Scare Up Fun With the Sacramento Horror Film Festival

Sacramento Horror Film Festival
October 20-23, 2011
The Colonial Theatre
3522 Stockton Blvd.
Sacramento, CA
www.sachorrorfilmfest.com

Admit it.

The sinister shadowy staircase scene in the classic movie Nosferatu chills your blood - in a good way. Speaking of blood seeing it sucked by Dracula, drained by killer rats or splattered across the screen qualifies as a good time to you. Congratulations! You fit the criteria to be a perfect attendee at the Sacramento Horror Film Festival occurring October 20-23 at the Colonial Theatre.

2011 marks its fifth year of celebrating all things creepy captured on celluloid and beyond. The SHFF is the brainchild of Tim Meunier. As its director he has had a life-long affinity for the genre of horror films.

Like a vampire or a hungry zombie, over the years he traveled great distances to feed his appetite by attending other film events. Armed with knowledge and an unquenchable desire he decided to create such an event in Sacramento.

Now classics, such as director James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff and Elsa Lancaster, is joined by modern flicks made by both independent filmmakers and major studios.

Meunier hails horror film fans as some of the most loyal. His observation was proven true when an RV pulled up early one year. Its owner wanted to be available for all the films shown in the 1930s era single screen theatre located on Stockton Boulevard.

Horror host, Mr. Lobo, as the master of ceremonies, keeps the action moving. Aside from films, the event also features performance artists and live bands between the screenings. Young enthusiasts, or the children of older ones, are invited to the family friendly movies appropriate for those seven years old and up.

Meunier says children are also welcome at other films providing parents understand independent films are not rated by the MPAA.

Not every film has slasher scenes, but for those that do, this year's introduction of a gore meter will help SHFF attendees choose films to their personal level of carnage saturation. Close to 400 films are viewed for entry as festival screenings. Planning begins for the next year's event as soon as the last one is finished.

In honor of the SHFF's fifth anniversary special "Best Of" screenings will be offered.

Among the special entries will be the following:

In "Night of the Hell Hamsters" the apocalypse is brought about by possessed hamsters.

"Cannibal Flesh Riot" follows the adventures of two redneck ghouls as they raid an ancient graveyard for a morbid night of debauchery. However, this time the dead are fed up with being fed upon and revenge is sweet.

"Chainsaw Maid" is brutal clay-animation where a sexy maid saves her employers from evil-doers.

"Dracula's Daughters vs. The Space Brains" has it all. Vampires, ballet, alien life forms and Neil Patrick Harris work to create a future classic horror flick. An attempt by lovely vampires to outrace the morning sun's killing rays before their brains are consumed is a plot worth at least two bags of buttered popcorn.

Linda Bottjer is a full time writer who freely admits to being a scaredy cat when it comes to watching
horror films. You will find her under her theatre seat whimpering and her work at www.words4sail.com.