Watch Arcade Fire’s Guest-Filled Horror Flick ‘Festi’
While most artists use Halloween as a reason to dress up like a giant Cheeto or poke fun at a current legal situation, Arcade Fire picked October 31st to finally unveil their 24-minute horror flick Festi. The film was recorded during the band’s 2011 Suburbs tour and features fellow rockers the National and Fleet Foxes in supporting roles.
“Noreen Bauble,” a pseudonym often used by the Reflektor crew, directed Festi. In the film, a magical bottle of wine is uncorked and releases the ghost of Jim Morrison, who starts terrorizing Will Butler as he celebrates his 27th birthday with his bandmates. Butler’s own fears about joining the dreaded “27 Club” somehow manifest into Morrison running around with a knife and picking off the Arcade Fire members one by one until he ultimately possesses Butler for good.
While the end credits make this low budget short film seem likes its full of split-second all-star cameos – Peter Gabriel as “Guard #1” and Andrew Garfield as “Spider-Man” – this is just done in jest. ZZ Top doesn’t actually appear “As Himself” to sing Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” and that appears to be multi-instrumentalist Regine Chassagne pretending to be Slash during Festi‘s exorcism scene and not the Guns N’ Roses guitarist himself.
“Their first album Funeral is their best, but their third one won a Grammy, best album of the year,” fake Slash tells the ghost of Jim Morrison. Throughout the short film, Morrison taunts his victims by singing “Touch Me” and chanting “Mister Mojo rising…” and Festi‘s climatic chase scene – filmed in front of a sold-out audience – is soundtracked to the Doors’ “The End.” Festi is not quite Evil Dead when it comes to low budget scares, but it is an interesting look into how bands kill time on tour.