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The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    HHF holds first time film fest

    At the Hammond Horror Fest macabre themed arts market, It Came From Under My Bed’s owner, Ashley Newman sold her horror themed props. This is her second year selling the handmade items at HHF.

    At the Hammond Horror Fest macabre themed arts market, It Came From Under My Bed’s owner, Ashley Newman sold her horror themed props. This is her second year selling the handmade items at HHF. 
    REgina Pergola/The Lion's Roar

    Hammond Horror Fest was intended to promote multimedia artists to the local community. This was accomplished by having a macabre themed Arts Market with artistic vendors, performances by haunting dancers and the first ever 48-hour Short Horror Film Festival Showcase. 

    Friday night, Oct. 14, was a promotion for artists and their craft.

    “The whole point of the festival was it being a community project to bring people together,” said James Winter, associate professor of acting and directing and co-artistic director of the HHF. “Artists of all kinds, entrepreneurs and merchants make something alternative for the Hammond crowd to enjoy.”

    The festival was held at the Gnarly Barley Brewing Co., run by Zac and Cari Caramonta. Even the venue was a tribute to the artistic nature of the festival.

    “This is a small craft brewery,” said Taylor McLellan, co-artistic director of the HHF. “The fact that we get to feature what Zac does, the fact that he’s a beer master and an artist himself is amazing.”

    The main event of the night was the debut of the 48-hour Short Horror Film Showcase. There were nine competing films and two additional shorts produced by the NOLA Horror Film Festival. One film that was submitted, but did not complete the requirements, was played. 

    Each competing film was completely created and submitted in two days. The audience was given ballots to vote for the winners of the Audience Choice Awards. 

    The competing films were “Stench,” “Four,” “Harvest,” “A Modest Meal,” “The Low Budget College Movie,” “Night Delivery,” “The Thrill Can Kill,” “Duchess” and “Recipe for a King.” 

    The winner of the Best in Genre-Slasher Award was “Stench,” the winner of the Best in Genre- Occult/Haunting was “Harvest,” the Audience Choice winner was “The Thrill Can Kill,” the winner in the Best in Genre- Monster/Science Fiction and the Best Picture overall awards was “Recipe for a King.” 

    Each award was presented by Winter. The production team for “The Thrill Can Kill” was not in town for the event and were unable to pick up their award.

    After the film presentation, guests were again able to browse the horror-themed Arts Market before the Wicked Little VooDoo Dolls made their debuting performance.

    “It was a lot of fun,” said Ashley Lewis, a member of the Wicked Little VooDoo Dolls. “As long as the audience is happy and we make them smile and enjoy it, we know we did our job. For this, we had only four to five practices.”

    The La LA Tribal Belly Dancing Troupe also performed a black light dance. 

    The 2016 HHF was a success per the artistic directors, from the venue to the performers and the artists. 

    “Just having the Arts Market, the being able to feature all different medians of art,” said McLellan. “Like Madame Nightmare with the Tarot card reading, in a brewery, is everything I feel that this event was hoping to be when we were first getting off our feet in the years past.”

    Attendees of Hammond Horror Fest mingle with one another before the festivities began.

    Attendees of Hammond Horror Fest mingle with one another before the festivities began.
    Regina Pergola/The Lion's Roar

     

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