I did happen to see a couple of shorts, the first of which was For Rent, directed by James L. Frachon.  He had flown from Paris to present his film.  The premise was of a young couple getting a hold of a hard to find house for rent, for the holidays...  They arrive to become hunted by tarantulas, which hide and attack from inside the toilet bowl, the bathtub, and in underwear.  Theres a running theme there somewhere.  It was OK - but when you can tell the spiderwebs are dollar-store cotton wads, it becomes just a little unbuyable.

The second short was a 28 minute piece by young director Kevin Shulman, called I.O.U..  His movie was a psychological horror built around a grieving father played by Tony Todd.  Having developed an internet relationship with someone named "Amy", Jack (Todd) lets his guard down.  Grieving heavily, he accidentally allows Amy in too close, and life becomes much worse when he's mentally battered, after receiving his dead wife's head in a box on his daughter's birthday. 

Kevin Shulman is 20 years old.  I sat with him after the film, and his story on how he landed Todd for the role was cool.  Through a connection in film school out in LA, Kevin got access to a Tony Todd set and upon meeting him, offered a viewing of his school creation "The Fix".  Todd was down with the idea, invited him to the trailer on a break, and after seeing it, fired the 2nd unit director that day.  He gave Kevin some camermen and he went to work.  Year or so later he sees Tony at a signing.  Making his way to him, Kevin almost kiddingly asked him, "Would you want to play the lead in my next short?"  The people around Kevin laughed, and then Todd gave him a card with his number and told him to get in touch.  There's IOU.  Todd's work was really good and almost sold the film - but the story stumbled into some confusion as it climaxed, almost as if Kevin couldnt quite get across the idea he intended to. 

The feature of the evening was Shadow: Dead Riot, directed by Derek Wan and starring Tony Todd.  Todd plays Shadow, a convicted killer sentenced to death.  Shadow had a thing for mother's blood, and brutally raped and killed women and children.  After a ritual in his cell, the death injection is given and all hell breaks loose!  His body explodes and blood trickles toward the cells.  Prisoners are transformed into zombies and scatter, devouring guards by the dozen.  The matter is contained and 20 years pass.

A woman named Solitare comes to the new all woman prison (yeah its a women's prison zombie flick) and as the story unwinds, you get to see fun things like head impailments, multiple kung fu catfights, zombie limb nun-chucks, lotsa nudity, even a flesh eating FETUS that can tear open necks.  There was a lot of action and a lot of gore.  Todd sold Shadow well, but its nothing you havent seen before.  The acting was bad.  When Shadow stabs the warden in the head, however, and the blood streams up and out of her skull like a fountain, which Shadows slurps up like water on a hot summer day...  you find yourself watching some more.

The best part of the night came when Don Coscarelli and Angus Scrimm sat in attendance, as we previewed Showtime's Masters of Horror starter episode called An Incident On & Off the Road.  As festival director Michael Hein said after it was shown, "Aspiring filmmakers - that was how you do it."  Coscarelli delivered an awesome twist on the slasher hunter/victim routine.  Based on another Joe Lansdale story, this episode pits Ellen, a seemingly defenseless woman, against Moonface, a deformed and demented serial killer.  Some fictional murderers are "acted". A rare few push the audience back in their seat.  6'10" Canadian John DeSantis played the role of Moonface with authority.  This mountain man enjoys drilling out the eyes of his victims, and has quite the collection out in the yard.

The audience cheered Coscarelli and Scrimm after the movie, who went to the front of the room to discuss the film.  Coscarelli discussed how much he enjoyed Joe Lansdale's work, and working with Scrimm again.  Amazingly enough, Don said he didn't really consider himself to be a "master of horror" and tried a little extra harder to pull off a good scare, knowing he was on a list with greats like Dario Argento, for instance.  The best part of the night hands down was when Angus told about his experiences with the script playing a rambling and delerious old man in the basement - followed by Angus Scrimm singing "Mountain Man" for everyone in the screening room with his gruff voice.  It was awesome.  The crowd gave a standing "O", and everyone moved into Tribeca Cinema's lounge, where we mingled over drinks.

Talking around the bar that night with some of the filmmakers, I heard some interesting rumors.  One was talking about how Zach Snyder was together with Strike and Rogue again to do a sequel to Dawn of the Dead, assumed to be Day of the Dead.  Also I'm personally pulling for Neighborhood Watch to win for best feature.  Supposively several people walked out, a woman got hives, and a man passed out.  While I'm on it, I'm predicting The Road Virus Head North will win best short this year.

Other films playing Friday evening that I could not attend were 5 Day Rental by Glenn Syska, Jitters by Anthony G. Sumner, and the feature Cruel World by Kelsey T. Howard, about a group of captive co-eds held hostage on the set of a ficticious reality show.