Festival · Historical file
File 1987: the opening film that never arrived
Scene: Hamburg. Time: autumn 1987. Missing: the planned opening film. Victim: the schedule. Unexpected understudy: a carnivorous potted plant.
The first film refused to cooperate
The first Fantasy Filmfest was ready to begin, but the print of the intended opening film failed to arrive in time. At a film festival, that is about as convenient as a missing groom at a wedding — except a groom can rarely be replaced by Little Shop of Horrors.
Plan B had teeth
Other events might have made nervous phone calls, taped up apologies and then cried collectively beneath a table. Hamburg instead screened a musical about a plant with a highly developed appetite. In retrospect, it was less an emergency solution than a remarkably accurate mission statement.
A mishap with surprisingly good dramaturgy
A festival devoted to films in which plans routinely derail began with a derailed plan. The audience did not get what had been announced, but something unexpected, strange and hard to categorise. Four decades later, it almost looks intentional.
The unresolved case
We do not know what became of the original print. Perhaps it is still on its way to Hamburg. Perhaps it is waiting at the wrong platform. Perhaps Audrey II ate it. What matters is that the festival survived its first night — and then four decades of zombies, serial killers and films after which nobody waters a houseplant quite so casually.
FearScore verdict: The opening film never arrived. The Fantasy Filmfest very much did.
Source for the historical incident: the official Fantasy Filmfest anniversary catalogue.