“THE STANLEY FILM FESTIVAL” RETURNS TO ESTES PARK, CO…AND THEY WANT TO SCARE THE HELL OUT OF YOU!
Article by Adam Mast
Anyone else out there a fan of horror films? If so, then “The Stanley Film Festival” is definitely for you. Not only does this exceptionally terrifying film festival pride itself on curating the very best in horror, but it calls Colorado’s The Stanley Hotel its home. Yes, the same Stanley Hotel that inspired Stephen King to write THE SHINING. Nothing beats a great horror picture, but seeing a pitch perfect genre film in a venue like this is seriously a once in a life time experience.
“The Stanley Film Festival” is still relatively young. It will embark on its 3rd outing from April 30th to May 2nd. But just because this fest is young doesn’t mean it’s any less grand. In only a few short years, this particular fest has garnered tremendous buzz, and with good reason. It’s well organized and exceptionally programmed. It’s also less congested and chaotic than other high profile film festivals, granted as the years progress, I suspect the crowds will grow once festival goers start flocking to breathtaking Estes Park to see what all the fuss is about.
I was fortunate enough to attend last year and took in advance screenings of Jennifer Kent’s brilliant THE BABADOOK, Eli Roth’s cannibal opus THE GREEN INFERNO, Adrián García Bogliano’s werewolf gem LATE PHASES, Ti West’s chilling THE SACRAMENT, and Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi’s hilarious WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS.
It should also be noted though that “The Stanley Film Festival” prides itself on amazing retrospectives (2014’s fest presented screenings of GREMLINS with director Joe Dante in the house, a pristine digital cut of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and a special 35mm print of EYES WIDE SHUT.) Year one saw an outdoor screening of THE SHINING in the snow! Oh how I wish I was there for that one!
Furthermore, “The Stanley Film Festival” is a great place meet with genre film-makers in an intimate setting and listen to them talk about their craft. Joe Dante, Elijah Wood, Eli Roth, Larry Fessenden, Ti West… You never know who you might bump into at The Stanley.
“The Stanley Film Festival” has been hinting that they’ll be dropping their upcoming line-up any day now. Personally, I’m holding out hope for a John Carpenter appearance and how cool would it be if they got Stephen King himself to swing by? Even if these wish list guests don’t appear, it’s safe to say that the line-up will be stellar. It always is.
Again, if you’re horror junkies like us, this is a film festival you don’t want to miss! You can bet we’ll be there to bring you extensive coverage, but we hope that most of you can go and experience the terrifying proceedings for yourselves. For more details, CLICK HERE.
Here’s a look at our coverage from the 2014 “Stanley Film Festival”. It includes interviews with the iconic Joe Dante, the great Elijah Wood of SpectreVision, and independent horror king Larry Fessenden.
THE 2014 STANLEY FILM FESTIVAL! A HORROR LOVER’S PARADISE!
Story by Adam Mast
Photos and Video by Jeff Sanders
A LOOK AT “DOC OF THE DEAD” AND “THE BABADOOK”, PLUS CONVERSATIONS WITH LARRY FESSENDEN, GLENN MCQUAID, SPECTREVISION (ELIJAH WOOD, DANIEL NOAH, JOSH C. WALLER), AND THE LEGENDARY JOE DANTE (GREMLINS, THE ‘BURBS, and INNERSPACE)!
Just last week, Jeff Sanders and I were fortunate enough to attend the 2nd Annual Stanley Film Festival in Estes Park, CO. This fantastic genre based film fest is held at the historic Stanley Hotel. What makes this particular location so special? It just so happens to be the very resort that inspired Stephen King to write “The Shining”. If that isn’t enough to entice a horror fan into attending, then I don’t know what is.It was a 12 hour drive for us…A trek that would include construction delays, a nasty snow storm, and a big time black ice scare but quite frankly, the creepy delight conjured up by this phenomenal film fest made the trip well worth it.
I attend a many film related events throughout the year. Everything from Sundance to Comic-Con, and while I love those experience, the large crowds and massive event schedules tend to make for a very intense and daunting proposition.
The Stanley Film Festival is relatively young and because of this fact, it has an intimacy that is both welcome and refreshing. Yes, we had to deal with a couple of disappointing crossover programming woes (i.e. a 15th Anniversary screening of EYES WIDE SHUT with Stanley Kubrick casting director Leon Vitali in attendance played at the same time as a highly anticipated “Mystery Screening”, and Ti West’s much buzzed about THE SACRAMENT played at the same time as a brand new 4K restoration of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), but that hardly dampened our spirits. Having the opportunity to converse with like minded individuals and chat the weekend away with various genre film-makers made for an experience Jeff and I wont soon forget.
We were fortunate enough to see several amazing genre flicks (including one of the best horror films of the last 10 years.) and we were also able to attend a handful of insightful film-maker panels. Finally, we had the opportunity to bear witness to a couple of truly creative SHINING inspired events (i.e., a Big Wheel race). And we did all of this while on the grounds of one of the most atmospheric hotels on the planet.
Before getting to the fest itself, I wanted to offer up a huge thank you to press coordinator JoAnna Cintron , the amazing press team, the festival organizers and volunteers, badassdigest.com‘s Devin Faraci, and our very own Jeff Sanders for making this trip so worthwhile.
Here’s our extensive look at the 2nd Annual Stanley Film Festival;
AN INSIGHTFUL CONVERSATION WITH INDEPENDENT HORROR FILM ICON, LARRY FESSENDEN (MAKER OF HABIT AND CO-FOUNDER OF GLASS EYE PIX)
I consider myself to be extremely well versed in the world of horror but even I can barely keep up with the vast cornucopia of horror knowledge that rests within the confines of Jeff Sanders’ unmatched intellect. During our drive up to Colorado, Jeff and I spoke quite a bit about the many folk we were about to meet at The Stanley Film Festival and one of the attendees Jeff was most excited to speak to, was HABIT writer/director Larry Fessenden. In fact, we happily re-arranged our entire trip itinerary and departed for Colorado a day early when we discovered that our only opportunity to meet with Fessenden would be a few hours before the fest’s opening night film.
As we entered the Presidential Suite at The Stanley Film Festival, I could tell that Jeff was ready to get down to business. You see, it should be noted that while Jeff and I do pride ourselves on film news and fest coverage, we’ve never really considered ourselves critics. We’re great admirers of film. We’re fans! Beyond that, we’re also film-makers and getting opportunities like this, are a dream come true.
The moment we walked into the Suite, we were cheerfully greeted by a very unassuming Larry Fessenden (who, in his own way, resembles a manic Jack Nicholson circa THE SHINING—a sentiment that would be echoed later on in the weekend during a wonderful radio/spoken word presentation called TALES FROM THE PALE) and a member of his production family, I SELL THE DEAD director Glenn McQuaid. Both film-makers were giddy and eager to talk about their careers and their pure love of the genre.
Jeff was very keen on talking to Fessenden about his subtextual approach to the genre. One might compare this independent film-maker to Roger Corman. And while it is true that there are similarities, Fessenden is more interested in horror rooted in subtext. Look no further than his critically lauded feature film-making debut, HABIT–A movie that would creatively treat addiction as a metaphor for vampirism . Fessenden is a great fan of the genre in general, but he was certainly quick to suggest that he prefers injecting his work with deeper meaning.
Beyond the work itself, Fessenden’s tenacity has always been a key to his success and HABIT is a prime example of this. After having the door slammed in his face more times than he could count, Fessenden would ultimately self distribute HABIT and after garnering praise from the likes of Roger Ebert, this original voice in horror found that that his persistence was paying off. Eventually, he would form Glass Eye Pix—an independent production company dedicated to the ushering in of new genre talent.
What everyone should know about Fessenden is that he’s so much more than an accomplished film-maker. He’s also an unsung hero of sorts, having dedicated a large part of his career to shepherding and encouraging up and coming horror talent.
That list of talent includes; Glenn McQuaid (I SELL THE DEAD, V/H/S), Ti West (HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, THE INNKEEPERS, THE SACRAMENT), Adrian Garcia Bogliano (LATE PHASES), and Jim Mickle (STAKELAND, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE, and the brilliant Joe R. Lansdale adaptation COLD IN JULY).
Fessenden is known for getting a hell of a lot of mileage out of extremely low budgets too, and he does so without sacrificing the quality of a project. In this day and age of gazillion dollar budgeted Hollywood juggernauts, Fessenden seems more interested in the John Sayles approach. This is to say that he’s the kind of film-maker who’d be happier making 100’s of micro-budgeted projects as opposed to one overly expensive movie.
During the end of our 30 minute chat, Fessenden and McQuaid professed their love for old school monster flicks. In particular, they have a great fondness for the classic Universal monster movies of the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. Fessenden even went so far as to say that it was titles like FRANKENSTEIN and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON that planted that creative seed in his impressionable mind. McQuaid wholeheartedly agreed, but he went out of his way to site the Hammer Films as a major influence as well. Not surprising given that his I SELL THE DEAD certainly has a Hammer Film feel to it.
Our conversation with Fessenden and McQuaid was an amazing way to start out our first Stanley Film Festival adventure, and as the weekend would go on, we would find ourselves continuously bumping into these wonderfully talented (and friendly) film-makers.
Jeff was visibly on cloud nine following this meeting, and you can expect his more detailed account of our discussion with Fessenden and McQuaid soon.
Glass Eye Pix– https://www.facebook.com/
A look at Larry Fessenden’s HABIT– https://www.youtube.com/watch?
A look at Glenn McQuaid’s I SELL THE DEAD– https://www.youtube.com/watch?
DOC OF THE DEAD
The Stanley Film Festival Chapter II opened with a screening of an affectionate documentary called DOC OF THE DEAD, from director Alexandre O. Philippe. Chronicling the cinematic uprising of the zombie genre from its early beginnings (I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) to its most recent incarnations (THE WALKING DEAD, WARM BODIES), this documentary is part of a planned thematic trilogy that began with THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS, continued with THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PAUL THE PSYCHIC OCTOPUS, and concludes with DOC OF THE DEAD. This ode to zombie films includes interviews with many of the usual suspects (George A. Romero, Tom Savini, Simon Pegg, Bruce Campbell, Robert Kirkman, etc.) DOC OF THE DEAD even delves into that age old debate, “Is it a zombie movie or a viral outbreak movie?”. While this flick is fun and completely harmless in its approach, I didn’t really learn anything new. DOC OF THE DEAD offers an entertaining segment that suggests a real zombie outbreak might actually be possible, but beyond that, this is more of a light love letter than an insightful expose on the history of the undead.
A CONVERSATION WITH THE LEGENDARY JOE DANTE (DIRECTOR OF GREMLINS, THE ‘BURBS, AND INNERSPACE)
During my 20 years of film related coverage, I’ve been fortunate enough to chat with some pretty amazing film-makers, but having an opportunity to sit down with Joe Dante was a special kind of thrill. Earlier this year, I got to spend a day on the set of Dante’s latest directorial effort, a zom-com called BURYING THE EX, but a conversation wasn’t really in the cards because Dante had his hands full shooting a movie. When The Stanley Film Festival granted us an interview with the iconic film-maker, I think I was almost as excited as my partner in crime. Almost! This conversation is nearly 20 minutes long and while we did get a lot of great questions in there, we easily could have spent another two hours with this film-making treasure. Still, 20 minutes with the great Joe Dante is better than no minutes. We cover everything from Mr. Dante’s collaborations with Dick Miller and John Sayles, to his early days working with Roger Corman. Plenty of chatter about THE ‘BURBS and INNERSPACE too. We even engaged in a bit of a discussion about the rumored GREMLINS reboot that’s apparently in development. Why Joe Dante isn’t one of the biggest film-makers on the planet is beyond me. This man was such a huge part of my youth. Bless The Stanley Film Festival for honoring Dante with “The Master of Horror” Award. And further props for hosting a 30th Anniversary screening of Dante’s biggest hit, GREMLINS! Without further adieu, here’s video of our informative conversation with the great Mr. Joe Dante;
A CONVERSATION WITH “SPECTREVISION” FOUNDERS ELIJAH WOOD, DANIEL NOAH, AND JOSH C. WALLER
Alongside Larry Fessenden’s “Glass Eye Pix”, the independent production company “SpectreVision” prides itself on the finding and nurturing of up and coming genre talent. Since the company’s inception, founders Elijah Wood (star of LORD OF THE RINGS), Daniel Noah (director of MAX ROSE), and Josh C. Waller (director of RAZE) have brought film-makers Jason Banker (TOAD ROAD), Nacho Vigalondo (OPEN WINDOWS), Ana Lily Amirpour (A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT), and Craig Macneill (2015’s THE BOY) into the fold. And with the addition of Cary Murnion & Jonathan Milott and their soon to be released horror comedy COOTIES just around the corner, “SPECTREVISION” looks to be one of the major stepping stone company’s for the future of the genre film-making. Jeff and I were fortunate enough to have a lengthy conversation with the kind folks at “SpectreVision”. In addition to chatting a bit about COOTIES (which I was lucky enough to see at Sundance earlier this year), we talked about the company’s roster of impressive talent. And, as fate would have it, we got it all on video. This is an insightful (and spirited) conversation. Have a look;
LATE PHASES
Great werewolf films are all too rare, particularly in recent years. Since 2000, only two noteworthy werewolf pictures come to mind; GINGER SNAPS and DOG SOLDIERS. Happily, the immensely entertaining LATE PHASES breathes life into a seemingly dead sub-genre as director Adrian Garcia Bogliano manages to wring a whole lot of creativity out of a very limited budget. In LATE PHASES, a fantastic Nick Damici (who, in addition to being a hell of an actor, also happens to be quite a screenwriter—see his brilliantly penned adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale’s COLD IN JULY) is Ambrose, a blind war veteran whose cantankerous attitude and wily street smarts prove to be major assets when he wages war with a creature responsible for picking off senior citizens in an old folks community. With a spirit akin to SILVER BULLET, BUBBA HO-TEP, and SCENT OF A WOMAN, LATE PHASES is a breath of fresh air. It’s funny, scary, and dramatic, and its that rare kind of monster movie that we very seldom see anymore. It should come as no surprise that LATE PHASES was produced by Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix, a studio known for ushering in unique genre talent and for shepherding horror projects that really have something to say. Father/son relationships, growing older, living with the scars of war, wrestling with religion, etc. LATE PHASES isn’t simply a werewolf picture. It has a lot more upstairs than your typical monster movie. But if you’re really going into this one just for the werewolf action alone, you’ll walk away happy too. Bogliano and screenwriter Eric Stolze bring a most welcomed throwback vibe to LATE PHASES and it goes beyond Robert Kurtzman’s fantastic creature effects (there’s a transformation sequence in this picture that I wont soon forget.) It’s all about the tone. Adding to the throwback vibe is Bogliano’s affectionate casting choices. He peppers the cast with a handful of wonderful old school performers, many of whom rose to prominence in the 70’s and 80’s. Performers like Karen Lynn Gorney (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER), Lance Guest (THE LAST STARFIGHTER), and Tom Noonan (MANHUNTER), and each of these performers are given their moments to shine. As engaging as the entire cast is, LATE PHASES is truly anchored by a tough as nails Damici. His all American Ambrose takes all the hard earned skills he’s learned in the battlefield and applies them to the war at home with absolute vigor.
THE BABADOOK
I have seen one of the best scary movies of the last ten years and THE BABADOOK be thy name. Jennifer Kent has fashioned an old school, spook alley horror film that relies on tone and brilliant sound design rather than shock value and gore. THE BABADOOK might be derivative of landmark thriller/horror works like THE SHINING, THE EXORCIST, CARRIE, JU-ON, CREEPSHOW, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, REPULSION, POLTERGEIST, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and THE TWILIGHT ZONE, but it still manages to carve out an identity all its own thanks to Kent’s solid execution. This tale of a single mom trying to mentally and emotionally recover from a gut wrenching tragedy, is creepy and intense. As the story progresses, this woman and her troubled son are haunted by the pages of an unsettling pop-up book called “The Babadook”. But this flick isn’t just about things that go bump in the night. This horror show is also about a woman trying to move past the grief and anger that appears to be consuming her life. I’ve seen THE BABADOOK twice now and while this Australian gem has been attacked in some circles because of its final act, I’m here to say I loved every frame of it. The final act is a bit ambiguous but it totally works because the film can be perceived as one of two ways. Furthermore, THE BABADOOK has guts. Anyone whose ever been the parent of a troubled, sick, or disabled child will most likely relate to this picture in a big way. Essie Davis is positively fantastic in the lead and young Noah Wiseman is equally effective, turning the overtly creepy kid role completely upside down. Oh, and did I mention that this movie is creepy as hell? It is! IFC isn’t known for massive theatrical releases, but I hope in the case of this one, they go wide. THE BABADOOK is great fun to watch with a big crowd.
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