Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival’s Thriller Picture Show Recap
This past weekend saw the conclusion of the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival’s third annual Thriller Picture Show, where dozens of horror-loving filmmakers descended on the Lindsay Theater in Sewickley to meet, chat, and above all, enjoy a wide variety of shorts and features. With a VIP reception and awards presentation that ran late into the evening on Friday, and a weekend packed with screenings, the event was a great chance for filmmakers, both local and beyond, to celebrate the festival’s best the way they were meant to be seen.
On Saturday night, the screenings kicked off with the annual “Romero Lives” event, in conjunction with the George A. Romero Foundation, offering audiences a chance to see some of Romero’s films that don’t screen as often as perennial favorites like Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead. This time around, we got to see Monkey Shines, Romero’s 1988 film about a genetically-modified capuchin who goes on a murderous rampage. The movie is a ton of fun and was the first time I had seen it on the big screen, but I think it was the cymbal-banging monkey toy that sat on the lobby counter (an homage to the film’s poster) that garnered the most screams by unsuspecting guests who accidentally touched the on-switch.
The film was followed by a pair of shorts that were met with enthusiasm by the crowd. Poacher Poacher, directed by Keil Orion Troisi, gave us a bloody update on The Most Dangerous Game, while Karmic Ties from writer/director Adriana González-Vega was a short but sweet date-night-gone-wrong. The night was capped by the campy stylings of Cocaine Werewolf, which to the best of my knowledge, isn’t able to claim the “true story” tag that Cocaine Bear was, but nevertheless, director Mark Polonia pulled out all the stops to deliver the old horror comic feel that is missing from most genre films today.
In the Weird Adventures block, audiences found themselves being transported through time (as in Absumo, from French director Emile Biegel, a film about clashing medieval knights with a very tight edit) and space (the otherworldly setting of Sammy Jo Pendergrast’s Kurath Thor was more an introduction to a larger story than it was its own self-contained film, but featured some impressive creature designs). Edge of Hope (directed by Matt Gorkis), meanwhile, had some strong action sequences to help its post-apocalyptic scenario stand out.
Closing out the shorts blocks was Twisted Treats, which featured the most traditional horror fare of the weekend. Films included the hostage thriller Bay for Blood from Thriller Picture Show veteran Harry Waldman, as well as Sean Haitz’s Bellevue Bob, in which a crazed clown played by David Vega has dreams of performing in the sick sideshow of a man called Mr. Kharver, played offscreen by Bill Moseley.
To cap off the weekend, Mike and Brenda Ancas screened their documentary Chasing Zombies, which looked at the lives and Con careers of the zombies from a number of George A. Romero’s Dead films. It was a fitting tribute to the unsung heroes of such a beloved franchise, showing how so many fan-favorite zombie personalities found their way into Romero’s films in the first place and how they found community at conventions like the annual Living Dead Weekend in Monroeville, PA.
While Chasing Zombies wrapped up the full weekend of screenings for the Thriller Picture Show, one more night is still to come. On Oct. 24, a final “Dark Date Night” will officially close the festival, with a pair of short films, The Cocktail, directed by Jamie Lockhart, and Ember, directed by David Ogrodowski (both Thriller Picture Show veterans in their own right), as well as a double feature of Robin Dunne’s domestic thriller Kill Victoria,and gothic ghost story The Phantoms, directed by Logan Thomas. Tickets are still available for Dark Date Night.
What Sleeps Beneath is a proud sponsor of the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival.
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Article written by Ande Thomas
Ande loves the intersection of sci-fi and horror, where our understanding of the natural world clashes with our fear of the new and unknown. He is an independent member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and a supporting member of the Horror Writers Association. He writes about monsters and foreign horror and can also be found over on Letterboxd.
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