Dead by Dawn 2005 ran Thursday through Sunday, April 21st - 24th at the Filmhouse...

FULL 2005 SCHEDULE (9k PDF)

Dead by Dawn 2005 festival catalogue (2.3MB PDF)

The Audience Award for Best Feature:
1st place: THE DARK HOURS, Paul Fox
2nd place: KILLING WORDS, Laura Mana
3rd place: THREE...EXTREMES, Park Chan-Wook/Takashi Miike/Fruit Chan

The Audience Award for Best Short:
1st place: THE TEN STEPS, Brendan Muldowney
joint 2nd place: MONSTERS, Robert Morgan & TAG 26, Andreas Samland

The Cutting Edge Short Film Competition awards:
1st place: THE FRENCH DOORS, Steve Ayson
2nd place: KITTY, Patrick Gillies'
3rd place: ROOMMATE FROM HELL, Allan Piper

The main programme of shorts included SUMMER CHILL about waking up in the night to find your house not as empty as you'd like, MOONDANCE about what happened when a vengeful Little Red decided to take on the Big Bad Wolf, ICE COLD about two sisters whose family tree looks like it sprang up in Tim Burton's yard...

We also had Brett Simmons' HUSK which isn't going to make cornfields and scarecrows any more appealing, and two Swedish gems - OPERATIONEN about the joys of working with your beloved, so long as there isn't a fight brewing, and DYSMORPHO which I reckon will put you off using tweezers for life :) There's also an Irish short called THE TEN STEPS which is pretty much the most goosebump-inducing ghost story I've seen in years.

Staying with short films, there was a retrospective of Sam Walker's three short films DUCK CHILDREN, POOL SHARK and TEA BREAK which are just beautiful and seriously evil, and he and his crew were around to intro and discuss them. His work is fantastic, and this was a rare chance to see them on the big screen.

Rob Morgan was also around to introduce and discuss a retrospective of his short films - you saw THE SEPARATION in 2004, and this year you saw them in order - THE MAN IN THE LOWER LEFT HAND CORNER OF THE PHOTOGRAPH, THE CAT WITH HANDS, THE SEPARATION and his first live-action short, MONSTERS.

We also had a short film programme called WHAT YOU MAKE IT, where we had three breathtaking short films that although not traditionally horror, are definitely horrific, and I'll it to you to decide afterwards if they count as 'horror' films or not. I think they're stunning, and the chance to see them on the big screen shouldn't be missed!

As ever, the Cutting Edge short film competition had ten films from around the world - weird, wonderful, sick, twisted, haunting, bloody and funny. Just how we like 'em :)

The features programme included the World Premiere of Jim McMahon's BLOODSHEDabout a couple of brothers with a nasty family history, some secrets worth killing to keep and a town that seems hellbent on interfering. Jim was on hand to intro the screening and he was joined by about 9 other members of his cast and crew for the Q&A afterwards (www.drainbamagefilms.com)

We had the UK Premiere of Eros Puglielli's contemporary giallo OCCHI DI CRISTALLO (Eyes of Crystal) (www.occhidicristallo.it) where a serial killer is going about replacing parts of his victims with the corresponding parts of 18th Century lifesize Italian dolls. Huzzar!

There was the Japanese treat GUSHER NO BINDS ME (aka THE BOTTLED FOOLS). Because it almost all takes place in a lift, it's been retitled (wait for it) Hellevator for the American market. Sigh. Don'cha love 'em? You just know that if it was released there as Bottled Fools, someone would complain that there was no-one actually *in* a bottle :) Anyway, the film is sublime - skin-crawly, claustrophobic and utterly bizarre. (http://wevco.com/gusherbin/)

Neil Marshall was also around to discuss his new movie THE DESCENT, and although it was still in post (with Insomnia's David Julyan completing the score), he cut together something special for us...

We also had the UK Premiere of DEAD MEAT, Conor McMahon's feature debut, which is kinda like what would happen if Gary Larsson's cows WENT BAD and were the cause of a zombie plague in rural Ireland...

There was also THREE...EXTREMES, which sees Fuit Chan, Park Chan-wook and Takashi Miike all doing their damndest to gross you out - all I can tell you is that Fruit has pretty much ruined my favourite dim sum, a crime for which I may never forgive him.

There was the UK Premiere of the German zombie comedy feature NIGHT OF THE LIVING DORKS about three uber-geeks whose social incompetence is compounded by being very dead. Only, not so dead. Just the best German horror comedy since Premutos!

Our three classic movies needed absolutely no justification whatsoever, I reckon. We screened JAWS on the big screen where it totally belongs. As well as Guillermo del Toro's beautiful CRONOS and Hitchcock's FRENZY.

Jeff Lieberman was back in style with the UK Premiere of his new genre feature SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER which starts off with sick Hallowe'en gags and ends up with Amanda Plummer wrapped in clingfilm, via rubber Jesus and a medieval wench. Just glorious.

A film I've wanted to show for ages now is the Spanish thriller KILLING WORDS which I promise you don't want to miss - tense, gripping and spectacularly beautifully written and shot, it's one of the most thrilling thriller you'll ever see.

Then there was the UK Premiere of Canadian Paul Fox's serial killer thriller THE DARK HOURS which has a seriously ill psychiatrist test a non-FDA approved drug on one of her more unstable patients with a similar condition. Although it's deeply unethical, she seems to have got away with it, until she gets an unexpected visitor...

We also had the UK Premiere of Alex Turner's feature debut, the Civil War horror DEAD BIRDS, which received its World Premiere at the Toronto International in 2004. The film sees a bunch of soldiers hole up after a bank robbery in what they assume is an abandoned warehouse. It's not long, however, before they are witness to the fall-out of the property's deeply unpleasant history...

I'm also delighted that our Guest of Honour this year was the very lovely Ken Foree who was here for the entire weekend. There was tons of time to meet him, get a stack of goodies signed, and over the weekend he took to the stage and he told us maybe a bit more that he should have about his genre career....

Along the way there was tons of swag to give away, surprise trailers from the lovely Jack Stevenson, horror story readings, cool things to buy, cool things to win, a late bar and all the other elements that go in to making Dead by Dawn the best four days of Horror indulgence a fan could wish for.