HORROR & HOTTIES
Saturday, March 3, 2007
The official Tampa Bay Film review of the Horror & Hotties film festival By C. A. Passinault
I've been to a lot of Tampa
film festivals in the past three years. Some have been really good, like
Danford's The Ladies Of The
Night Double Feature Tampa film festival, and others, like
The Tampa Film Review,
haven't been that good.
To date, there is one which stands out to be my favorite Tampa film festival.
This film festival was cool, and most importantly, a lot of fun.
That
Tampa film festival was Horror & Hotties, and it
was held at the University Of South Florida on March 3, 2007, almost two
years ago (I am writing this review on December 14, 2008, and may not
finish it today because I have to leave for a Tampa
headshot photography session in just over thirty minutes).
Originally, I attended this Tampa film festival to watch some movies,
meet some cool people, and take some pictures. I did all that, and more,
and had the best time doing it. I never intended to write a film festival
review for this Tampa film festival, simply because my Tampa Bay Film
web site had just launched, and I had not done any film festival reviews
at that time. Now, I have five, and this will make six. If I can find
my notes, I may even retro-review Halloween Horror Picture Show 2005,
which was at the University of South Florida, also.
At this time, I feel that Horror & Hotties deserves a proper review.
It is my favorite Tampa film festival, and although there has not been
a Horror & Hotties film festival for 2008, there are rumors that there
is something really cool, and really incredible, coming in 2009. Part
of what made Horror & Hotties cool has been underground and out of
sight, but it has mutated, and is evolving to another level. I'm hearing
that a spiritual successor of Horror & Hotties is in the works, and
it will have another name, but essentially be an upgraded version of this
legendary Tampa film festival. Some of the same people behind the original
Horror & Hotties film festival are also involved, and a lot of preparation
will begin in early 2009 for a debut in the fall. I can say that no one
will have ever seen a film festival like this one anywhere in the world,
and this will set an entirely new standard for Tampa film festivals. It
may even spark an entirely new "species" of film festival. There
are clues to what is to come hidden somewhere in this review, as well
as many secret revelations.
For now, however, we look fondly upon the past, which itself may hold
a few secrets to discover and ponder. Here is my official review of the
2007 Horror & Hotties film festival, a Tampa Bay Film exclusive (please
note that all my future film festival reviews will only be published on
Tampa Bay Film, which includes at least five Tampa film festivals in 2009
which I currently have planned).
Enjoy.
It didn't feel like March,
but it was March 3, 2007. It was rainy and cold, and I packed up my sportscar
with my gear and started out for the University Of South Florida. I was
running late for the film festival that I was going to tonight, which
was oddly called Horror & Hotties, but in all honesty, I wasn't expecting
much (in all honesty, I wasn't crazy about the name, but you can't judge
a book by its cover, or a film festival, it seems, by its name), and figured
that I wouldn't miss anything if I showed up a few minutes late.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
I pulled into the University of South Florida, and made my way to the
parking garage closest to the library. My directions
indicated that the film festival was going to be held in Cooper Hall,
which was right next to the library. I parked my car in the garage (oddly,
this was a quick process, and it was not hard to find visitors parking.
At The Ladies of the Night Double Feature film festival over
a year later, I drove around and around in the same parking garage forever
trying to find visitors parking. Perhaps they moved the signs?). I got
out of my car, loaded up with my camera and other gear, and began to walk
through a large parking lot to get to the film festival. It was very cold,
and the drizzle of rain felt like pin pricks of ice on my face. I located
a few signs for the film festival, but as I neared Cooper Hall, I didn’t
see anyone at all. The area was very quiet, much like a ghost town, which
was a contrast from the manic school days where crazed preachers had sermons
for the students having lunch, and University students made love in odd
places (yes, it’s the same USF!). I saw a door leading into a nearby
building, and smiled. There were certainly memories there with a beautiful
girl from the theatre department back in the mid 1990's. She was now a
successful actress. Me, an entertainment producer managing a thousand
jobs. We had both moved on, but nothing could ever take away those memories
which we shared as students. If these University walls could talk, a entire
new world of University experiences would be revealed, and some of those
stories would make premises for great indie films. There was certainly
adventure to be found on campus if one knew where to look, and what to
do when opportunity was discovered.
For now, however, the campus seemed like a different world. It was cold,
empty. I couldn’t help but think of the past, which was a contrast
to how I felt. I shivered.
Was the Horror & Hotties film festival rained out? Was I approaching
the right building? There was no one there!
I walked into Cooper Hall. The air exploded with energy and warmth as
I left the cold outside. There were quite a few people here, and quite
a few vendor tables. I caught up with Tampa filmmaking legend and friend
Chris Woods, talked with event planner and film festival organizer Andy
Lalino, saw actress Krista Grotte for the first time in years, and conversed
with many others. The film festival had started, and the first film would
soon let out. We had time to hang out. In fact, this is what The
Tampa Film Review should have been like.
I
had not talked to Tampa actress Krista Grotte in years. Many, many years.
She looked a little different from when I had last saw her five years
in the past, when she auditioned at one of my casting calls for a feature
film called Reverence.
She remembered me as the casting director, and we talked for a bit. We
talked about indie film, and talked about something else that we had in
common - the modeling industry. It seemed that Krista worked in that world,
too, and since my first indie film auditions of 2001-2003, I had done
a lot of work in the modeling industry with Independent Modeling, and
with my photography business. Krista and I shared anecdotes about photographers
and other people who we mutually knew, and it was good catching up. I
looked at the program lineup for the film festival, and was excited that
Andy Lalino’s film, Filthy, was playing. Krista was one
of the stars of Filthy, as were some other actors who I knew
well. I asked about her role, and she told me that her character was a
demented spawn of incest. Great. I really wanted to see the film, now.
I took a few pictures of Krista, and noticed that a film crew from Scream
@ The Wall was interviewing filmmakers in the hall. The film crew had
at least two camera people from what I could see, and one of them was
a beautiful blonde girl, who somehow complimented many of my pictures
perfectly. In retrospect, I regret never getting around to talking to
her, but she was very busy filming the fun at the festival. I’m
sure that we will cross paths again one day, and I intend to at least
talk to her then. If it works out, that's fine, but if it doesn't, that's
fine, too. At least I tried.
Chris Woods and I decided to check out the films, which is odd for me,
as I am always busy talking to people at film 
festivals,
and sometimes get sidetracked from what a film festival is all about -
seeing indie films (if it were not for watching films, I am certain that
I would have chatted up the mystery blonde camera girl, and may have had
the chance to seduce her with the Willy Wokka-Wokka dance - All kidding
aside, she could have at least joined Chris Woods and I for some movie
watching, that is, after she was done filming the non-film activities.
I know that I could have at least obtained her number, like I had done
with a University girl at The Halloween Horror Picture Show 2005 - yes,
film fans, you can meet and pick up beautiful women at film festivals,
especially when you're used to dealing with them all the time). We entered
the theater auditorium , and it was crowded. There were a good number
of people seated and hanging out. I was surprised, and happy, about the
turnout. Although I did not attend to review the film festival at that
time, and was mainly there to enjoy the film festival in a non-professional
capacity, I did have one objective. I had just launched my Tampa Bay Film
web site, and needed Tampa indie film-relevant pictures for the site.
This film festival was the perfect place to get pictures for Tampa Bay
Film, as well as pass out my new “underground” mini flyers
promoting Tampa Bay Film’s fledgling online film festival. Almost
two year later, the online film festival would spin off to its own web
site, which was interconnected with 
Tampa
Bay Film, and both Tampa Bay Film and the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival
would become huge, and very successful. Tampa Bay Film became the voice
of Tampa indie film, and the top indie film resource web site in the Florida
indie film industry. The Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival would become
one of the top online film festival in the United States, and many claim
that it was brilliant competition for Tampa film festival events, aggressively
competing with them and taking most of the market share from most of them.
As a matter of fact, the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival is credited
by many in the Tampa indie film scene to be the final nail in the coffin
for The Tampa Film Review (I shed no tears over this, as The Tampa Film
Review had serious flaws which the organizers simply refused to correct
over its five year run!). More than a few say that the Tampa Bay
Film Online Film Festival put The Tampa Film Review out of business at
the end of 2008, and I happen to share that popular opinion.
There was simply no way at all for The Tampa Film Review to compete with
my online film festival. Once it launched, it was only a matter of time
before the online film festival gained momentum, and made the TFR obsolete.
I had always though that it would be another monthly Tampa film festival
that would cause The Tampa Film Review to buckle from the competition
and implode upon itself, but the online film festival was more effective
than I originally planned for it to be. Sure, Tampa film festival events
could survive, and perhaps even benefit from the online film festival,
as there were some things that film festival events 
had
advantages with that an online film festival could never match, such as
networking and socializing. The Tampa Film Review was poor with these
advantages, however, and it was very flawed, with cliques and poor organization.
Since it could not get its act together and play up its advantages, it
didn’t have a chance against the monster that the Tampa Bay Film
Online Film Festival became. It simply could not compete.
At that time, however, things were just getting started for Tampa Bay
Film. It was off to a great, start, however, and my time spent obtaining
picture for the site at the film festival was proving to be productive.
On the subject of film festivals, there was a lot of controversy
going on around that time. The Gasparilla Film Festival was born,
and this was the time of their first film festival. Many, many filmmakers
were uncertain about the motivations of the film festival, and there were
a lot of questions raised about Tampa filmmakers blindly jumping on board
with the film festival, especially when it didn’t seem to be that
supportive of Tampa filmmakers. Many of the people who turned out for
Horror & Hotties told me that they didn’t want to go to a large,
commercial, film festival like the Gasparilla Film Festival. They wanted
to see cool indie films in a fun setting, and this is exactly what they
were looking for. Many attendees made the Horror & Hotties
film festival their protest against Gasparilla, and I know of at least
one who showed up at a Gasparilla Film Festival press event wearing a
Horror & Hotties shirt.
There
was reason to be suspicious about the motive of the Gasparilla Film Festival,
and even today, there still is. For some, the Gasparilla Film Festival
seems intent on becoming the next Sarasota Film Festival, and the jury
is still out whether this would be good for Tampa indie film. To many,
the Gasparilla Film Festival was all about attracting Hollywood productions
to Tampa, especially with the Tampa film commission involved in its formation
(and, even today, in its business). Quite a few Tampa filmmakers didn’t
fall for the promises that were made when it was stated the large Tampa
film festival would support, and promote, Tampa indie film. Many did,
however, and it appeared that the film festival was using Tampa filmmakers
to help them attract their competition, which were Hollywood production
companies, to the Tampa Bay market. Fortunately, The Gasparilla Film Festival,
as it is about to begin its third run, has not achieved this goal. We
haven’t had a major Hollywood production in the Tampa Bay area since
The Punisher, and this is great news for Tampa
indie film. With no Hollywood productions here, there are fewer politics,
and less competition, for things such as locations, vendors, business
support, and permits. There is less competition for investors and producers,
as well, while the Tampa Bay film industry maintains the talent and the
production capability to create and produce incredible films. While we
have not seen many of those incredible films, yet, the potential to do
so remains, and those films are coming. The same can be said regarding
new kinds of indie films and revolutionary ways of working the indie film
industry. I have faith that, in the near future, that there will
finally be a professional Tampa indie film community, and that we will
finally see some superb, exciting indie films coming out of Tampa.
The Tampa film commission, Tampa film festivals, and the Hollywood
players themselves will finally respect Tampa filmmakers as contenders,
instead of humoring them and utilizing them as free workers to support
their efforts.
While some may argue that major Hollywood productions using Tampa locations
and Tampa resources would open up
job opportunities for Tampa filmmakers, we know from history that this
is not the case. Most large productions truck-in their production crews
and talent from outside of the area. Most Tampa actors can only hope for
parts as extras, which are not worth it, and most Tampa filmmakers will
find they have to compete with the big fish moving in to their pond for
limited resources. When The Punisher was in
town, there were many, many examples of Tampa filmmakers being kicked
aside and getting the short end of the stick. Do I really have to publish
some of those stories, such as the Tampa indie film production company
which fought with The Punisher production over
location permits for an ambitious film that they were trying to do? Also,
who do you suppose obtained priority for permits, gained the support of
the Tampa film commission, and commanded the attention of the media?
Many of these issues played on all of our minds as indie films played
at the Horror & Hotties film festival.
Going back to incredible films, there was one Tampa film playing at the
Horror & Hotties film festival that made the trip in the cold rain
worth it. That film was Andy Lalino’s Filthy. I had been
wanting to see this film for a few years, and I finally 
was
able to see it. The film was about a television reporter and her news
photographer (God, I’ve always hated when news people term their
video journalists / videographers “photographers”, because
as a professional photographer, the word means something else entirely.
Working a year and a half at a busy news station recently, however, I
never did find out why they keep calling those guys photographers) who
are on the trail of a story, and they stumble into a house, which is filthy
in every sense of the word. Madness ensues when the reporter encounters
the family living in the garbage house.
I saw quite a few films that night, including a feature film named Pervert,
which starred a porn star by the name of Mary Carey (I'm not reviewing
those films because the film festival was so long ago, and I don't remember
details about many of them). The films were not the only attraction, however.
Andy Lalino and Andrew Allan had some live features, such as a bloody
T-Shirt contest and a scream queen contest, which appealed to the horror
fans, and were a bit of fun. It wasn’t my cup of tea, and I wasn’t
too keen on photographing the bloody T-Shirt contest, but it was cool.
Everyone else loved it, and were having fun.
Fun was the operative word. Normally, I’ll dock a film festival
points for not promoting indie films which did not have 
distribution.
Many of the films shown at this film festival already had distribution,
and one, Devil’s Den, was a DVD that I
saw for sale at a local Walmart the next day. Although the point of a
film festival should be to promote indie films, hopefully to prospective
buyers and the audience who would pay to see the film or buy the DVD,
with a film festival like this, it really didn’t matter. The Horror
& Hotties film festival was a blast, and perhaps the best Tampa film
festival that I have ever experienced. In my opinion, it was an outstanding
success, and there need to be more film festivals like this one.
After the film festival, I hung out with Chris Woods, Shelby McIntyre,
Rodrick Colbert, Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Joel D. Wynkoop,
and many others (Chris Woods knew more of the names and what they did
than I did).
The film festival came to an end, but my night was only beginning. I had
just bought my new sportscar, and showed Chris Woods what it was. I drove
Chris Woods to his car, putting my car through its paces as I maneuvered
through the parking lot and accelerated briskly. After dropping Chris
off, I took a trip back to my studio, only to be called away on a project.
I returned to an area near Waters and 275 to monitor a store, and spent
the night playing Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. After dawn, I met my
friends at the Renaissance Festival, and told them about the cool Tampa
film festival that I had been to only hours before (I made them all wish
that they had gone to Horror & Hotties). Although, technically, it
wasn’t a part of the film festival, to me, it was part of a long,
but fun day. That’s all that mattered to me.
The following video is the
video which was filmed at Horror & Hotties by Scream @ The Wall. Below
the video is my film festival score for Horro & Hotties. Enjoy the
bonus feature!
Archived coverage of the Horror & Hotties Tampa film festival by Scream @ The Wall
Horror & Hotties
Horror & Hotties Tampa Film Festival Event Scorecard
Please note that a score of 5 is average.
Concept
(1-10): 9
Although I didn't like the name of this Tampa film festival,
the concept was cool, and the focus was fun. I was never bored, and this
film festival was the most entertaining out of all the Tampa film festivals
which I have currently gone to. There are a few things which could be
improved, such as casting swimsuit models for the bloody T-shirt contest
instead of the girls that were there.
The logo for the Horror & Hotties film festival was awesome. My respects
to whoever designed it.
Venue
(1-10): 8
The venue worked very well. The University Of South Florida
works well for film festivals, as long as parking is explained and directions
to the venue building are clear. Cooper Hall was an excellent venue for
Horror & Hotties, and it could support a, let's say, more ambitious
film festival.
Vendors
(1-10): 7
There were quite a few vendors, flyers, collectibles,
and even Horror & Hotties T-shirts! YES! I really need to start bringing
more money to Tampa film festivals, so that I can buy indie film DVD's,
however. I still don't have a copy of Filthy in my Tampa indie
film library (which reminds me - I have to get my secret DVD copy of 99
back from an actress next week).
Organization
(1-10): 9
Andy Lalino said that he and his business partner put
together the film festival quickly, and with limited resources. Bravo.
It came together wonderfully and was a hit. I can't help but wonder, however,
what it would have been like with more time and money behind it. Will
we ever find out?
Entertainment (1-10):
10
This Tampa film festival was a blast to attend. It was
well organized, well executed, and wasn't boring like many film festivals
typically are. There was always something cool going on, and it felt a
lot like a frat party with horror films, which worked well.
Attendance (1-10):
9
There were a couple of hundred people at the Horror &
Hotties film festival, despite the bad weather. There was a good crowd,
and there were lots of cool people in attendance.
Features (1-10):
9
There were films, a bloody T-shirt contest, a scream queen
contest, and more. It started strong, and never slowed down.
Admission Value
(1-10): 10
The Horror & Hotties film festival was free. While
you normally get what you pay for, this, my friends, was a rare exception.
If they charged $10.00 for admission, it still would have been well worth
it. Perhaps I should have brought the $10.00, and bought a DVD with it.
Overall Event Score
(1-10): 9
Excellent film festival, and the most fun that I have
ever had at any Tampa film festival, although The
Ladies Of The Night Double Feature film festival was fun, too.
Highly recommended if they decide to have more.
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