GARF Global: Horror on the Sea

BY COLIN C

HORROR ON SEA FILM FESTIVAL

No sooner are we finished nursing our New Year Hangovers and the first event on the UK Horror calendar comes upon us.

The Horror-On-Sea horror film festival takes place over the weekend of the 14th/15th/16th of January and the 21st/22nd/23rd of January.
So it was with aspirin and water in hand that your GARF ambassador headed down to the seaside to see what all this was about.

The event takes place on the seafront of Southend, a coastal town in the UK that offers sun, sea and on this particular weekend gore!

I attended the event on the 16th but had one eye on events via social media so was anticipating a very busy day of horror shorts, features, and workshops.

GARF Ambassador Colin Corcoran with horror artist Rick Melton at the Horror-on-Sea film festival

The event takes place at the Park Inn hotel, right on the seafront. This venue offers very good convention facilities, being very spacious and providing separate areas for vending, the cinema and of course a bar/restaurant to keep horror aficionados suitably refreshed. After perusing the vendors, I ventured into the cinema to catch the shorts and features to be screened.

This first visit included the shorts Don’t open the Box, Off the Hook and See What She Did. Three very entertaining shorts that ventured into monster horror (Don’t Open The Box) though to stalker/slasher horror (Off The Hook) and drug fuelled psychological horror (See What She Did).

Following the shorts we were treated to the world premier of You Might Get Lost. A very clever time travel, inception type horror, that definitely requires a clear head. These were all very good and the experience made all the better by each film being introduced by someone involved with the production.

After a quick break for lunch, I ventured back into the cinema with high expectations as the next screening was Redwood Massacre: Annihilation! This was a feature length movie staring scream queen and your bloggers horror crush (no apologise made) Danielle Harris. I’ll do nothing more than provide the nicely succinct description from the convention programme as it sums it up very well. “Danielle Harris stars as the hunters of a masked maniac become the hunted”. I enjoyed the film as it features a good claustrophobic underground bunker setting, some good gory kills and a stalker/slasher character that is very much in the vain of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, but is original enough to warrant credit. It should be said that the movies I’ve mentioned here are merely a snapshot of the films featured, as there are in excess of 100 shorts and feature length movies screened across the two weekends.

When not catching movies, I checked out the the vendor stalls. These offered a good mix of rare and specialist DVDs & Blu Rays, books (fiction and non-fiction) and art. The standout stall was that of the Artist Rick Melton and I would certainly recommend you check out his wares. Be sure to check him out on the web at www.stunninglysavage.com and search Rick Melton on Instagram.

Overall I would certainly recommend the event if you can get down to the seaside. Day and weekend passes are available so flexible attendance is possible. For more info head over to www.horror-on-sea.com and @horrorOnSea on twitter.

Follow GARF Global on Twitter:

UK - @GarfUK

France - @GARF_France

Italy - @GARF_Italy

Japan - @theGARF_Japan

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The George A. Romero Foundation (The GARF) is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to honoring George’s life, art, and cultural impact by restoring and preserving his portfolio and legacy, and supporting the dreams and imaginations of independent filmmakers, artists, and writers inspired by George.