Screamfest L.A. 2015 Kicks Off with Tales of Halloween
What a night it was in Hollywood when Rachel Belofsky’s Screamfest Horror Film Festival kicked off its 10-day run with the big West Coast premiere of Tales of Halloween (review). The Chinese Theater at Hollywood and Highland was packed to the rafters with 9 of the 11 directors of the horror anthology, plus most of its stars and crew members, not to mention producers from Epic Pictures. And it was epic!
At the Q&A, sort of moderated by Adam Green (Frozen), there were only two directors M.I.A. — Neil Marshall (“Bad Seed”) and Lucky McKee (“Ding Dong”) – but everyone else…
Darren Lynn Bousman (“The Night Billy Raised Hell”)
Axelle Carolyn (“Grimm Grinning Ghost”)
Adam Gierasch (“Trick”)
Andrew Kasch and John Skipp (“This Means War”)
Mike Mendez (“Friday the 31st”)
Dave Parker (“Sweet Tooth”)
Ryan Schifrin (“The Ransom of Rusty Rex”)
Paul Solet (“The Weak and the Wicked”)
…had fun stories to share onstage as the end credits rolled and before the teeming-with-terror after-party at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not kicked off.
Darren Lynn Bousman said that his wife, Laura, was 8-1/2 months pregnant with the couple’s first child while he was filming his segment, so he requested “The Night Billy Raised Hell” be shot in his own neighborhood with his home as the base of operations. He talked about working with child actors, as did Adam Gierasch, who quipped, “Who knew you’re not supposed to mix kids and sex toys in the same scenes?”
Andrew Kasch and John Skipp expressed their newfound admiration for folks who go all-out on lawn and exterior home décor for Halloween, as they had to not only dress two major sets, but shoot their entire segment in two days.
And yes, there were hints that sequels to Tales of Halloween are likely. For more about that, and our full image gallery, check out my cohort Sean Decker’s full report from the October 13th event.
Screamfest Horror Film Festival continues through Thursday, October 22, and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension will premiere as the closing night film of the festival, playing in RealD 3D at the TCL Chinese Theatre (this is the day before its wide release).
Categorized:News
