Once upon a time Whistler was the kind of place that only attracted the most hard-core of skiiers and snowboarders. For ski bums it was heaven but for pretty much anyone else, there just wasn't all that much reason to hang out, much less live here. Slowly though, things changed and along with the growth of the town came a surprisingly large arts and culture scene and more creative individuals per-capita than you perhaps might find anywhere else in the world. For some strange reason (not!), there is a direct and very clear correlation between those who love to carve lines on a mountain and those who also carve lines with paint-brushes, cameras, musical instruments and pretty much any other creative outlet you can think of. Add in to that the whole fact that Whistler can hardly be considered just a "ski town" anymore - there is a large and growing population of people who don't even ski/snowboard and are simply here to "live" - and what you're left with is, well, a shit ton of creative people in a very small space.
Then along comes someone(s) like Feet Bank and Chili Thom - two of the best known writers and artists, respectively, in town - with a shit-balls crazy idea to throw a film festival centered around "B-Grade" horror style movies some time about a decade ago. Grown out of their own selfish desires to create ridiculously campy and gorry horror flicks around Halloween time, the B-Grade Horror Fest grew quickly from the first year with a bunch of people drinking beers at the GLC in 2001 and watching one or two terrible movies the night before halloween to an annual event with two showings at the MY Place theatre, entertaining 500+ hooting, hollering, screaming-at-the-screen people.
Fast forward five or seven years forward and the B-Grade had become one of the hottest events of the year in a town known for some of the hottest events in the world. For filmmakers it became a rare opportunity to work on a project with friends, just for the fun of it. For everyone else it became a ridiculously fun excuse to dress up, sneak a mickey or three into a theatre in your underwear and then scream at the fake blood infused madness on screen. Each year, the audiences costumes got wilder and more elaborate and the party got crazier. Not to mention the films, which quickly went from well, mostly pieces of shit, to some actual damn good filmmaking.
Conrad and Sabine Schapansky are veteran of the B-Grade Horror Fest.
And then it got a little too big for it's own good. The theatre was only so big, and with the vibe of the night a swift kick the the rear was inevetable. The B-Grade has outgrown it's venue and there was a tough decision to make. Fold it up or take it up a notch.
True to form, Feet and Chili decided to go for it. With the help of Whistler Creek Productions's Stu Andrews and the continued dedication of the original organizers of the fest Feet Banks, Chili Thom and Stu MacKay-Smith, the fest went from a 250 person venue to a ballroom at the Chateau Whistler (funnily enough a great fit) which could house 1100+ screaming people staring at a 4-screen epic audio/visual setup. The whole thing, in essence, has become the defacto halloween party of the year for the Whistler area, with people not only dressing up but taking it as far as they can, with some of the most elaborate and awesome costumes and makeup you can imagine. In short, it's not only the party of the year, it's perhaps one of the most epic halloween events in the world.
Film-wise, the productions have exceeded I think everyone's expectations of what can be done on a self-funded budget. I mean, some of the films could easily be entered in film festivals alongside "professional" productions. Fake blood and guts galore and of course the crowd favourite - Tits! - feature prominently, and the crowd just goes nuts every time there is an on-screen kill or some other hilarious, over-the-top action. In short, it's insanely epic.
Feet and Stu got the crowd going!After a one-year hiatius (the organizing crew needed a reboot after such big growth) the fest returned this year with plans to turn it even more into a party, with the ballroom hosting a dance party after the movies finished. Apparently the liquor inspector had other plans though, and it was not to be but again, true to form, Feet and Stu stepped right up, took the blame on their shoulders and even issued every one a $10 refund to make up for the "fuck up". Not that anyone minded, just scoring a ticket to the event is a feat unto itself these days.
With even a few international submissions - which Feet is always sure to remind us are great to have but this is a locals contest! - the films this year were pretty much amazing. Blood, tits, gore, intestines, ship wrecks, and kills, kills, kills kept the audience on their feet screaming the whole time. Highlights for me were definitely Chili's film featuring the gang from Wizard of Oz doing some, well, pretty fucked up shit, Benny Stoddard's epic kill-fest called "25 Ways to Kill Your Girlfriend" and an incredibly produced flick that took place in a Mexican brothel.
Seriously, what other film festival would have the balls to have a weedgrow-box as a prize? Festival founder Chili Thom shows of the wares.
In the end, the skull trophy for Best In Show went to Gigi Saul Guerro for Dia De Los Muertos, local Filmmaker Angie Nolanand and her star actress Sharai Rewles took home the People's Choice award as well as best actress for an epic production called, appropriately enough, "Best Actress", Miles Wilkinson won best actor (he was in 3 flicks!), Benny's film won a bunch of awards including Best Kill, as well as.. fuck, sorry guys, i was a bit too far into that mickey of gin to really catch all the winners. Oh yeah, Corrina won the Manimal Award for most fearless performance (I'm assuming full frontal?).
And that's exactly the point of the whole night. No one particularily cares who wins what or what the prizes even are. It's all about getting out with your friends, dressing up and getting wild. In short, what life is all about.
Big thanks to Feet, Chili, Stu and Shin and everyone who continues to make this the best event of the year. It's shit like this that keeps our town true to it's roots. You can talk all the shit in the world about Whistler being a bubble or not as true to it's roots as one might like ... but all you have to do is attend an event like this and you quickly realize that this is about as close to your roots as you can get.
Oh yeah, there was a crazy burlesque show afterwards!
Check out the full gallery above to get a feel of the whole night and do yourself a favour if you're anywhere near Whistler next year... check this shit out!
