All Things Horror Night in Somerville...

I had the pleasure of getting out and seeing some horror thanks to the guys at All Things Horror Online, a new website that has joined the community recently. Founders Mike Snoonian and Chris Hallock are holding horror movie nights in the screening room of the Somerville Theater the first Wednesday of each month. This event was a couple of shorts, Someone Else, Dollface, and a feature Long Pigs. The room was close to full and only Chris was there to introduce the films, we started with the four minute psychological piece Someone Else. Just four minutes in length it is an exploration of the fears of the 1st Women (Karen Bartke) as she explains to her therapist (Katherine McGinty) how living alone she feels there is someone else in the house. Effectively cutting between the therapy session and 1st Women's horror fantasy the film is effective in creating a creepy feeling in the view. The music in the film is well used and the climax is definitely worth the four minutes.
Dollface, a twenty minute film about a young artist who takes a job housesitting for a rich man who is off traveling. The creepy Real Estate agent Maxine(Tiffany Moy) hits on the artist Deborah (Gizelle Erickson) several times and just in general makes her uncomfortable in person and on the phone. Unlike House of the Devil there are no satanic killers in this, when Deborah wanders around the house she finds things to paint. A doll in particular catches her attention and while painting it a really creepy transformation happens, the section of which that uses a child as the actress for the doll is very creepy. We watch as the film beomes sort of a Invasion of the Body Snatchers short film and Maxine ends up with what she wants. This film was a bit slow but it was trying to build slowly and not give anything away. Unfortunately there is little story arc, nor character arcs so the film did not satisfy the way it could have.
Long Pigs is a pseudo-documentary about two desperate film makers who get lucky(?) and meet a cannibalistic serial killer to make a documentary about. Anthony McAllister (Anthony Alviano) is a violent psychopath who eats his victims. Because he has the two film makers following him around he gets to spout off on his reasoning and philosophy never questioning his crazy belief. Neither do the film makers, in fact they very quickly assist this sick bastard in his crimes. Knowing that this is found footage style of set up, we already know what is going to happen in the end. It is a positive that the getting there is grisly, funny and interesting and in the end although the subject is not redeemable the film is.