The horrifying return of Macabre!

>> Theremins, lesbian vampires, cat people and more high camp at the second annual chills-and-thrills fest

by MATTHEW HAYS

It certainly took a lot of ambition (or stupidity, depending on how you look at it) to launch another film festival in Montreal. Especially, as Macabre ringmaster Craig Francis did last year, to launch one on the calendar right after a slew of fests had undoubtedly burned everyone out.

But Francis and co. did and the results were pleasing enough that he was forgiven for tacking another event on after the World, New and Image&Nation film fests. Taking as many lurid, shocking and campy horror movies as they could, combining them with some of the city's best live acts and the result was winning ticket sales and suitably scared and satisfied audiences.

This year's live musical act is a film buff's dream. Peter Pringle will play the theremin, the 1918 invention that is considered the granddaddy of all electronic music. The instrument he plays will itself be of historic significance; Pringle will perform on the '29 RCA theremin heard in the soundtracks of such films as The Day the Earth Stood Still, Spellbound and The Ten Commandments. Pringle performs this Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 20-21) at the Imperial.

Also appearing live will be Rick Miller, whose show MacHomer wowed Montreal audiences and went on to conquer North America and Europe as well. Now Miller (who appears in Robert Lepage's film Possible Worlds, which opens this Friday, Oct. 20) has created a mockumentary about his last three hit stage shows, in which he reflects on his career. Miller will be arriving to do the show after a Toronto run playing the lead in the stage musical Grease, so he'll undoubtedly be thrilled to return to his somewhat-less-mainstream fringe roots. Headlining for Miller will be the unbeatable Grae Phillips, who returns to Montreal after the triumphant North American tour of Everybody's Fu#%ing But Me, her riotous stage show. She'll also be hocking copies of her new CD. The two play Kola Note next Friday and Saturday. (Oct. 27-28)

Bloodsucking lesbos!
Undoubtedly the film everyone is holding their breath for is Vampyres, the lurid '74 shocker about two lesbian vampires on the prowl. Actually, if you want to get really picky, this is really a movie about two bisexual vampires as they go out, nab men and bring them back to devour them, both sexually and nutritionally. One of their catches gets kept in the dungeon of their castle, to be sucked and dined on nightly. Yet another classy horror movie, line up early for this one. (Oct. 20-22, 24)

Hammer Horror fans will find there's plenty of blood to go around, in particular with the Peter Cushing fave Frankenstein Created Woman. Gender politics go nuts as the good twisted doctor (Cushing) attempts to ram the spirit and intellect of an executed corpse into the body of a woman who's committed suicide. The two end up coexisting in the same body and mind, which leads to plenty of confusion. Delightfully cheap and silly fun. (Oct. 22, 25)

Dario Argento's Suspiria has been playing to packed enthusiastic houses at the Parc, and Macabre attendees will get a rare glimpse at the director's feature debut, Bird With the Crystal Plumage. A writer visiting Rome ends up the only witness to a brutal murder and must endure a nightmarish relay race in order to solve the crime. (Oct. 20, 23)

What would a horror film fest be without at least one entry about cannibalism in it? Cannibal Ferox is a rather nasty Italian feature from Umberto Lenzi. A group of happy-go-lucky students head off to the Amazon jungle to prove that cannibalism doesn't really exist. Does that sound like a mistake, or what? What follows is definitely not the Love Boat, with plenty of castrations, limb removals and other unsavoury forms of maiming and death. (Oct. 28, 31)

Dead again
As well as rarely seen oddities, Macabre is also screening horror faves. Day of the Dead is George A. Romero's final chapter in his classic zombie series. As if the first two films weren't grim enough, this one has the zombies finally outnumbering the living, with the sole non-dead survivors buried in a mine shaft somewhere, trying desperately to figure out how to defeat the flesh-eaters. The zombie makeup here is the best of the trilogy and Macabre will be screening Romero's uncut version of the film. (Oct. 19-20, 25)

Though Tobe Hooper has faded into obscurity as a force in the horror scene, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre really is worth seeing, for all that gore and endless screaming from leading screamer Marilyn Burns. Alternately hilarious and wildly scary, Hooper's apocalyptic vision of a road trip gone terribly wrong is still cited by many as their fave no-budget horror movie. (Oct. 21, 23)

Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward appear in The Wicker Man, the '73 cult movie which has a conformist police officer (Woodward) infiltrating a pagan-dominated island to try and solve the mystery of a missing child. This is less a horror movie than a mystery-thriller; the entire thing is so strange, from beginning to end, that it really demands to be seen. Lee, as usual, is a chilling presence as one of the island bigwigs. (Oct. 27-28, 30)

Naturally, this horror film fest sensibly includes John Carpenter's Halloween, the teen slasher movie that set off a string of imitations and sequels. Jamie Lee Curtis battles it out as the Final Girl with guts, the babysitter who doesn't give in to the boys and fights off the nutso. See where it all began--this is the first and remains the best. (Oct. 28, 31)

The late '70s and early '80s always struck me as a rather uninteresting time for horror movies (with some notable exceptions, Alien among them), but Macabre has chosen to unearth two films from that time. The '79 version of Dracula has Frank Langella reprising his stage role from the hit Broadway play. Sir Laurence Olivier also appears in the film, which divided critics, many of whom charged that the film was a disastrous stage-to-screen translation. (Oct. 27, 29) In other translations, Cat People is Paul Schrader's '82 loose remake of the '42 film. Nastassja Kinski, at the height of her then-white-hot superstardom, appears as a mysterious, seductive woman who meets up with her brother Malcolm McDowell, who shares her strange affinity with animals. This one is particularly noteworthy for its special effects, including grizzly transformations from human to cat. (Oct. 24, 26, 28) :

All film screenings are at Cinéma du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes. Macabre runs Oct. 19-31. www.horrorfest.com