HorrorFest 2015 Founded by Paul Blom and Sonja Ruppersberg in 2004, the South African HorrorFest has been celebrating the dark side of cinema for over a decade. Screen Africa spoke to Blom in the run-up to this year’s festival. Horrorfest is eleven years old this year. What prompted you to start the festival? What funding models have you used to keep the festival going and who have your main supporters been?
Paul Blom: In 2004 festival co-creator Sonja Ruppersberg and I made a horror short film (titled imPERFECTION), but once it was completed, we realised there were even less avenues to get it screened in South Africa than we initially expected. It was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival, but we wanted it to be seen on home soil. Having been into Fangoria Magazine since the 1980s, I always saw these ads on horror festivals and conventions, hoping one day someone would do something similar here. With no-one pursuing anything like this, we simply decided we weren’t going to sit around and wait for someone else to do it. We took it upon ourselves to create our own horror film festival to cater for those likeminded viewers who enjoy the genre, plus create a platform for local moviemakers (from amateur to professional) to produce something crazy they may not normally attempt. We approached the Labia Theatre as the only logical choice (being the last indie cinema in Cape Town) and took it from there, learning as we went along. Horror has always had an underground stigma. Even though shows like The Walking Dead have made it very mainstream, it remains difficult to get an event like this funded. To a great extent the festival is funded by a love for the genre (main staff and essential contributors like photographers and poster designers not taking any payment for their work). Multi-tasking also comes into play with us taking on many aspects from press and social media, to directing
our own event trailer, designing our own poster and festival programme flyers and so forth – even physically getting out there to hand out flyers. As far as possible we’ve kept partners, advertisers, affiliates and sponsors close to the movie industry. On the website, companies like UIP, Ster Kinekor and Times Media Films are keen to participate with banner ads. We also include a limited amount of ad space in the event programme, which usually goes very quickly. SAE Institute has been along for the ride for a few years now, and this year we’re teaming up for a free Horror masterclass at their Cape Town campus (featuring a lecture by international horror documentary filmmaker Calum Waddell who is flying in from his current film studies post at a university in China – his new documentary 42nd Street Memories will also screen at the festival with him attending). Publishers like Penguin Random House have been involved for a while, mainly with book giveaways at our ‘Bloody Parchment’ literary chapter. They are expanding their support this year. Companies like Visual Impact, Magus, HD Hub and Sound & Motion Studios have sponsored production prizes for outstanding short films, pretty much since the beginning of the festival. A lot of these (like audience give-aways of DVDs and books) are value adds, and not cash to keep the gears running, but it is an essential part of the festivities. While university and film school have their impact, I’ve always been a selftaught proponent (from writing and music to movie-making), and we very much follow our own instincts on how to create and run a film festival. Some things are logical and obvious, while others need some wrestling and figuring out by trial and error.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the horror genre generally? Looking at past eras, from the silent classics, to the Universal monster pictures of the 1930s, the envelope pushing of the 60s and 70s, to the slasher craze of the 80s, it’s difficult to put the contemporary state of horror into a specific era or context. What would you say?
PB: Like any genre, it fluctuates, and a lot gets rehashed. If judged on the more mainstream movies, one could say it’s lost its edge. But then when you look beyond the mall cinemas, there are some gems that never see the light of day in theatres, and those are ones we try to track down.
But sadly, as with music, if a certain style or theme strikes it big, the imitations follow and flood the scene with often mediocre copies. The Eastern trend was quite big and in the early 2000s the Saw films sparked what many referred to as ‘torture porn’ (some relate it to the post 9/11 fear of terror beyond terrorism, condensed into a more focused scenario). The writer who created Saw has since been responsible for a cool resurgence of the ghost theme with the Insidious movies. The found footage genre didn’t erupt immediately after The Blair Witch Project but with the effective (and cost-effective) Paranormal Activity series, it seems like almost every second horror film goes the route of a shaky home video camera or cell phone footage (not always with the desired effect). A component of our festival that more people should be aware of is the short films screenings, screened across several feature-length screening blocks – these contain some absolutely amazing and mind-blowing movies from all around the world, many extremely innovative and unforgettable, giving you a whole bunch of cool cinematic experiences in the time span of one full length movie.
Music is also an important part of the festival. What can we expect this year in this regard?
PB: Yes, since the debut HorrorFest in 2005 we wanted it to be more than just a plain old film festival, expanding it to include literature, a market, Halloween dress-up festivities and more. So from the very first event we spawned live soundtrack accompaniments to classic silent horror films. Sonja and I are both musicians (our band Terminatryx is in its 13th year), and we do these live soundtracks as The Makabra Ensemble, alongside our talented collaborators Simon “Fuzzy” Ratcliffe (also of the band Lark), another Lark alumnus Sean Ou Tim (aka Mr Sakitumi and member of numerous bands from Max Normal and Closet Snare, to Battery 9 and also touring with Jeremy Loops), and Matthijs Van Dijk, a brilliant violin player friend of ours (also in a Dark Folk band with Sonja, called A Murder). We’ve created new soundtracks for timeless classics like Nosferatu, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, The Phantom Of The Opera, Metropolis, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde – nine feature films in total, plus the 1910 Edison Frankenstein short. This year we’ll debut our new soundtrack performance for F.W. Murnau’s amazing adaptation of Faust. We incorporate a wide range of instruments (acoustic and electric), percussion, sound effects and
SOUTH AFRICA
| Film
vocals. Most of these silent films got released in the past with a basic general classical soundtrack slapped on, but we take each scene and create music to fit the mood, from calm ambient moments to exciting, action-packed or dramatic explosions.
What can you say about the local productions you have included in your programme since the festival’s inception? What South African productions will be included in your line-up this year?
PB: We’d love more local content. Throughout the years we’ve received a wide range of local short films of fluctuating quality. Some are quite unique and well made while others sadly don’t make the cut. One of the problems is that far too often they try to imitate American movies and well-worn themes, like a slasher film or zombie apocalypse rehash that doesn’t lend a new twist or simply falls flat on too many levels. Sometimes ambition outweighs execution, or directors cast friends as actors that are simply not convincing enough. We’re not expecting huge budget special effects or star performances, but there is a specific threshold that needs to be reached. The main aim is interesting stories that are well executed. It also doesn’t have to be a gorefest. We sometimes feel bad turning down a submission, as we can see that a lot of effort and passion went into it – but we only have so many slots and have to maintain a certain quality to avoid it becoming a total B-movie event (although we often include some of those as it can be great fun entertainment when it displays deliberate tackiness). We usually only receive one or two local feature films each year amid the dozens of international submissions, but this year we›re excited to feature three diverse ones. They include the psychological horror The Actor, the zombie movie Last Ones Out and the Afrikaans serial killer film Die Ontwaking (based on Chris Karsten’s book Abel Se Ontwaking). While we’ve threatened many times to make a memorable local horror film of our own, time and budget is always our enemy! But, we haven’t given up on that plan… South African HorrorFest will take place at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town from 27 October to 6 November, with selected titles screening at The Bioscope Independent Cinema in Johannesburg. Visit www.horrorfest.info for more details. – Compiled by Warren Holden
October 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 23