As I discover as the weekend goes on, despite its name, the festival is pretty much exclusively a B-horror affair, with films you might find lining the new-release walls at Blockbuster, featuring such underground horror stars as Tony Todd (of the Candyman series), Julie Strain and Tiffany Shepis. While The Thirsting is certainly notable for its rampant toplessness, it's far from the only movie at the festival to make generous use of the unadorned female form. In Azira: Blood From the Sand, softcore queen and one-time Penthouse Pet of the Year Strain plays an evil witch whose powers apparently do not include keeping her clothes on.
Despite the admonition of my fellow writer, I find that the films, generally, are professionally made, if not always of the highest quality. On Thursday I catch Isolated, directed by UNLV film school grad Eric Nichols and shot in Vegas and Northern California. It's the best local feature film I've ever seen, with impressively professional production values (on a decent budget of about $200,000), solid acting and some subtle but well-done special effects. The script endeavors to be too serious and is a little shaky, but overall it's a solid effort that makes me interested to see what Nichols might do next.
Nichols and producer Gerald Moon are disappointed in the turnout, though (there are four people in the screening room aside from them), and we share our frustrations at the festival's massive disorganization. On Friday afternoon I finally meet Michael Taglianetti, the executive director of the festival, and eventually get a list of the films in competition. With 15 features and 22 shorts vying for the top prizes, there's just no way I can fit them all into the two and a half days I'm spending at the festival (I had no indication of how many movies I'd have to see until showing up). Taglianetti and his staff assure me that I can see as many films as I have time for, and just let them know which I thought were best.
The key to success in this genre, as far as I can tell, comes down to one thing: Be funny. My two favorite films at the festival, Scott Maginnis' Mexican Werewolf in Texas and Philip Creager's Death by Engagement, both have high doses of humor along with their gore, and the sharp writing goes a long way toward encouraging forgiveness for rudimentary special effects. Mexican Werewolf is funny and well-acted and even has a dose of social commentary. It's not a great film, but it's an exemplary B-horror picture.
Although I'm a horror fan, I'm not dedicated enough to be all that familiar with the indie-film side of the genre, so the festival is a nice chance for exposure to a new cinematic niche. The screenings are simply DVDs projected onto screens, with chairs set up for the audience. Occasionally that means just me—there are a few times when I'm the only one in the screening room aside from the projectionist, and average attendance looks to be about five to 10 people. The only screenings with more attendees than that are full of cast and crew and friends of the movie showing.
On Saturday, rumors fly that Taglianetti got into an altercation the night before and was banned from the hotel; indeed, I never see him again. One of the vendors in the pathetic exhibit hall, who's selling genre-themed action figures, tells me he paid $800 for two tables and has made $35 by Saturday evening. The festival looks like an unmitigated disaster, although word is that it's going off better than last year.
By Saturday night, I've watched 12 features (well, I did walk out of one about halfway through) and 18 shorts, and my brain is fried. Jean Souders, the festival's scheduling director, makes an impromptu ballot for me since no one knows how the judging process is supposed to go. Sadly, there's no category for best use of nudity; it would be a competitive one. I miss the awards ceremony, but Mexican Werewolf in Texas does win the top prize. It was refreshing to experience a different side of independent filmmaking, but thanks to the complete organizational chaos and lack of promotion, next year I'll probably follow the lead of the rest of Las Vegas and just stay home.