March 27th was Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Day at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival. John Vincent and I took a break from our busy lives in Rochester to check it out.

First off, I knew the venue was a killer one. I had been to the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda for a rock show recently, and it seemed like a great space for a film festival.

Turn-out was a little light at first, but keep in mind it was 11 AM on a Thursday. The first screenings consisted of short films. Here are a few stand-outs:

DISSOCIATIVE
A strange fairy tale about a girl who grows up in the wild, then takes Hollywood by storm when she emerges to make an art film. Some terrific photography and selective use of color. (That cave the girl calls home... isn't that the original Bat-cave?)

EVERYDAY JOE
Joe is a social outcast with a sleep problem and the worst comb-over ever. When people around him start turning up dead, it's up to Joe to solve the mystery and stop the murders.

SOUTHWESTERN ORANGE COUNTY VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS
An outrageous short with fun nickel and dime effects. A geeky kid who works at an amusement park is the only one who can stop a worldwide invasion. Great use of park locations and extras.

GLITCH
An amazingly dense sci-fi animated epic crammed into 10 minutes. Glitch recalls themes of identity seen in the Matrix and Philip K. Dick works, told in a professional 2D style. I wonder, did they use Toonboom Studio?

It was a pleasure meeting one of the festival head honchos, Greg Lamberson, again. Greg and I had crossed paths at Toronto's Festival of Fear last summer, where I picked up the soundtrack album to his multimedia project, JOHNNY GRUESOME.

Later that afternoon, local effects artist David Gray gave a brief demonstration of his work. He's worked on many regional low budget splatter films, including Johnny Gruesome. You can see more at grayeffects.com and aa-fx.com

Up on the second floor was the horror dealer area. There were tables set up for several local filmmakers, actors, festival guests, and vendors like Rotten Jack's. John and I met Emil Novak of Buffalo Nickel Productions, who has a few projects in the works, namely BANSHEE and TESLA THE ACCUMULATOR. We talked make-up effects, Lovecraft films, and local production work.

After lunch, Greg Lamberson hosted a panel discussion with filmmakers Roy Frumkes and Rodrigo Gudino. Frumkes is best known for his involvement with Street Trash and the Stepfather films. His documentary on George Romero has a cult following all its own, the latest cut of which would screen later that day. Gudino is the founder of Rue Morgue Magazine and Rue Morgue Radio, which is enough to impress me. He's recently been directing his own short films. The two filmmakers had plenty of stories to tell about production, screenings, and the film business.

Next up was a screening of Gudino's THE DEMONOLOGY OF DESIRE. This was the most accomplished short I saw that day. The production values, the acting, story, and out and out creep factor added up to a great film. DEMONOLOGY manages to be edgy without being sick for sick's sake. I'm looking forward to seeing what Gudino does next.

Then Frumkes presented THE DEFINITIVE DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD. Over the years, Frumkes has periodically updated his documentary covering the career of George A. Romero. The last version was released with Anchor Bay's Dawn of the Dead box set, but since then Romero has directed both Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead. DEFINITIVE has some great behind-the-scenes footage from those two films, as well as many new interviews. The documentary should be released on DVD from Synapse Films later this year.

John and I were turning into pumkins at midnight, so our last screening was of the Herschell Gordon Lewis splatter classic, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS. John kept shaking his head, saying "I can't believe I'm going to watch Two Thousand Maniacs," but I had never seen it before. H. G. Lewis is one of those iconic figures that I know all about from books and interviews, but I haven't managed to see much of his work. So how was the movie? Shocking and low brow, but tons of fun. How can you not like a movie so chock full of banjo music? Like everything else screened that day, it was shown from DVD. That's disappointing, but I suspect film prints of Lewis' films are hard to come by. Herschell himself was in attendance to receive a lifetime achievement award. He's a smart and funny guy, and I managed to record a short interview with him for the MDM podcast. (Watch for it in episode 7.)

All in all, a good day, followed by a nasty drive home in a blizzard. (I've got to stop going on road trips in late March!)

I'm looking ahead at the Sci-Fi channel's Halloween movie schedule. They've got a few good movies and a few so-bad-they're-good ones.

DAGON tues Oct 23 3:30 pm
Stuart Gordon's fish-fest might be edited too much for broadcast, but it's worth checking out. An over-the-top adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, filmed in Spain through Fantastic Factory.

DEAD & BREAKFAST thurs Oct 25 3:00 am
Haven't seen this one yet, but heard good things about this comedy/slasher a couple years ago.

FRANKENFISH thurs Oct 25 11:00 am
Slow at first, but fun once the fish start munching. Here's Scott Foy's review: http://schlocktoberfest.com/dc_review_archives/foy_DCfrankenfish.html

DARKNESS friday Oct 26 9:00 am
Another Fantastic Factory production, this one starring Anna Pacquin. Not the most logical story, but well shot and edited.

KING OF THE LOST WORLD sat Oct 27 1:00 PM
Haven't seen it yet, but might be fall under the so-bad-it's-good category. Foy's review: http://schlocktoberfest.com/dc_review_archives/foy_DCkinglost.html

SASQUATCH MOUNTAIN sat Oct 27 3:00 pm
Not to be confused with SASQUATCH, which also starred Lance Henriksen. This is the low budget equivalent of From Dusk Till Dawn, only here the vampires are swapped out with Bigfoot. It's okay, but not great.

ABOMINABLE sat Oct 27 7:00 pm
The best Lance Henriksen Bigfoot movie yet (actually, he only has a small role). This has a REAR WINDOW plot about a man in a wheelchair trying to warn his neighbors about a killer Skunk Ape. Great monster effects.

SKELETON MAN sun Oct 28 3:00 am
Unspeakably bad. Skeletor rides around a forest killing military types. You have to see it to believe it. Foy's review: http://schlocktoberfest.com/dc_review_archives/foy_DCskeletonman.html

One more programming note: Friday, Oct 26th, is zombie day on Turner Classic Movies! Beginning at 12:15 pm:

Voodoo Island (1957)
Zombies On Broadway (1945)
King Of The Zombies (1941)
Revenge Of The Zombies (1943)
Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)
White Zombie (1932)

This past weekend I visited Toronto's Rue Morgue Festival of Fear. The event drew a huge number of vendors and fans -- definitely the biggest comic-con type event I've attended. I spent a lot of money and witnessed a lot of fan adulation. It was a pretty good time, though I think in the future I should shift my focus to film festivals rather than fan conventions like this one. I'm interested in promoting my film projects and meeting other indie artists, not getting autographs from Malcolm McDowell and Jonathan Frakes.

Looking through my photos is kind of depressing. I didn't take a lot, but the ones I did take are mostly blurry and too dim. Someday I'll have to get a proper camera.

Here's a few (barely) presentable snaps. I'll have a proper report of all the folks I met in a future blog.

Security was tight, and the door police didn't always speak english.

Want to wait in line for an autograph? No, neither did I. Actually, I'm not an autograph hound anyway. Let everyone else waste time in line -- I've got panels to attend!

Some vendors stacked their inventory high. The main room was like a big, dimly lit warehouse. There were plenty of places to buy t-shirts and videos, but mostly things you can also buy online.

Italian director Dario Argento almost made sense. When he ran out of english, he grunted a lot. The audience seemed to understand. Moderator Chris Alexander managed to break in and ask a new question every ten minutes or so.

Dario loves everybody.

Charisma Carpenter (Buffy, Angel, Veronica Mars) was a bit stunned when she first took the stage.

When the moderator said "Everyone c'mon up and take your pictures now," the response was downright frightening.

Friday night's screening of Demons 2 was at The Royal, which looked suitably old school.

I guess it's undergoing renovation. There were several holes like this with dangling wires. I felt right at home. Once inside, I was impressed with the lush seats and curtains. Sorry, no picture, as it was just too darn dark.

One of my first stops was at the sideshow of Fiendish Curiosities. Does that skull have three eye sockets?

Cyclops kitty.

The head of a yeti.

The remains of a winged baphomet. Past owners supposedly include Aleister Crowley and H.P. Lovecraft!

The Fan Expo was for fans of sci-fi, anime, video games, and comics, not just horor. The 501st is a group of Star Wars fans who love to show off their costumes.

Someday I'll have to finish my own Tusken Raider outfit.

A blurry clone trooper becomes a piece of abstract art.

Who knew that there'd be so many Reboot fans dressed up? Check out the Fong!

At first glance, the website seems believable. Poorly constructed, perhaps, but it seems to represent a benevolent program that gives awards to worthy filmmakers.

I'm speaking of the site for the Annual Program Without Frontiers. I've come to the conclusion that this "program" is nothing but a front. Under the guise of numerous fake film festivals, the APWF asks for entry fees (at twenty dollars a pop) but no screenings, judging, or awarding ever takes place. (I've revised my take on the awards. See the updates below.)

Read more

Link: http://www.indieclub.com/tacoboard/thread.asp?ident=4811920071391736&page=1

A recent thread at Indieclub.com got me thinking about the origins of the Kraken. The most famous (Release the Kraken!) reference would be as the giant Harryhausen-animated monster from Clash of the Titans. Now that Pirates of the Carribean (plus a SciFi Channel low budget flick) has summoned the leviathan, I wondered which was more true to legend.

And of course, that sent clicking through the Wikipedia.

In Clash, the Kraken is called the last of the Titans, but this was probably made up for the movie. I don't believe there was a Titan called the Kraken in Greek myth. According to Wikipedia:

The sea monster sent to kill Andromeda is called the Kraken, a Scandinavian name. The Greeks called it "Ketos".

And another reference:

In fact this monster, slain by Perseus, was typically referred to as a "ketos" by the ancient Greeks, a word that is best translated by the English phrase "sea monster", and in fact gave its name to 'cetacean'. The ketos has no historic connection with Kraken.

Meanwhile, the Kraken of Pirates 2 is more in line with Scandanavian stories of sea monsters.

Kraken is the definite article form of krake, a Scandinavian word designating an unhealthy animal, or something twisted.[1] In modern German, Krake (plural: Kraken) means octopus, but can also refer to the legendary Kraken.

My understanding is that, in Titans, the Greek idea of a sea monster was given the more Scandanavian name because it sounded cool. To give it a more ominous backstory, they called it an ancient Titan. Meanwhile, the Pirates version is more true to the true Kraken.

To button this up, I may as well plug the semi-related Lake Monster Mysteries book, co-written by an associate of mine. The authors approach the investigation of underwater monsters with the scientific method, treating stories and evidence with fairness. It makes for a fascinating read.