The leaves aren't quite changing yet, but that magical time of year is fast approaching. What time of year you ask?? Well I'm not talking about the Fall Season. I'm talking about the favorite time of year for Whistler locals and horror film fans alike... The Annual Heavy Hitting Horrorfest!
14 years ago my best friend Feet Banks had a crazy idea to make a film about a weed smoking Jesus who battled the powers of evil with the powers of the weed. Strange idea I must say, but it came about whhile we were making hundreds of pompoms for Dr. Seuss theme party that my partner at the time KLC NAsh and I were throwing in Whistler. we were listening to Fat Boy Slims "on the floor at the boutique" album and the song "Green Jesus" came on and, as any good artist would do, I took two totally unrelated ideas and came up with a new concept for a movie.
After hashing out the idea over a few hours we came up with a funny script for our first horror short film. Not really having anywhere to show it we talked about creating a venue for the public to see our twisted ideas and "The Heavy Hitting Horrorfest" was born. We invited all the other local film makers who had time in the off season to put together their own funny B-grade horror films and end up with about 7 entries in the first year. Since then the fest has gained in momentum and size. Growing from around 100 people to a sell out crowd of 1200 today. The official stats are hard to come by, but from what we have researched we are the largest and longest running Horror Film festival in Western Canada!
Over the years the Festival has helped asspiring film makers and actors to continually up their game and learn all sorts of new tricks to the trade. As the Horrorfest has gained popularity over the years we have been able to attract films from across the globe. With films submitted from Spain, Japan, Australia, USA and all the way across Canada. The quality keeps going up (if you are into B-grade horror) and films are becoming more and more polished as the years go on. Last years "Best International Film" winner was an epic about... well, the name kind of sums it up. Check out "The Fist of Jesus"
This year is our 13th year of savage debauchery and epic good times. The event is held on October 30th (Devil's night) and is the perfect lead in to Halloween, which is the favourite time of year for Whistler locals! It's definitely not for the squeamish or easily offended person... but it one hell of a good time!
If you want to check out more about the Fest, watch some of the top films or buy tickets to this years event you can go to: