Cucalorus as an Event

This was my first year experiencing the Wilmington film festival, Cucalorus. Last year, I was able to acquire a pass for access to all the screenings and events, but was unfortunately swamped with school work at the time and therefore, unable to attend. This year, I made sure I had time to at least go to one event. I tried to acquire a pass again this year, but was unsuccessful due to the decreased amount supplied to students, not to mention my forgetfulness in waiting until the last hour of the last day to make an attempt.

Anyway, the film I saw was The House of the Devil, which played at Lumina. I had a music recital that I had to attend for another class on both Thursday and Saturday night, as well as an appointment for my car to be inspected on Friday morning and a group meeting on Sunday, so its placement on Friday night was perfect for me. It also doesn't hurt that I am obviously an avid horror fan, and have read a few articles on the film prior to even knowing that it was playing at Cucalorus.

The theater was quite packed, though there were a good amount of seats remaining in the lower floor section. Before the film started, a guy came on with a guitar, though instead of playing it, he just smacked it and sung a song. When he finally did get around to plucking the strings, one broke. This may have been a sign. This being my first year, I don't really know who the performer was, though I heard some people behind me comment things like "Oh, this guy?" and "He's at every one of 'em." I'm not sure what that meant, but I assumed from it that he was obviously associated with the festival in some way, shape, or form.

Next, the director, Ti West, came up to talk for a few sentences about the film, and then the lights dimmed. Prior to The House of the Devil, we were treated to a short film about a dead cadaver and cremation. It was kind of neat, but it would have been nice to know that we were seeing it beforehand. As it began, I thought, "Man, this is kind of a weird start, considering I know what the film is about and everything." It wasn't until after it ended that I realized that it was just a short to accompany the feature, and I'll have to look up the name of it later. After all that, we finally got to see the flick.

Overall, it was a pretty good horror movie, though it was still a near miss. I overheard some kids talking about how it was the greatest horror movie that they had ever seen, and to that I must assume that it was also their first. As I said, it was not, overall, a bad film. It had a nice look to it, and I remember reading that he shot it on 16mm. It also had a nice build up in the story, and I was with it right up until what followed a blunt, gruesome, and very satisfying death scene. From there, the movie just kind of petered out and West overflowed the screen with fake scares (telephone ring meant to make the audience jump) and shots of the main actress simply walking around the house. It was not until the last five minutes did we actually get some satisfactory movement within the story. Unfortunately, it was capped off with a "devil baby inside you," reveal that was all too predictable, and all too cliche if you have seen any horror movie made in the 70's about religion.

Prior to seeing the flick, I read a review in Entertainment Weekly which gave it a B+ and said that it paid homage to the horror movies of the 80's without ever winking at the audience. They are correct about the homage, but the entire film from and including the opening titles to the closing credits was a wink to the audience about what the filmmaker was up to. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I find it weird in that it was winking to those of us who have seen those films, but presented a conclusion that was just as unoriginal as those films, if not more so now that it's coming twenty years later. Oh well. Overall, as I said, it was a near miss, and I am still glad that I went out to Cucalorus and saw it.

As for the festival, I wish I had more to judge on, and would definitely like to partake in the seminars next year. As for one thing, I was pleasantly pleased with the type of people that turned out to the film I saw. There were the typical students who were stuck on campus without a car on a Friday night, but there also appeared to be some real horror fans, and many people who were obviously not students, but still hip to Cucalorus, nonetheless. It's promising to know that the festival is reaching such diversity in awareness, and I will most certainly make more time for the festival when it comes next year.