Leather & Lace: Sacramento Horror Film Fest Day Two

An appropriately horrific background to my photo for a horror festival post. Vest - Lip Service; Tank - Heavenly Couture; Boots - Demonia

Saturday was the continuation of the Sacramento Horror Film Fest and a HUGE day for me and Kyle. I'll talk more about that towards the end of the post.

I was all by myself for the first half of the festival, enjoying the panel on the current state of horror movies as well as the series of short films that were presented.

The panel was led by Jordu Schell, a concept artist who worked on films such as 300, Avatar, and Men in Black. We got to see a slideshow of his artwork and sculptures and then the other panel guests took the stage. Schell's contention was that the current state of horror, in a nutshell, sucks. As he put it, and much more eloquently, I might add, and I'm totally paraphrasing so this is by no means a direct quote: "Modern horror is unoriginal and fundamentally boring and unartistic." It was quite a lively discussion and it was interesting to hear other people defend the modern movies that have come out today as well as to discuss the mainstream aspects of horror, a la "The Walking Dead."

The panel and moderator. Since everyone seemed to think horror sucks nowadays, I wanted to ask them so badly what they thought of Kevin Smith's "Tusk."

Some of the shorts that were shown were amazing! I couldn't believe that Kyle didn't want to come. There was one called "Heels," which opened with a shot of a penis in a women's pump doing some dirty things and ended with a revenge murder scene. Not really that horrific, truth be told, but certainly controversial and graphic. From what I understand, it was shocking enough to get banned from the film school in which it was created.

I also enjoyed a short called "Silk" in which a woman has a spider crawl into her vagina and she ends up giving birth to tons of baby spiders, a very gross and bloody affair. Given that I am terrified of spiders, this one really hit my gross-out button.

Kyle got off work, cleaned up, and showed up to the theater around 9:00. Just in time for a contortionist performance and some more bloody burlesque acts.

Burlesque act.

This was my favorite burlesque performance of the entire festival. She drenched herself in blood, performed in the shadowcast that night, and also directed the show. Plus any girl who can cover herself in blood and look amazing all the while dancing to Nine Inch Nails deserves some recognition.

The contortionist!

She looks truly creepy here. Like something out of "The Exorcism of Emily Rose."

This has got to require a ton of core-muscle strength.

This group of guys did little side-show gigs throughout the festival. Here they are clamping mouse traps on each other's nipples.

A mouse trap on the tongue!

It's hard to tell, but both of them have sewn their eyes shut with surgical thread!

The highlight of Saturday was the Repo! The Genetic Opera/The Devil's Carnival shadowcast mashup performance. I have seen the Repo! show many times before, but never with The Devil's Carnival snippets in it. Although I enjoyed the show, I really couldn't wait for it to be over because Ogre from Skinny Puppy was in attendance and would be signing autographs after the show.

The Devil's Carnival shadowcast.

Ogre standing ever so regally on the stage during the Q&A session following the show.

Emilie Autumn answering a question during the Q&A session.

Emilie Autumn, Marc Senter, who plays The Scorpion in The Devil's Carnival, and Ogre during the Q&A session. Fun fact - Marc and Emilie are now dating after meeting on the set of the film.

Ogre answering a question during the Q&A. That man has the sweetest demeanor ever, which is very different from his Skinny Puppy persona, which is very dark and mysterious. He's a man of few words in SP, but on stage as himself and out with his fans, he couldn't be a bigger sweetheart. I seriously cannot say enough good things about him as an artist and as a human being.

Kyle and I have had the privilege of interviewing Ogre and running into him at shows several times before. But man, were we thrilled to find out he remembered us! When we approached him for the signing, he asked, "Are we doing another interview tonight?" And I was just flabbergasted. "You remember us?" I asked. "How could I forget two people as pretty as you guys?" was his response. I JUST ABOUT DIED RIGHT THEN AND THERE. He said I was pretty. He actually said I was pretty! We had a very pleasant conversation with him and when we left, he was still complimenting us out the door saying we were an adorable couple and we should never break up. Holy shit. I think I have met Ogre enough times to call him an acquaintance. I repeat - holy shit. I can't even explain how much of a fangirl I turned into. How do you react to your musical idol (who you also happen to crush on HUGELY) telling you you're an attractive human being?? UGH. One of the best nights of my entire life.

I'm not entirely thrilled with this photo because I couldn't control my face. My cheeks were so wobbly and my knees were knocking because he had just called us pretty, so yeah…that explains my dopey expression and lack of neck and defined chin. I was so caught off guard.

We also got the opportunity to meet Emilie Autumn, who is also a delightful human being, by the way. She had a humongous line of fans waiting to see her and she took about ten minutes to personally connect with each and every one of them, making sure she listened to them and occasionally cried with them. That meant we had a lot of waiting to do to meet her and since we're not huge fans of her work, we just wanted a quick autograph and photo, but she wanted to tell us to make sure we never texted while driving. "The car is not an office," she made us repeat. Such a sweetheart. She's also a very touch-feely person, which I am not, so I got a little tiny bit uncomfortable when she touched my face and grabbed my earring. Haha.

Kyle said this is a photo of two hot chicks and the weird guy in glasses behind them. Haha. Oh yeah - Kyle finally got glasses about a month ago and is still getting used to them. Everyone says he looks very Clark Kent-ish.

So that's my schpeal about the Sacramento Horror Film Festival. I also wrote a real, journalistic review of the show which you can read here: http://www.examiner.com/review/sacramento-horror-film-festival-draws-spooky-crowd-to-the-colonial-theater?cid=db_articles.

If you're interested in videos of the Q&A variety with Ogre and Emilie Autumn, the videos I took are posted below.