“[Monster Fest is] is a big thing this year,” explains Foley enthusiastically over his morning coffee. He appears ebullient and brimming with excitement as he launches into what Monster Fest has prepared this year. “Screen Australia came on board and are supporting the festival now. They’re committed to [it for] the next three years. So we’re getting a bit more money in the festival this year, [which] we decided to spend on guests.” These guest appearances include visits from Canada’s favourite Twisted Twins, Jen and Sylvia Soska (American Mary, See No Evil 2), screenwriter Aaron Sterns (Wolf Creek 2), respected Australia filmmaker Stu Simpson (Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla), The Human Centipede survivor and all-round actor, Ashley C. Williams, and co-founder of Troma Entertainment, Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High).
“They all represent a fantastic selection of films,” stresses the Festival Director, describing the programme in detail and its smooth curation. “My personal favourites are – there’s an Australian premiere in there of a film called Inner Demon,” the follow-up to Adelaide filmmaker Ursula Dabrowsky’s debut Family Demons (2009). “She made this really kind of creepy, scary horror film that’s pretty amazing. There’s another film in there that’s called Honeymoon,” a film starring Rose Leslie, Ygritte from Game of Thrones, and Harry Treadaway, Victor Frankenstein from Penny Dreadful; “and it’s this really great story about this couple that go off on a honeymoon and things go really awry and become really sort of twisted. [It’s kind of] body horror with a twist, which is brilliant.
“My favourite film in the whole program is a film called Starry Eyes. It’s from America and is made by two directors, Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer [Postcards from the Future: The Chuck Palahniuk Documentary (2003)], and it’s this story about an actress in LA who compromises her integrity to accept a role in a film,” confesses Foley ardently, expressing he is a lover of elevated genre: films that take selective genre tropes and conglomerate them to create a less formulaic, but more horrifying, form of film. “She does the unthinkable and sleeps with a producer; and that was a really, really bad mistake because it opens up a gateway to something deeply disturbing and satanic. I won’t say how it ends, but it’s this really brilliant twist and really brilliantly performed.”
In addition to a spectacular selection of new and innovative films, Monster Fest will be hosting a series of workshops, panels and presentations at The Monster Fest Academy of Horror & Mayhem, a five day series at Yah Yah’s. Not to be confused with Monsters University (2013), The Monster Fest Academy of Horror & Mayhem will not be teaching attendees how to harvest children’s screams for energy, but rather, teaching audiences how to create real and truly terrifying films.
The Monster Fest Academy of Horror & Mayhem will kick off with a two-part master class series with cult legend Lloyd Kaufman. Entitled Make Your Own Damn Movie, the series will introduce wannabe filmmakers to necessary skills to create innovative cult and horror films. The remaining four days of The Monster Fest Academy of Horror & Mayhem will feature guest panels, informative presentations and workshops, where actors, writers, directors, etc, will provide sage advice about the horror and cult genre. Others may even divulge the dirty, dirty secrets behind absurdist Italian-horror-inspired cult title The Editor – here’s looking at you, Tristan Risk, Connor Sweeney and Matthew Kennedy.
“This year we’ve got two film programs within the program, which we haven’t had in the past either; and it’s competitive this year, which is new for Monster Fest,” explains Foley, elaborating on the short film night Trasharama, hosted in the middle of the festival at Yah Yahs on November 26. “We have awards and the awards ceremony is taking place on the closing night. So they’ll be 15 different awards from Best Film to Best Actor to Best Special Effects, etc.”
This is not the only new addition to Monster Fest. There is a central hub called the Monsters’ Liar, hosted at Yah Yah’s. A place where, for ten days, fellow Monster Fest aficionados can socialise and help foster and nurture the horror/cult community of Melbourne.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of events going on, from a trivia night to opening and closing night,” lists the Festival Director. “Monster Fest is an opportunity to be part of a community of people who are passionate, creative, innovative [and love] exciting genre cinema from all over the world. We’ve got a karaoke night and there’s a happy hour everyday with a free movie and cheap drinks. It’s a community thing, you know?”
BY AVRILLE BYLOK-COLLARD
