MONSTER FEST 2013 DIARY # 8

It's been a week since Monster Fest's "official" opening night with MURDERDROME and despite not catching every film (get realistic) I reckon I've made a decent go of it. Tonight's line up is one of the strongest on the program with HELLBABY, HELLBENDERS 3D, HATCHET 3 and A NIGHTMARE ON LYGON STREET (6 Freddy movies back-to-back). Unfortunately I was only able to catch HELLBABY.

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I wrapped up work early and headed into town. I had an hour to spare and so I grabbed a bite to eat (the fish place next door make wicked salmon burgers). Before the cinema opened I briefly caught up with Grant Hardie (from Monster) and talked about the festival. He seemed to be stoked with how the festival has been going and I shared my highs and lows with him. People started to arrive and we wrapped it up. Time for HELLBABY! I have read lots about the movie over the past few months and I've been keen to see it. I um'd and ah'd about whether or not to attend this session, though, because it's actually being released to blu-ray and dvd next week and I've got a heap of copies on order... but I thought "fuck it" and decided to catch it on the big screen. I had the added bonus of seeing it with an audience, which made all the difference. As you can see from the poster, the film was made by the guys who created Reno 911 and that is a good indication of what you're going to get. This is a damn funny movie and ridiculously outrageous. To be honest I wasn't expecting it to be SO ludicrous but I'm real glad it was. I was in the right mood and it worked on me. It's about a couple who move into a notorious murder house in New Orleans and encounter all kinds of freaky and maniacal occurrences.  The pregnant wife becomes possessed and eventually gives birth to a demon baby. It's essentially one big comedy-of-errors with a delicious amount of gory goodness and sacrilegious blasphemy. This is quite possibly my last film for the festival and I couldn't think of a more fun way to wrap things up. On my way back to the car I caught Stuart Simpson as he was on his way up to see HELLBENDERS and we talked about last night's screening of BIG ASS SPIDER. He shared my sentiments about it. As we were talking I noticed a whole lot of familiar faces walking up the stairs including Mark Hartley and Paul Harris. I thought hard about heading back up and doing a bit of mingling - but I'm not the ogle-suck-arse-type. Introducing myself might have seemed desperate (I did have my card in hand. lol) Yeah yeah, I know. I'm mental! 

Anyhow... so if I'm not able to squeeze any more session in over the weekend then Sunday night's Monster Fest wrap party will be the final hoorah. It should be a great night and you can bet I'll be here to fill you in. I wish I had more for you tonight but I'll do my best to re-post any other blogs about the films I'm missing out on tonight. 

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