A night of ghastly short films, live cinema performance, spoken word and music – telling tales of gothic horror and supernatural terror. An evening of audio-visual delirium inspired by the gothic fiction of Poe, Lovecraft and Shelly. Let your fears out of their cage for one night only. But be sure to put them back after.
A Portsmouth Darkest 2018 event, you can watch the highlights video below:
The evening opened with spoken word from ALAN MORRIS who performed ‘Fresh Meat’ which he describes as ‘where Lovecraft meets ER’.
This was followed by a selection of winning films from the Darkfest international short film competition including:
- Misappropriation (2017) which tells an unsettling tale of how one moment of distraction can be enough for our life to end up in the hands of a destiny that is not ours … or maybe it is!
- Sin Ti/Without You (2018) in which, during a darkest of nights, Maria returns to house in tears. There she waits for her husband, their daughter and a terrible secret is revealed.
- Homecoming (2016) a short story by Ray Bradbury, which tells a tale of a young boy who seeks acceptance from the family of vampires who raised him.
In celebration of the 200th year since the writing of Mary Shelly’s classic tale we also presented a live re-score by RUSTY SHERIFF of the classic short film of FRANKENSTIEN (1910), the first time the story was brought to the screen.
The second half of the show opened with songs by EILÍS PHILLIPS who showcased a few tunes from her latest EP, ‘Moon Heart’ released on 31st October 2018.
DR.LIGHTHOUSE then performed THE ABADDON FILE REDUX (2010) a supernatural thriller about cold war experiment into psychic spying that turn into a dangerous game.
There was then more spoken word from CHRISTINE LAWRENCE as she narrated for us a specially written tale of fear and anticipation. It’s called ‘Escape’ but you know there will be none.
A final audiovisual gem to finish the show, James Sibley Watson Jr and Melville Webber’s 1928 short film of Edgar Allan Poe’s THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, with a soundtrack by Colin Z. Robertson (Hands of Ruin).
The evening concluded with a DJ set from DR LOVEJOY who tickled our ears with sympathetic aural magic till midnight at which point we all turned back into mice.