The last screening on Friday, Juan de los Muertos, the über-funny Cuban zombie horror – the first one ever made! – heated up things and proved that the festival successfully combines horror and humor. Consequently, Saturday screenings turned Biertan into a full on celebration.
The day began with a cartoons special screening for the local kids and continued with the second session of the film costumes and special make-up effects workshop held by Dana Istrate and Ioana Angelescu – soon after, the Central Square was filled with witches, zombies and other various monsters which delighted tourists and cinephiles alike –, while the Papergirl cultural project, allowed the younger ones display their talent for drawing. Beside the artistic and work activities (in the morning, the Full Moon team repaired the Biertan infirmary), those present in the Central Square enjoyed a new day of culinary delicacies provided at the Traditional Fair: rhubarb cake, cheese mixed with caraway, smoked pork fat, delicious barbecued meats, waves of cold Silva beer, traditional spirits and the delicious cocktails made by Casa TIFF.
The screening schedule began with the second collection of Shadows, turning Karloff Auditorium into the most crowded place in the area. The screening continued with the Babycall premiere, where Noomi Rapace is a young mother tormented by the strange noises coming from the nursery monitor installed in her boy's bedroom, and the rerun of Kill List, the most successful independent British film of the last year. The Karloff program was closed by Red State, the fearless horror satire by Kevin Smith.
As soon as it got dark, the audience (season ticket owners, press, locals and tourists) moved to the two open air cinemas, Melies and Vertigo where, covered in blankets, they enjoyed two very different screenings: the French Le village des ombres (2010, Fouad Benhammou), inspired by the already classic Vidocq and Le pacte des loups, and The Tunnel (2011), by Carlos Ledesma, an excellent „found footage movie” which tells the story of a television crew who, in a network of abandoned train tunnels deep beneath the heart of Sydney, finds something that was never supposed to be found.
The third day of the festival ended with the midnight screening of the trash musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1974), the absolute highlight of the first edition. The Vertigo open air cinema turned into a dancing, laughing and singing contest, both TRHPS aficionados and novices proving why this film, which basically invented the term of "cult movie", still defies any classifications.
The first edition of the "Full Moon" Horror & Fantasy Film Festival had three screening venues, two outdoor and one indoor: Melies Garden was hosted by the back yard of the Parochial House, while Cinema Vertigo, was opened in the yard of the old school. The third screening venue, Karloff Auditorium, was renovated by the festival team inside the former Biertan cinema, closed down for the past 20 years while, before 1948, it had been the ball room of the Stern Hotel, a mid-19th century building. Restored to its former glory, Karloff Auditorium is, once again, the pride of the local community.
The four-day festival gathered over 3500 viewers, adding up to 800 tickets and 230 seasonal tickets sold.