Debating the horror style’s inventive worth is cheesy. Measuring its success by the field workplace may be simply as boring. However I’d wager you a head-start in a chase sequence that these metrics nonetheless steer how Hollywood talks about its longest-surviving obsession at many status occasions.
Not so at The Overlook Movie Competition: a community-minded summit that basically bolstered my perception in scary motion pictures and the categories of people that make, critique, promote, and defend them.
Co-founded by Landon Zakheim and Michael Lerman in 2013, the annual occasion began out of Colorado as The Stanley Movie Competition, honoring Kubrick earlier than increasing to embody the horror style extra typically. After a short stint in Oregon (the exteriors for “The Shining” had been shot there,) The Overlook Movie Competition made its everlasting residence in New Orleans, Louisiana. That’s “probably the most haunted metropolis in America” for those who ask occasion organizers, however solely the third most haunted for those who’re going by Google (*).
(* Do with this what you’ll, however one nameless filmmaker in attendance did report back to IndieWire having their iPad thrown to a lodge ground… after they had been standing in one other room.)
Every spring, organizers rejoice not simply horror options but in addition a stacked shorts program (curated this 12 months by Katie Rife) in addition to varied different experiential art-forms that go bump within the evening. From April 4 to 7, the 2024 French Quarter festivities included a damp whirlwind of screenings, social meetups, and immersive experiences that pushed far previous promo or gimmick. (You’ll be able to learn a whole checklist of The Overlook Movie Competition’s award winners right here.)
As “In a Violent Nature” director Chris Nash advised me of his deconstructed slasher for A24, which screened to a number of packed theaters all through the weekend (however bought a “C” from IndieWire’s David Ehrlich out of Sundance…), “Horror is in a cool-down interval.” So too was The Overlook — concurrently serene and hectic — with volunteers, filmmakers, and “campers” settling right into a groove finest likened to the pre-shitstorm cool you often choose up from blissed-out slasher victims stress-free close to a lake.
“What’s your favourite worry?” an immersive performer requested me and “Birdeater” producer Steph Troost in a shadowy nook of The Prytania Theaters at Canal Avenue.
On the pageant’s closing night, the Australian filmmaker and I had been paired for a spooky, scent-driven expertise referred to as Tales by Candlelight. Troost and I had been mutually shedding our minds over a particular screening of Brian De Palma’s “Phantom of the Paradise” earlier within the day and had been all however destined to finish up chatting at a bar later that evening. Nonetheless, when the immediate was posed, it struck and bonded us: This was one horror query Troost nor I had heard earlier than — and with good cause. Most individuals worry their fears, solely Overlook-types choose their favourite methods to be made afraid.
The Overlook Movie Competition will stay a singular reminiscence for me in no small half as a result of it was the primary movie pageant I attended for IndieWire. In an additional stroke of destiny, the 2024 programming particularly provided a concentrated and sophisticated lineup that highlighted my particular horror pursuits. As somebody who watches scary content material year-long in an nearly self-consumptive vacuum, I used to be significantly impressed by a curation that offered a contemporary perspective on what’s nonetheless scary to modern filmgoers whereas celebrating established horror formulation. (Sure, I’m nonetheless speaking in regards to the refreshing Brian Crano and David Craig’s black comedian horror rom-com “I Don’t Perceive You.”)
This 12 months screened existentially terrifying works of the digital age — together with Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Noticed the TV Glow” and Don Hertzfeldt’s “ME” — earlier than difficult audiences differently with the divisive world premiere of Radio Silence’s “Abigail” for closing evening. The vampire ballerina portrait, which bought a “C- from IndieWire, doesn’t query the aim of human connection or existence itself. However Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett spurred a worthwhile dialogue in regards to the limits of Common Monsters franchising at an occasion that additionally sweetly honored 70 years with “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
For cinephiles who’re earnestly invested within the longterm success of movies that actively encourage us to think about horrible new methods to die, horror isn’t a lot a promotional peg as it’s a bone-deep philosophy. The style group is a living-breathing factor. Two tarantulas crawled throughout my face to drive residence what I actually beloved — and hated!! — in regards to the French creature characteristic “Infested.” And I could have reviewed “Oddity” from a digital screener out of SXSW, however its picket centerpiece was lurking round The Overlook a lot to my delight.
Sure, I’ve seen these sorts of inventive model activations performed at style conventions and Halloween-themed leisure occasions earlier than; and also you don’t want a nuanced appreciation of horror or festivals to know why they assist promote motion pictures. However within the context of a lovingly crafted and appreciably difficult four-day occasion (which additionally provided genuine turn-of-the-century séances, by the best way), these foolish moments jogged my memory what it means to be an individual selecting fears for favorites.
The Overlook Movie Competition takes place each spring in New Orleans, Louisiana. You’ll find an inventory of the employees members who labored on the 2024 occasion right here; publicity supervisor Jason Berger is objectively nice.