Horror's most Iconic Hotel, The Timberline Lodge Will Host A New Horror Film Festival

In 1979, principal photography and aerial filming for Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' commenced at the Timberline Lodge in Mt.Hood, Oregon. Although it was the Stanley Hotel in Colorado that inspired Stephen King, the Timberline Lodge became the fictional Overlook Hotel. With the release of the movie, the lodge would never be the same. In fact, the hotel will be host to a new horror film festival, the Overlook Film Festival to be held in April, 2017.

We all know the story behind the making of 'The Shining', the single phone call interaction Kubrick and King had before shooting and Stephen King's hatred for the film especially Jack Torrance's depiction. Kubrick's adaptation of 'The Shining' is one of the greatest horror treatment films of all time primarily because he did not know horror and this helped him avoid genre tropes and clichés. But King called the movie "Too cold" and being emotionally devoid.

It's stories like these that make a place immortal, it adds character and myth to the location and slowly transforms it into a local legend. Tourists checking into the hotel still ask for room 217. There's an R-rated version of the movie playing on a loop in one of the hotel TVs. Once in awhile ghosts photobomb guests. Flashes of the twin sisters come and go as you walk through the veranda and on a rainy night, visitors wake up from a feverish dream of a blood red flood engulfing the atrium. This is the perfect place to organize a horror film fest.

Captured by Ray Atkeson, this is the haunting photo of Timberline Lodge that Kubrick came across while scouting locations for the Overlook Hotel.

The festival is organized by Landon Zakheim and Michael Lerman and supported by a commendable advisory committee represented by Elijah Wood, Sundance Film Festival programming director Trevor Groth, director Joe Dante (Gremlins) and talents from the Stanley Film Festival, a similar cinematic exercise practiced at the Stanley Hotel, Colorado that culminated once and for all last year.

The Overlook fest will be a full horror thematic experience - a four day celebration of classic and modern horror movies, a live radio performance "Tales From Beyond the Pale" by horror director Larry Fessenden and a mystery event from Bottleneck Immersive known for their interactive fiction and "Satanic escape room" showcases.

The Overlook Film Festival will launch on April 27,2017. Make sure to be there and make sure to bring your one-handed axe in case of emergency.