If we had the festival once, we had to have it again. Even though Rish had been around only a couple weeks earlier for the Thanksgiving holiday, he was back for a couple weeks more. So we hit a video store that we had never used for a festival and rented a whole pile of movies. The festival this year focused primarily on selections from the '70s and '80s with only one movie coming from each of the '90s and '00s. This is in some ways a deliberate attempt by Rish and me to strengthen our volume of films from the era that birthed the slasher, but it is also a direct result of us renting from a video store that had almost nothing dated later than 1992. It was obvious that they were in on the heyday of horror in the '80s and had since cut back on the budget for that particular genre.
As a special aside to this year's festival it should be noted that in this period of time Rish and I watched, whether together or separate and estimated 32 movies. Just thought you'd want to guage the depth of our sickness.
Knowing that we were starting things a bit prematurely and that we would most certainly have to spend some Christmas time with family and not watching horror movies, we kicked of the festival on the first Friday Rish was back in town by taking in the only horror movie we would see together at the theatre and starting in on a stack of four videos from the aforementioned video rental palace.
Dracula 2000 (2000) - What better way to kick off a horror festival than in the theatre watching a fine vampire flick. Although we talked extensively about how disappointing it was that Wes had not directed the movie, coming out there was nothing but praise. Quickly this rocketed to the top of both of our "Best Horror of 2000" lists.
The Boogeyman (1980) - As good as Dracula 2000 was, we needed something to bring us back to the filthy reality that horror movies are rarely better than mediocre. Although Rish and I differed heavily in our opinions of this movie I don't think either of us would watch it again.
Requisite time with families for Christmas. In some ways both of us were surprised that we stayed out of the horror vaults as long as we did. Interestingly enough, neither one of us received a single horror movie for Christmas. Not even from each other.
Ahhh. Glorious Boxing Day. After a couple of non-horror theatrical bits, Rish and I settled down to finish our stack of four. With what we hoped was the worst one out of the way, we launched into a late night of viewing with a few that had all come highly recommended at some point and that we felt we owed our fans reviews of.
Tourist Trap (1978) - As much as we like Full Moon we had never checked out what would be one of the earliest efforts by any of the crew that would later go on to establish that modern bastion of B horror flicks. Still, it became pretty obvious pretty early that Charles Band has real problems with dolls. A fascinating movie that came before its time in a lot of ways.
Graduation Day (1981) - After midnight by the time we got to this one, I expected to fall asleep since it should have been a typical early '80s school slasher. Instead, we found it to be one of the pleasant surprises of the festival. Not always the best, but definitely good.
The Funhouse (1981) - Riding the energy of having seen a movie that surprised us by being good, we popped in one more even though it was getting very late. Unfortunately, this movie is pretty dark (as in lighting not mood). That made it somewhat difficult to focus on in the wee hours, but at least the story was intriguing and the pace was fantastic.
With four videos due back we started out early to make the 20 mile trip to the video store. It was in our mind that we should rent a few more than the first time. Maybe even ten. We were going to have plenty of time in the next few days so why not? Well, all good intentions aside we rented 15. 12 of which were horror. Too ambitious you say? You bet.
The Changeling (1980) - We took this one in mid-afternoon at Rish's parents' home. Not our normal venue. But it was interesting having even that little crowd to watch this with. You see, The Changeling is hugely popular in the area we grew up in for some reason. Neither of us had ever seen it (mostly due to said popularity), but this was the perfect opportunity to catch up on something that perhaps we had overlooked too long.
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972) - Back in our normal digs (my house) we popped in the movie that has long held the position of favourite title for both of us. It's too bad that they couldn't have made a movie as good as the title.
Hell Night (1981) - No real reason why we picked this one up. It was just there. On some level I think that we knew it was well known and would need to be reviewed at some point anyway, but neither of us felt truly compelled to see it. I wonder how it got into the stack.
Another break. Again with the family thing. Well kind of. Rish had some things to tend to. I mostly lazed about the house waiting for something to happen. I toyed with watching a couple horror flicks independent of the festival but instead spent hours playing on my computer.
Back together again, we once again attacked the stack with as much gusto as we could muster. In a lot of ways we felt like we needed to get through half of them by the time the night was over or we wouldn't make it. That was probably true, but we never found out. In a gut-wrenching 10 hour stint with only small breaks to piss and one longer break to get something to eat, we managed five movies, four of which are eligible for the Horror Film Compendium.
The Final Terror (1983) - Almost another summer camp slasher, but not quite. This is another one that I'm not sure how it made it into the stack. Still, anything that boasts final on the cover ought to be good.
Mother's Day (1980) - While renting our stack of 15 we joked that we ought to make our Holiday 2000 Horror Film Festival holiday themed and rent primarily movies that had a holiday theme to them. Well, this was one of those movies and I am glad to say that it didn't have a holiday theme to it at all. But I don't think those guys at Troma celebrate holidays.
Happy Birthday to Me (1980) - Needing to wash the filth of Mother's Day out of our minds, we picked up the second holiday themed movie. Now, nobody likes Melissa Sue Anderson, least of all us, but this turned out to be the biggest surprise of the festival. Start to finish, this one had it all, including Rish and I dropping our jaws at how well they managed to pull it off.
Christmas Evil (1980) - On with the holiday theme. Film number three is one of those that fits into an uncomfortable niche where the film is told primarily and realisitcally through the killer's eyes and we are supposed to come to understand and pity him. These movies always make me uncomfortable even when well done. In this case they almost had me several times and then lost me again. Of course, the way the movie ended sealed any hope that I might be able to stomach at least one of these.
After a late night, we slept most of Saturday away until finally our stomachs called us from our beds. When we looked at the remaining stack it seemed much more manageable so with a little food in our bellies, we launched right in.
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) - Having heard that this movie was similar in feel to Last House on the Left Rish really didn't want to see it. When he told me he'd heard that, I didn't want to see it either. So we watched it when we knew that we'd have more coming right after. It turned out much better than either of us anticipated and really launched our second to last night well.
Terror at the Opera (1987) - If you've read the site for a while, you probably know that we are Dario Argento fans, but still have a hard time with about half of his work. Luckily this one fell into the better half of his films and Saturday was turning out to be a pretty alright night.
Bloody New Year (1986) - Second to last of our holiday themed movies, this one buoyed me and made Rish think we should never have tried to rent 15 movies. British made, this one is interesting in a lot of ways, but perhaps not as exceptional as I wanted to believe when we finished it. I suppose the fact that we watched it after midnight would meant that technically we watched it on the correct day of the year as well.
Final day of the festival and final day of the second millenium. Nice timing. We had a pile of three movies left, 2 of which were horror. Rish was so burned out by this point that he absolutely did not want to finish. I managed to get him over it a little and we managed to watch at least the horror films.
Silent Night Deadly Night (1984) - Fifth and last of the holiday themed films we watched and one of the . . . well, not better . . . mediocre entries. It had moments that caught us, but not many. We probably could have rented any of the series and done just as good.
Night of the Creeps (1986) - Last film of the festival is a movie that Rish loves and I had never seen. We both had high hopes that it held up after all these years. It did. This was the perfect way for us to end the festival since it was very definitely one of the high notes.
There you have it. 17 movies in 6 nights. One less movie than last year, but did you really expect us to match it? As things stand, it looks like we are headed for a Holiday 2001 Horror Film Festival. I know you can't wait.