17/03/2006

The small medieval town of Haapsalu, 100 kilometres away from the Estonian capital of Tallinn – made famous by the legend of one the White Lady, of the most famous ghosts in Estonia – is hosting a four-day horror film festival through March 19.

Co-organized with Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival, the Haapsalu Horror Film Festival opened last night with the screening of Anders Banke’s Frosbite, the first Swedish vampire film, which just won the top award in Portugal’s Fantasporto Festival. Estonian horror films are the highlights of today’s programme with the screening of three short and medium-length films: Anri Rulkov’s 24-minute Fear and Annaleena Pihel Linna’s 15-minute The Undertaker, both produced by Exit Film, and Terje Lainets’ Down Below, produced by Dream Creation.

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A total of one dozen chillers will be shown in Haapsalu, genre classics such as Nosferatu (1922) by F. W. Murnau and Dario Argento’s 1977 film Suspiria, as well as more recent titles like Takeshi Shimizu’s Marebito and Lionel Delplanque’s Deep in the Woods, which will close the festival on Sunday evening.