Just in time for Halloween, lots of film horror
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like October was halfway gone before I realized what month it was. There’s just not enough time to enjoy it properly.
It might be because the first week or so of October felt like an extension of summer—the temperature maintained a balmy 85 to 90 degrees and the mosquitoes fronted an all-out assault on anything with a pulse.
Now though, the weather has turned and there’s a crispness to the air and finally I’m ready for a long month of Halloween activities. It’s really too bad that the month is more than half over.
Luckily, if you’re like me, there is an option to help you cram as much Halloween into the last few days of October as possible.
It is the eighth year for the CFF’s Frightening Ass Film Festival, previously a one-day event that is now stretching over this weekend, Oct. 27-28.
The FAFF will feature a collection of newer films with some definite classics, as well as a costume contest, a live séance, an after party with music by Psychic Dungeon, and the third year of Horror Show, an art installation in partnership with Swine Gallery and Artist Residency Chattanooga featuring local and regional artist like Zac Holbrook, Matthew Dutton, Jon Newman, and Sarah Manser.
Just like every year, the films featured are spectacular. Here are a few I’m particularly excited about:
One Cut of the Dead: In this Japanese film, a film crew sets out to make their own zombie movie in an abandoned water filtration plant, said to be the former home of military experiments.
Then, real zombies show up. While this seems like pretty standard fare for a zombie movie, the beauty of this film is that it was done entirely in one take. That alone is worth your time.
Scary Stories: Everyone of a certain age remembers Harold. It was the drawing – the distended belly, legs spread eagle with no feet, dripping some sort of dark liquid, eyes sunken and black.
He was found in the third collection of the famous Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. This documentary tells the stories behind the stories, and effect they had on an entire generation of children. I was afraid to read these books. Chances are, so were you.
Mandy: Starring Nicholas Cage in what was described by the Village Voice as “insanely violent and ethereally beautiful,” Mandy is this year’s “what did I just watch” film.
By all accounts, this film features incredible artistry and a baffling story. It’s not something to be watched alone in your room, but something to be experienced with a Halloween audience in love with genre film.
The Eyeslicer Halloween Special: the folks at the FAFF bill this as “the cinematic equivalent of an acid trip down the Halloween aisle at Party City.” It features “an X-rated Halloween party hookup to a coming of age story set on the eve of Ted Bundy’s execution; from a documentary about pumpkin carving and misogyny to a supercut about the gendered dangers of the bathtub; from a cursed stand-up comedy set to a woman trapped inside a Red Lobster commercial; from a John Carpenter homage (featuring a cameo by Carpenter himself) to a sequel to The Eyeslicer’s now infamous Gwilliam.” I don’t know what most of that means, but by God, I want to find out.
Brainscan: Presented by the wonderful people at the Coin-Op, this film stars Edward Furlong and Frank Langella in a story about the connection between violent video games and real life violence. It’s not what you think, though.
FAFF Are You Afraid Of The Dark-athon: Some of my favorite memories involve Halloween night Are You Afraid of the Dark marathons on Nickelodeon.
It was something to set the mood before venturing out into a dark neighborhood searching for candy while dressed as a Ghostbuster. Hopefully, the FAFF can distill this in their four-part series.
Weekend and day passes for the Frightening Ass Film festival can be found on chattfilmfest.org, as well as a limited number of individual film tickets that will become available a few days before the event.
There’s not a better Halloween event in the area. Support local film.