No.
We have not had our share of horror movies yet.
Sunday afternoon found us in the Hollywood Theater in Portland again. The theater is a 2-story building with two smaller theaters upstairs and one main theater downstairs. It is in a very cool part of town called the Hollywood district, filled with pubs, bookstores, and interesting shops in a comfortable neighborhood setting.
Onto the movies – Block one:
- The Dead Inside (I’m not sure how long this one was, but it felt like several decades) – I hate to pan an amateur movie, because I can’t imagine how difficult it is write, direct, produce and act in a movie. My hat goes off to the regular folks who spend months (and even years) filming movies with little or no budget simply because they love what they do. That being said, this was a pretty bad film. The costumes were good, but the writing (especially the dialog) and the acting was pretty bad. Memorable lines – the female and male leads run into a closet to escape some terrible situation too silly to explain here and the woman says to the man “Are we in a closet?” This was SUPPOSED to be a serious and tense moment and the audience (Justine and I included) burst out laughing.
Block Two: More Shorts (YAY!) – here are the good ones:
- The Courtesy Nudge (6 min) – Excellent short. From the movie description: A man wakes up with madness in his eyes…is he devolving into some unmentionable life form or is his work finally getting to him? Believe it or not, this movie was very funny. Justine and I both chuckled many time in that short 6 minutes.
- Late Bloomer (12 minutes) – Lovecraft. 7th grade sex education class. Hysterically funny. We actually had the privilege of seeing a live performance of Late Bloomer later in the day. It was fantastic. The actor received a standing ovation. I am still smiling.
- Ryleh (6 min) – Named after the mystical land where Cthulhu sleeps, this animated short follows the life of a fisherman after he hauls up an ancient chest in his nets and peers inside. Well done, and one of the only animated shorts in the mix.
- HP Lovecraft: Out of Mind – Lovecraft meets his characters. Great movie. The actor who played Lovecraft, Christopher Heyerdahl, was in attendance at the festival and Justine and I got a chance to talk to him. He’s a very normal guy. Not at all creepy or odd in real life, but he played the PERFECT Lovecraft…a very disconnected and odd man.
There were many more shorts and movies we saw over the weekend, but those were the most interesting.
I hear the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets are playing at next year’s festival. I wouldn’t miss that for anything.
Hope you enjoyed the recap. We had a blast in Portland.
-Dave
