Here is a brief summation of my experiences at the LEGLESS CORPSE FILM FESTIVAL held this past weekend in Somerville, Alabama, a celebration of short and full-length independent movies. For the most part the quality of the films presented was very good. (There was one big exception, but I’m saving that one for a separate post.) I really enjoyed THE ORANGE MAN, a feature-length parody of the slasher genre, although it could have used a better editor, as it went on about fifteen minutes too long. The short SOCCER MOMS IN PERIL made me laugh raucously, too (and won the lead, Tarah DeSpain the best actress award for the event), as did SECRET SANTA (winner for best make-up). MONSTER IN THE CLOSET, alternately, treated the slasher motif with gravitas, as did the winner for best full-length picture, KILD-TV, while the short KILLER ON THE LOOSE turned the familiar premise on its head.
Other outstanding shorts were WHISPER, AMORE, BARBER’S CUT, HADES, and the winner for best short film, MR. DENTONN. The other two full-length features were both excellent—or, more accurately, one was excellent and parts of the other were excellent. The former, the all-excellent one, was the ingenious and original VOLUMES OF BLOOD (more on that one later) and the latter, 60 SECONDS TO DIE, was a compilation of minute-long mini-movies, of which some were damn good (my favorite was ROTTEN) and some were nothing more than an excuse to film a kill scene, no storyline—or quality—needed. The good ones outweighed the bad, however, even if numerically speaking, there weren’t a lot more of them. Like muscle and fat, or gold and dross, good cinema weighs, and counts, more than crap.
