This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A new film festival is arriving in Salt Lake City, and aims to make a big splash with fans of the fantasy, science-fiction and horror genres.
FilmQuest is set to run June 30 to July 5 at the Megaplex 12 at The Gateway, as the movie component of FantasyCon, set for July 3-5 at the Salt Palace Convention Center.
FilmQuest founder Jonathan Martin calls the event "a festival for the fantastic," one that for sheer number of films screened will rival the state's biggest film festival, Sundance.
Among the films Martin touted at a press conference today:
• A cast reunion and screening of "Troll 2," the infamously bad low-budget goblin horror thriller filmed in Morgan, Utah.
• "The Landing," an Australian horror short that won Best Short Film at the SITGES Film Festival in Spain.
• "The Seventeenth Kind," a science-fiction tale starring Sylvester McCoy ("Doctor Who," "The Hobbit"), Tony Curran ("Underworld") and Brian Blessed ("Flash Gordon").
• The world premiere of "Survivor," a science-fiction drama starring Kevin Sorbo ("Hercules: The Legendary Journeys") that was filmed in Utah.
• The Oscar-nominated Belgian short "Death of a Shadow."
• The short "The Visitant," by Utah filmmaker Nick Peterson, about a woman (Amy Smart) who must battle a demon (Doug Jones) to save her family.
Martin and FantasyCon founder Josh Patel also touted the festival's prize, the Cthulhu Trophy, a foot-high statuette designed by designer Ryan Peterson, a Hollywood make-up effects designer who has worked on such films as "Men in Black" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."