Terror Film Fest thrills Philly this Halloween season

By Jen McShane
Collegian Staff
October 17, 2007

If you are a fan of horror films, blood and gore, the Philadelphia Terror Film Fest is perfect to soothe your appetite for blood and guts. The Terror Film Fest began Oct. 16 and runs until Oct. 21. The festival location is the Ethical Society Building, across from Rittenhouse Square. Tickets for the individual events start at $8, however, the first 5 students to any event get in for free with valid college ID. The official host of the festival is Princess Horror, an actress from films such as Déjà vu, Hell’s Threshold and Jestour.

Courtesy of Felix Diaz - Actress Kristen Kerr and film director Scott Thomas are
two participants in the second annual Terror Film Fest.

The film festival opened this week with special guest director Laurent Fabre. Fabre, a native of France, directed Bacchus, which was the opening film for the festival this year. To promote Fabre, all students were allowed admission to the show for free.

In addition to all the horror films this year, actor and director Leo Rossi made an appearance, entertaining questions during a session Oct 16. Rossi is well known for his death scene in a hot tub in Halloween II. Rossi answered questions after the showing of his latest film Diamond Zero.

Another special event at the festival will take place Oct. 20, where Hollywood director Bobby Logan will lead a mini-film class. Logan is well known and produced four studio films, as well as many independent movies.

Now in its second year, the film festival shows about 250 films, with film writers from all over the world, including Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Italy, France, Switzerland, Denmark and Argentina. A good portion of the films come from the United States, and some even come from Philadelphia.

“On average we receive around 250 films,” said Festival director Felix Diaz. “That’s actually higher than we expected in just our second year. Both years excelled past our projections by a pretty good-sized margin.”

Diaz also said that the number of film submissions shows “no sign of slowing down.”

This year, the films star many famous actors and actresses. Some well known celebrities appearing in films are Kevin J. O’Connor (Van Helsing and The Mummy), Erick Avari (Daredevil and Stargate), Richard Tyson (Kindergarden Cop and Me, Myself & Irene), Tippi Hedren (The 4400 and The Birds) and Leo Rossi (Halloween II and The Accused), among many others.

The goal of the festival is to create a special atmosphere for film writers and directors to showcase their work. The festival has awards for filmmaking and screenwriting. Some of the submitters to the festival have received Hollywood deals, film distribution and notoriety among the film community. The festival is an opportune way for a film producer or director to get publicity.

The Terror Film Festival occurs only in Philadelphia and began in 2006. According to Diaz, Princess Horror came up with the idea for starting the festival in Philadelphia. They started the film festival, not expecting the outpouring of support from the Philadelphia community.

“We have somehow managed to gather quite a loyal and supportive fan base,” said Diaz. “Our fans are really great.”

mcshanej2@lasalle.edu