THE programme has been announced for the first ever Festival Of Darkness, a new film festival which will celebrate Dracula and creator Bram Stoker’s links to the north east of Scotland.
Taking place at venues across Aberdeenshire from October 23-30, the North East Arts Touring (NEAT) event will screen new and classic vampire movies at a series of uniquely gothic locations, some of which are not usually open to the public and have never been used as cinemas before.
Marking the 125th anniversary of the publication of Bram Stoker’s gothic classic and 100 years since the Count’s big screen debut in Nosferatu, the festival will screen a range of vampire movies at unique locations around Aberdeenshire.
Audiences can watch Interview With The Vampire and Nosferatu in the old library and study hall of the former Catholic seminary Blair College; 1931’s Dracula; and Let Me In late at night at Aden Country Park alongside a tour of Slains Castle, the original inspiration for Dracula’s castle.
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The festival opens with two special screenings at the historical Blairs College in Cults, a category B listed former Catholic junior seminary for boys and young men. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst lead an all-star cast in Interview With The Vampire showing in the old Blairs library and Murnau’s silent classic Nosferatu – the first ever big screen outing for Dracula, which celebrates 100 years since its first screening – will play in Blairs’s study hall, with a live musical score from David Allison.
Other highlights across the two-weekend festival include the first ever Dracula “talkie”, Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula, screening in Cruden Bay Village Hall, where Bram Stoker himself once gave a talk; Iranian skateboarding feminist vampires in the modern masterpiece A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night at the Belmont Filmhouse; and Let Me In showing at Aden Country Park.
Attendees can also celebrate 35 years since the launch of The Lost Boys at The ARC Cinema in Peterhead while younger film fans looking for family-friendly chills can see the Swedish adventure Nelly Rapp: Monster Agent at Bennachie Leisure Centre and The Little Vampire at Aden Country Park with spooky hands-on craft activities.
Dacre Stoker, great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, has also been commissioned by the festival to create an exclusive online video essay entitled Stoker’s Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen. Responding to the launch of the Festival of Darkness programme he said: “I am most impressed with the line-up you have chosen for your festival”.
Marie Archer, NEAT’s community cinema coordinator , said: “Bram Stoker, the creator of the world’s most famous vampire, spent a few months each summer as a resident of the NE Scottish village of Port Erroll at Cruden Bay, walking the cliffs and dreaming up his vampiric creation. The Kilmarnock Arms Hotel still has the visitors’ book containing the Stokers’ signatures, which helped trace their visits from 1892-1910. The program of films and events celebrates our fear of the darkness and how that fear binds us as an audience.
“Aberdeenshire is a highly rural area with limited access to full-time cinema venues; this festival has chosen venues that will heighten the film-watching experience”.
Alongside the film programme, the Festival has commissioned two essays. Dr Belle Doyle, Director South West Media Factory CIC explores women’s representation in Dracula films. Mike Shepherd, a local historian and author of “When Brave Men Shudder: The Scottish Origins of Dracula”, references Aberdeenshire’s connection to Dracula.
The festival is curated by North East Arts Touring (NEAT), which promotes professional theatre performances and film screenings in community venues across the North East via a team of dedicated Volunteer Promoters. In 2013 NEAT launched Scotland’s first community cinema network.
Emyr Bell, executive director of NEAT, said: “As an arts charity, we are fully committed to providing affordable and accessible cultural experiences in rural communities.
“I’m delighted that NEAT, through this festival, has the opportunity to celebrate one of the world’s most famous fictional characters. Doing so in such a way that makes it both accessible and affordable for audiences, especially during these difficult timesWe are so grateful for the kind support shown by our volunteers, partners and funders.”
The Festival of Darkness is kindly funded by BFI, Creative Scotland, Film Hub Scotland, Live Life Aberdeenshire, Regional Screen Scotland, Screen Scotland and delivered in partnership with Alford & District Rotary Club, Belmont Filmhouse, Discovery Film Festival, Port Erroll Heritage Group, The Arc Cinema and The Muir Group.
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