{"id":2064,"date":"2017-10-03T09:56:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T13:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2017-10-03T09:56:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T13:56:24","slug":"daily-horror-film-fest-haunted-houses-cults-and-kitties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2017\/10\/03\/daily-horror-film-fest-haunted-houses-cults-and-kitties\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Horror Film Fest: Haunted Houses, Cults, and Kitties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day in October, the Department of Tangents will be presenting a short horror film as part of the Daily Horror Film Fest. Today\u2019s entry is a bonus three-film bonanza of horror with a sense of humor from filmmakers Andrea Henry and Jenn Dlugos. Both come to filmmaking from the stand-up comedy world, and it shows in these three shorts, Mischief Night<\/em>, Weekend Getaway<\/em>, and Cat Scratch<\/em>. I asked Henry a bit about how the films were made. <\/p>\n

\u201cJenn is a bigger horror fan than I am,\u201d says Henry, \u201cbut these were fun experiments to try something different. I tend to skew towards more quiet comedies. Like things that are not completely over the top or ridiculous, but more average people put in really weird circumstances. I think we incorporated this into these films.”<\/p>\n

The similarities between humor and horror, from a standpoint of mechanics, have come up in a lot of conversations I\u2019ve had with comedian horror fans. There\u2019s something especially satisfying when an artist can get both of them right in one project. \u201cI think horror and joke writing are actually pretty similar,\u201d says Henry. \u201cBoth give you a scenario that ratchets up the tension and in one that tension is diffused with a punch line and the other a chainsaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horror might not be Henry and Dlugos\u2019s normal beat, but there might be another short or two coming. \u201cWell I do have a long running vision of people being terrorized on a lake by a swarm of snakes,\u201d says Henry, \u201cso stay tuned!\u201d<\/p>\n

MISCHIEF NIGHT <\/strong><\/p>\n

Henry and Dlugos filmed this one at Barrett’s Haunted Mansion, a real-life haunted attraction in Abington, Ma. But Henry says the inspiration came from a different haunted house. \u201cI remember going to Spooky World (the old cool one in Berlin) and hearing all these screams and being genuinely scared,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a neat blending of real and imagined fear.\u201d <\/p>\n