On Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19, 2022, the second edition of the Drag Me To Fest, the independent horror film festival born last year from an idea of Joe Godoy Gonzalez, founder of the horror website Don't Open This Blog, and Chiara Natalini, independent filmmaker and director formerly curator of the independent short film festival.
The event will be held at the well-known Milanese venue Santeria in Via Paladini 8, a 500-square-meter space with an outdoor courtyard, bar/bistro, a space dedicated to exhibitions, concerts, literary presentations and screenings, which has become an important cultural and artistic landmark for the city.
Born out of a desire to bring audiences of the horror genre back to share the magic of the theater live, the festival is divided into two days. All designed to increase the number of screenings and film-related activities and include spaces for interaction and conviviality between screenings.
The Drag Me To Fest aims to become a physical (real) meeting point between horror film fans and independent filmmakers, giving visibility to the latter's works and the possibility of having an immediate comparison and feedback given by the reaction in the theater.
The second edition of the Drag Me To Fest is sponsored by the clothing brand Taboo and from the horror site NAQB.
The works of 7 independent filmmakers from all over Italy will be presented during the event:
- Two Sisters by Diego Carli: a medieval horror short film that has already won several awards;
- The Witch and Herman by Byron Rink (the creator of the web series Fantasmagoria): horror short film about an unfortunate motorist who plunges into an endless nightmare after a car accident;
- Grandma's Remedy by Isabella Noseda; short film that is part of the anthology film Mixed Blood and featuring a 10-year-old African girl grappling with VooDoo magic for revenge.
- Alpha and Omega by Nicola Pegg; independent surrealist short film, an "abstract fairy tale" that takes the viewer on a metaphysical journey immersed in nature, between beginning and end, love and hate, rebirth and death.
- Feral by Fabrizio La Monica (God Doesn't Hate You): horror short available on Amazon Prime Video. In the short film, the drive toward mutual recognition between a man and a boy will be bathed in a love made of blood.
The evening of June 18 will conclude with a screening of Re-Flesh, extreme horror written and directed by Davide Pesca (Suffering Bibble, Night of Doom). The film consists of five episodes that pay homage to splatterpunk, 1980s Japanese body-horror cinema and hentai cartoons of the "tentacle rape" genre.
Finally, on the final evening of June 19, the following will be screened Shouts from the swamp, horror/rape&revenge written by Antonio Tentori, directed by Lorenzo Lepori (Flesh Contagium) and with photography by Alex Visani (Born Dead).
In Shouts from the swamp, a woman suffers violence after losing her son and husband in a car accident but will summon dark otherworldly forces to carry out her revenge.
Guests of this edition will also be Alessio Giorgi, founder of the Youtube channel Hours of Horror and Lorenzo Cracolici founder of the well-known horror community Horror Italy 24, who will speak in the debate "Horror cinema resurrects on the web": a talk to find out how independent cinema can be reborn from synergy with new web realities.
The event will also feature Bloodbuster, a historic Milanese store dedicated to cinema "From B to Zeta," with a banquet dedicated to their publishing productions. All books will be available at a special price.
In order to attend the screenings, it will be necessary to reserve a seat by phone (0236798121) for each individual film or event while they last, while no reservations are required for access to other areas of the venue, which is recommended if you want to have lunch and/or dinner at the venue.
