Another year October is back. And before we clean off the dust from our favorite Halloween suits there is a date that we horror lovers can’t miss: The Sitges Film Festival. This year marks the 52nd year of the festival, and the spirit of bringing the most interesting titles of the genre remains like the very first day.
The first day of the festival had already some of the most interesting titles of this year. Starting with the opening title, the Stephen King and Joe Hill adaptation In The Tall Grass (2019). The director Vicenzo Natali and the main star of the film Patrick Wilson seemed to be happy to be taking part of and event like this, and had a lot of friendly words to the genre, not forgetting to mention appreciation to King, Hill, Netflix and even James Wan, the man who launched Wilson to the first league of modern horror thanks to his role in The Conjuring saga. Many people might have doubts about the decision of making In The Tall Grass (2019) the opening film for the festival, since being a Netflix Original production it will be at home screens worldwide soon. In fact, it is coming out on the streaming service tomorrow, Friday the 4th. But we can’t forget it is one of the most remarkable titles of the year in the terms of horror, the return to Vicenzo Natali to the festival after his debut film Cube (1997) won Best Film and Best Screenplay back in 1998, and it is based on a Stephen King and Joe Hill novel. That should be enough reasons to welcome the movie with open arms.
Rob Zombie attended to Sitges in 2016 to present his previous film 31 (2016), and although his latest work 3 from Hell (2019) is one of the main dishes of the festival, he was one of the most missed characters in the list of celebrities attending to the festival. Probably the best entry in the Devil’s Rejects trilogy, 3 from Hell (2019) is a rollercoaster of violence and madness, a homage to the 1960s and 1970s exploitation films, and a dirty road trip to the craziest America by the hand of the Firefly Family. The best Rob Zombie one can get, leaving aside that nightmare masterpiece that was The Lords of Salem (2012).
Other movies worth to highlight that have been seen today are the crazy and dirty drama-comedy with a very mad ending Mope (2019), the French zombie voodoo celebration Zombi Child (2019), or the Argentinian thriller 4×4 (2019), the title that has been called from many to be the most interesting genre film from South America this year.
The shops at the beach avenue are starting to open, the businesses at the village are getting decorated, the Mad Max posters are covering the streets, and the audience is already thirsty of blood and guts. And 9 more days to go, lots of the hights top titles of horror, fantasy and science-fiction to be screened, and many more chances to fulfill the Sitges experience once again.
