The first day of Orange County’s newest film festival, Horrible Imaginings Film Festival (HIFF) set a high bar to live up to and day 2 has met the challenge. Day 2 of HIFF started off with another shorts block called Unhealthy Attractions. This block featured 13 films:

Lipstick – Unfortunately I got to the theater a bit late and missed this film.

Honeymoon – An original piece that looks at life after a cure is found and you’re married to a recovering zombie. It would be fun seeing this idea expanded upon.

Rotting Love – A clever film a couple in a bit of strife vent to the very confused zombie around them. Enjoyable and different.

Keep Quiet – I don’t think I was giving this film my full attention as I had a hard time following and understanding what it was about.

Studded Nightmare – Another film I felt lacked a bit of clarity in it’s storytelling of a possessed chair that leads those that sit in it to suicide.

Slapface – This film was a sweet story of a boy and the monster that looks out for him.

He Drinks – This is a film that we showed a few weeks ago at our own short film festival at Midsummer Scream. It’s a great film built around a clever punchline

Mindfuck – From the title I was expecting so much more than I felt the film delivered on. It was rather tame compared what I was anticipating.

Third Wheel – Even though it was hard to see where this film was going I was still pleasantly surprised by the ultimate outcome  and the great creature effects.

My Monster – A decent film that tries to have a twist although I didn’t think the twist was not very well executed.

A/S/L – This film is probably the most satisfying episode of To Catch a Predator.

Cerulia – Terrific stop motion animation looking at imaginary friends and dreams.

Alfred J Hemlock – One of my favorite horror shorts of the past couple of years. This Australian film about a woman being tormented by a demon that wants to help her escape life. The demon feels like a cross between Beetlejuice and Johnny Depp.

Following the day’s short’s block, it was time for the first feature of the day a film from Mexico called I Wish I Wish (Deseo Deseo). In the film, a group of cousins gather to clean out their late grandmother’s house and discover a game that grants your greatest wishes. Of course these wish come with a price. If you don’t do what the game asks, not only don’t you get your wish but a penalty is extracted as well. I reviewed a similar film last year called Game of Death that I thought was just awful. This was considerably better with some highly disturbing moments. The shorts that played ahead of this film were:

Cutoff – Humorous short about the power of social media over the worst of circumstances.

Nepenthes – Good gross-out effects in a story about being eaten by plants.

We Summoned a Demon – A big favorite of mine. The film is a fantastic homage to ’80s horror comedies including a theme song featuring the title. Everything about the film felt authentic to the time.

The next feature of the day was an odd film, Bong of the Living Dead. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this film. It certainly began in the style I would expected (except for a cold opening so long it felt like the opening were in the middle of the movie, for a moment I wondered if the film was actually over) as a crazy stoner comedy. The film went through a few radical tonal shifts and I just can’t decide if these shifts were inspired or the sign of filmmakers just not knowing what they were doing.

Short But Sweet – Amazing animated adventure comedy that lovingly mocks all the tropes of the hero rescuing the damsel from the tower stories.

Deuspi -Another animated piece about a couple of robbers trying to knock over a convenience store with hilarious results. Also a very funny film.

Peek A Boo – A common story line in horror shorts is the kid’s imaginary friend in the closet that turns out to be real and this version does little to stand apart.

The first of the weekend’s two panels was a live recording Blumhouse’s Shock Waves Podcast that focused on the panelists making bold horror statements including that Halloween III is over rated and The Exorcist III is much scarier than the original Exorcist, Members of the audience were invited to join in the discussion by making their own bold statements.

After a break for dinner, It was time to get back to the feature. Slotted into Day 2’s prime  time  slot was director Jenn Wexler‘s film The Ranger. After a hangout riot, a group of punks head to the mountains to hide in one their family’s abandon cabin. The local park ranger doesn’t trust this group and takes it upon himself to make sure they stay in line. The Ranger is a great throwback to similar horror film’s of the past with a few new twists thrown in. Outside of the girl whose Uncle had owned the cabin prior to his mysterious death, the other punks were so obnoxious I found myself rooting for the ranger. The day shorts came to an end with the final two in front of The Ranger:

 The Itch – Gross out film about itching a mosquito bite that goes much deeper than skin deep. Not much to it  but good for the gross out.

The Bloody Balled of Squirt Reynolds -Well made parody of the classic summer camp killer story. Really enjoyed the musical moments.

I am a huge fan of absurdist film and the next feature can very much be categorized that way. Snowflake  is a trippy film from Germany that is set in the near future and features two story lines rapidly careening toward each other. One has two shady guys on a mission to kill the man they blame the destruction of their families who become distracted when they discover the script of the film in the back of a stolen car. While the other story features a reporter who gets her family’s former bodyguard to take him to see his father, God, to find a group of hitmen that will take out her parents’ killers. I loved this film and can’t wait to watch it again. I loved that the screenwriter inserted himself in the as the dentist turned screenwriter that has written the script found in the back of the car.

The night ended with a midnight screening of Lucio Fulci‘s Zombie 3 . As much as I wanted to stay for this screening the day had just taken to much of a toll on me and I knew the smart thing to do was to head home.

HIFF continues at The Frida through Sunday Night and tickets are still available here.

To read about Day 1, click here