The UK’s Frightfest ran an 18 hour horrorthon over the Halloween weekend, which gave the audience the chance to see a few world premieres and UK premieres that I thought you guys might like to hear about.
GNAW: A bunch of friends slowly being picked off one by one in a remote farmhouse by a Butcher. With no twist to the set-up or original thought, the whole thing felt like such a derivative exercise (plot point that the victims were then being turned into meat products was intended to be the unique selling point according to the producer’s notes, but it’s been done too many times before to be classed as ‘unique’, let alone shocking). Poor performances and leaden script also didn’t help. We kept being told it had a ‘dark humour’ and ‘wit’ to it, but I could see it myself. Was a bit miffed actually that the first film in a horror showcase should be quite so pedestrian. Awkward Q&A;session at the end with director, producer and lead actor fell on it’s arse when no-one had anything to ask.
HUSH: Second film picked up the pace, and delivered a dark, fun and rewarding British road-movie horror. A driver thinks he sees a woman caged in the back of a lorry on the motorway. When his girlfriend goes missing at a service station, our hero is forced to take action to get her back. Director Mark Tonderai keeps it simple and gripping. Early scenes between the hero and his girlfriend at times felt a little weak, but the rest of the film focussed everything on keeping the suspense up and the action moving (in the far more revealing Q&A;session afterwards, Mark revelaed that there was I think only 13 pages of dialogue in the whole script). A simple idea done very well - hints of ‘The Vanishing’ and ‘Duel’. The set-up reminded me a lot of ‘Octane’ as well, but without the shitness. Worth keeping an eye out for.
CLIVE BARKER’S BOOK OF BLOOD: Disappointing adaptation of two of Clive Barker’s short stories. A paranormal author and a mysterious young man who might or might not be able to see the future, investigate a house with a dark past. Plodding, fairly uneventful take on the genre. The director said in his notes that he knew that nothing really happened in the books and that he’d need to keep the atmosphere up - unfortunately he doesn’t, and the film just rolls along to nowhere. There are a couple of effective scenes, but we’re nowhere near ‘Candyman’ territory here. Bit of a shame.
THE CHILDREN: Fourth film of the night was the now traditional ‘surprise film’, and we were only told what it was minutes before it rolled. The world premiere of ‘The Children’, this is Tom Shankland’s first film after ‘WAZ’. Two couples and their kids meet up in a house in the middle of snowy nowhere. All goes well, until the children turn on the adults. Film went down really well with the audience - bold, disturbing and with just the right amount of humour to offset some of the very dark material. The kids do a great job at being scary as shit. I think making this film was a bold move on Tom’s part - he had the right audience at Frightfest, but I’m wondering how a more universal audience will accept a film where children are the victims of some grissly death scenes. Film really reminded me of Spanish film ‘Who Could Kill A Child?’
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: Another staple of the Frighfest events - the retro revisit. A new print of John Carpenter’s classic. Don’t need to tell you what this is, other than to say the print looks and sounds great, and that I never really loved it as much as others do, despite being a Carpenter fan. I think it’ll grow on me, but this screening was not the time to do it, given as this was the fifth film in an eight film marathon and I slipped in and out of a drowsy, barely-conscious state.
MY NAME IS BRUCE: A good-humoured take on the legend of Bruce Campbell, mixed in with a bit of monster-slaying. Film slips by on the back of Bruce’s winning charm, but story and monster felt weak. Not a film worth getting excited about, but it passes the time amusingly enough.
SPLINTER: Wasn’t sure if I was going to stay for the last two film after this, but I’m glad I did. A camping trip goes wrong for one couple as they find themselves kidnapped by two fugitives and then preyed on by a spiky virus thing. Nice concept, well executed. Characters had a nice dynamic, and the monster was a nicely handled threat. Well-paced, and with a good mix of humour and horror when it needed it.
PIGHUNT: With the final film of the night, it felt we were getting three or four films instead of just one. Story is either a) group of friends go hunting and take on a massive 3,000 pound wild boar. Death ensues. Or b) a group fo friends go hunting, piss off some locals and kick-start a us vs. them ‘Deliverance’-style fight. Death ensues. Or c) a group of friends stumble on a twisted hippie commune. Death ensues. In fact, it was d) all of the above - a mish-mash of a pursuit-horror film that succeeds on pure energy rather than any focus or sense of purpose. I was hoping for a new ‘Razorback’, but purists looking for this will be very disappointed. Maybe it was the amount of eyeball-impaling I’d seen that night, but I was still entertained by the uneven ‘Pighunt’, certainly Jim Isaac’s best work to date. Felt very long though. Could have done with a trim.
That was it really, and I left the cinema at 8 in the morning. A real mix of films, stand outs being Hush, The Children and Splinter. Bit disappointed by the overall slate, but there was still fun/ a test of endurance.
Did anyone else go at the Frightfest? What did you guys think?