Chris Anderson says horror makes more sense than any other film genre because, as in real life, "nothing is promised" … other than that nothing good ever comes of running away.
"At no point does running away from Jason Voorhees save you," Anderson says. "You have to face your problems head-on, and it's that kind of mentality that helps you defeat the great evil. The horrors of our time are the crumbling bridges of our failing school systems, and these can all be tackled if we come together. But if we do nothing about them, we will perish in the end. And that's the story of horror films."
For the past four years Anderson's been applying his belief in horror's community spirit to his role as director of the
Three Corpse Circus International Film Festival. In 2010, Anderson and a small group of friends launched the short film festival at the Michigan Theater to a modest crowd of 100. The festival has grown steadily since then, drawing an audience of 300 last year.
That's thanks not only to Three Corpse's unique, offbeat film selections, but to the community-minded fun that accompanies the event. As in previous years, this year's festival will kick off with a "
zombie walk" to the Michigan Theater. Walkers can make a canned food donation to
Food Gatherers to shamble to the theater in full undead makeup and costume. The actual festival will kick off with a presentation from the
Southern Michigan Zombie Squad, which uses the zombie apocalypse as a lighthearted training ground to promote real-life disaster preparedness. And $1 from every festival ticket sold goes to
Scares That Care, a charity that Anderson describes as "the Make-A-Wish Foundation of horror."
There are 22 films this year in total, culled from a pool of 35 submissions. Five are from Michigan; another five fall under the "international" part of the festival's name, hailing from countries including Italy, Sweden, and Spain. Their subject matter ranges from an abduction gone wrong to cannibalism addiction. In one of Anderson's personal favorites, Fists of Jesus, Christ himself takes on the zombie apocalypse after failing to properly reincarnate Lazarus.
"Since it's Jesus' first time raising someone from the dead, instead of bringing [Lazarus] alive he turns him into a zombie," Anderson says. "So Jesus ends up having to fight all the Roman zombies and the Pharisee zombies. There's also zombie cowboys."
Although the festival has previously commissioned a traditional jury to judge its eclectic offerings, audience members will choose this year's awards. Attendees will also have the opportunity to Tweet to filmmakers in brief breaks in between films.
"We want to keep that strong element of 'this is your festival,'" Anderson says. "We're presenting these films to you as an audience. We want you to choose which films you love and we want you to tell those directors how you feel about them."
Although Anderson has a few scripts of his own currently in development, he makes his living operating cameras for U-M sports and doing freelance videography. Like many Michigan filmmakers, he bemoans the cuts to Michigan's film tax incentives. He says one of the things he's learned in his work with Three Corpse is that many countries provide their filmmakers much more financial support than America does.
"I think that's why in a lot of cases the foreign films we receive tend to look a lot more polished than the American films we receive," he says.
But Anderson doesn't see those financial barriers as a horror to run from.
"I don't think there's a lack of ability in our country," he says. "I just think it's a lack of backing. We definitely want to be a force of good in that respect. If we can't get help from our government, we have to help each other to be better artists."
Patrick Dunn is an Ann Arbor-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Metromode and Concentrate.
All photos by Doug Coombe
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