Damnationland is back!

Pardon if I seem a little excited at the prospect of Maine’s premiere all-spooky, all-local short horror anthology film festival coming back to Portland’s State Theatre. It’s just that it’s been a long time. After going virtual for a political-themed, at-home horror showcase in the deeply Trump-y wasteland that was 2020, the Damnationland brain trust responsibly decided to skip what would have been the Maine movie institution’s 2021 gala outing altogether, a safety-conscious decision that nonetheless pained Damnationland co-founder Allen Baldwin in multiple ways.

“Damnationland literally started as an excuse for people to make art,” said Portland filmmaker Baldwin, adding, “If nothing else, the pandemic taught us a lot about what our communities are worth to us.”

And so the organizers have reassembled to bring Damnationland back to us with the world premiere taking place Thursday at the State. Said the always ambitious and harried Baldwin, “2021 was too questionable for group gatherings. This year, we dug in our heels whether or not to make the call, and so far, public health has held out, so we gathered together a great group of Maine filmmakers.” As Baldwin put it, “We always bite off more than we can chew, but we tried to keep it pretty reasonable this year.”

“Reasonable” is a relative term, of course, when it comes to low-budget, Maine-based moviemaking. This year’s energetically diverse crop of directors is a traditionally eclectic and inventive group, their only mandate to terrify, challenge and/or gross out Maine moviegoers. For Baldwin, fellow Damnationland mad scientist (and another outstanding filmmaker) Mackenzie Bartlett, and the rest of the D-Land team, that’s a worthy, and surprisingly heartwarming, goal.

“For a dark-themed, horror-based event in October in Maine, Damnationland is a really welcoming, supportive and even cozy thing,” said proud founder Baldwin. “It’s also really fun.”

Providing the disreputable fun this year is an all-star roster of Maine-based talents in Emily Bodley (“What Are Friends For?”), Thomas Campbell (“Night Mare”), Samuel Carlson (“The Old God!”), Amber Chilton (“Pray”), Jake Cote (“Tick!”), Elizabeth Freeman (“Baby Eject Car Seat”), Ricardo Lorenzo (“Mise en Place”), Phoebe Parker (“Shanti Shanti Sayonara”), Hannah Perry (“Spooky Twins”) and Lola RocknRolla (“Attack of the Yoga Zombies”). Incorporated into this year’s bubbling formula of darkly entertaining goodness, Baldwin explains that, between the main short features, there will be Damnationland-themed fake TV ads (you might be able to guess which are which from the titles), and a wraparound story about a group of unsuspecting Mainers telling the terrifying tales while being picked off one at a time by a persistently frightening Maine pest.

In fact, as Baldwin states, the theme of Maine’s least-loved insect denizens crops up in a surprising number of films this year. “Each year’s Damnationland always brings in something from the zeitgeist,” said Baldwin, although he’s at a loss as to why so many of this year’s scares come courtesy of the insect kingdom.

For a festival that’s had to sit on the shelf for a year (thanks to a microscopic, parasitic menace and, oh wait, maybe that’s the connection), Damnationland is hitting the ground running this year. In addition to D-Land honcho Mackenzie Bartlett guesting on an edition of NPR’s Maine Calling this week to discuss the social and political underpinnings of the horror genre, there will be a series of filmmaker interviews (look for them on the Damnationland blu-ray) where this year’s filmmakers take us on a tour through their most formative film influences, set amidst the backdrop of the Portland Public Library’s expansive DVD collection. On that topic, this year’s Damnationland merch takes inspiration from the design of Portland’s late, great video store Videoport, where much of that collection comes from (and where Allen and I worked, all those years ago.)

Even more ambitiously, Baldwin touts Damnationland’s sponsoring of the Maine premiere of feature horror film “Swallowed,” which is showing Wednesday at Portland’s Nickelodeon Cinemas, the night before Damnationland’s premiere. Directed by Maine native and big-time Hollywood filmmaker Carter Smith (2008’s “The Ruins”), the film is, according to an admiring Baldwin, and “edgy and transgressive” thriller about a pair of over-their-heads Maine friends whose foray into drug dealing leads to, as the film’s press kit puts it, a night of “queer body horror with all the naked flesh and shocking violations of a classic midnight movie.” For veteran Maine filmmaker Baldwin, Smith’s low-budget film represents a triumph of “Yankee ingenuity,” with Smith and his father building the movie’s central Canadian border cabin location themselves and the film incorporating many Maine actors and behind-the-scenes professionals. (The film also co-stars “The Ruins’” Jenna Malone and actor Mike Patton, whose troubled experience as a teen horror icon in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” is documented in the excellent nonfiction film “Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street.”)

Oh, and if that’s not enough Maine-made horrors for you, set your DVR to Maine Public Television at 9 p.m. Thursday to catch a broadcast of some of Damnationland’s greatest horror hits as part of MPBN’s highlighting of Maine indie film. (The hand-selected Prime Cuts program includes Derek Kimball’s stunning “Are You the Walkers?,” which is easily one of the scariest shorts I’ve ever seen.)

Talking with Allen about this delayed but suitably deathless film series is to hear how the Maine film community comes together – through pandemics, lower-than-low budgets and more – to support each other and produce some fine work, all around us. Said Baldwin, “For me, it’s about trying to get back to a place celebrating our cultural touch-points in the same way we did pre-pandemic. Damnationland is my Christmas – I love it. “

So do I.

See the dark phoenix-like return of Damnationland at the State Theatre on Thursday at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are $15, which is a steal. Following the premiere, Damnationland is hitting the road for a tour of Maine movie theaters – check out damnationland.com for details.

Dennis Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Auburn with his wife and cat.

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