Keri O’Shea on Abertoir Horror Film Festival 2011, Aberystwyth, Wales UK
Well, that’s it for another year: Abertoir has been and gone, there’s nothing left on my horror calendar and I’ve once more been spat out, kicking and screaming, into Real Life. Still, perhaps it’s all for the best. At the time of writing, I am struggling to get used to daylight again, suffering from rickets, scurvy and various other complications brought about by subsisting on meagre portions of food eaten in the dark, and I owe a huge apology to my liver. As Abertoir now stands at a huge six days (making it the UK’s longest horror fest) my endurance had probably just about reached its limits. Heh, those people in Xavier Gens’ new ‘confined space’ horror The Divide (which featured at the festival) had it easy, when you think about it…
We wouldn’t have it any other way though. Here are some of the festival highlights.
The Film Censorship Debate
I was surprised – and delighted – and surprised again that Abertoir welcomed esteemed censorship expert Professor Martin Barker to the stage as a special guest for a debate on the current state of play between the British Board of Film Classification and modern cinema…I say ‘surprised’ twice because Mr. Barker initially appeared dressed in drag as the patron saint of pains-in-the-arse Mary Whitehouse! Oh, and he introduced the event by taking part in a skit with our very own Nia Edwards-Behi, Human Centipede 2 star Laurence R. Harvey, and Emma Pett, who is currently conducting her PhD research into Asia Extreme cinema audiences. Needless to say, the tone of the debate was not too heavy, but some interesting topics were raised. Feelings amongst film fans – at least based on the small sample of participants there – seem to be ranging from concern to outrage at present as the BBFC again begins to get heavy with the likes of The Bunny Game and of course The Human Centipede 2. Something which I took away from this strikes me as key to the whole issue: as Martin Barker related, the BBFC want to retain (or even extend) their influence as an organisation. No organisation wants to vote itself out of existence. How do they prevent this? Well, they base their findings on some very selective, very skewed data. If we in the UK want a BBFC which can be challenged on these grounds then we need better research; we can all do our small bit by at least responding to Emma’s survey, which will be presented to the BBFC in due course. You can find it here.
The Pub Quiz
Leaving aside the fact that my team was robbed, and probably cheated into second place by the bastards from www.horror-extreme.com, this was huge fun and something Abertoir must do again next year!
The Masque of the Red Death Party
Vincent Price has had an important part to play in the Abertoir proceedings since the very beginning, so it was only fitting that in the year of his ‘Vincentennial’ there were lots of events celebrating his horror heritage. Following a screening of arguably the best Corman Poe film – Masque of the Red Death (1964) – came the Masque of the Red Death party, complete with an ape (dummy) affixed to a chandelier, Vincent Price cocktails and live music from The Laze, Ghostfire and Devilish Presley (who had even written a song for the occasion).
Aleister Crowley – a Passion for Evil
Always keen on the multimedia approach, for at least the last three years Abertoir have made it a habit to build in theatrical performances to the programme. This year, the Wickedest Man in the World, Aleister Crowley, got an opportunity to speak once more in a monologue by actor John Burns. Crowley is notoriously difficult to sum up; I wrote a piece on him for the festival programme this year, so I can testify to this. However, Burns had obviously done his research, had a deep interest in his subject material and managed to engage the audience throughout his one-man show.
Sorcery and Celluloid – a presentation by Gavin Baddeley
(Nepotism alert: I live with Gavin, but I’ll try to be as unbiased a source as possible). Author and broadcaster Gavin Baddeley has spoken at Abertoir for the past three years: his talks have covered vampirism in Europe and the werewolf myth, whilst this year he spoke on the subject of the relationship between the silver screen and magic. Looking back to the years before cinema, Gavin described the popularity of ‘magic lantern’ shows and how their ghosts and ghouls influenced nascent cinema, arguing that cinema was (and is) considered magical in many respects. A run-down of early representations of the occult on screen fed into the idea of ‘cursed movies’ and the importance of The Black Cat, Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, to name a few.
Nicko and Joe’s Bad Film Club Presents Mystery Grindhouse: Zombie Lake
Ah, come on, some films badly deserve to be mocked, especially at a late-night, alcohol-fuelled viewing with a crowd of fellow disbelievers. Sometime-auteur Jean Rollin, rest his soul, really blotted his copy-book with Zombie Lake, a film which doesn’t trouble itself with things like…not accidentally filming the crew in a mirror on set, or hiding the fact that the lake is undoubtedly a swimming pool, or worrying about the potential facepalm effect of a plot where a zombie Nazi returns from the dead to spend some quality time with his daughter. Awww. We had these, and many more flaws pointed out to us by one half of comedian team Nicko and Joe, and we were free to join in with our own observations too.
Victoria Price
Last, but absolutely not least…
I mentioned the Vincent Price focus which is key to Abertoir; to close the festival this year, his daughter, Victoria, made the journey from the States to give a presentation on her father’s life. To say this was something special is always going to be an understatement, because there really is no comparison to actually having been there, seen a selection of her family photos, and heard her anecdotes. As much as there was sadness in all of this, ultimately this was a celebration of Vincent Price’s life, and if that sounds like a cliché – it ain’t. I’ll share one story…towards the end of his life, Price was frail, and on a lot of morphine to control his cancer symptoms. As he couldn’t get out of bed, Victoria and some other family members would sit on his bed with him and play general knowledge games. If Vincent was on your team, you were most likely going to win, but as he got steadily more ill, he started to drift in and out of consciousness as they played. This happened during a game of Trivial Pursuit, when his team needed him. The question was, ‘what does a biorchid animal have two of?’ Victoria had no idea. As they debated the question, Vincent stirred a little and muttered something. What he said was, ‘Balls’.
Hmmm. Thinking this was some strange effect of the morphine, they shrugged their shoulders and carried on debating. At which point, and with a huge effort, Vincent Price rose up from his pillow and repeated the word – which was, of course, the correct answer. ‘BALLS!’
Funny, fascinating and very moving, Victoria Price’s speech rounded off the festival brilliantly and although she didn’t follow her father into acting, she certainly inherited his skill as a speaker.
So, it’s goodbye to my favourite horror festival and a ‘see you next year’ from me. Look out for reviews of my pick of the Abertoir film selection appearing in the next couple of days, and I hope to see some of you in 2012. In the meantime, I know who one of the guests will be, and it’s all good…