Southern Oregon Comedy Film Festival Adapts To Virtual Streaming

The 2020 Killer Valley Comedy Film Festival (KVCFF) follows the 13-year legacy of the horror film festival that introduced “Killer Valley” to the Pacific Northwest, and will stream on their official website from Friday, Nov. 20 - Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020. 

For 10 years, the horror film festival had been a one-night affair, hosted live in Ashland, OR. By its eleventh year (2018) the contributions from filmmakers from around the globe had grown into two nights worth of content, and the team split the program so that one night held all the satire, spoofs, and “so-bad-it’s-funny” movies, while the other night showcased the creepy, spooky, and truly scary films of the horror genre.

Following the positive feedback from their audience, the Killer Valley team spawned a second genre film festival, this time to celebrate the best original comedy films from underground and emerging filmmakers. Now in only the second year of their comedy fest, the organizers have had to tackle the challenge of showcasing the collection of highly laughable movies without a live event.

Last month, in October 2020, The Killer Valley Horror Film Festival (KVHFF) launched virtually on their website, and the filmmakers behind the movies streamed could not have been happier. Traditionally held in Southern Oregon, often only the local and near-local filmmakers were able to attend. As submissions began to grow beyond the Pacific Northwest, this left more of the filmmakers out of the experience of enjoying other new movies and networking with filmmakers within their favorite genre.

While the virtual festival still has a challenge in replacing the networking portion of an in-person event, it opens up viewership far beyond the home turf of the festival hosts. “1 Dead Dog,” a dark comedy/horror film out of Portland, Oregon was the featured presentation of 2020's KVHFF. Due to the festival’s streaming experience, the film was seen and reviewed by a staff writer out of North Carolina for the horror movie web magazine, Horror Obsessive. Other filmmakers from outside of the area were able to share with their fans and followers, allowing them a chance to watch without traveling cross-country or further.

According to the festival’s event host and website manager, Levi Anderson, the film blocks from their horror festival had verified viewers from Great Britain, Italy, Australia, China, and Bangladesh, plus web visitors from additional countries across the world. Anderson finds a nerdy delight in being able to see just which particular (yet anonymous) viewers actually watched entire film blocks and which only checked out the previews. “That’s really cool to see, and with filmmakers in our comedy festival from some of those same countries, plus Brazil, Spain, The Netherlands, Ireland, Mexico… we are giving all the filmmakers a truly international audience,” says Anderson.

The comedy festival, and all things “Killer Valley,” still try to keep some local flavor. One of the highlights of 2020’s Killer Valley Comedy Festival is the comedic music video, “White Pants,” performed by Lucky Doug Fergus and directed by music producer/engineer Sylvia Massey. Massey has a highly-respected career working with popular as well as underground music artists, from Green Jellö, Tool, System of a Down, and many artists under Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label, to local bands and musicians around Southern Oregon and Northern California.

Massey operated her own music studio in Weed, CA for 11 years, where Lucky Doug Fergus met and began recording tracks with her, before making a move to Ashland, OR which was Fergus’s own stomping grounds. The funny music video was produced at many recognizable locations in Ashland, featuring crew from the locally produced films “Phoenix, Oregon” (Joma Films/2020) and “Atomic Apocalypse” (Gothic Manor/2020).

Additional films in the comedy festival include "Mr. Dark: A Tasty Burger," directed by Jesse James Hennessy, "Mailer Daemon," from John Mudge, "Tipsy," directed by Daryl Della, the animated shorts, “Nukey the Nuke-Boy,” from Demetrios Tzamaras and “Dylan & Dave,” from Greg Zajac (Canada), the mockumentaries “The Virus,” from Kindrid Parker and Jon Allen, “Paved,” from Justin Norman, and “Eugene Eubanks: Baltimore’s Favorite Son,” from Radomir Jordanovic.

International films that will be streaming include “Cuckoo!” from Jörgen Scholtens (The Netherlands), “The Man Who Became a Meme,” from João Rabello (Brazil), “Bitch,” from Darragh Moran (Ireland), “¿Qué Harías?” by Nicole Katzew (Mexico), “Bonne Conduite,” directed by Théo Semeteys (France), "The Body," directed by Adam Weber (Australia), “Dinner for Two,” directed by Finnian Williamson (Australia), and “(The Eternal Struggle Between Saints and Sinners Erupts in a) Gunfight!,” directed by The Helmers (Canada).

KVCFF would not be complete without paying homage to the satirical horror/comedy films that helped spawn this comedy festival to begin with. “Second Life Citizens,” directed by Neil Willoughby, is a campy return to the gratuitous gore of 80s & 90s era zombie flicks, and “Stay,” from director Ken Amin (Canada), is a descent into madness, ever-so-relatable in the 2020 quarantine environment.

The 2020 Killer Valley Comedy Film Festival will be streaming all the films in 3 distinct film blocks, each with introductions by the festival host. Much of the content is geared towards a mature audience, and of course those with a sense of humor.

Movie fans can purchase a view pass to watch the films at any time within the 3 week viewing window (Nov. 20 - Dec. 6) at: https://www.KillerValleyComedyFilmFestival.com.

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Horror Film Festival Celebrates Lucky 13th Year

Southern Oregon’s 2020 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival (KVHFF) celebrates it’s lucky #13 this year, but for the first time ever, it will not be hosted live.  In previous years this festival celebrated independent filmmakers with in-person screenings, filmmaker meet-and-greets, and an awards ceremony in Ashland, OR.

This year, the 2020 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival launches officially on their website at 3am, Oct. 9th (the witching hour) and runs through midnight of Nov. 1st, 2020 (as the Day of the Dead makes way for All Soul’s Day).

KVHFF is not the first festival to turn to digital streaming, but it is still a new approach for traditional live events to cater to fans strictly through the Internet.  Executive Director Randy Granstrom has said he misses the mingling and the networking with film cast & crew during the festival, and 2020 will be the first year he hasn’t directly presented awards to the filmmakers.  This year’s award-winners have each recorded their acceptance speeches separately, to be presented on the festival’s website and social media at 9pm on Oct. 9th.

Highlight’s of this year’s films include the Portland-produced, “1 Dead Dog,” a feature film from director Rollyn Stafford that stars Brian Sutherland, Daniel Timothy Treacy, and Meagan Karimi-Naser.  Karimi-Naser won Best Actress for her performance in the film. 

The film also features horror icon Mark Patton, who famously played the reluctant protagonist Jesse in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” in 1985.  Patton is also the focus of a recently trending documentary on Shudder based on that historic role, “Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street.”

In good company, Heather Langenkamp, the star of the iconic film that launched the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, and who also reprised her role in two sequels, also makes an appearance in this year’s festival.  Langenkamp stars in a short film, “Cottonmouth,” which appears in the first of two KVHFF Short Film Blocks.

Additional short films were submitted from all over the world. Standouts of this year’s selected films include: “Malakout,” a stop-motion tale of evil and demonic possession that oozes dread, “Fantasmagoria,” an Italian film that harkens back to the silent film era with a vicious edge of 70’s Giallo extremism, “Snake Eyes: an ASMR Nightmare,” which is a masterful play on the senses with striking audio/visual storytelling, and “Night of the Witch,” a satirical take on the teen slasher films of the 80s.

With films from Iran, Sweden, Ukraine, Denmark, Czech Republic, Italy, Canada, and the USA, the selection of 27 short films for this festival were done by a team of trusted cinephiles, led by film editor and long-time KVHFF Festival Programmer, Ross Williams.

The 2020 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival will be streaming all the films in 3 distinct blocks.  Fans can purchase a view pass to watch the films at any time within the 3 week viewing window. Horror fans can visit the website for more details at: KillerValleyHorrorFilmFestival.com.

Pandemic Playlist - 2020

BINGE THESE

The Great Beaver’s list of niche independent movies to watch during quarantine. All feature films, produced in the Pacific Northwest, are available for rent, and a list of short films and underground cinema are available to stream for free.

- WATCH THE FEATURES - 

- WATCH THE SHORTS - 

Review of "Name" - a Short Post-Zombie-Apocalypse Film

What’s in a name? For our lead protagonist, the one thing she can’t remember about the man she loved, a man who died violently from an outbreak that decimated the human race, is his name. All the memories of shared laughs, tears, and lust are there — but why can she not just remember his name?

The irony of this short film, directed by Jeremy M. Brown, is that neither the man or the woman who are the focus of this story, have a name. They are credited neatly as “Woman” and “Man”. But as Woman continues to dwell over emotional memories of what love and life were like before the end of mankind, which has left her stranded and alone in a desolate world, she struggles to remember just that one last detail: what was his name?

- Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net - 

Review of "The Mayo Conspiracy"

Promoted as a mockumentary of the seedy underbelly of the condiment industry, The Mayo Conspiracy highlights the cartel referred to as “Big Mayo” and their grip on America’s condiment usage. How much power could Big Mayo hold over the public? If you believe the facts revealed in this film, Big Mayo had hands in some of the biggest events in American history, from the JFK Assassination, to the CIA’s clandestine attack on the ghettos, to the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the most recent controversy over the newly passed Affordable Care Act promoted by President Obama.

The white devil’s condiment is just one tool wielded by the condiment establishment to keep control over the populace, but it’s unobtrusive nature makes it one of the most powerful. The typical citizen may not have any idea how ingrained in our society mayo has become, and while this film is satirical in nature, this reviewer believes that the filmmakers have used their jokes to hide some disturbing facts in a way that gets the word out to investigative viewers while protecting themselves from the mayo cartel’s vengeance.

- Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net - 

Review of "The Throbbit"

I know what you’re thinking already, yes “The Throbbit” is a “re-imagining” of “The Hobbit”, but definitely not the XXX version I originally thought by the title. This feature-length spoof film just barely ranks around a PG-13. It contains a good bit of adult humor, but in the way of innuendos and word-play rather than anything explicit.

Now, I may not be the best reviewer to write about a film that spoofs a trilogy (I only saw the first and fell asleep mid-way) which itself is based on a classic book (that I haven’t read). My apologies if I miss glaringly obvious references to the original material (either Tolkien or Jackson). What I can appreciate, though, is the grand set design, costuming, puppetry, and for the micro-budget fan film that this is, the achievements in special effects and camerawork that were able to pull the audience into just as magical of worlds as the Peter Jackson films (I did see the trailers at least, as well as the LOR Trilogy).

Director Timothy Alan Richardson did not have the production team and post-production studios that Peter Jackson did, however he still manages to bring Dweebs, Gooblins (more than just goblins), a David Bowie inspired Gooblin King, flying beagles, a nation of Elfises in a Las Vegas style Rippendell, and a drag(on) queen to life.

- Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net - 

Review of "Malady", a European downer with plenty of sex

“Malady” is a dark & moody film, slow to build, and very light on the dialogue, but luckily there’s plenty of sex to stave off any depression. It’s on the verge of being an art film, as the nearly 1hr-40min. running time has only about 15 minutes of story within, and even adding to that the 20 minutes of sex, the audience is still left with over an hour of the director/cinematographer basically getting off on his own shot compositions. Granted, the camerawork is often stunning, but there’s just too much “hang time” between any pivotal moments that I found it easy to fall out of the film completely and start to check on things like my laundry, the dishes, and if the pets were fed. If not for the repeated impromptu sex, I may have never finished this film at all.

The story itself is intriguing at first, although more in the way of “why would she even…” than, “ooh, what is this about and where is it going.” The story opens with an attractive girl who is heartbroken at the death of her mother. When she goes out for a meal, she sees a random guy who has all the warning signs of a natural creep: vacant eyes, unkempt beard, and he is a scab-picker. So, against the whim of any intelligent woman, she tracks him down, they have a staring contest, and she decides to go back to his flat with him, no words spoken. Then they fuck – and they fuck a lot in this film. But where Holly should have written this experience off as a one-night stand, her Catholic guilt (or Protestant guilt, or whichever other guilt comes from wearing a cross around your neck) seems to persuade her to stay with Matthew, likely with the idea that she can help him in some way, any way.

Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net

An Interview with David Conley, Cinematographer & Director

With “Mad Max: Fury Road” currently blowing audiences hair back nationwide, I wanted to revisit another post-apocalyptic action film, very much inspired by George Millers previous Mad Max films, “Bounty Killer” (2013). You can read two previous reviews of the film itself here and here, but for this issue I sat down with cinematographer David Conley to talk about his contribution to the film as well as upcoming projects of his own.

LA: Bounty Killer is packed with action – from the fight sequences to car & motorcycle chases. What were some of the camera toys & tools that made it possible to get the coverage you and Henry Saine needed?

DC: Bounty Killer is definitely packed with a ton of action and shooting the movie was no different. Henry and I decided the movie needed a very active camera. I operated a Steadicam Flyer on nearly every scene in the film. On top of that we used a Jimmy Jib, which can go around 40 feet high, but my favorite toy we had was the Ultimate Arm. It is a black Mercedes SUV with a crane arm on the top. The car takes three operators: The driver, the crane arm operator, and the camera operator who calls all of the shots. In the right hands It is capable of capturing some of the most dynamic shots you can think of. Luckily for me, George Peters, who is one of the founders and an incredibly experienced operator with a long list of major credits, came out to operate the camera for me. It was a great pleasure directing him and watching him work. If you haven’t seen Bounty Killer, you most likely saw some of the Ultimate Arm’s handiwork on “Skyfall,” which was the movie they worked on just before.

Read the Full Interview at BeaverMedia.net

Review of "The Unearthing"

The Unearthing is the first feature film from writer/director Tristan James Jensen. It plays like a PG version of Stephen King’s “IT” – a small group of random teens become friends, discover love for one another, and fight a supernatural evil. Unlike “IT”, however, “The Unearthing” is not a horror film, but a coming-of-age tale wrapped in a ghost story.

The movie starts off by introducing Autumn, who is traveling with her dad to Stillwater, Minnesota for the Summer. After her first night, she awakes to find Charlotte, a local girl, sitting at her beside, drawing in sketchbook. While initially shocking, it seems that Charlotte is good-intentioned and just looking to help Autumn make some friends in a new town. She invites Autumn on a hike, where they happen upon an awkward and shy boy, Parker. Autumn reluctantly becomes friends with these two, mostly thanks to Charlotte’s pushy optimism, and they invite her to explore the town, including the Warden’s House Museum, where Autumn gets her first taste of the supernatural.

Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net