The infamous line from Scream asks, “Do you like scary movies? Which one’s your favorite?”

For Dark Carnival Film Festival director Dave Pruett, it is Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, which he says “still scares me to this day.” Pruett was raised on late-night horror films shown on WTTV, hosted by local personality Sammy Terry.

This love of horror inspired him to create the Dark Carnival Film Festival with fellow horror junkie Arthur Cullipher, which is celebrating its second year in Bloomington this month.

Pruett originally had in mind a local showcase for last year’s festival, but word of mouth spread so fast, it quickly became regional, national and then international. Besides films from all across the United States, the festival’s submissions board received entries from Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland.

Unlike other festivals—some are first come, first serve while others go for the most “commercial” ones—Dark Carnival opts for the unique and creative. As the festival site’s FAQ says, “We’d much rather see a really good, tightly edited 7-minute movie, than a mediocre 25-minute movie.”

“Our motivation isn’t profit, it’s our love of film,” Pruett said. At what he calls “a true film festival,” less emphasis is placed on merchandise, though some vendors will have tables at screenings. Horror fan conventions, by contrast, are driven by profit and the vendor tables are in the dozens. Pruett quipped with a laugh, “If anything, we lose money!” For Pruett and horror fans, it’s a dream come true: five straight days of original films, some made on shoestring budgets, others with budgets running into the six-digit range. Much criticism was waged against Hollywood horror, which is too reliant on gimmicky CGI, jump-in-your-seat shock value, and gore for the sake of gore.

Dark Carnival will feature many notable guests. Actor/musician Ari Lehman (Jason Voorhees in the original Friday The 13th) is returning along with his horror-punk band FirstJason. Among the other guests will be John Dugan (Grandpa in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), “reigning scream-queen” Tiffany Shepis, various filmmakers, and the man who indirectly inspired it all, Sammy Terry. In addition, Bloomington favorites Baron Mardi and Dr. Calamari, hosts of the Cinemat’s weekly Atomic Age Cinema series, will serve as the “Monsters of Ceremonies” for the festival’s proceedings.
The festival is set to take place September 16-21. The screenings on September 16 and 17 will take place at the Cinemat. These two nights will be free to the public, featuring films Pruett said were “of merit…more off-beat, a little stranger” than the average Dark Carnival entry. Having received 150 submissions, it was not easy to determine which would be among the batch to be shown during the festival’s run. “We could easily run this thing for a month,” Pruett said regarding the amount of films submitted, noting that the submission committee made a point to watch each and every one.

The first paid event will be on September 18. It will be a night of films at the Starlite Drive-In on the west side of Bloomington, near Highway 37. According to Pruett, the drive-in screening was “where the party started” for the festival last year. In keeping with the “Dark Carnival” motif, Starlite will feature fire-eaters, belly dancers, and snake handlers, as well as live music and fireworks. The festival will then move to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater downtown for the next two days, with the proceedings starting at 2 PM on the 19th and noon the following day. Before the films on the 20th, a panel discussion will be held concerning the changing roles of women in horror cinema. Tiffany Shepis, filmmakers Susan Adriensen and Jennifer Friend and IU Department of Communication and Culture Professor Joan C. Hawkins will participate in the discussion, noting how recent films such as Hard Candy, High Tension, and The Descent all featured empowered women as either heroes or villains. Both days will be divided into three presentations, each featuring shorts and a feature-length film. Adult-only (the website warns these films “aren’t for the faint of heart”) presentations will be held at the end of both nights.

The night of the 20th will include a VIP dinner at the Scholar’s Inn near College and Fourteenth Street. Spots are limited, but it provides a chance for filmgoers to meet both the celebrity guests as well as various directors. The dinner is also an awards ceremony for best feature, best short, best music video, best documentary, best special effects and best cinematography. With only twenty tickets available at $25 a piece, they’re bound to go quickly. Pruett remarked how the collaborative nature of independent artists was sparked at last year’s banquet, as Alan Rowe Kelly, director of last year’s favorite The Blood Shed, was inspired to spearhead work on a remake of an old cult favorite, Don’t Go Into The Basement.

The final day of the festival will feature simultaneous screenings at the Buskirk-Chumley and the John Waldron Arts Center. Also at the Waldron will be seminars on both filmmaking and special effects for low-budget fledgling directors. The screening committee picked its own individual favorites to be screened on the closing day. Pruett discussed how after the festival, there are three months of downtime before the cycle starts all over again and they start viewing submissions and event planning in January for next year’s festival.
Besides the “bigger and better” factor concerning celebrity guests and even more films from abroad, the 2008 Dark Carnival Film Festival differs greatly from last year in that it is being held during the school year, meaning the niche market of 18 to 25 year olds will be coming in droves. Individual screening tickets were unavailable at the time of publishing, but the website boasts greater savings with the purchase of a $25 all-access pass for the entire festival, which is also available at a discounted rate of $19 for students. You can learn more about the festival and purchase tickets at www.darkcarnivalfilmfest.com.