Twin Cities Horror Festival XIII Day Three Reviews: The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons…, Fractured Remembrances, Ghostrunners
Okay, so those paying close attention will notice that I labeled yesterday day one and today’s reviews day three. Well I wasn’t counting the Wednesday Cabaret, but I see from the TCHF posts they count that as day one, so I’m adjusting to their lead. If you want to see Let’s Summon a Demon at Debbie’s, good luck! As I prep this post the final performance lists, the tickets as almost gone. I suspect by the time I post this it will be sold out, making it a completely sold out run. Remember you can see the entire schedule and purchase tickets at this link https://www.tchorrorfestival.com/tchf-xiii.html . All Shows take place at the Crane theater in NE Minneapolis. I’ll be seeing all of the shows, so check back here for further reviews. I recommend seeing them all but if you are new to it at least plan a day or night to come and see three or four shows at once, there is such a variety of shows. When you do come they have some great mocktail additions to their concessions this year, I’ve tried the Cosmo and the Margarita so far and loved them both. Also don’t forget to purchase your merch, t-shirts, hoodies, even earrings, and dresses. That’s the pitch, now on with the reviews!
The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons for those of you familiar with Rev. Matt’s Monster Science you should know this years TCHF entry comes with a twist. Matt Kessen is joined by The Winding Sheet Outfit who act out elements of his humor filled lectures. If you’ve never seen Rev. Matt perform before you should, he’s a staple of the TCHF, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and he performs monthly at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater. For most of us horror fans he’s like that favorite sweatshirt, it’s not your fanciest, it’s not your warmest, but it’s comforting and makes you feel warm inside. To describe the content would be pointless as each of his performances is a different topic. I will say that the addition of The Winding Sheet Outfit adds to the fun in all the right ways. For our performance the highlights was a parody song to the tune of “The Leader of the Pack” and they will be performing a different song for each program. I may try and catch another performance if I can, I enjoy these so much.
Fractured Remembrances is written and directed by Executive Director/Ticketing Director of the TCHF Duck Washington. Don’t worry his show is not the result of string pulling, it’s more than deserving of its place in the festival. Of the seven shows I’ve seen so far, this was the one with some real moments of unease and creepiness. The story of a young woman named Aster, played beautifully by Angela Fox, who undergoes a traumatic experience when she and her boyfriend disappear for five days. She is found but her boyfriend is not, but he’s not the only things missing, her memory of the five days is also gone. The show deals with her trying to recover her memories with the help of a hypnotherapist. This has a complex script, brought to life with minimal sets but with truly creepy lighting and sound design. The Make-up and special effects by Kyle Decker add an ooze factor that doesn’t go over the top like Dangerous Productions shows do, but just adds to the overall tone of dread. There are fun supporting performances from Tim Uren, Ariel Pinkerton, and Jean Wolf. This is one for horror fans!
Ghostrunners certainly has some effective and horrific moments, but at its heart, it doesn’t want to scare you, it wants to amuse. At that it succeeds admirably, the main focus is on word play. For example those words that have more than one meaning like bat, as is baseball bat or the flying rodent. Another example is words that sound alike, “I see”, being mistaken for “Icey”. If you enjoy this type of clever writing and it is clever, though like the magicians trick or Sherlock Holmes deductions, it seems simple once explained. But coming up with all of these variations and then fitting them into a story, they only make it look easy. The story centers around an accountant who, appears to have OCD and be on the spectrum, spends his spare time playing a baseball game that he invented with dice, which relies heavily on statistics and tables. This rang very true to me, I’ve a son on the spectrum and I remember the elaborate games he would create on his own when he was younger. The game he is playing is then acted out by performers who are representing what is happening in his head. Everything begins to go south when he rolls three ones, a triple snake eyes if that’s clearer. This roll takes him to a table that is hardly ever referenced and the results are murderous. It’s a great cast including, in for one of the actors who has been benched due to an injury, the Director Kevin Duong at some performances and Playwright Kyle Munshower at others.
