Bob looks at a selection of the shorts and features of Seattle’s yearly BoneBat Comedy of Horrors Film Festival.
INTRO
On April 11th, The Bonebat Comedy of Horrors Film Festival’s fifteenth edition of giggles and gore went down in Seattle, Washington. Programmers Steve Holetz and Gord Caulkins host The BoneBat Show, a great podcast discussing life, music, movies, and is just plain fun. A total joy to listen to, though I admit I’m a bit behind. They’re also just wonderful people. As fans of horror and comedy, many moons ago, they started presenting favorite shorts up here in Seattle, expanding to the 11-hour monster we have today. Playing at SIFF Uptown on my birthday (what a great present!), horror fans of the PNW filled the auditorium, in what seemed like the busiest one yet. This year, BoneBat featured 33 shorts, two features (The Demonatrix and Deathgasm 2), a musical performance from Aurelio Voltaire, and other fun.
Let me preface: I am friends with the folks who run the festival. Year to year, some of the titles shown are made by people I know. This year, that connection was just the first feature Demonatrix co-directed by friend Jeff Ferrell. That said, I do try to keep as objective as possible.
SHORTS
The great thing about shorts, and we love shorts here (see Emilie’s daily Short Film for You postings), is how effective they can be. Someone gets an idea, and for this festival, a sometimes incredibly fucked up idea, and runs with it. A tight ten minutes of whatever that is to say what’s needed and get out. Others are to explore a feeling, emotion, or character without having a whole arc around. And some are proof of concepts to lead to a feature (of course, the non-proof of concepts can as well).
No matter, they are great ways for filmmakers to get themselves out there, in front of more eyes. I’m glad to be a part of it for the various festivals I attend or work with.
With 33 shorts, plus a few dozen 5 Second Films, it’d be a fool’s errand for me to write about them all, and I want you to read this page and not skip off for all the text. Instead, I present my top 10, in order of their showing. They also represent the variety of types of films that screen at BoneBat, sliding along the horror-comedy spectrum: many are fully funny without much horror (Baby Tooth, for example) or full-on horror, not a laugh to be heard (Tapesty, dealing with the trauma of child death, which oddly enough followed the last example). The full lineup can be found here. Every last one of them is good and worth seeking out.
Brick Boy, directed by Scott Vasey.
The sort of goofy, creative fun that exemplifies BoneBat. In 1992, a picked-on nerdy girl uses her spellbook to create a golem made out of Legos. Blood and bricks get laughs as revenge is constructed upon her bullies. Great verisimilitude, could have easily been my world of the early 90s.
Pimple, directed by Fernando Alle.
Another revenge against bullies! Here, a boy’s pimple is poked in the bathroom until body fluid flies all over, and takes an unexpected turn that ends with more unexpected dialogue; a weird button to a hilariously bloody and bile-filled flick.
The Quackening, directed by James Button
A man visits his grandmother’s house in the UK countryside. Too bad the batty old woman has stolen a pot of gold, earning him a curse as a duck tries to kill him. This is wild, with laughs and surprises from all ends. Wild, weird, with wonderful energy.
Fruithead, directed by Mike Diva
A fantastic example of taking a “What if?” notion and running with it, starring The West Wing and Get Out’s Bradley Whitford (another, Grizzly Peak, has Danny Glover and awesome horror director Gigi Saul Guerrero! Always interesting when a known face graces our festival) as a commercial director haunted by his past. You remember Gushers and their morphing commercials? Fruit-headed kids? What if it wasn’t an effect? Absolutely fantastic maskwork here.
The Man That I Wave At, directed by Ben S. Hyland
On a walk with his wife, a man waves at another guy across the street. His wife asks why and who the other guy is. The man doesn’t remember, spinning out into a full-on existential crisis. And it goes a step further, pushing it from regular madness to a different direction.
Tacocunr, directed by Erin Brown Thomas
I’m 44, and I don’t have any more passwords in me. Thomas distills this frustration into 2 high-pressure and more laughs minutes as a woman is sure she knows her password. Like many great shorts takes that little thing and explodes into anything goes. After Pizza Movie’s extended joke around the word almost noted in the title, fun to have another make great use of it.
Grater directed by Mike Piskin & Karyna Asianova
This gets points for sheer number of puns. A grindhouse slasher trailer parody could set right next to the original Thanksgiving short, getting as much mileage from a cheese grater as possible. Best use of one since Evil Dead Rise.
Grandma is Thirsty, directed by Kris Carr
I honestly had no idea where this was going to go as it went. A disturbing, uncomfortable short of a kid trying to get out of a situation. After bullies steal his backpack, some weird twins (with some great, strange voice dubbing) offer to make him stronger if he hangs out at their home for a while. It gets weirder. Want some milkie?
Chair by Chris McInroy
What horror is it putting together an Ikea chair? (or being stuck in a store like the books Horrorstor or Finna). A man’s new chair is missing a piece, and it might take a Faustian bargain to get it together. Hilarious.
Next Show in 90 Minutes by John T. Hill
This wordless, animated, post-zombie apocalypse short is sad and poignant. A man in a hazmat suit works through the wilderness, returning to a lodge at Old Faithful (thus the title). Simple but powerful.
Help, I’m Alien Pregnant by THUNDERLIPS
A body fluid, gross-out wild ride closes. Straight from New Zealand, a woman is convinced she’s pregnant due to, among other reasons, her boyfriend’s mutant penis. Everything gets wet in multiple ways. A total riot. (a feature is ..due.. Hehe… this year)
Those are a nice selection of shorts. Of course, your favorites may be different. Find them out there and report back!
MUSIC
The rest of BoneBat are the two features, along with musical performances. Previous years have been rockin’ fun with Pine Box Boys and Isaac Rother and the Phantoms. This year, Aurelio Voltaire and his guitar serenaded us with his monstrously macabre melodies. He’s a ton of fun; a natural born storyteller regaling with great stories between the songs. I love his work, and it was great to see him live. Fitting to have him perform, since he co-directed the first feature.
FEATURES
That film was The Demonatrix. Written and directed by the duo of Jeff Ferrell and Aurelio Voltaire, it’s been a long-time project for them. I’m so glad to finally see it after watching Ferrell move forward inch by inch for the last decade.
It’s a solid flick. The story follows Lita, a dominatrix, played wonderfully by V/H/S’s Hannah Fierman (she was the siren in the first segment), as she starts a seance component for more cash, which unleashes a demon that was kept, bound in a cross, by Father Veto, the priest across the street. The demon invades the lives of the pair and her submissive, with Lita unsure what’s happening to her and the priest having a crisis of faith as he tries to figure out how to recage it.
It’s entertaining, funny, and a good time. There’s so much love that Ferrell and Voltaire put into the film, and that goes a long way. The story moves along at a clip, with humor and engaging reveals. Fierman gives a spirited performance, a grounded lead with big-eyed exuberance. Voltaire, best known for his long-standing musical career (see above), also plays the priest. Because you’re wondering: No, he doesn’t make the soundtrack. Voltaire is an incredibly charismatic person, and it shines through the screen, playing his priest with a natural likability. He’s eye-catching. Ferrell himself, playing Lita’s gimp, gets the most laughs with incredible timing. Horrors fans will be happy to see Larry Fessenden and Doug Bradley for a few scenes! Let’s not forget Skinny Puppy’s ohGr within the practical demon costume. It’s an astounding effect, as is some stop-motion work.
I do wish it had a bit more bite. It’s not a big film, and more serious than people likely expect. It’s not a B-movie cheese fest, and that might throw people off. Voltaire said that sometimes people expect Velocipastor and are let down. I get that. Knowing what I did before coming in, having followed the film for a long time, I knew that wasn’t the tone. But the title doesn’t really come into play as one would think. A little more in that end, just bumping it up a few minutes and giving what seemed to be a set-up would have strengthened it. In that way, the ending is a little rushed and awkward. Heck, if it were all bumped up the energy notch for effect and comedy, it might land better. But the seance that brings about the demon is incredibly well done. Incredible sound design in this moment.
Even with my notes of what didn’t quite work, I overall greatly enjoyed The Demonatrix. I really dug the characters, their interactions, and performances. There’s more than enough to recommend, with the note of knowing the tone coming in. It’s funny within the horror but not outright, like other films that might use this title.
The Demonatrix, directed and written by Jeff Ferrell and Aurelio Voltaire, is currently working through the festival circuit. Seek it out. For PNW, it’ll be playing again at the Crypticon Seattle horror convention’s film festival the first weekend of May.
(Further disclosure: Bob, Kim, and Cody do work with the film festival and the convention.)
The second feature was Deathgasm 2: Goremaggaddon, from Jason Lei Howden. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see it. After so many hours, I was tired, and my son’s birthday party was in the morning. Had to call it a day.
CLOSING
Want more? Check out the Bone Bat archives for the festival for great shorts (a personal favorite: Leslie the Pony has an A+ Day) and the features they’ve played across the eons (big fan of Ava’s Possession). As time goes by, more and more are available online. Steve and Gord always pick a great set, and it can’t hurt to dive into the ghoulish delight. Of course, the best way to see these is live with a crowd of hundreds of giggling, gasping, and groaning horror fans. Steve always presents a selection at Crypticon, and Demonatrix will play there as well. Keep a gouged eye out for the December Kickstarter that funds the fest and comes out next April. Not from Seattle? Make a weekend of it in the best city.
BoneBat can be found at the BoneBat Podcast, and it’s own page, and all over social media.