterparty that includes an outdoor screening of “72 Musicians” (about local indie rock bands) and a performance at 10:30 by Late Night Rendez-Vous.
Advance tickets are available at www.tivolikc.com.
Posted on Sat, Oct. 24, 2009 10:15 PM
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