Day 2 of the Stanley Film Festival was a marathon. For those of us up before 10, the hotel grounds felt a bit arryike a ghost town, but as noon approached, guests recovered a bit from opening night (and also, perhaps, from their middle-of-the-night Immersive Horror Game experiences) and made their way out to begin a packed Day 2.
The bittersweet festival necessity of choosing which film to see and which to miss was particularly challenging today – choosing between Larry Fessenden’s live Tales From Beyond the Pale show, written specifically for the SFF, and Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation was enough to make our heads hurt.
There were plenty of incredible films, moments, and events from the day, but here are a few highlights:
There was some ritualistic bloodletting to entertain guests prior to the first films of the day.
The Treatment kicked things off at the Concert Hall, telling a dark and horrific tale of a police inspector desperately trying to catch a criminal while also attempting to solve the decades-old case involving the disappearance of his very own brother.
Without spoiling anything, Goodnight Mommy was one hell of an afternoon wake-up – check out our review here.
The Q&A session after The Invitation made it clear that director Karyn Kusama brings a unique perspective and one hell of an IQ to the genre.
The Hallow was a nail-biter for the majority of the film – definitely left the theater with a dramatically higher blood pressure than the one with which we entered. Read more in our review.
Frightday will be checking out Deathgasm Saturday night, but judging by the full house for Friday’s showing, we are willing to bet this one will be a highlight of the festival.
To close out the night, a stroll around the festival campus ended in the main lobby, where I was able to bear witness to Larry Fessenden trying out the Catatonic virtual reality horror experience. This is top of our list for tomorrow morning!
