Daily Dead

Jonathan James 5/6/2017

Tales From Beyond the Pale: Featuring Clay McLeod Chapman, Sam Zimmerman, Janet Scanlon, and Larry Fessenden, we were treated to two new audio dramas exclusive to The Overlook Film Festival from Glenn McQuaid and Larry Fessenden, titled “Re-Appraisal” and “In the Wind.”

A form of entertainment mostly foreign to modern audiences, it’s great to see the team bringing this type of horror storytelling to genre fans. I also can’t forget to mention the extraordinarily talented audio team, which included live foley effects that elevated these audio dramas to a whole other level. Do NOT miss the opportunity to experience this for yourself.

To listen to Tales From Beyond the Pale or find out when you can catch the next live performance, visit: http://talesfrombeyondthepale.com/

Top | Link

TimeOut

5/4/2017

The Overlook Film Festival turns an iconic location into a horror mecca

Nightly parties brought out shrieks and (inevitably?) Bauhaus’s goth-rock churner “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” to the rollicking second-floor bar. There were live radio plays from Tales from Beyond the Pale (extraordinary), as well as a weekend-long immersive game which had players raiding a “murder car” parked in the lot. Trivia and dance raves had their nights. And in a masterstroke that should become the Overlook’s signature, there were one-on-one theatrical performances such as The Chalet and Blackout, both of which I tried, turning me into a exhilarated fucked-up mess. If that’s not what a great film festival is supposed to do, then I’ve got it backward. Let’s hope the Overlook sticks around for many years to come—or, to quote those creepy twins at the end of the hallway, forever and ever. And ever.

Top | Link

Birth. Movies. Death.

May 1, 2017

The Overlook Film Festival: TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE

If you’re not familiar with Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid’s radio drama Tales From Beyond the Pale, it’s a terrific and haunting storytelling device. I’ve been lucky enough to see two live reads of the show – once at The Stanley Film Festival, and this week at The Overlook Film Festival.

The performers stand at mics with headphones and scripts on podiums, while McQuaid sits in the background at a soundboard, producing the show and playing his original score. Two sound effects artists work at a table to the side, using sound props like a small door in a frame, shoes in a box of gravel, jars full of liquid, a tube they shake to create, as my colleague Katie Rife phrased it, “ambient spookiness.” As riveting as the stories are, and as great as the performances, it’s tempting to just watch the sound artists at work, the little magic they create with bags of sand and aluminum ducts.

Fessenden, in his marvelous voice, opens the show with a Crypt Keeper-type monologue, assuring us that today’s stories are intended to distract us from the “hundred-day horror show” that has been this nation. He also performs a role in each story, along with Shudder’s Sam Zimmerman, The Pumpkin Pie Show’s Clay McLeod Chapman and actress Janet Scanlon.

The first story is titled “Re-Appraisal,” in which a man (Chapman) is trying to sell his house so he can escape the modern insanity of the United States and move back to his homeland of Ireland. A potential buyer (Fessenden) arrives with a very compelling offer, but the seeming bargain comes at a terrible price. “Re-Appraisal,” written by McQuaid, trades on our new, unfortunate revival of nuclear panic, and tells a lesson about the selfishness of our own anxiety.

The second story, written by Fessenden, is called “In the Wind,” and it’s a Fargo meets The Mist-type tale in which Scanlon plays Frannie, a small town police chief in a snowy mountain resort, with Zimmerman playing her sweet-tempered second-in-command. While investigating a homicide, Frannie and her team soon realize that what they’re dealing with is something much worse, a supernatural foe that threatens to overtake the entire town.

Both stories were perfectly creepy and beautifully performed, generating real suspense in that small, warm room. Tales From Beyond the Pale was once more a highlight of this horror festival, a refreshing change from slasher flicks and the like. There’s a quaintness to the delivery of these scary stories that makes their unnerving content stand out in stark contrast. If you ever get a chance to see Tales From Beyond the Pale performed live, you should take it, and in the meantime, check out more tales here.

Top | Link

Bloody Disgusting

May 1, 2017

#Overlook Film Festival Day 3 Recap

After the movie had ended I ran over to the Barlow room, where I got to see one of the coolest events that the fest has to offer – Tales From Beyond the Pale. Like an old H.G. Wells show, four actors, including Larry Fessenden and Sam Zimmerman, voiced two live readings of creepy Twilight Zone-esque stories that left me feeling like I was in the 1950s huddled up next to family members and a roaring fireplace as we listened to our favorite radio program. I mean, there were even two ladies on the side of the stage putting their hands in shoes and making them walk on a piece of wood to create the illusion that someone was stomping through a house. When a character in a story experienced turbulence on an airplane, they clinked together drinking glasses to make it seem like the actors were really on a plane. “Phonecalls” were voiced through a megaphone to make it sound authentic, and an old wooden chair was swiveled back and forth under a microphone to mimic the creaks of an aging house moaning in the wind. It was truly fascinating to see these stories leap off the page and become alive right before me.

The second story titled “In the Wind” took place in a snowy mountain town, where two sweet little police officers named Frannie and Carl followed up a call about some missing truckers who had left their cars and been found hundreds of feet away without an explanation. Before long, gargoyle-like winged creatures appear and ravage the officers, stealing from them their lives and their sanity. I enjoyed both stories immensely, but the first one was especially cool. In it, a self-absorbed man named Tom hangs up the phone with his wife who pleads with him yet again not to move their family away to Ireland, but to no avail. Just as he ends the call, a knock appears at the door, and it’s a strange gentleman who offers to buy the house they’re trying to sell on the spot, without haggling, above the asking price. Tom jumps at the chance but begins to grow suspicious of this odd character after he begins asking for other things, too, such as Tom’s dog, and then his wife, and his two children. At first, Tom grows angry, but as the soothing spirit coaxes him with his Irish tongue and twisted logic, Tom finds himself adhering to this strange and unusual deal, he comes to see it as a bargain and gladly trades in his old life for a new one. He’ll soon live to regret it.

I simply cannot praise Larry Fessenden enough. From his writing to his acting, and even just his voice all carry a unique sense of the old world. When he shows up for a job, you can just tell that he’s there and doing it because he loves to perform. He loves his job. It’s not about the money, it’s about the craft, and every project he’s a part of becomes that much more special just because of his commanding presence. It was a real joy to witness him live and in person.

Top | Link

Fangoria

Ken W. Hanley 10/25/16

Event Report: “TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE” Live at Lincoln Center!

As any New Yorker can tell you, a 70-degree night in the middle of October is a fairly strange occurrence. But perhaps the peculiarly warm weather was fitting for a night such as October 20th, in which the good folks at Glass Eye Pix would be taking their eerie brand of radio plays to Lincoln Center for another live edition of TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE. Yet even beyond a showcase for the varying degrees of audio terror that can come from the minds of filmmakers Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE is such a special experience because it truly feels communal, with horror enthusiasts gathering en masse to witness the petrifying proceedings.

This writer doesn’t know for sure if the other horrorheads in attendance had ever attended a round of TALES live before, but as someone who was lucky enough to catch Glass Eye Pix’s show-stopping performance at the 2015 Stanley Film Festival, I knew exactly how much fun these shows can be. From genre-friendly performers, live music and foley work, and an immersive sound design, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE’s live editions are as fun to witness as they are frightening. But the true kicker for seeing TALES live is to witness some truly original, fantastic horror from those who tell it best, with stories not bound to multiple takes, budgetary restrictions, or studio notes.

Arriving just in time to catch the introduction for the first tale, this writer spotted the murderer’s row of performers for the night, comprised of James Le Gros (THE LAST WINTER), Noah Le Gros (THE GET DOWN), Lauren Ashley Carter (DARLING), John Speredakos (THE MIND’S EYE), TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE regular Mathew Stephen Huffman and Fessenden himself. The first story, “Who Killed Johnny Bernard?,” was penned by Fessenden, following a non-linear Faustian tale that offers more heartbreak than it does straight-up horror. This story was also the most musically active of the pair, with Jack Fessenden and several of the TALES team providing a miniature jam session during one flashback in particular.

However, if Fessenden’s tale was light on the genre material, the second story, penned by McQuaid, certainly more than made up for it. Entitled “Game Night,” McQuaid wove a tale of middle-aged men whose version of a mid-life crisis includes an attempt to summon a demon in a satanic ritual. Yet when their efforts go bust, the four men are ready to call it quits…that is, until the Pizza Delivery Girl arrives and offers her Goth expertise to ensure their supernatural connection. Giving much for live foley artists Chris Skotchdopole and Tessa Price to do, “Game Night” is much more light-hearted than its predecessor, but also a much more traditional horror story with a subversive contemporary edge.

Luckily, each TALE was each equally fascinating to come to life, with the old school charm and the certainly capable cast offering a spirited take on these stories. In the case of “Johnny Bernard,” the story was somewhat like a puzzle, but once the audience understood what was going on and the performers got into the groove of things, the tale was quite captivating, with a bittersweet ending one normally doesn’t expect from anthology horror. “Game Night,” on the other hand, offered up a more jovial chemistry, with some laugh out loud moments (including a scene in which the guys realize they need a blood sacrifice) as well as a gloriously schizophrenic performance from Carter, who jumped between voices and characters with surprising finesse.

Overall, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE once again proved to be an excellent show to be experienced live. From the inherent appeal of watching pumpkins getting smashed in by foley artists to the spontaneous performances to the phenomenal writing on display, there is truly something special about witnessing imaginative storytelling encapsulated in a medium so against the grain, and the welcoming Lincoln Center audience certainly felt it as well. This writer just hopes you’ll be able to hear these scary stories for yourself sooner rather than later, but make no mistake: if you get the opportunity to experience TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE live, run, don’t walk. It’s a fairly singular experience within the genre, and one that deserves to be witnessed firsthand.

Top | Link