Diary Saturday 31st October 2015 The Festival Of Fantastic Films

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My Halloween didn’t involve costuming or going tricking & treating. I was invited by a friend to attend a movie festival at Manchester’s Pendulum Hotel celebrating horror and fantasy movies. It was my third such weekend at these delightful festivals. I met with my friend, author Charles Partington, at a crowded bar in Manchester and we headed round to the Pendulum. I chatted in the bar with guests who were staying there (the festival had started on Friday). I headed to the main screening hall, which was soon to be used for the annual book and film and memorabilia auction organized by the event president, horror author, Ramsey Campbell. The classic Hammer horror movie, Quatermass And The Pit was still airing, as one of its cast, Julian Glover, who also appeared in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, The Empire Strikes Back and For Your Eyes Only along with various TV shows, was about to talk about his illustrious career. He was joined by his real life actress wife, Isla Blair, who had been in many classic Hammer horror movies. They were a very entertaining double act with a genuine affection for one another. After their panel came the auction where everything went at quite modest prices. I successfully bidded for a few DVD’s myself. This was followed by a screening of Hammer’s Scream And Scream Again which featured Vincent Price as the next guest was his daughter, Victoria Price, talking about being related to such a Hollywood legend. She was very knowledgeable, honest and a fine actress in her own right. She impressed everyone by refusing to charge attendees for autographs or for taking their own photos as some other guests were charging a lot for the privilege. As she said on a card printed in front of her autographs table, her father never charged for his autograph from fans, so she wasn’t going to either. Another Vincent Price movie classic followed her talk, Diary Of A Madman, which I never saw before. I’ll review each of the movies separately. I could have stayed later, as events an bar room conversation continued way into the early hours but I decided to head home by late bus rather than taxi and rejoin the festival on the Sunday. The city centre was full of fancy dress revellers enjoying a more traditional Halloween. Given that the whole day was spent at the festival, I got virtually no online writing done at all for the first time in months. Arthur Chappell