Bram Stoker Film Festival 2011…

Dates of Whitby Bram Stoker Festival 2011: between 28th and 31st of October

Whitby will be forever associated with the DRACULA novel penned by Bram Stoker, who wrote of “The houses of the old town, all red-roofed, piled up one over the other.” It was while staying in this coastal fishing town that Stoker found inspiration for his timeless work. Some of the more unlikely events in the novel – the ghostly Demeter sailing ashore, the vast black wolf – were actually the townsfolk’s tales wrapped into the central, vampiric tale.

The 2011 programme for the Bram Stoker Film Festival is full of dark surprises, with horror films and strange oddities ranging from foreign horror to visceral display to strange, eerie things that plaque your soul for months to come. ABSENTIA, ANNABEL LEE (a fine adaptation of Poe’s poem), BONNIE & CLYDE VERSUS DRACULA, CASSADAGA, DEUS IRAE… there are so many UK and World premieres being hosted at the film festival that we honestly don’t have the strength to pen them all. Too many for you to see in one weekend, that’s for sure. A lifetime? Several lifetimes? Perhaps.

Along with a host of films, 2011 events will include the Whitby 2011 Vampire Ball, with terrortease burlesque, much revelry and sounds from Gravehurst and many others. Vampirism takes centre-stage with the Feast of Blood. Don’t Go Into The Cellar specialise in quirky adaptations of Gothic classics and Victorian melodrama, delivering chills, shudders, masked fiends and a phantasmagoria of excess with aplomb.

And there’ll be a dark vampire circus on monday.

Film, theatre, circus, balls, tea cakes and cosiness and everlasting fear… there’s nothing more sumptuous. Who could find a better way to celebrate Hallowe’en / Samhain? BSHFF, we salute you.

Oh, and as with 2010, jewellers W Hamond will be sponsoring the event in 2011. The special thing about this is they like to create an annual signature piece of jewelery to honour the occasion, and this year they’ve fashioned a lovely replica Dracula Signet ring sterling silver and using Whitby Jet, beloved of both Classic and Neo Victorians everywhere. The 2011 ring features the Dracula family crest and also an inscription of words from the original Bram Stoker novel. A nice touch. And what’s even lovelier is that this ring is seen prominently in the legendary and influential Hammer titles ‘Dracula Has Risen from the Grave’ and ‘Scars of Dracula’, as worn by Christopher Lee on the little finger of his left hand. Call 01947 603330, email the boutique on [email protected] or pop in store at 112 Church Street, Whitby, to order or for more information.

But, very importantly, get yourself down to Whitby. Even if you don’t make it for the festival. It’s atmospheric and steeped in history – both the real and the unreal – at any time of year.

‘Gory’ous performer Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen will be combing Terror with Tease at the fabled Vampires’ Ball on Saturday…