By Travis Johnson
The trailer for Monster Fest 2016 is here! Directed by Mark Bakaitis (Cult Girls) and Monster Pictures’ Neil Foley, this year’s trailer riffs on the 1966 J. Lee Thompson joint, Eye of the Devil, starring David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Donald Pleasance, David Hemmings and Sharon Tate. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the film inspired this year’s theme of ‘ritual’.
“It seemed an obvious starting point for the concept trailer,” said festival director Kier-La Janisse. “Guillermo del Toro was recently quoted in an article about the Fantasia Film Festival likening genre festivals to a spiritual gathering, and to many of the core Monster Fest fans, it really is a unique environment in which their strange tastes and arcane knowledge are validated and celebrated.”
Eye of the Devil is the showcase film in a sidebar on cult cinema, along with Neil Edwards’ doco, Sympathy for the Devil: the True Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgement, plus an all night marathon of cult-themed films.
Running at Melbourne’s Lido Cinema from November 24 – 27, Monster fest is Australia’s premiere genre-oriented film festival. Final submission date for the festival is August 12, with further program announcements due shortly thereafter For more info, head to the Monster Fest official site.
