So who else is devastated to see the end of Hallowe’en and with it the Mayhem Festival? Yeah, us too. There may be another 350 odd days until we can next don our hellish costumes and carve rude faces into pumpkins, but fear not - there's one more event to get your bones rattling in their sockets, and it’s all created by the talented film folks of Nottingham...
Back for its third birthday, The Halloween Monster Movie competition is dedicated to showcasing the best of Nottinghamshire’s independent horror film makers; those who revel in vomit inducing special effects, terrifying plotlines and ghoulish stories of horror. The premise is simple: make a short film that will scare the bejeezus out of an audience whilst using as much creativity as you can muster. Standards have been high in the past, with last years winners Tracy and Mark Smith’s mystifying and creepy Tormented – a film about a dream-dwelling demon bringing the scares and showing great creative inspiration – definitely worth its prize. So, get yourself in the mood and reminisce by watching last years winning entries and some of the organiser’s favourites.
We don’t live in the past though and contestants have worked on this year’s monsterpieces from 31 July right up until the 19 October deadline to entertain us in fresh new ways. The small print conditions for terrorising Nottingham were simple; the film had to be a short between three and ten minutes in length, but in those minutes, entrants needed to include three lines of dialogue in order to prove that it was for the Monster Competition – no cheats here, thanks. Most importantly, this being a monster movie challenge, there were to be no human evildoers in the film - so no Leatherface, no Dr Heiter and no Norman Bates. Just freakish monsters, vicious werewolves, demonic presences, possessed chattels – whatever the moviemaker’s imaginations could come up with. There also needed to be a suitably spooktastic team name, which is always the hardest part of any competition, if you ask me.
As with any great monster film, there has to be a ‘grand reveal’ and this year the winners will be announced at a special screening on Thursday 10 November at The Old Salutation. Not only that, you lucky people will be able to see three bands who will be accompanying the toe curling, blood curdling, bite-sized film treats. And, if you’re lucky, Rosie the resident spooky child ghost, and Chief the resident deaded dog will join in to chow down on some popcorn. For those of you not in the know, the Sal is one of Nottingham's most haunted venues and has a long history of paranormal activities, which you’d expect, seeing as the building has been around sine 1240AD. Alongside Rosie, there is a malignant, male presence that hangs around in the cave under the pub and a reported forty something other presences that are all ready and willing to goose you in the night. If you’re not too scared after all the films, there’s an Old Sal ghost walk after the event that LeftLion took part in earlier this year, and let me tell you it was a fraught couple of hours with many a ghouly goings on. The other bonus of it being held in a pub is that it’s full of alcohol, so if your nerves are too frazzled to head to the depths of hell – aka, the Sal’s caves - then you can calm them with a lovely ale, or two. Monster.
2010 Monster Movie Challenge winning entries
Monster Movie Challenge event page
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