Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Twin Cities Horror Festival VIII highlights - Day One

Spooky tee shirts abound at TCHF.
Fiends, the Twin Cities Horror Festival started their eighth season last weekend, and you only have until Sunday, November 3 to get your scare on. Read our preview post to find out why we love the TCHF.

All shows take place at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Individual show tickets are $15 each, or you can buy a Four Horsemen Pass, which gets you four show admissions for $55. If you plan to see the whole festival, a Skeleton Key pass gets you into as many shows as you like, and you can see shows more than once--which we highly recommend! Also, as the TCHF is now a legit 501(c)3, they welcome your donations. Check out the giving tree in the lobby.

But now! Here's what we thought of the 11 shows we saw this weekend.

Thursday. DAY ONE.

Michigan Disasters 
Ghoulish Delights
Michigan Disasters - Ghoulish Delights
Photo by Dan Norman
Tim Uren wrote and performs this personal story recounting a trip he made as an adult to the home where he visited his grandparents when he was young. While telling of his past in Michigan, he also recounts the stories of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Becker-Hines mine collapse. Although Uren is a good storyteller, and he talks about actual tragedies, it doesn't really add up to horror. Unless you find having Gordon Lightfoot's song stuck in your head horrifying. Which we would totally understand. We love Ghoulish Delights, though, and never miss an opportunity to promote their wonderful podcast The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society.

The Rule of Three
Four Humors

Rule of Three - Four Humors
Photo by Dan Norman
One of our friends said this show struck him as a microcosm of the festival itself: a variety of stories and styles. Four Humors is a founding company of the festival, and they know how to tell a story. So expectations are high for them. This year, they take their one hour slot and fit in three stories. Act 1 features technology (or something else) gone rogue.  Act 2 is a spooky story by the fireside featuring filmed segments, the evils of vaping, and some hilariously dorky running by Matt Spring. Act 3 is an ambitious period tale of a wagon train heading west, which would have benefited from some editing and perhaps fewer jumps back and forth in time. But Acts 1 and 2 are plenty creepy and clever. And not incidentally, very funny.

Stay tuned for MORE HORRORRRRRRRRRRR fest fun.