Morbidly Beautiful

Your Home for Horror

Posts

Informative panels and a celebration of the genre’s most promising up-and-coming talent were the highlights of the Nightmares Film Festival Day 3.

October 21, 2017 | Columbus, Ohio

The largest lineup of the Nightmares Film Festival started bright and early again at Gateway, this time welcoming the feature Ruin Me and the Midnight Shorts C as the first presentations of the day ahead.

Short film, The Pretender, tackled the subject of BIID (Body Integrity Identity Disorder) and gave the audience a comical and psychological insight into it. It was a unique topic that blended several genre elements into one concise horror short.

The 12:00 hour included the sequel to the phenomenal Creep, Creep 2, as well as two panels.

Audience members were strongly synonymous with their reception of Creep 2: it was amazing.  Many fans stated that, “It was better than the first one,” and, “People who haven’t seen it yet are going to lose their minds.” The Netflix exclusive will be available to every fan on Tuesday, October 24th.

The two panels featured on Saturday afternoon were on the topics of horror media and the social impact the horror genre has.

The first panel discussed the most effective ways for filmmakers to get in touch with media in order to promote their projects, as well as the impact social media has on horror fans and media alike. The second panel talked in depth of progressive moves that filmmakers can make, as well as the pros and cons of adhering to the common tropes found in horror.

The festival programmers moderated the panels and added real substance to the conversation, especially about the importance of festivals supporting independent filmmakers and fans alike.

Photo credit: Marc Cartwright, Director/Photographer –  glasscabinfilms.com, marcartwright.com

Editor’s Note: Our own staff writer Ahlissa Eichhorn was a part of the panel discussion (shown above) about horror and media with Anthony Pernicka, CEO of iHorror.com; Producer/Director Tony Wash; 3x Rondo Nominated Host of Horror Happens Radio (horrorhappens.com) Jay Kay; and our good friend, Emmy nominated choreographer and filmmaker (Pitchfork) Glenn Packard.

Another stand out short for Saturday was Tethered, directed by Daniel Robinette and starring Kayla Stuhr. The cinematography was that of a big budget film and the subtly of the camera work played well with the vast amount of foreboding nature the short was set in. A beautiful short to simply view but more unnerving once you reach its conclusion.

The awards ceremony took place at 5:15 PM and it was an emotional one.

Hope Bikle

Winners accepted the gorgeously frightening Night Mare award, a hellish beast that was handcrafted with the upmost attention detail If the tears could subside long enough, winners gave their sincere thanks to their partners-in-film-crimes and to the Nightmares Film Festival for supporting their art and believing in their work.

Actor Lukas Hassel stated while accepting his award, “Coming to this festival is huge. I really feel like this a small family with the amount people I’ve connected with. I admire everyone here and everybody is trying to make something special — and you have. This is just the icing on the cake, thank you.”

Kerry Fleming and Victor Miller

Kerry Fleming and Victor Miller

The winners of the film festival categories are as follows:

  • BEST OVERALL FEATURE- Flesh of the Void
  • BEST OVERALL SHORT- Creswick
  • BEST OF THE FESTIVAL- Torment
  • BEST HORROR FEATURE- Ruin Me
  • BEST THRILLER FEATURE- Scars of Xavier
  • BEST MIDNIGHT FEATURE- Le Accelerator
  • BEST DIRECTOR FEATURE- Bong of the Living Dead; Max Groah
  • BEST OHIO FEATURE- Blood Ride

  • BEST HORROR COMEDY FEATURE- House Shark
  • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FEATURE- She Was So Pretty 2: Be Good for Goodness Sake
  • BEST SCREENPLAY FEATURE- Tracker- Sarah Mahan
  • BEST ACTOR FEATURE- Unnuyayuk- Kirby Light
  • BEST ACTRESS FEATURE- I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday- Hope Bikle
  • BEST HORROR SHORT- The Daughters of Virtue
  • BEST THRILLER SHORT- Too Fast, Paris
  • BEST MIDNIGHT SHORT- Doll
  • BEST DIRECTOR SHORT- The Sunken Convent

  • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY SHORT- The Cure
  • BEST SCREENPLAY SHORT- Red Bud by Kay Phillips
  • BEST PRODUCED SCREENPLAY SHORT- Nasty Robin Goodfellow
  • BEST PRODUCED FEATURE SCREENPLAY- Rock, Paper, Dead
  • BEST ACTOR SHORT- The Son, The Father- Lukas Hassel
  • BEST ACTRESS SHORT- Jax in Love- Rakefet Abergel
  • BEST OHIO SHORT- Bride of Frankie
  • BEST HORROR COMEDY SHORT- Lunch Ladies
  • Esprit de Gore Award- Jeff Frumess (Romeo’s Distress)

James Quinn and Jeff Frumess

Saturday was also the world premiere of director Tom Holland’s latest feature, Rock Paper Dead, which was written by Kerry Fleming and Victor Miller, who were in attendance along with members of the cast. Kerry stated, “It was a fun project that was an honor to work on. I’m anxious to hear what the crowd thinks of it — I even have a small role in it!”

Melanie Gaydos, an internationally published model who has the rare disorder ectodermal dysplasia, had her own short block featuring films she starred in.  Her shorts included St. Frankenstein, Dead Fuck, and A Nearly Perfect Blue Sky.

One the most talked about features at the festival was James Quinn’s, Flesh of the Void, a disturbing horror experience shot in grainy black and white. Called “the tape from The Ring that you’d find in the deep web,” the film’s world premiere brought in a midnight crowd and was supplemented by Survival Bags; goodie bags that included Red Bull, candy, and red clown noses, among other tokens.

Our writer, Ahlissa Eichhorn poses with our good friends at iHorror, CEO Anthony Pernicka and writer/filmmaker Glenn Packard (Photo Credit: Glenn Packard)

Writer/choreographer/filmmaker Glenn Packard had this to say about his experience at Nightmares Film Festival: “Nightmare Film Festival knows how to put on the best film festival of the year, filled with creative horror industry people that you can network with and also show the best new horror films of the year. It truly is the Cannes of Horror.”

Leave a Reply

Allowed tags:  you may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="">, <strong>, <em>, <h1>, <h2>, <h3>
Please note:  all comments go through moderation.
Overall Rating

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hungry for more killer content? Sign up for our FREE weekly newsletter to ensure you never miss a thing.

You'll never receive more than one email per week, and you can unsubscribe anytime.