DAY 2

Hannah Marks

Dennis Hopper coffee table in the CineVegas Head Quarters

Adult film stars/directors and happily married couple
Don Hollywood and Brooke Hunter

Best selling author Jack Sheehan and his wife Carol

PICK OF THE FESTIVAL

Got to check out the world premiere of the quasi-horror film “Danika” starring Marisa Tomei and Craig Bierko (“Scary Movie 4”). This Japanese inspired psychological thriller is a chilling and sad look at anxiety. Directed by Ariel Vromen, “Danika” gets my vote as the best film at CineVegas.

I know it is only Day 2, but how the hell do you top this film. It’s that good. My jaw has never dropped during a movie before. People say that all the time – “my jaw dropped.” It’s never happened to me. This movie made my jaw drop. Tomei plays Danika and she struggles with what is real and what isn’t. She has terrifying nightmares and horrific hallucinations and lives her life in fear. Paranoid to everything around her, while driving the one’s she loves to the brink of insanity, Danika begins to think she sees into the future. Among her many chilling visions, the fragile woman is haunted by a missing child Lizzie, who Danika may have seen the day she came up missing or may have not. This film takes the super natural exploits of “The Sixth Sense” to an all new level and manipulates our perceptions like “High Tension” for a powerful combination that has the viewer creeped out, freaked out and intrigued.

It plays again June 12 at 1 p.m. Check it out. I’ll try to have a more in depth review some time soon.

I met the girl that plays Lizzie just before seeing the film. Thirteen-year-old Hannah Marks was having her picture taken by her family in front of promo posters near the red carpet. This was the second film for the San Luis Obispo, California resident. Her debut was in last year’s horror film “Doll Graveyard” from the low budget writer/director Charles Band, who also brought us “The Gingerdead Man.” Having persuaded her parents to take her to film auditions at the age of 11, Hannah nabbed the role at the end of an eight week Hollywood trial. It was just her third audition. A month after shooting that film, she was cast in “Danika.” She recently just completed a role in Justin Long’s new comedy “Accepted.” In just the moments I talked to her, it was easy to see how she’s been able to land three roles so quickly as a newcomer and also been featured in the New York Times. Hannah Marks was a joy to talk to. Though her screen time in “Danika” was brief, her scenes were very eerie and she was extremely effective. Here is how my chat with her went.

CCF: Tell me a bit about the movie and your part?

HM: I play Lizzie and she is a murdered child who haunts Marisa Tomei’s character “Danika” in visions.

CCF: Did you get to have a lot of fun with the role?

HM: Yeah, I got to have three hours of special effects makeup. I had to wear contacts, which I could barely see out of. They were bright blue and had this white smog that made it look like my corneas were eaten away. (LOL)

CCF: Did you ever get the makeup on and freak yourself out when you looked in the mirror?

HM: I could barely see out of my contacts, so I didn’t know what I looked like. (LOL) But I’ve seen pictures and yeah I scare me with them.

CCF: Have you seen the movie yet?

HM: No this is my first time and I might not be able to see the whole thing because it’s R-rated.

CCF: (LOL)

HM: I’m serious.

CCF: How was it working with Marisa Tomei?

HM: Amazing. I was honored to get to work with an Academy Award winner.

CCF: How did you first get involved in acting?

HM: I started doing local theater when I was six and begged my mom to take me to L.A. and finally she did.

CCF: And you play an eight-year-old in the movie?

HM: Yeah, but I’m 13. I was 12 at the time and I’ve grown about four inches since then. I was really short.

CCF: What do you think of horror movies haven been in two. Are you a fan of scary movies?

HM: Not really, but I like to be in them. I like the “Scary Movies” with Anna Farris though. (LOL)

CCF: Maybe they will make another one and they can spoof your role like they did Dakota Fanning in “Scary Movie 4.”

HM: Yeah. That would be a trip.

CCF: Alright, well it was good talking to you.

HM: Thank you.

- CCF, June 11

(Day 3 - Cick here)