2020 has been a trial.
I know this is a soft assessment of what has been a truly bad year, but I am not given to using expletives in print.
With all the tumult and turmoil, there has been some bright spots. For me, it has been the Sohome Horror Film Festivals.
Mitch Harrod put together the Soho Horror Film Festival in London in 2018 and 2019, with the physical festivals held in London. When the lockdown occurred, he decided to hold them online. Renaming them "Sohome", Mitch has held three so far this year with a fourth (The Sohohoho Horror Film Festival) slated for 19 December.
Being a fan of horror for most of my life, I am always on the lookout for new scares. Over the years, I have found short films to be a hotbed of inventiveness. Sohome is in the same mindset, usually showing more short films than features. Mitch seems to have a knack for finding some of the best of the year's crop of not only scares, but also laughs, as he tempers his selections with the funny side of horror. This point will be illustrated as I run though the viewing.
This time, I went through the Sohome website and found the listings for 2018 & 2019's Festivals, as well as this past weekends Fest and the 2020 physical Fest slated for 13-15 November. I was able to track down many of the short films, and a couple of features from the previous Festivals and got a chance to view them. My intention is to give the links to see some of these films, as they are worthy of your time. I will also go over the films I viewed this past weekend and give you a head's off...sorry...head's up on films that you need to see!! So, off we go!! Click the word "link" to view the film.
2018 Soho Horror Film Festival
Features
Boo!; Framed; Luz; Vidar the Vampire; Winterskin; Dementia Part II; Bong of the Living Dead; Involution; Inner Ghosts; All the Creatures Were Stirring; Trauma; and Rock Steady Row (link).
Short Films
The Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre; Monstagram (link); The Quiet Room; Pyotr 495 (link); The Sermon (link); Unto Death; Sang Papier (link); Oscar's Bell (link) ; What Metal Girls are Into; The Bloody Ballad of Squirt Reynolds (link); Tater (link) ; I Am the Doorway; Post Mortem Mary (link) ; Once Bitten; Goodnight Gracie (link); Proceeds of Crime (link); Lunch Ladies; and Holy Fuck.
I managed to find Luz and Vidar the Vampire on Crackle. Vidar is from Norway and is a very twisted spin on Vampirism, Religion and Relationships. Luz I have yet to see. Rock Steady Row is on YouTube. I got a chance to view most of the short films. Tater is the tale of mutant potatoes from outer space. Oscar's Bell and Post Mortem Mary are very chilling. Monstagram is cautionary tale about children and photographs shared online. Sang Papier is a funny spin on immigration. I have heard that Lunch Ladies is outrageously funny, but I haven't found it. The Sermon, The Quiet Room, Pyotr 495 and Unto Death are part of the LGBTQ+ horror genre.
I should mention here that Mitch's selections always include several examples of LGBTQ+ horror films, which is becoming a larger part of the genre. His second Festival of 2020 was exclusively LGBTQ+ and there were a number of short films in Fest III, which we will get to later.
2019 Soho Horror Film Festival
Features
Dreamland; Death to Metal; Attack of the Demons; An English Haunting; Itsy Bitsy; Sator; Z; Scare Package; Swing Low; Punto Muerto; Artik; Blood Machine; Scream Queen: My Nightmare on Elm St.; and Tammy and the T-Rex.
Short Films
Peopling; Vinyl Destination (link); Brutal Realty Inc; Dead Air; Midnight (link); Finley (link); The Fortune Teller (link); Satanic Panic '87 (link) ; No One Will Ever Believe You; Ghost Turd (link); The Muffin Man (link); Critical Hit; The Fog vs. The Mist (link); In Sound, We Live Forever (link); Killer Date; Penance (link); Crop Dust (link); and We Got a Monkey's Paw (link) .
Artik can be found on Crackle. Z is part of Shudder's collection. Tammy and the T-Rex has been run on cable numerous times. Quite a few of the shorts leaned toward horror/comedy with Vinyl Destination, Finley (which made another appearence in a 2020 Fest), Ghost Turd, The Muffin Man, The Fog vs. The Mist, Crop Dust and We Got a Monkey's Paw, all generating laughs. The Fortune Teller is scary. Under the heading of 'Incredible' are both Midnight, which plays with the viewer's sense of time, and In Sound, We Live Forever, which is one of the most ingenious bits of storytelling that I have seen in a long time. It is a must see. Penance is another LGBTQ+ short.
2020 Sohome Horror Film Festival I
2020 Sohome Horror Film Festival II: Pride Edition
2020 Sohome Horror Film Festival III
Features
Bad Candy; Dead; Danni and the Vampire; Medusa: Queen of the Serpents; The Returned; Survival Skills; Death to Metal; The Quiet Revolution; Bleed With Me; Threshold; Ill: the Final Contagion; and Re-Elected.
Short Films
Milk Teeth; Backward Creep; Council House and Violent; A Funny Way to Die; Couriers; Night Feed; No Hard Shells Crack?; Phantom; Cursed Connection; Caught on Tape; Insecticide (link); Stagnant (link); The Drawing (link); Livin' After Midnight; Snake Dick (link); Grisley Girls; Behind the Door; Mateo (link); Little Willy (link); It Came from the 80s; Melvin and the Microphone; First Bite; Vinyl Destination; Regret; Sleep Tight; Going Steady; The Cleanse; Meta; The Hollow Hours; Don't Text Back; Polter; Limerince; Poltergays; Morbus; Unholy Mole; and Downs of the Dead.
Among the Features, Dead from New Zealand is a must see! Through a combination of weed and his late father's medication, Marbles can talk to ghosts and help them cross over. Problems start when he meets up with a recently murdered policeman who wants his help to solve the crime. The Quiet Revolution is a documentary about the horror movie movement in Canada from the 1970s to the present. Incredibly informative and a must for the horror historian. Survival Skills is a very disturbing film. Done as if you are watching a VHS tape, Stacy Keach narrates you through the training and decline of a rookie police officer. Re-Elected....what can I say. Any film with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson coming back as Zombies has my vote. Silly film that makes you laugh out loud. I also saw Bad Candy and Bleed With Me.
I managed to see all but one of the short films. There were two sets of grouped short: Lockdown shorts (A Funny Way to Die; Couriers; Night Feed; No Hard Shells Crack?; Phantom; Cursed Connection; Caught on Tape; Insecticide; Stagnant; and The Drawing) and Horrorisqueer shorts (Going Steady; The Cleanse; Meta; The Hollow Hours; Don't Text Back; Polter; Limerince; and Poltergays).
In the Lockdown shorts, Night Feed was hilarious, Stagnant and The Drawing were scary and Couriers was just unnerving.
The Horrorisqueer Shorts had several that dealt with issues among the LGBTQ+ community and handled them in amazing ways. In Meta, Artie is transgender and the favorite for King of the Prom, until becoming a monster as he questions what people see when they look at him. In The Hollow Hours, a cursed clock shows the relationship of a gay couple from best to worst. Poltergays explores a straight couple who think that the gay couple they share the house with are the spawn of Satan. This one is hilarious. Polter is also funny as a man is forced to share his deep secret to satisfy the ghost in the house.
Of the others, Milk Teeth is a poignant yet horrific spin on the Tooth Fairy. In the funny category, Livin' After Midnight, It Came from the 80s, Melvin and the Microphone, Sleep Tight, and Unholy Mole are good for a laugh. In the Zombie category, Mateo from Mexico gives you a peek into the mind of a zombie, while Downs of the Dead from Norway, casts a group of patients with Downs Syndrome as the heroes in a Zombie Outbreak, saving themselves and an inept orderly.
As you can see, it was a very busy horror movie weekend.
My thanks to Mitch Harrod for guiding us through another Sohome Horror Film Festival. All the best, Mitch!