Prepare yourself for a wicked fright
Horror film festival screening 10 short films in Gander, Stephenville
The Wicked Fright Film Festival wants to put you in the Halloween spirit.
At the Gander Arts and Culture Centre on Oct. 29 and the Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre on Oct. 30, Dome Video Productions will thrill audiences with 10 short Newfoundland-produced horror films.
Organized by Eric White, who founded Dome Video, Halen Pittman and Travis Lucas, the second edition of the festival features movies made by talent local to the Bay St. George area.
They’re hoping audiences will experience a variety of emotions, ranging from horror to laughter, during the 90-minute program.
“We have elements that are creepy, we have elements that are unsettling, we have elements that are funny and all-in-all you can really feel from the films the effort and passion that we took to make it,” White told SaltWire.
All but two of the films were shown at the first edition of the Wicked Fight Film Festival in June.
New to the program is SideTracked, a psychological horror film, directed by Lucas.
One other film will also be selected from submissions organizers have received leading up to the show. It had not yet been chosen when White and Lucas spoke to SaltWire.
The festival will also feature a new wrap-around segment about an investigative journalist who visits a serial killer who claims he found an ancient mystical book. The killer reads the stories to the journalist. These stories become the short films produced by White, Lucas, Pittman and Andrew Musgrave, who was originally involved with the project as well.
White says the festival is about four years in the making. Some of the older films were made when he was still in film school. Other films were made for other festivals, while some were created specifically for this event.
“(We wanted to) really challenge ourselves as filmmakers to make just a wide variety of different types of films,” said White.
Musgrave pitched the idea for the festival to them at Clancy’s Pub in Stephenville. They knew they wanted to make movies, so they decided to try to make things happen.They chose to focus on horror because they believed it was a genre with a market.
Between the crew behind the scenes, actors, and the support of family, they feel fortunate to have a supportive community.
White said, “we’ve had so many people who just love the arts around here and are very supportive. That’s definitely one of the ways that we got lucky because otherwise these films would not have gotten made.”
They encourage people to check out the filmse.
“There’s a lot of talented artists in the Stephenville and surrounding area,” said White. “But if you want to see more of that, the best you can help out is just by coming and supporting it.”
Visit artsandculturecentre.com for more information.