Screening at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest is a big deal for many genre filmmakers. Debuting your first horror film as a director at the event’s 25th anniversary even more so. This is exactly the scenario that several filmmakers found themselves in this year, with The Freaks of Fancy director, Elliott Léon, just one of many. Screening your first film is special no matter the occasion, but for Léon debuting at FrightFest was a dream come true. That his hero – writer and FrightFest co-director, Alan Jones, had selected his title and was a fan, was the extra special cherry on top of everything else. Léon’s film was unlike many others on the line-up and sought a return to the older days of genre cinema.
1927: Four medical graduates are invited to spend the weekend at a beautiful island mansion by their mentor, the experimental and controversial scientist, Dr. Reed Wakefield. However, it soon becomes apparent that their stay was not planned for fun and games, as Wakefield’s bold actions are about to unleash terrifying consequences. A psychological, gothic horror wrapped in a superbly constructed silent movie aesthetic, and just like the brilliant Guy Maddin before him, director Elliott Léon’s adult fairytale blends absurdist satire, surreal gore, wrenching melodrama, and the Charleston to fashion an eerie work of nostalgia and expressionist symbolism.
A screening at FrightFest would not be complete without a trip to the media wall, and so Elliott Léon attended, joined by one of his principal cast members, Holly Lovelady. Having already spoken to Elliott Léon in the lead up to the festival for our ‘Road to FrightFest’ series, THN was delighted to have the opportunity to catch up with the director and find out how his first experience with the festival was going. We also spoke to Holly Lovelady about her work perfecting a bygone style of acting, and what it was about the script for The Freaks of Fancy that drew her in.
The Freaks of Fancy screened at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest.
