Overview
Location is everything when watching horror films — your darkened lounge room, a huge screen in the oldest cinema you can find, a drive-in surrounded by creepy trees, or a movie campout dedicated to all things scary are all great examples. But while they'd all do the job, they're not even in the same league as the newest film fest coming to the US in 2017, which will be held in the creepy-as-all-hell hotel from The Shining.
It's called the Overlook Film Festival, and as Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King fans could probably have guessed, it has ties to hotel-based, Jack Nicholson-starring horror effort that is The Shining. Big ties — huge ties. The festival will be held in Oregon's Timberline Lodge, which is where the exterior shots for Kubrick's 1980 cinema adaption of King's 1977 novel were filmed. We hope you have to grab an axe, chop down a door, and yell "here's Johnny" to get in.
In news exciting enough for you to talk to your local friendly ghost bartender about, the enormous, unsettling-looking building that has haunted many a movie-based dream will play host to four days of experiential events, new and classic genre film screenings and interactive game-like activities between April 27-30, 2017. You probably shouldn't expect that amazing orange, red and brown carpet or red elevator doors opening to a sea of blood as neither are part of the Timberline Lodge's design — but, hey, we don't know all of the Shining-themed tricks the fest's organisers have up their sleeves.
It's not the first time a Kubrick-focused horror movie celebration has taken place in the States, with the Stanley Film Festival running from 2013 to 2o15 in a Colorado hotel that inspired King to write his book. The folks behind that are actually putting together the Overlook Film Festival, so you know it is in good fans. Just be warned: if you take a typewriter with you, you might start typing out "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over again. And we're not saying that you will see a photo of yourself in the hotel ballroom from decades earlier while you're there — but we're not saying you won't, either.
Via Variety.