Twisted Dreams Film Festival is Back!

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What better time of year than October, the days and nights before Halloween, for a film festival dedicated to horror. This will be the seventh year for Milwaukee’s Twisted Dreams festival, formerly at the Times Cinema, then virtual during the pandemic and now ensconced in the historic Avalon Theater.

The festival’s cofounders and codirectors, Christopher House and Steve Milek, met while working dead end jobs and discovered their mutual appreciation for macabre movies. This year’s Twisted Dreams runs Oct. 14-16. Passes are on sale at FilmFreeway. Individual tickets can be purchased at Avalonmke.com

This year’s judges include filmmakers Jason Thornton, Rafael De Leon, Scott Paulson, Brian Klewin and Earl Martin; actors R. Michael Gull and Audwin Short; “mostly fictional character” Heidi Erickson; and author-Shepherd Express contributor Tea Krulos.

House and Milek and assistant director Tom Klein took some questions about this year’s event

Is there any particular theme to the films this year? Either a theme you had in mind when programming the festival—or a theme that emerged from shared themes in the films themselves?

C.H.: We have blocks of short films that have specific themes. Twisted Comedy for example features funny or weird short films. Our Wisconsin block features Wisconsin based filmmakers.

S.M.: One of the themes we have seen more of in the past two years are filmmakers using mental health as a source of their horror films. It could be depression, anxiety, or having to deal with isolation. While not many movies directly deal with the pandemic you can definitely feel the effect it has had on people. 

Were any of this year’s films made during the pandemic? How has COVID impacted the imagination of filmmakers?

T.K.: COVID did expand on innovation. A few years back we had a videogame horror movie that was amazing. Groundbreaking before the pandemic, but a run of the mill movie made during the pandemic that we saw a ton of. This year we had movies with more dialog and less actors.

S.M.: Having a movie with more dialog and less actors forces the directors to be creative on how they are telling their story.  While it doesn’t always work, some films really take it to a new level. 

Does this year’s festival include any Milwaukee films?

S.M.: Yes we do. Every year we have a block of short films from Wisconsin directors and some of them are from here in Milwaukee. That is always one of our most popular shows and it’s great to see everyone come out and support local talent. This year we also have a feature film from Madison directors Chris Micklos and Jay Sapiro. Their film The Headmistress, was shot in Oconomowoc and had some Milwaukee folks on their crew.