Master of the fine art of fear Million

CULT horror film director Joe Dante, best known for blockbuster films such as Gremlins, Piranha and Innerspace, among dozens of others, forgives Australia for the unofficial sequel to his classic early '80s horror flick The Howling Howling III: The Marsupials.

"That's the one with the kangaroos, right? It's great!" he says, agreeing not to judge our nation's film output by the schlock-splatter film.

"I've actually been watching Australian movies since I was a kid the first was Long John Silver with Robert Newton and Rod Taylor."

Considered a master of the horror genre, Dante is in town this week for the Melbourne International Film Festival, at which a retrospective of his work, Dante's Inferno, is showing. Many of his biggest hits were in the 1980s, when the horror films were a different beast.

"Horror movies aren't the same, but then, nothing's the same," he says. "Audiences who go to horror movies have been watching them since they were kids and they know all the cliches, the tricks and the twists it's hard to shock them. The boundaries have been pushed back as far as blood and gore and sex, but it's still difficult to actually scare people. You can startle them and gross them out, but to actually make them fear? That's the art of the horror film."

His latest film, The Hole (in 3D), harks back to the more family-friendly horror of Gremlins and his 1989 hit, The Burbs.

"In the '80s, families would go to see pictures like Gremlins, so we said, 'Why not make one of those,' " he says of The Hole, which screens at the festival.

"It's still edgy and has a few scares in it, but the kids won't be up all night. The idea is to have a level for the parents and a level for the kids."

Tomorrow Dante appears at the Forum Theatre for a discussion of his work and life and tomorrow night, the centrepiece of the Dante's Inferno program will have its Australian premiere his 1968 film The Movie Orgy.

The 4-hour film no, that's not a misprint is, says Dante, a compilation of all his filmic influences, including snippets of B-movies from the 1950s, advertisements and trailers.

"It's very '60s-centric. It was made by literally splicing together bits of found footage," he says.

"And it used to run seven hours! It's a pop culture compendium, a portrait of America in 1968. And not that flattering."

The festival is also screening 11 of Dante's features and two of his short films.

And Dante's own favourite from his oeuvre?

"The Gremlins sequel is my favourite," he says.

The sequel? Really?

"The first one was unexpectedly successful, so they said if I agreed to make a sequel, I could do whatever I wanted," he explains.

"The sequel is much more of a personal movie to me than Gremlins."

CELEBRITY chefs Shane Delia from Maha and Enda Cunningham from Gordon Ramsay's Maze restaurant (pictured) are two of the big names giving their services free of charge for today's Million Dollar Lunch fund-raising event at Crown Casino.

More than 600 VIPs have paid $1000 a ticket for the renowned networking lunch, hosted by Andrew O'Keefe and Hamish McLaughlin. It is expected to raise more than $1 million in three hours for KOALA (Kids Oncology and Leukaemia Action Group).

Lord mayor Robert Doyle will rub shoulders with the likes of Myer chief executive Bernie Brooks, AFL chief Andrew Demetriou, the Fox family, the Pratt family and a slew of film and TV stars. As well as enjoying a first course created by Delia, a second by Cunningham, mains by Joe Hlusko from Number 8 and dessert from Nobu, guests will be entertained by high-end auctions no meat trays here a number from the cast of Melbourne's new musical Mary Poppins, followed by an international act, whose identity, at the time of going to press, couldn't be revealed. Crown's only hint? Guests, they said, would be "mesmerised" by a live performance of one of the greatest songs of all time, as voted by Rolling Stone magazine, and Triple J Hottest 100 of all Time.