Since I knew
I would be spending the day with ghosts, ghoulies, zombies, monsters and slashers
(not to mention the characters in the movies I would watch), I felt it a good
idea to make certain I was in church this morning. But Yea, Verily as soon as services were over I hightailed it over to the theater to get a good parking space and a decent seat for the first film.
If you remember, I watched a DVD of a little film called The Slaughter a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It was showing full screen at the Fest, and I wanted to see it in all it's glory. The impalement scene is amazing on a large screen.
You can find the original review, and addendum here.
My next viewing was a short called "Old Friends" dealing with the aftermath of a plague that decimates society and the survival of one family. While I thought the daughter was a spoiled little brat, the mother and father came across as your typical middle-class liberal family shoved into a situation where a conservative attitude is needed.
Out of the truly serious films my spot-on favorite was called "Dead in the Water" a nice mystery slasher film set mostly on a yacht off the LA harbor. Working with the normal 'beauty is just skin deep' premise along with the 'most men are scum' attitude the film deals with a floating nightclub run by a sleazy promoter who has no qualms about using anyone to get what he wants.
We also have the two best friends, one a good looking blond the other a mousy, plain looking type who just can't get a break with a guy. While the film was predictable, it was fun to watch with only a couple of big errors. The cast was superb, making you feel all the emotions you were supposed to feel for each one. You can read the full review here.
Finally, I watched one called "Wages of Sin". Now, I am pretty much getting tired of all the 'attack of the religious zombies' films I see around. It seems like a lot of movies and TV shows want to show only the most negative aspects or negative depictions of religion, mostly Christianity.
From the new TV
show Studio 60 and its blatant condemnation of Christians as 'bigots' to "Wages
of Sin" showing a psychotic madman killing people to get them to heaven
it gets pretty repetitious. And after a little while, it gets sort of boring.
Now, I am willing to think the producers and director did not intend to attack Christianity specifically and it just looked that way to me; I am also willing to think and say that a lot of people liked the film and really enjoyed it. But you can read my review here.
After this, I had to go home for a little while. Patti wanted me to take her out to dinner but I had wrangled an invitation to the 'wrap party' at the Hampton Inn in Modesto, and I didn't want to bog myself down with to much time.
I had just enough time to take a quick shower and head over to the party where I drank water and ate a couple of brownies (don't tell my doctor I went off my diet) and met some of the neatest people. I talked with the director of "Ghost Town" and the cast of "The Librarian" as well as a really nice couple from Sacramento, Paul Booth and Kendyce Manguchei. Paul is the former head of the Hawaii Student Film Festival as well as a member of the ShockerFest board.
Kendyce is a reporter with a local valley newspaper, and I plan on milking her for all the writing help I can get. Hey, if you can't take advantage of friends who can you take advantage of?
But there was so much more. Like meeting a nice couple who had moved out here from Chicago. He and I discussed the real horror of trying to find decent pizza in the Valley, or a really good cheese steak sandwich.
Or meeting Heather Rayburn, the winner of the 2006 Scream Queen Contest. Heather is a 21 year old former student at Modesto's Downey high school she is very involved in theater. She currently attends Modesto Junior College and is a member of the speech team and go to speech tournaments competing in the dramatic interpretation category.
Heather
wants to be a speech pathologist, which is just a fancy way of saying speech
therapist when she gets out of school. At least they will be able to hear her.
Currently she works at Johansen High School in Modesto as a paraprofessional in the resource department. She says, "I really enjoyed the scream queen contest. I had heard about it several days before and was very excited to participate. I thought i had a small chance of winning only because of my theater and other acting training. But once I got in the top 4 I thought the other girls had excellent screams, especially the girl who got second place. Her scream was ear piercing!!! I'm, very anxious and exited about my role in the next tales by Firelight Productions film."
That's right boys and girls, Heather will have a role in the next film from George and Louise Baker, when it starts filming next year.
"When I was younger I always wanted to be an actress and be in films and on stage, so this is in a way fulfilling a life long dream for me. I think it is an amazing opportunity and I feel very blessed."
And she is great fun on a date, I am sure.
So, that was it for ShockerFest 2006 and in a way that sucks. I was having a great time meeting people, talking over what horror should be versus what it is, watching some really good films and just hanging out with people who share the same interests. In a lot of ways, it was like a small Comic convention, just without a lot of tables selling stuff you didn't need.
Maybe next year they can look at bringing in people to sell human skull ashtrays, glow in the dark skeletons and robotic dog zombie models.
Have a horrific year.
