The horror “scene” in Massachusetts feels pretty desolate these days, especially in the winter season when the real horror is finding used condoms underneath the piles of black snow. Occasionally we get recognized when Rock & Shock comes to Worcester in the fall, and there are of course the monthly screenings in Somerville thanks to Chris Hallock and Mike Snoonian of All Things Horror. But how can we get Boston more involved with the horror scene? Creator of the Stiletto Film Fest, Megan Sacco (aka Lady Haunter) may have a few answers.
On February 27th the Stiletto Film Fest made its debut in Clinton Massachusetts. A horror film festival that featured short and feature length films done by women—a perfect way to seal the end of Women in Horror Month. Sacco who crossed over to the horror world after being in the Haunt industry for 15 years, decided that Massachusetts needed to get in on the celebrating, “I just started talking to my business associates and we thought, we need to do something for Women in Horror Month. It was put together in 2 months!”
Although the turn out was on the slim side (probably owing to the snow received early in the morning), Sacco maintains that the support was amazing. The festival included the shorts Morbid Curiosity by Cindy Baer, Distraught by Brenda Fies and A Novia-The Bride by Ana Amedia . The feature films were the Soska sisters' Dead Hooker in a Trunk and the Screamkings’ Sculpture. Dead Hooker in a Trunk took home the Best of the Fest award while Distraught landed the best short award. Festival goers were treated with free t-shirts from East Coast Kulture and some great prizes during the raffle. Tickets to the House of Blues, Teddy Scares Bears and custom jackets from East Coast Kulture are just a few examples.
Also shown at the festival was the trailer for Megan’s upcoming film Cutz. A rather personal debut at directing, that is currently in post production and almost ready to be seen, “I wrote [Cutz] over a couple of weeks. Every character in the film is someone that has been or is in my life. It’s more of a Psychological thriller with everything from suicide to drug addiction.”
Thanks to the success of the first ever Stiletto Film Fest, Megan hopes to make the festival an annual event. In addition to that, Megan and Sick Design Media are currently working on a 2 day fest in Boston called Blades & Blood, set to take off in September.
On the horizon for Megan is a new short film called The Reckoning that she and her team are currently casting, as well as an apparel line ready to come out in the Spring that includes both infant and toddler clothing. Megan is also a firm believer and supporter of many charities that you can read about on her official site.
As for the current state of women in the horror and film industry, Megan hopes to change it. “I think some of women’s underrepresentation in the industry has to do with the way that society looks at females in general. If you’re a pretty face you can’t make the movie, you have to be IN the movie!”. She also recalls going to a conference where Spike Lee was doing a Q&A, “I’ll never forget what he said about females in the director position. In the Indie circuit, there are only 5% of us. That is not good enough!” It’s clear that with the birth of the Stiletto Film Fest as well as Megan’s future film endeavors—Lady Haunter will be looking to improve that statistic, one scare at a time.
