Year two of GoreZone Magazine’s International Film Festival seems to have come around oh so soon, and like a scream in the night it seems to have been and gone just as quickly, leaving this Gorehound itching for the next bombardment of gore and horror. With a whole year to wait though, I guess I best savour the remains of the 2009 festivities like a zombie would savour each tasty bite of its victim. Yummy.

This year we decided to upscale to the prestigious Prince Charles Cinema in London, off Leicester Square. The venue is notorious for hosting the bizarre, and so we decided it would be here that we set up shop over Halloween weekend to try and disgust, scare and generally put on the best show possible for our equally twisted horror fiends.

Unlike any of the other UK festivals doing the horror circuit at the moment, our festival is part of the worldwide magazine affectionately known as GoreZone. The Mag caters not only for Horror Movie Buffs but also the Gamers, Music fans and bookworms out there that lean towards the horror genre. Us Gorehounds like it any which way after all!

With that in mind this year the festival is proudly sponsored by KONAMI, who are set to release their new SAW game imminently. They brought along their games pod to the event which is more of a hindrance if, like myself, you are both a gamer and a SAW fan. I was running the show this year but at times felt like a kid being told to do his homework and get off the console, “Just five more goddamn minutes!!!!”

The whole show was hosted by UK Scream Queen Emily Booth (Cradle Of Fear, Evil Aliens) and co-hosted by U.S Scream Queen Suzi Lorraine – both celebrity columnists for GoreZone Magazine.

For those that have been hiding out in a cabin somewhere on Crystal Lake for the last year and somehow missed the line up, here are the fifteen film premiers presented to entertain the horror fiends in attendance:

Highlights of the event for me personally? Well I was running around prodding and poking celebs this year, (all in the name of work of course…ahem!) so didn’t see as many films as perhaps I would have liked. Out of the few films I did see though, the ones that deserve a mention include Bikini Girls On Ice and Samurai Princess, both crowd pleasers and both entertaining throughout.

Personally for me the best thing about this year was the amount of guests we had fly over especially for the event. Hanging out with the likes of Geoff Klein (BGOI) and Suzi Lorraine was a real pleasure and likewise meeting Tim Gates (Dog) and Sean Cain (SNZN) was excellent, whenever I looked over to Sean he was grinning like the Cheshire cat – and for me that captured the film festival. There was that spark, that great vibe that was uniting all of us and it’s still going on now, everyone in attendance is talking about the event and we are still now receiving thanks from the attendees for putting on a good show. This is why I come to work, and this is why I consider our festival to be the best. Include the fact that I got to hang out with Emily Booth all day, well, talk about job satisfaction

Regrets: Not seeing Silent Night Zombie Night, Maneater and Dog.

Not taking a photo of the unfortunate gent who fled the screening room to go and throw up in the toilets. (I’m not sure if it was too much booze or a particularly gnarly scene, hopefully the latter.)

Best 4 minutes of the event: Zara Pythian opening the event on Sunday and scaring the shite our of our bleary eyed guests with her martial arts on stage, all in a very short skirt I hasten to add. There are no complaints from what I’ve heard though, can’t imagine why.

Best dressed: The cast of Temptation who kindly opened up the event on Saturday, despite being there since the crack of dawn and initially having to do their make up on the steps of the cinema. These guys rawk!
Tipple of the event: Monster Energy Drink - were it not for the kind gents at Monster supplying us with all the Monster drink we could handle neither myself nor the audience who were there from 9am until midnight would have survived without being slightly more bleary eyed at least.

I could go on for hours about the event and how great it was, because as a fan of horror foremost it was indeed a kick ass event. If you were there, thank you and you’ll know what I mean.

If you weren’t there, shame on you! There is a chance for retribution though, and you can still come along next year. We won’t hold it against you.

Until next year then, keep it Gory

Deano

GZ Magazine
E: Dean.boor@gorezone.co.uk!

~ SPECIAL THANKS ~

The GoreZone Weekend Of Horror International Film Festival 2009
Held 31st October and 1st November 2009 at the London Prince Charles Cinema.
Temptation
Samurai Princess
Won Ton Baby
Maneater
Plague Town
Someone’s Knocking At The Door
The Telling
Children Of The Corn 2009
Holocaust Holocaust
The Graves
Dog
Bikini Girls On Ice
Silent Night Zombie Night
The Crypt
Offspring