Peter Blunden's Picks Of The Horror Fest
We have such sights to show you!
Taking place from 25-27th February at Premiere Cinema in the Mercury Shopping Centre, we are delighted to be bringing our audiences over 60 feature and short films to feast upon. There is truly something for everyone: monsters, witches, ghosts, possessed dolls, vampires, zombies, sea creatures, Shakespeare, murderous sandwiches, Nazis, and chainsaws! Oh my!
I’m personally very excited about the return of 2021’s ‘Best Sex Squid’ award winner, Extraneous Matters, which we will be screening in its hour-long Complete Edition. Expanding upon the events of the 20 minute short, this version goes in some very curious and quite touching directions that are wide open for interpretation. It begs that age-old question: can humans and sex squids co-exist? Paired with this on opening night we have another film from Japanese director Kenichi Ugana, called Visitors, a hilarious horror-comedy in the vein of The Evil Dead.
Anyone who knows my tastes in cinema knows I have a big soft spot for the uncanny. Films where mysterious things happen, seemingly out of nowhere, without explanation or rationale, leaving the viewer with a great sense of unease and even dread. There are a number of selections in this year’s festival that have some extremely inventive and uncanny sequences that need to be experienced to be believed. Duyster is a Belgian found-footage feature with a very unexpected twist. The Spanish short film You Will Never Be Back is akin to a nightmare in cinematic form. Lastly I would point like-minded viewers in the direction of The Tick, an experimental short reminiscent of the early films of that grandmaster of the uncanny, David Lynch.
Regular attendees will know that the Romford Film Festivals team love to champion our local filmmakers, and this edition is no exception. “Shape of Water set on Canvey Island” sea creature-feature ManFish promises to be an instant hit with our audience. Romford festival regulars Louis Taylor and Daniel Attrill (Alone, The Eliminator, The Lake) return this year with two films, Doll and The Haunted Hall. Likewise young local film-maker Max Roach has a pair of films in our line-up, Redwood and Short of Perfection.
We again have our Cheap Thrills programme (Saturday and Sunday sessions), where you can see what talented filmmakers can achieve with a less than £500 budget.
Closing night will see a brief Awards ceremony, where the HORRHIFFIC jury will announce their winners for the usual prizes of Best Short, Feature, Director etc.; but also a number of very special awards from left field.
After that you can discuss your favourite films of the fest and celebrate with our winners at the bar.
The whole festival team are really looking forward to having a full capacity festival this year so we can really celebrate our love for genre film with you all. In the meantime, take care of yourselves, and don’t have nightmares!
