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 - 

Horror Film Festival Haunts Southern Oregon On Nov. 12th

Returning to Ashland, OR for it’s 8th installment, the Killer Valley Horror Film Festival (KVHFF) is a celebration of independent horror and science fiction movies from around the globe. A one-night affair, geared to film-goers 18 years and older, the festival showcases genres that are arguably the most fun for independent filmmakers to create, and provides an atmosphere for horror fans to watch in a more social environment than a typical theater setting. Audiences often dress in costume, and the festival offers Special FX Makeup Booths in case viewers want to feel like a zombie for the night.

Local film production companies, along with Southern Oregon Film and Media (SOFaM), will have booths set up to showcase their works.

This annual event also features a special appearance by Adrienne King, star of the original “Friday the 13th,” and proprietor of Crystal Lake Wines. Fans can get autographed bottles of her signature blends, all made in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon.

>> Read More at OregonConfluence.com <<

Celluloid Cheese - Inside the making of a Godzilla meets Ed Wood meets Euro-space meets Chinese Kung-fu Movie

Check out this article in the Mail Tribune from writer Chris Conrad.

Director Randy Granstrom admits "First Men on Planet 9" is his most political film to date, a piece of cinematic mayhem he describes as a post-colonial critique of Manifest Destiny in which he takes Western culture to task for exploiting native cultures and the environment in its push to dominate the New World.

All he has to do now is get the damn firecrackers to blow up the miniature spaceship so he can wrap the opening scene.

Granstrom and his small but dedicated crew are at work Wednesday night inside Land Mind Productions, a studio on South Fir Street, toiling amidst thick smoke and strobe lights to bring the right amount of realism to the crash landing that kicks off their film.

The scene involves a spaceship smashing into a miniaturized landscape — built with Granstrom's last bit of potting soil, tiny plastic trees and plaster cloth — and erupting into flame.

John Foote, executive producer and owner of Land Mind Productions, fastens fishing line to the top of the ship and dangles it over the crash zone.

The crew busts up when they see the fishing line stand out on the initial takes.

"In my grand vision I had this awesome spaceship flying in — but no," Granstrom says.

Foote was reassuring.

"If you saw the last Bruce Campbell movie, you saw more fishing line than in 'Deadliest Catch,' " he says.

ACTION

The Magnum 800 fog machine floods the set, as does smoke from Granstrom's leftover fireworks. Explosions. The original plan was to tape a road flare to the end of the ship to simulate rockets, but logistics proved daunting.

The ship nosedives onto the set and plows a trench past a plastic tree, which catches fire after the firecrackers do their job.

"Don't destroy the trees," Granstrom says. "I paid $8.99 for those."

Camera operator and "Planet 9" actor Levi Anderson, moving from one end of the set to the other via wheelchair, captures the chaos on a small digital camera.

Afterward, the crew gathers around the camera to review the footage. They love it.

Read the whole article here.