Overlook Film Festival 2017

Good Evening!

I will assume you are reading this in the evening. Not that you have to. In fact, I watched many horror movies in the daytime.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the first annual (maybe?) Overlook Film Festival. Held in the mountains of Oregon at the Timberline Lodge (where the exterior shots of the Overlook were filmed in The Shining), it was the successor to the great Stanley Film Festival. For reasons I won't go into here, the Stanley Film Festival is no more, and a new, also Shining-based location had to be picked out. And in the Mt. Hood area, it was amusing to see that they claim The Shining as much as Estes Park does with their merchandise and whatnot. I'd call them equally valid claims as "the hotel from The Shining."

There was a lot of stuff going on at this festival, with parties and interactive experiences and panels and whatnot. Something for everybody (that is, everybody with an interest in the horror genre). I will say that it did kind of feel like the inaugural year for the festival, with a few technical difficulties (the Timberline is less equipped to have converted movie theaters than the Stanley, which had three screens at actual theaters in Estes Park; no maps or real printed programs other than a schedule grid; a one hour shuttle schedule due to most lodging options being several miles down the mountain), but it really had a great energy. Everybody was there for the same basic reasons, the parties were quite elaborate, and everything went relatively smoothly.

But I'm really just here to talk about the movies. Because that was why we were there. Some of these will make their way to other festivals and/or on demand and/or maybe even regular movie theaters if we're lucky! So seek them out when you can.

Opening Night
The festivities opened with the world premiere of a movie called Stephanie. It was decently scary and quite clever the more I think about it. And something that could benefit from repeat viewings. The little girl (Shree Crooks, whom you may recognize from Mr. Fantastic) delivered a very magnetic performance, commanding the camera as she spent a good chunk of the movie as the only character on screen. Director Akiva Goldsman (Oscar winning writer of A Beautiful Mind) had a Q&A after the movie and was very entertaining. He and producer Jason Blum (of Blumhouse productions, honored for their contributions to pushing Horror in new and interesting directions) kind of took over the Q&A and made an announcement that Goldsman would be directing a remake of Firestarter, so that is something to keep an eye out for. Stephanie was Goldsman's first horror picture (that he directed at least) but he had a decent command of the genre, so it could be good.

After that (and the opening night party), we went to a very late night screening of Prey, a goofy Dutch film about a man-eating lion. I'm not sure what all to say about this one. It was quite enjoyable for what it was, which is something that could play well on SyFy if it were in English. I saw the "twist" coming a mile away, but it was more about the goofs than anything, and they were decently good goofs.

The drive down the mountain at 2:00am was decently scary as well. Because of logistics, we couldn't make it up to the last movie on the shuttle, so we had to drive up in the snow. Luckily, the rental car company gave us a good deal on an SUV with 4 wheel drive, but it was very icy and windy. The game of riding the brakes down the mountain.

Day Two
Friday we saw a bunch of movies, though it was less horror than what we saw the other days (and coincidentally no filmmakers in attendance). First up was Australian kidnapping thriller Hounds of Love. It was quite disturbing but had some good empowerment to it that resonated with the jury, who awarded it the grand prize of best film at the festival. It crossed a couple too many lines for me personally, but it had a powerful narrative, great acting, and a great ending that resonated strongly.

Following that one was the English Two Pigeons, described very aptly by the introduction as "icky." It was quite amusing and very icky. A very interesting way to confine a movie to a limited space. That's about all I have to say about it.

That was followed up by The Untamed. Looking at it as a drama, it was a very strong film about secrets and desire. The "horror" aspect was a kind of sex monster thing, which had an interesting design to it but it seemed like the movie might have been better as a drama with some slight changes.

We wrapped up Friday with the very entertaining The Bar, the latest from Alex de la Iglesia. I was unfamiliar with his work, but based on this (and other festers' recommendations) I will have to see more for sure. It was mostly a comedy with some very active dialog and various horrific aspects. It was also the first of what turned out to be quite a few (or was it just 3 or 4?) movies centered around disease/quarantine that we saw. But it was similar in tone to an Edgar Wright film and definitely one to seek out.

Day Three
We decided that four movies in one day wasn't enough, so we crammed five into our last day at the festival. And it just happened to have all of the most exciting/intriguing films on the list. And after the somewhat hit-or-miss track record of what we watched Friday, Saturday turned out to be just as strong as we'd hoped. I wholeheartedly recommend all five of these movies we watched. And four of them had the filmmaker in attendance!

First up was the scariest one we saw (and the jury agreed, giving it the honorable mention of "scariest movie"), the world premiere of Still/Born by newcomer Brandon Christensen. For me personally, the scariest scary movies center around a lonely house where there may or may not be a demon or ghost lurking. So this was that one this year. It did include someone actually screaming at one of the scariest moments. Christie Burke delivered an awesome performance, leaving audiences unsure of whether there was a demon, or maybe she was going crazy and bringing us there with her.

Next was Mayhem, an over-the-top action comedy starring Steven Yeun and directed by Joe Lynch (perhaps known for Knights of Badassdom). The concept was that there is a virus that causes people to lose their inhibitions and act out their impulses, and it takes place in a law office. So...all of the rage of the very high strung comes out and there is a lot of blood and silliness. I'm sure this one will be available somewhere soon. It was a lot of fun.

That was followed up by the presentation of the Master of Horror Award to Roger Corman. They showed X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes but it was more about the interview/Q&A with the legend. It was really cool to hear him talk about his shifting role in movie making, bringing Bergman's Cries and Whispers to drive-ins, talking about the late great Jonathan Demme (one of many talents discovered by Mr. Corman), an anecdote about Stephen King's almost-contribution to X, and how he thinks of all his movies they should remake X with modern technology. It was a truly fascinating discussion, and luckily it was a live podcast so you can probably track it down. Definitely highly recommended.

We narrowly got into line early enough to get tickets to the secret screening. Nobody knew what movie to expect. When they announced that it was It Comes At Night, there was a big cheer, though I admit that I hadn't heard of it and didn't know what to expect. Director Trey Edward Shults introduced the film, stating that he still had to go finish it. The only noticeable thing was that the credits weren't attached yet. The movie itself was very dark, very psychological, and mysterious. Without giving too much away, it centers around a family isolated away during an outbreak of some deadly disease. It's more about the people than anything, and their relationships, and trust. It was a very awesome movie. It will be in theaters later this summer. See it.

Our last picture was a true classic horror about teenagers camping in the woods. It was the Finnish film Lake Bodom, based around a true story that happened in Finland in the 1960s where three of four teenagers camping at the lake...did not return. This one takes place in modern times and is more of a parallel story. Despite starting with lots of the classic beats of horror cliche, it took some interesting turns and had an awesome "car chase" scene. The Q&A with director Taneli Mustonen was very entertaining, as he spoke of Finland and its aversion to horror cinema (despite its thriving metal scene) and how it is his true love, though he mostly directs comedies because that's where the money is. Hopefully he gets more chances to make more horror because it showed some promise.

One final horror show was the ride back down the mountain at 1:00am Saturday night. The shuttle was full of people and refused to stop accepting people. We could smell those brakes burn as we rode down and joked with each other about how at least we would appreciate the irony if we all died riding the shuttle down from the horror fest.

There was a Day Four, but we had a plane to catch. I still feel we crammed enough movies into our weekend, as eleven movies in three days (and only two the first day) is a lot of movies.