Posted: Sun., Aug. 8, 2004, 6:00am PT

Inside Move: Spudfest nixes Mormon massacre pic Idaho event pulls film due to gruesome reenactment By DEBRA KAMIN

Mormons and potatoes aren't generally associated with conflict. But at the inaugural Spudfest -- a film and music festival centered around the Spud Drive-In in Driggs, Idaho, and co-founded by "Gilligan's Island" star Dawn Wells -- the taters aren't the only thing getting mashed.

Filmmaker Brian Patrick's "Burying the Past," about the 1857 massacre of 120 California-bound settlers by Utah Mormons, was pulled from the lineup just days before the fest's Aug. 3 bow. Fest leaders point to the pic's gruesome reenactment of the massacre as conflicting with the fest's family-oriented theme, but Patrick claims the true culprit was fear of backlash from the area's populous Mormon community. "They're afraid of the protesting," Patrick says. "It seemed to me very straightforward that they were protecting themselves from the locals being offended by the film."

Patrick says Spudfest received numerous phone calls threatening protests and boycotts, but Spudfest exec producer Ted Weiant says organizers got just one call. "Most of the people working with us are Mormon," he says. "They actually liked the movie. They did feel, though, that it would scare young people."

For a fest whose fare includes such kid-friendly pics as "The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear" and "The Easter Egg Escapade," Patrick's pic is clearly not the tater for these tots.