Hastings Rocks to the Dark Side
TOBY BULA-EDGE and VERA BELL
A shift is happening at Hastings Rocks International Film Festival: a shift into the scary, the anxiety-ridden and the dystopian. Their call for entries is now open, for original films to be selected for next year’s screenings at the Electric Palace and the Printworks. Attention, filmmakers!
This is a re-launch for The Hastings festival, an off-shoot of the successful Brighton Rocks International Film Festival. It has always had a focus on indie cinema, its last four occasions providing a space for little-heard voices. Now, it aims to emphasise a more specific, niche voice.
Although this won’t explicitly be a horror festival, explains director and film academic Dr James Rowlins, “it’s genre cinema, it’s dystopia, it’s the darker-side-of-the-moon type of stuff” that the organisers are interested in. “But,” he adds, “we do hope to have a lot of horror films.”
The organisers hope to capitalise on the presently vibrant UK horror-filmmaking scene. According to Rowlins, this is also the most commercially successful. But that doesn’t mean they’re selling out to the masses. The emphasis will remain on shoestring-budget filmmaking. Festival co-director, Stephanie De Palma, emphasises this. “We’re not Hollywood. We don’t want to be Hollywood! We want to get the independents, to get the emerging filmmakers.”
HASTINGS GOTHIC
Not only did the vibrancy of the horror community appeal to the festival organisers, but the Hastings location (Victorian Gothic, primal celebrations, and echoes of Aleister Crowley) was also a vital part of their decision. Curator Sam Rose says: “Hastings is a town of artists and outsiders, and they deserve a film festival that showcases and celebrates this.”
Stephanie De Palma concurs. “There’s this bubbling underneath Hastings. There are these voices, these real hardcore creative people, creative minds.” She hopes the Festival will “bring them out of the woodwork.”
The psychological potential of the horror genre is also a key factor in the festival’s shift to the dark side. James says that “genre can be used as sugar in the medicine. To say something interesting, complicated and difficult.” Most people want to escape their demons. De Palma however sees a certain joy in confronting them, opening up further conversations. De Palma sees this type of film as addressing deep-seated anxieties and fears, but in the most creative and imaginative way.
“We don’t want anyone to hold back. We want to see what makes you uneasy. Because what makes you uneasy also takes you out of something you want to be taken out of; it’s a fantasy life that’s saying, ‘we can talk about the uneasy.’”
POPULAR GENRE
The aim is to put Hastings’ filmmakers and Hastings Rocks International Film Festival on the map. Despite the appeal to the darker and more obscure side, the Festival organisers hope that the popularity of genre cinema will also appeal to the masses. “This is a call to get those people that we need,” says James, “If we want a great festival in Hastings, we need people, and we need supporters and a network. And this is the moment where we really give it our best shot to get that. And with that in place, then the festival will thrive into the future.”
Between now and 2026, when the qualifying new films will be shown, classics of the genre will be screened at the Electric Palace in High St. It’s a creepy series: Nosferatu, then for Christmas the original slasher Black Christmas. 2026 begins with cult classic B-picture, The Wicker Man, the more recent body-horror killer Titane, then Suspiria (vile witchy goings-on at a ballet school, and it all ends in flames), Zulawski’s Possession (nasty tentacled creature has sex with deranged heroine; everybody dies), CandyMan (American Gothic and eternal vengeance), and finally The Exorcist.
Further Festival details, entry form and deadlines can be found at filmfreeway.com/HastingsRocks
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply