Romford Horror Festival 2022 – Nerdly’s pick for Best Feature Film

I wanted to pull the curtain back just a little bit for a second and bring you something a little different. As you may know Nerdly, the website, and our fledgling – but growing – YouTube channel are proudly latched on to the Romford Film Festival, this was a relationship that came about organically through knowing filmmakers that had shown movies at the fest and being introduced to Spencer Hawken (the creator and chief) and really just digging the vibe. I would like to say I was invited to the jury and selection panel but honestly I just kinda said “Give me all the links… I’m in”. You could say I invited myself!

I have loved working on the panels and having discussions about what we should and shouldn’t show, what should be nominated and what should win. However, I and my esteemed judges don’t always agree and sometimes you can see your favourite falling down the list. It’s not to say you were wrong to champion the flick just that something else shone that little bit brighter, this my friends is the true magic of cinema. Discussion is key and the respect among us for our favourites is invaluable.

So what I thought I would do is a cheeky little “Kev’s Nerdly Romford Horror Picks”. The thought process is that, honestly, I have a terrible memory and can’t really remember exactly what won what. I am going to go through some of the categories and give you what I think should take the coveted Rommy for that category. Starting with BEST FEATURE FILM.

Nominees:

• 2.0 Lucy
• Manfish
• Duyster
• Tales of the Creeping Death
• Wyvern Hill
• Exit

Not exactly the strongest category of the fest this one but there were some pleasant surprises in the mix. Wyvern Hill is a great example of doing a lot with a little and managing to make a great looking flick on a modest budget. Manfish had a really nice callback vibe to horror/thrillers back in the day and honestly just like one of the few features at the fest that knew exactly what it was and the cast were having a ball.

For me, it came down to one movie that I put above the rest and that was Tales of the Creeping Death. I’m a fan of the anthologies of the 80s and early 90s, and Tales of the Creeping Death was just that. A series of 4 short horrific movies wrapped up in a 5th movie that tied into the overall. I’m a big Michael Socha fan so having him in this was a pleasure as always but honestly, Andrew Readman in the old man narrator role is just gold. A particular highlight being the story of a lonely, slightly simple gentleman that hangs around suicide spots waiting for a new “friend” creepy as hell but the guy was super adorable… Sort of!

Tales of the Creeping Death was just a bunch of fun and each story got more surreal than the last but all do a good job of maintaining a level of intrigue in what was going to be the overarching narrative. I take nothing away from the rest of the category, as I say there are some good features in there worthy of your time at the film festival but my pick of the bunch is Tales of the Creeping Death.

And after many hours of deliberation between my esteemed panel colleagues, I can reveal that the winner was… Well, that would be spoilers so you will need to wait and see what the panel thought!

I will be back shortly with another Nerdly Romford Horror pick so keep ’em peeled.