The screening of Sean Bryce’s Aussie horror film ‘The Loved Ones’ opened with a literal bang as a sleek silver Honda careened into the side of a squat yellow Jeep directly outside The Astor, famous film screening locale cum-Vietnamese pop den. With the pungent air of a dying robot-assembled Japanese engine wafting through the lobby, everyone felt bewildered, tense and yet, expectant. The trailer for this film had dropped only a week ago and had smashed those lucky few who had seen it off their feet like so many poorly driven automobiles. The film promised to be a fantastical gala of bloodletting, pink frocks and poorly-sung Casey Chambers songs.

The number of those in attendance at this film was modest, particularly compared with the ocean of  Tool T-Shirt-wearing humanity that poured out of the screening of the Bill Hicks documentary which had screened just prior. Despite this, those who made it to this event were treated to a great Q&A session after the screening run by the producer of the film, Mark Lazarus, who had some very funny anecdotes about the lead actor, Xavier Samuel, being cast in the new Twilight film.

In spite of an almost cataclysmic disaster befalling the screening at the very start, with the curtains suddenly lurching back, the print being desperately out of focus and a stray power cord whipping loose across the screen, the evening soon settled and a good time was soon had by all. A successful event, despite the relatively low turnout, and yet more evidence of the strength which Australian genre film-making possesses. One of many throughout what has surely been a deeply entertaining and thought-provoking Revelation Film Festival.