ON SCREEN
What: DEDFest
Where: Vic Theatre, 808 Douglas St.
When: Saturday, 3 p.m.
Tickets: $10, or $15 for festival pass, 19 and over
Info: absoluteunderground.ca
Ira Hunter isn't waiting until Halloween to scare up some grisly fun on the horror front.
Anyone familiar with the horror filmmaker and Absolute Underground publisher will already know zombies will be involved.
Hunter's annual DEDFest - a cinematic showcase featuring "four splat-tastic films" - gets underway Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Vic Theatre. The showcase of festival favourites, horror classics and two sa国际传媒 premi猫res will also feature vintage trailers, genre merchandise and prizes during the event being held in conjunction with Zombie Walk Victoria, held each October.
"This is a zombie walk after-party basically," said Hunter, who chose the Vic as this year's venue because of its proximity to the end of the annual zombie walk that attracted hundreds of fans dressed as zombies for the downtown march last year.
"They wander to the legislature at 3, but then they just shamble off mindlessly, so we're giving them something to do."
As an incentive, Hunter is offering a $5 discount on a festival pass to anyone dressed as a zombie.
"This kicks off the Halloween season," said Hunter, who is purposefully presenting the festival earlier this year.
"There's too much competition on Halloween weekend, too many house parties and club events."
It seems appropriate DEDFest will begin with George A. Romero's original 1968 zombie classic Night of the Living Dead.
"It's the zombie film that started it all," notes Hunter, who's such a Romero fan he now corresponds with the horror icon's filmmaker son George Cameron Romero, who he recently discussed titles such as as Undead Inbreds at San Diego's Comic-Con.
DEDFest also features Creepshow (1982), to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the classic anthology series; V/H/S, a new and "insane found footage anthology" Hunter says has been called the year's "scariest, rawest horror film"; and the sa国际传媒 premi猫re of Famine, a "pretty extreme" new slasher comedy from Ryan Nicholson, the Victoria-raised film and television industry makeup effects wizard (The Pledge, Scary Movie, Stargate SG-1) who is now best known for horror and splatter films such as Gutterballs and Star Vehicle made under his Plotdigger Films banner.
"We also like to support local filmmakers," says Hunter, who is collaborating on DEDFest with Brenin Burrow, "a big fan of Ryan's work" who is simultaneously relocating his Burning Moon Video cult and horror movies store from Calgary to Victoria.
