First night at home in far too long! So, first of two posts about Bram Stoker Film Festival.This is an overall review of the festival.

The films started on Friday morning, before the opening night party. A little confusing, and a shame because I booked my tickets and time off before I knew that. Trains to Whitby are a nightmare, so I didn’t even get there until 8. The website never actually started the time the opening night party started, but it was obviously some time before I got there because I mised all the talks from the special guests!

It was less a ball and more a cabaret, which was more enjoyable from my perspective, since I was there alone. The acts were good; Chris Cross, The Gorefest Girls, a zombie bellydance troup and the Mocky Horror Show.

Overall the acts were professional and impressive. The burlesque dancers  and the bellydancing troup looked amazing, and the Mocky Horror Show had brilliant voices (though they did not completely look the part, and they struggled with the stage set up). Chris Cross was enthusiastic and really good with the crowd; I was surprised he wasn’t the compere for the evening, since the actual compere was just dull in comparison, and read the burlesque intros off bits of paper.  My only real criticism is that the show had clearly not been rehearsed as a whole; set-changes were delayed and rushed, people weren’t where they needed to be and microphones weren’t set up well. I understand most of the artists probably came a long way, and to rehearse while films were being shown in the next room would be awkward, but it would have been nice to leave with the impression they’d at least had a run through.

Ingrid Pitt didn’t make it, due to severe pnuemonia. Mention of the Secret Special Guest disappeared from the website a few weeks beforehand, so who knows who that was. I couldn’t identify Dacre Stoker or anyone else from where I sat and if the booklaunch happened I either wasn’t there or it was a little too low-key.

I didn’t see all the films shown (obviously, since I missed most of Friday!) but I did manage to see a good selection. It was a great showcase for up-and-coming directors (many of whom attended) and foreign horror. I’ll do a full set of film reviews tomorrow, but overall I’ll say the vast majority were very entertaining – there were a couple of amazing films, and a couple of real stinkers, but I don’t feel I wasted my time or money. What was a little disappointing was that they were all run from a laptop – the traditionalist in me insists a film festival should really use more film stock, rather than DVDs! However, the nature of the films shown, especially the shorts, meant that many of them will never have been available on anything else.

Suggestions for next year would include leaving spaces for lunch and dinner (maybe showing shorts at meal times, so people disappear for two hours because they don’t want to come into a movie half way through) and making more use of the directors and producers present. Only Devi Snively gave a short talk while I was there. She’s now working on a feature film, which I’m looking forward to. I had to leave before the final film (by car, this time, but Whitby’s still hard to get home from!) so I don’t know if there was any kind of closing ceremony, but nothing was advertised. I know they struggled to find much indepedent British horror to show – America, Australia, France and Japan were probably the best represented countries, though there were films from countries like Isreal as well – and I think once it’s established they’ll find it easier to make broader selections. A few more non-film activities would be good, but with the size of the theatre they’re limited to 350 tickets (a few ideas were batted around to get around the fact there’s only 350 seats, but I don’t think anything will come of that next year at least) which means some of the distributors they invited turned them down; one guy said he needed to sell at least 200 DVDs to break even, which would be improbable under those circumstances. More could be made of the fact that the youth hostel is only £20 a night (and stunning!) with breakfast included… I may be going back to Whitby next year just to stay there again! Plus, it makes it a pretty cheap holiday overall.

I’m interested in going back next year, and I know they’re planning to run it from Thursday to Sunday rather than Friday to Monday then. I think it will take a few years to really get established, but from what I overheard they ought to be able to survive financially long enough for that to happen. As it stands, it’s a great networking opportunity for genre film directors and producers, and it’s a good excuse to sit in a theatre until your eyes go square!