Opening night of the 2019 Overlook Film Festival kicked off on Thursday, May 30 in New Orleans with plenty of excitement as the fest, which bills itself as, "A four day celebration of all things horror," hosted the US premiere of director Jim Jarmusch's "The Dead Don't Die." The deadpan zombie comedy was fresh off of its world debut as the opening night film at, as producer Joshua Astrachan put it when introducing Thursday's screening, "a little film festival in France." The producers brought their film straight from Cannes to the Overlook, which is a relatively new festival (it launched in 2017 at The Timberline Lodge in Oregon before moving to New Orleans last year) but has already become a top destination for creative artists and filmmakers who want to get their work out to enthusiastic and appreciative fans of the horror genre.
"Dead" played to a packed house at the 450-seat Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans's French Quarter, and if the lines around the block despite sultry evening temps in the Big Easy are any indication, this quirky comedy, which opens wide on June 14, will prove that there is still plenty of life in this popular horror subgenre despite the seeming surfeit of modern celluloid zombies.
The Overlook Film Festival, with an Advisory Board that includes Joe Dante, Leigh Whannell, and Elijah Wood, and sponsors such as Fangoria Magazine, IFC Midnight, and Shudder TV, has the cachet to draw top names in horror to introduce films, participate in panels, and host onsite podcasts. Multi-talented writer/director/actor/producer Larry Fessenden - who is also on the Overlook fest's advisory board - co-stars in "The Dead Don't Die" as well as having one of his own films, "Depraved," in the festival.
Mr. Fessenden joined "Dead" producers Joshua Astrachan and Carter Logan after Thursday's screening for a Q&A that covered a range of topics including how the film was initially pitched ("The short version was: "The Jim Jarmusch Zombie Comedy..." and we'd wait for people to pick up their jaw off the floor. (Additionally) Jim was saying that this was going to be his most ridiculous movie ever, and it was our duty to live up to that promise"), what it's like for a seasoned filmmaker like Mr. Fessenden to work as an actor in someone else's production ("It's incredibly special to get a call from Jim, and you go onto the set and he's very welcoming, it's a very warm set. (But) I don't act enough so I have stage fright, sitting there with Kilo Ren ("Dead" star Adam Driver also plays bad guy Ren in the latest "Star Wars" iteration) and Bill Murray, so, you know, you just try to get your shit together and do the lines") , the extent to which the film's action was pre-scripted, ("It's highly scripted, but there's also an atmosphere of ‘let's see how this is gonna unfold,'" and, "As a filmmaker it's cool to see how Jim is loose on some things but when you watch (the film) it's also incredibly crafted, and it's fun how he gets that blend") and a perhaps-inevitable anecdote about Bill Murray continuing to play the charming curmudgeon ("There's Bill Murray yelling, "You guys are making too much noise over by the pool!" and he's just intimidating everyone and it's almost to the point where you're thinking, "Geez, is he really mad?" and it's just an exciting experience").
When asked what new element their film brings to the potentially played-out zombie genre, Mr. Logan shared: "I've gotten a little bit tired of zombie movies or tv series that are essentially just soap operas about survivors living together. It's not really about the actual survival itself, it's not really about what people do in the face of calamity or adversity and what brings them together and what pulls them apart, and the mythos behind what's motivating the zombies themselves. What we were trying to do is bring it back to Romero, to some of the classic films of the genre, and really get back to the core of what it was about then, and really should still be about." Mr. Astrachan noted that, "Most zombie films (feature) a generic pool of relatively newly-dead, and in this movie you see people dressed in different attire from different eras, so you feel this layer of these years, of the length of time...there's a lot more people in those graveyards than there are in the town. I think there's something poignant and expressive and beautiful about that."
Fans and festivalgoers have plenty more to look forward to at this year's Overlook fest, including a Friday night screening of off-kilter horror comedy "Come to Daddy" followed by a Q&A with star Elijah Wood, Saturday screenings including Larry Fessenden's "Depraved" and chilly, atmospheric creeper "The Lodge," live podcast presentations from producer/director Mick Garris, and Amy Nicholson and Paul Scheer, immersive shows including "Campfire Creepers: Midnight March" from director Alexandre Aja and "Home of Enchantments" from "Sleep No More" creator Ava Lee Scott, a Sunday screening of the documentary "Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror" followed by a panel discussion, and plenty of other sights, sounds, and discoveries at Overlook's four home sites across the French Quarter.
To learn more about the Overlook Film Festival and to pick up tickets to individual screening, go to the fest's website. And if you can't make it to horror headquarters in New Orleans this weekend, you can always start planning your trip for 2020!
