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Bloody fight for tickets

Guts, monsters, murderers, nudity - yum

By Nicole Fitzgerald

What:   B-Grade Horror Fest

When: Monday, Oct. 30, 4 & 8 p.m.

Where: MY Millennium Place

Tickets $15-$10

By the time readers pick up this week’s issue of Pique Newsmagazine, most likely the Heavy Hitting B-Grade Horror Fest, true to form, will be sold out.

But with the addition of a matinee screening to this year’s 5 th annual horror fest, Monday. Oct. 30 at MY Millennium Place, a few lucky horror fans might still attend one of Whistler’s largest filmmaking traditions.

Five years ago, only the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival’s Filmmaker Showdown reigned. However, in the shoulder season space between mountain biking and skiing, Heavy Hitting founders Chili Thom and Feet Banks decided to come up with an excuse to put dormant cameras to good use and the Heavy Hitting B-Grade Horror Fest was born.

"Whistler a pretty good town for filmmakers, each year there's the 72

hour contest, which is a crazy mad rush, the classy and polished Whistler

Film festival, and us-a chance to have fun and cover your friends in fake

Blood,” Banks says from his car on his way home from shooting his own festival film with Thom. “It's a very well-rounded scene and the quality of local films is just getting better and better."

The festival was first hosted at the Garibaldi Lift Company, then moved to MY Millennium Place in the festival’s second year to accommodate the crowds. Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, upwards of 10 to 15 filmmaking teams will showcase B-grade horror films. (There is still time to enter films. The deadline is Friday, Oct. 20.)

The 15-minute-or-less films are produced in the style of the 1950s and 1960s horror film genre made famous by classics such as Devil Girl From Mars and Door to Door Maniac. B-grade horror movies are anything but standard Hollywood flicks. B-grades are all about making a film on a nickel and dime budget and packing in as many horror film clichés as possible, such as zombies, aliens, monsters, murderers, blood, guts and, always an audience favourite, token nudity.

“The horror genre, especially B-grade, it has a little bit of everything in it,” Banks explained. “It can be scary, funny, action packed. It could make you cry, but that hasn’t happened yet. There is a lot of freedom in the genre. It’s a well-known one. Everyone knows the shower scene and ‘I’ll be right back’, but they never come back. It’s just a lot of fun. That is what the whole thing is about.”

This is one of the few film festivals where the audience is as much a part of the show as the filmmakers themselves. A locally driven venture, most audience members know at least one person whose work is hitting the screen over the course of the night; it brings a real intimacy to the occasion, where no one takes themselves too seriously and the theatre bar is tapped out by intermission.

Partying aside, while organizers take a casual and communal approach to the evening, the filmmakers put out some serious films, each year’s efforts being better than the last.

“Lately it seems people are handing in movies better than the ones we make, which is great to see; it just means the bar is getting stepped up,” Banks said.

How do you improve a festival that sells out every year? Last year’s addition of an official Heavy Hitting Films film opener definitely added to the buzz of the night. There was no roaring lion, rather a gargoyle-like topless actress spreading her wings atop a stone cliff with thundering soundscape pumping up the crowd. Freaky, sexy and superbly created, the opening embodied all of the makings of a festival winner .

Creator Stu MacKay Smith should know; he has won top prize at the festival twice. The only thing stopping him from another win was the festival organizers’ decision to make MacKay Smith a judge.

Many festival winners have moved on to filmmaking careers. Lauren Graham won the first festival in 2001 with her horror Hag Written. She won the TWSSF Filmmaker Showdown the following year and is currently wrapping up her first feature-length documentary.

Last year’s winner, Whistler’s Chris Smith, was a surprise. It was his first entry into the festival, but the young filmmaker produced a quality product with great horrific clout.

“He really captured the creepy, scary, make-your-skin-crawl feel,” Banks said. “It’s easy to make a film that is pure comedy. I’ve done it more than a few times. But to make a film that can scare people is really difficult. If your film gets the hair on the backs of people’s necks standing up, your film is going to make the top three.”

But only the top dog counts, with the winner walking home with the festival’s infamous silver skull trophy. The skull opens to reveal a bottle of rye and six shot glasses as well as some prize money.

Prizes area also awarded to best actor and actress.

“It’s about giving people a chance to put their films on the screen,” Banks said. “It’s turned into one of the most fun nights of the year, and in a town chalk full of fun, that says a lot.”

The 4 p.m. matinee includes a screening of all film entries. Tickets are $10. The 8 p.m. evening gala includes a pre-show reception, full screening and awards ceremony.

For submission guidelines, e-mail Banks at feet@heavyhitting.com . He’s been known to accept films past the Oct. 20 th deadline, but get them in soon.