COLUMBIA — The Crimson Screen Horror Film Festival returns for its 11th year to spotlight the work of filmmakers from South Carolina and beyond in the under-appreciated, expansive genre.
The festival, which runs from May 10 to May 12 at Spotlight Cinemas Capital 8, offers a host of feature films and shorts, all in the horror genre. Founder and programmer for the festival, Tommy Faircloth, said they’ve got a range of scares organized into different blocks, some classics of the genre and some newer offerings.
“You have your typical slasher films, more like psychological thriller type films,” Faircloth said. “This year, for some reason, we had a lot of Christmas-themed horror movies, and so I was able to do a block of films called Christmas Carnage.”
Faircloth said Crimson Screen was founded as a way to fill a gap for horror filmmakers in South Carolina, to create a place where South Carolina horror filmmakers could see their work and connect.
Crimson Screen remains South Carolina’s only horror film festival, and while it programs films from across the US, it continues to highlight local films.
In the shorts category, there’s a block called “Homegrown Horror” made up of all SC films. And in features, Michelle Iannantuono, a Charleston-based filmmaker, is showing “Livescreamers,” a sequel to her 2018 film, “Livescream.”
“Livescreamers” is a found-footage horror film that centers on a group of live-streamers trying to survive a haunted video game that is killing them off one by one. The film required Innantuono to not only direct and shoot the live action footage of the streamers, but also to create and direct a fake game.
“I used a lot of prefabricated assets, but I still had to build levels myself," Innantuono said. "I had to build the characters myself. Basically every single time there was a cut in a movie, which is about every five seconds, I have to switch POVs to a different character and do a new shot.”
Although technically a sequel to “Livescream,” Iannantuono sees the two films as mirrors, commenting on content creation from other sides of the screen.
“When I made 'Livescream,' I made that as an audience member of streamers. I have a lot of reverence for streamers and content creators as somebody who was a fan of many of them. And then I became one myself for a few years,” Iannantuono said. “Being on the other side of content creation for several years, I changed my opinion on some of it and I had a lot of interesting experiences of what it is like to be on that side of the table.”
Iannantuono has a history with Crimson Screen. She said it’s where she submitted her first short film, which got selected. The next year, she returned with her first feature, “Livescream,” which had its premiere at the festival. Whether or not she’s had a film in the festival, Iannantuono said she’s always enjoyed stopping by the festival. And the festival acts as a reminder of the great filmmakers living in South Carolina, she said.
“I've been traveling a lot to other festivals … and I get asked all the time where I'm from, and I say Charleston, South Carolina and they kind of give me a funny look,” Iannantuono said. “These are people from L.A. and New York, and they have no idea how I make movies in South Carolina. And I'm like, good people live here, talented people live here. Just because we don't have studio money, which a lot of these people don't either, doesn't mean that we can't make cool stuff.”
Faircloth and Iannantuono both agree that in addition to the assortment of films, the community that the festival offers is part of the draw.
“It’s such a fun festival,” Iannantuono said, “It is the premier place to see what everybody I care about has been working on and to stay in the loop of everybody else's work, too.”
The Crimson Screen Horror Film Festival is at Spotlight Cinemas Capital 8 from May 10 to 12. More information can be found at www.crimsonscreenfilmfest.com
