Hastings film festival to host world premiere of new American horror movie

Hastings Rocks Film Festival will see the world premiere of an American horror movie tonight (Friday, April 22).
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Skagit, an experimental thriller set in Washington State, has been officially selected by the festival, and will be screening there today at 8.30pm.

It was written and directed by Nick Thompson.

He said Skagit is about four friends who leave Seattle for a weekend in a remote, rain-soaked corner of Washington State’s rustic Skagit Valley.

Skagit will be shown tonight SUS-220422-110408001Skagit will be shown tonight SUS-220422-110408001
Skagit will be shown tonight SUS-220422-110408001
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The foreboding autumn landscape begins to warp their minds, plunging each into alternate realities where they must grapple with personal demons, sexual tensions, and a sinister natural world as they claw their way back to sanity.

The film follows months of writing in a remote town in the USA’s Pacific Northwest, three weeks of filming entirely on location around Puget Sound, and a year of editing.

Skagit will be playing as the second movie in a double feature that will open the festival today at the Electric Palace Cinema.

The first movie will be Camping Trip, a lockdown-era horror film from Canada directed by brothers Demian and Leonardo Fuica.

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The Fuica brothers’ film is about two couples who go on a camping trip after months of mandatory Covid-19 confinement. What started as a fun-filled vacation turns into a test of loyalty and survival.

The film festival lasts for three days, with four other features playing, many shorts programs, of which a large portion are made by Hastings filmmakers, and a projector installation in the St Mary’s Crypt.

Nick, from Seattle, USA, will be attending the festival and discussing the DIY making of his film, which was shot entirely in the Skagit Valley with an all-local cast and crew. Many members of the cast and crew of Camping Trip from both the UK and Canada will be in attendance for a Q&A as well.

Nick, 29, said contemporary directors Carlos Reygadas and Ana Lily Amirpour and the late Krzysztof Kieślowski were major influences for the film, as well as UK filmmakers Terrence Davies and Andrea Arnold.

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Skagit stars Taigé Lauren, Rheanna Atendido, Allen Miller III, and Keenan Ward, and was produced by Leah Trangen.

Nick said: “What I hope to achieve with Skagit is broader recognition of the cinematic potential of the Pacific Northwest.

“Climate change and development are impacting our region, dramatically altering our psyche and culture, which gives the movie’s environmental approach to the horror genre topical resonance.

“But when I see the Northwest in feature films, it’s often with this sheen of drone-like perfection that misrepresents both the strange attraction of the landscape and the sensibility of the people who inhabit it.

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“Or, it’s just used as a backdrop in a plot-focused movie that’s not interested in pushing boundaries of film and being out there artistically.

“Skagit is an answer to that: the movie foregrounds experimentation on a low budget and the primeval atmosphere of the Skagit Valley as it molds, terrifies, and eventually destroys the minds of the four friends.”

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