by FilmInk Staff
30 October – 1 November | Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney
From 30 October to 1 November, Monster Fest unleashes killer sheep, bloodthirsty puppets, vampire influencers, murderous homecomings, sinister cults and werewolves battling zombies on Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. Melbourne festival favourites join new arrivals BLACK SHEEPS and DEAD HOWLING, alongside cult classics and documentaries exploring the films and filmmakers behind some of horror’s most unforgettable creations.
Following its sold-out Melbourne advance screening, THE ONLY ONE opens Monster Fest across all four cities.
In Michael Schwarz’s Australian slasher, Zoe returns home for a friend’s wedding, only to discover that someone dressed as Prince Charming is murdering her former lovers.
THE ONLY ONE is a sharp, bloody homegrown slasher about coming home, confronting your past and discovering that some old flames never truly go out.
John V. Soto’s DEAD HOWLING pits a werewolf against the zombie apocalypse, with Ryan Kwanten, Temuera Morrison and Joel Jackson among the cast.
After losing his family, Carter hunts the undead until he encounters two human survivors searching for sanctuary. Having a werewolf on their side might just get them there!
Across the Tasman, the sheep are revolting. BLACK SHEEPS brings Jonathan King back to the blood-spattered paddocks of his New Zealand cult favourite Black Sheep for some special advance screenings. A young scientist investigating a dangerous pathogen returns to the rural community where the original woolly carnage unfolded. The flock has unfinished business.
Australian filmmaker Nicky Murphy’s I LOVE PARIS finds fresh blood in the pursuit of fame. Winner of Fantasia’s Gold Audience Award for Best International Feature, this guerrilla-shot mockumentary follows a wannabe singer who discovers that becoming a vampire is easier than getting booked at a music festival. Eternal life, it turns out, doesn’t guarantee an audience.
BLOODY TENNIS serves up elite sport, occult rituals, body horror and cat-intestines with an LGBT twist at a European academy with a particularly brutal approach to competition. At this academy, it’s not whether you win or lose. It’s whether you’re still alive at the end of the match.
In GODMOTHER, three young holidaymakers discover that the lovely retirees next door have more sinister plans than an early dinner. Co-written and produced by Alanah Pearce and directed by John Veron, this desert nightmare features Dee Wallace and Bruce Davison offering the kind of hospitality you really should refuse.
After turning the Hundred Acre Wood into a killing ground with Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield takes another childhood favourite apart in PINOCCHIO UNSTRUNG. Richard Brake plays Geppetto and Robert Englund voices the sinister Cricket as Pinocchio pursues his dream of becoming a real boy, whatever the body count.
For anyone who prefers their monsters handmade, RUBBERHEAD: THE LIFE & MONSTERS OF STEVE JOHNSON gets beneath the latex with the practical-effects genius behind some of the VHS era’s most unforgettable creations. His work on NIGHT OF THE DEMONS provides the perfect excuse to bring Kevin Tenney’s 1988 cult favourite back to the big screen, complete with demonic possession, gloriously gooey effects and Linnea Quigley’s unforgettable lipstick trick.
Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth get a guided tour of cinematic damnation with BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL, David Kittredge’s account of how the director of Deliverance ended up making EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC. Naturally, we’re screening the notorious sequel too. Richard Burton, psychic mind-melding, swarms of locusts and James Earl Jones dressed as a giant grasshopper: see the documentary, watch the film, then decide whether it’s a catastrophe or a misunderstood masterpiece.
Sydney descends into KYLGOR IN THE GRISLY ABYSS AND OTHER ANIMATED ABOMINATIONS, where six grotesque animated shorts give way to a blood-soaked, all-puppet sword-and-sorcery epic five years in the making. Small cast. Enormous carnage.
Created by Garreth Gibson of Gibson Graphix, this year’s festival artwork takes its inspiration from our descent into Hell.
