The final day of Horrible Imaginings Film Festival  is  here and so of course it’s a bittersweet day. This festival has been a really outstanding event but after some long days it will be nice to get a little rest. But before the rest, it’s time to review the day.

As is the tradition, the day started with shorts. Today’s package was called Faith, Livelihood, and  Identity:

Pet Man – Beautifully animated but slightly heavy handed film swapping animals as pets with humans.

 Conductor – This film surprised me because the horror comes out of nowhere in a very unexpected way.

Hope in a Box – Fun film on the horror of failure.

GOODNIGHT, GRACIE – An Audience Award winner at our HorroBuzz Short Film Festival this past July at Midsummer Scream. Frightening little short.

Holy F++k – My favorite of the block. An outstanding parody of The Exorcist that brings in some extremely clever twist.

Roake – Visually intriguing and another film that feels as though it teases a bigger world I would very much like to see.

Prenatal – Unfortunately I found the disappearing/reappearing accents to be quite distracting from what otherwise seemed to be a pretty solid film.

Heartless – Modern day take on The Tell-Tale Heart set in the business world. A very well assembled film.

Justice Served – I love films that turn worlds on their heads and this festival has featured a number of them but this one is one of the best.

A Death Story Called Girl – From a visual and musical standpoint this is one of the best films of the weekend. It is gorgeous and haunting.

The Invaders – Not much to say about this one. Well made but didn’t really pack the punch it was trying to.

Long Form Short Films

Deafaning Darkness – Slightly confusing film that about a deaf alien fascinated by deaf earthling’s ability to communicate, I think.

Instinct – Great film that has the look and feel of a 1990’s thriller. Enjoyed this start to finish.

Kiss the Devil in the Dark – Really good makeup effects in a medieval fantasy world  with a great performance from the amazing Doug Jones.

The Quiet Room – Yet another audience award winner from our short film festival at Midsummer Scream. Solid storytelling and more excellent makeup and visual effects.

The first of Day 3’s feature films was The Returning a ghost story from Malaysia based on a real event. Told primarily in flashback, The Returning sees a mother of 17 children remember her arrival back in her home town following the death of her father, a man held responsible for a horrific accident that killed a busload of students. The film was slow moving  at first but as all the pieces began to fall into place it I really found myself liking the film quite a bit. The shorts that accompanied the film were:

Attack of the Potato Clock – Fun animated movie about a potato clock seeking vengeance for his fellow spuds. Not an amazing film but entertaining.

Phototaxis – A haunting film with a gorgeous pastel style animation that incorporates real world items  against a backdrop of audio recreation of statements from Mothman encounter and Narcotics Anonymous stories from the West Virginia area.

Next up was the second and final panel of the HIFF weekend, Scary Black Folks with John Jennings, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Scary Black Folks is a newly formed co-operative of artists, writers, critics, and scholars who curate events and public dialogues about the contentious relationships between, race, gender, space, visual culture politics, and horror. Jennings presented a look at comics, films, and literature from a black horror perspective.

The panel concluded with another short film, Fear of Shadows. It was a good film about how the shadows of a man’s dark past continue to follow him regardless of his attempts to hide from them. The film was made by black filmmaker Sharieff Walters, who also stars in the film, was originally supposed to attend the screening however he was unfortunately in a bad car accident on Saturday. We were told he is doing fine but is in the hospital and much to his and our shared disappointment he was unable to join us.

The last new feature of this year’s HIFF was a great odd Japanese horror film called Vampire Clay. Students at a small country art school inadvertently  resurrect a blood thirsty bag of clay. The film was a good time but it felt like it had 3 or 4 epilogues too many. Added to this presentation before the shorts was a special presentation of 2017’s Top 20 15 Second Horrors which you view for yourself at this link. The other three shorts, the final shorts of the festival, were:

The Final Nights of Erich Zann -A stylized animated musical adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story. Fine but not one of my favorites.

Neverending Kitchen – Funny story of ghosts discussing why parties always end up in the kitchen.

The Green Giant of Zanzuki – Terrific kaiju film that pays tribute to the classic movie making techniques that help bring those original film to the screen.

Then it was time to hand out some awards. Since the Audience Award votes were still be tabulated, those winners will be announced at a later date online. HIFF was, however, able to announce the winners in the juried categories.

2018 HIFF Award Winners

Best Score

Short Film – Instinct

Feature Film – The Returning

Best Cinematography

Short Film – Roake

Feature Film – The Returning

Best Special Effects

Short Film – Conductor

Feature Film – Snowflake

Best Screenplay

Short Film – The Quiet Room

Feature Film – La Quinceañera

Best Actor

Short Film – The Quiet Room’s Jamal Douglas

Feature Film – Snowflake’s Reza Brojerdi and Erkan Acar

Best Actress

Short Film – The Old Who Hid  Her Fear Under the Stair’s Sara Kestlmen

Feature Film – La Quinceañera‘s Mia Xitlali

Best Director

Short Film – We are Going Into the Woods

Feature Film – Snowflake

Best Animation

Short Film – Winston

Best Comedy

Short Film – Holy F++k

Best “Monster Show”

Short Film – The Quiet Room

Best Drama

Short Film – We are Going Into the Woods

Best Feature

Snowflake

Finally the HIFF 2018 came to an official close with a 30th anniversary screening of Wes Craven’s 1988 film, The Serpent and the Rainbow. Attendance for the screening of the film was light but I thought it was great to see it up on the big screen.

Overall the debut of the HIFF at The Frida came off outstandingly well. I had a terrific time and I very much look forward to attending next year’s festival. I highly recommend that you join me.