By Stephanie Scaife
Since I started attending FrightFest all the way back in 2003, it’s always been a real mixed bag – for all the awful to middling films you sat through, you were always guaranteed at least a few gems. Over the years these have included such titles as Oldboy, Wolf Creek, Pan’s Labyrinth, Let the Right One In, and The House of the Devil to name but a few. However, it’s beginning to feel like the festival has fallen victim to its own success, as the bigger its gotten, the overall quality has lessened. Held at ransom by sponsors and studios we’ve been inflicted with the likes of I Spit on Your Grave 1 & 2 (2010 & 2013 respectively), Inbred, Fright Night (2011), Hammer of the Gods, Sin City 2, Shockwave Darkside etc, all on the main screen with the best films of the festival tucked away in early morning or late night slots, and in the smaller discovery screens, where getting tickets can sometimes be tricky as there aren’t that many to go around. It’s a shame really that the days of seeing Guillermo del Toro and the cast of Hellboy on the stage at the intimate Prince Charles Cinema have given way to straight to VOD/DVD titles (often released days or weeks after the festival) on huge screens in a fairly soulless multiplex. I’m not sure what has changed over the years regarding the London Film Festival, but I understand that if a film is to be shown there then it has to be the first UK screening, and many titles which I would usually associate with FrightFest are now to be found at the LFF instead. Recently the likes of It Follows, The Sacrament, Under the Skin, Sightseers and Snowtown all premiered there, when in years past they would’ve been a sure bet for FrightFest. I don’t know enough about the industry to be 100% on any of this, but it just feels like FrightFest is missing out on the very best in genre cinema.
2015 was off to a depressingly shaky start with Cherry Tree opening the festival. David Keating had impressed with the Irish Hammer Horror film Wake Wood a few years back, so I was actually looking forward to what looked to be a female-centric witch fest, both things you don’t see often enough. I have to say, Cherry Tree just wasn’t very good at all. Faith (Naomi Battrick) is about to turn sixteen, and if that wasn’t bad enough that the school bullies are taking exception to her being picked to be on the hockey team and her best friend has a crush on the guy she likes, whilst her dad has terminal leukaemia. Bummer. However, when her creepy new hockey coach Sissy (Anna Walton) offers to make everything better Faith finds herself in a position that she can’t refuse. I have to say all of this happens rather quickly, leaving no time to really empathise with any of the characters, or understand why Sissy targets Faith, or why Faith is so quick to agree – it all happens in the matter of a day or two. Inexplicably for a film shot in Ireland with an Irish cast they all seem to be talking with incredibly posh English accents, and I’m really not sure why. But that was the least of my concerns when it came to this poorly paced, overwrought non-thriller that both tried to be funny and scary yet did neither, succeeding only at being sporadically silly but mostly boring. What the witches were doing and why was pretty much a mystery to me, and what the cherries or the centipedes had to do with anything is anyone’s guess. One to be avoided.
Thank goodness then for Turbo Kid, a New Zealand/Canadian co-production written and directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell. Originally a short for The ABCs of Death, T for Turbo, that didn’t make the final cut (instead going to Lee Hardcastle’s T for Toilet), but clearly undeterred they instead developed it into a feature. Think Tank Girl meets BMX Bandits with lashings of gore on a level with Braindead and you’ve probably got a pretty solid picture of what Turbo Kid is going for. It’s set in an alternate history where in 1997 the world has become a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by a sadistic one-eyed leader named Zeus (Michael Ironside) and his gang of BMX riding ne’er-do-wells. The Kid (Munro Chambers) is a loner that quietly scavenges the wasteland in search of items to trade for water and comic books, that is until Apple (Laurence Leboeuf) shows up and becomes his first and only friend. When she is captured by Zeus, The Kid sets out on a mission to rescue her armed with little more than dumb luck and a View-Master to protect himself; that is, until he comes across a turbocharged power glove that lets him blast his enemies into smithereens! Turbo Kid is really rather ridiculous, but with a sweetness and sense of humour that enables it to pull it off with ease, even if it does on occasion take the whole 80’s pastiche a step too far. This is the perfect film to watch with a group of friends and some beers – a lot of fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Next was Pod from writer-director Mickey Keating (Ritual), a super low budget slow burner that is essentially a two-hander between brother and sister Lyla (Lauren Ashley Carter) and Ed (Dean Cates). Lyla is off the rails, drinking and partying and generally not really looking after herself or giving a shit, when out of the blue her white collar brother Ed turns up on her doorstep asking her to stage an intervention for their other brother Martin (Brian Morvant), a reclusive and unhinged war vet that is living in their families lake house in Maine. When they arrive it soon becomes apparent that things are far worse than they could have imagined, as they are faced with a gun wielding, incoherent, ranting Martin who claims to have captured a “pod” in the woods. For the majority of the run time you’re never sure if there really is something in the basement or if it’s just the imagination of a madman driven insane by his time serving in the military. Considering that Pod looks like it was made for small change and the acting has a tendency to get slightly hysterical when not burdened by a clunky script, it’s actually pretty good. After I saw the film I looked it up online and I have to say the poster doesn’t do it any favours, making it look like an extra-terrestrial sci-fi, whereas whilst watching the film I didn’t necessarily get the impression that it was definitely something to do with aliens – it’s very oblique when it comes to what is actually going on. It also has perhaps the most intense don’t-go-in-the-basement scene I’ve seen in a very long time!
I think my favourite thing about FrightFest this year is the return to The Prince Charles, which is known as the spiritual home of the festival, as one of the Discovery screens. It’s been eleven, yes eleven, years since the FrightFest proper (excusing a few one off specials) has been located there and boy does it feel good to be back! Although I loved The Empire, you can’t really beat The Prince Charles, maybe it’s because almost all of my favourite FrightFest memories took place there, but I hope this is a tradition that will continue. This brings me to my favourite film of the festival so far, the admirably perverse Argentinian oddity The Rotten Link directed, written, produced, edited and starring Valentín Javier Diment (Memory of the Dead). Clearly a man of many talents. Gosh, where to start with this one… I’d be the first to admit that this won’t be for everyone but it certainly appealed to my sensibilities; think John Waters meets Fabrice Du Welz’s Calvaire. Set in a remote village that is so small there are only about 20 residents, so to say that they are close-knit would almost be an understatement. The film focuses on Roberta (Paula Brasca) who spends her time caring for her dementia-ridden elderly mother and her older brother who has severe learning difficulties, whilst also moonlighting as a prostitute for, well, pretty much everyone in the town. A local superstition comes into play however, turning everyone against each other and forever putting an end to their, frankly creepy, closeness. Incest, bestiality, witches, and excessive gore all come into play in this pitch black comedy, all played with a certain assured frankness that can only really be found in South American cinema.
Friday went from the sublime absurdity of The Rotten Link to the bewildering absurdity of AAAAAAAAH!, the directorial debut of Steve Oram (Sightseers). Now if someone handed the outline of this film to you you’d think they were having a laugh, or maybe just insane. I am still struggling to comprehend how it got made and how the cast were talked into taking part. First off, there is no dialogue in this film, none at all. For 80 minutes the cast communicate with each other in grunts, howls and screams, because even though these are people they sound and act like apes. This involves lots of pissing, pooping, throwing food and sex. What there is of a plot revolves around an alpha male played by Oram and his beta (Tom Meeten) who move into a new town and set their sights on taking control of a larger established group led by Julian Rhind-Tutt. This is the perfect example of a film that would make a great short, but stretched out to feature length it becomes tiresome and dull. Although very amusing for the first 20 minutes the joke wears thin very quickly and I spent the remainder of the running time wishing it would end. I suppose there is a reading that could be made regarding humans as being little more than apes, primal and egocentric, but overall it’s merely an exercise in tedium. If you ever want to see Julian Barrett redecorating with a Battenberg however, then this is the film for you.
I’d heard mixed things about Final Girl, the directorial debut of photographer Tyler Shields, but I actually kind of liked it. There isn’t much set up and the ambiguity may infuriate some. Veronica (Abigail Breslin) is taken in as a child by William (Wes Bentley) and trained up as an assassin to wreak vengeance on the men who killed his wife. As Veronica is put through arduous tests to face her worst fears and to survive in the wilderness, all the while she takes the word of William as gospel and complies with a certain level of teenage indignation. A group of four privileged white males like to take hunting trips, and what they like to hunt are pretty blonde girls. Who these men are or why they do what they do is never explained, but once they set their sights on Veronica their fortunes are undoubtedly about the change. As you would expect from a world renowned photographer this is beautifully shot, and there are some beautifully surreal hallucinogenic scenes. On the whole the film may not be more than the sum of its parts but overall this is a throwaway and fun little film with some great performances and some unsubtle social commentary on the patriarchy.
We Are Still Here is the directorial debut from writer and producer Ted Geoghegan, and it was perhaps one of the strongest offerings at FrightFest this year – a homage to the Lucio Fulci films of the 70’s with certain nods to Americana fables and myths akin to the likes of The House of the Devil. A creepy haunted house set-up with a fantastic cast, We Are Still Here dives straight in at the deep end. Paul and Annie Sacchetti (Andrew Sensenig and Barbara Crampton) move into a remote house following the death of their son Bobby, and when spooky goings on start to occur Annie becomes convinced that Bobby is still with them, so she calls on her friends Jacob (Larry Fessenden) and medium May (Lisa Marie). Throw in some creepy locals and a seemingly bottomless bottle of J&B Whiskey and you’ve got all the trappings of a classic retro horror film. Although it stumbles in the final act, We Are Still Here is an effective little shocker with some decent scares and an awareness of the genre that it more than happily wears on its sleeve.
Bernard Rose’s Frankenstein is a difficult film to love, the original story itself being unparalleled in its sadness and contempt for humanity. No matter which way you look at it, the monster is a tragic being and it is a difficult task to bring something new to this well-worn story. Rose manages just about, relocating the story to modern times, with a 3D printed monster (Xavier Samuel). It works to a certain extent; Carrie-Anne Moss and Danny Huston are the doctors that create the monster, a perfect replication of a human male that they instantly become enamoured with. Only the experiment is flawed, and the more the monster deteriorates the less its “parents” care for it. Fleeing the lab, the monster befriends a dog, a little girl and a blind man (Tony Todd), proving that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that human kindness is merely a façade that we evoke for those that we deem worthy on a surface level. None of this is played out with any sort of subtlety and I really could’ve done without the voiceover, but overall Frankenstein does a good job of modernising an already universal story.
As always I try to see as many female-made films as possible, and Another Me is written, directed and produced by an almost entirely female crew. Based on the novel of the same name by Scottish author Cathy MacPhail and directed by Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me), Another Me starts out pretty strong but unfortunately dwindles into eye rolling levels of hokum towards the end. Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) is Fay, a teenager with more problems than most; her dad is terminally ill and her mum is having an affair, not to mention the fact that she’s recently been cast as Lady Macbeth in the school play and can’t seem to remember her lines. A doppelganger has imposed on Fay’s life, but is it the manifestation of her current problems or something altogether more sinister? Turner gives an excellent performance as Fay and you sympathise with her, regardless of whether or not it’s all a figment of her imagination. The supporting cast of Rhys Ifans, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Claire Forlani are all excellent, but this doesn’t altogether save the film from being an above average supernatural affair that wouldn’t look out of place on ITV.
I was very much looking forward to The Hallow, the feature film debut from Corin Hardy (who will soon be taking the helm of the latest attempt at a reboot of The Crow), as I’d heard good things from its Sundance screening earlier in the year. Seemingly the hot ticket of FrightFest, which sold out in record timing, it seemed very much like the place to be. Tree surgeon Adam (Joseph Mawle) and his wife Claire (Bojana Novakovic) have recently relocated to rural Ireland with their young family so that he can work in the surrounding woodland. Almost immediately the locals take exception to these outsiders and quickly become hostile, breaking windows, making threats and giving them creepy gifts – most notably an old book of folk tales about The Hallow; malevolent faeries and child snatchers. The Hallow starts out very strong, benefiting enormously from an original premise and strong performances, from Mawle in particular. The monsters are great too; using mostly practical effects Hardy has created some of the creepiest beasties that I’ve seen in a long time. However, I found the final act to be a little disappointing; the story went from intriguing and unexpected to a very formulaic ending that all too neatly tidied everything up. Overall The Hallow is an enjoyable and creepy little film and I’m very intrigued as to what Hardy will do with The Crow.
Deathgasm was one of my most anticipated films of the festival, having heard many excellent things about it as it screened at other festivals across the world. A heavy metal comedy splatter film from New Zealand has got to be good, right? Thankfully it really was! Brodie (Milo Cawthorne) is a music loving teen that is sent to live with his ultra conservative uncle in a small town after his mother is arrested for giving a Santa Claus a blow job at the mall. He finds solidarity in local metal head bad boy Zakk (James Bake) and together they decide to form a band called Deathgasm. When Brodie finds some mysterious music that claims to be able to summon demons and grant power he decides that Deathgasm should play it, in the hopes of getting revenge on the school bullies that torment him on a daily basis and perhaps enable him to win over the girl of his dreams, Medina (Kimberley Crossman). Directed by Jason Lei Howden (better known as a VFX artist on the likes of The Hobbit films) Deathgasm is unapologetic in its outlandish carnage; ever wanted to see someone beat a demon to death with some anal beads or shoot them with multi-sided roleplaying dice? If the answer to those questions is yes then this is definitely the movie for you. Add to that an excellent soundtrack and some genuinely hilarious moments and you’ve got a winning combination, the perfect film to watch with a few beers and as big an audience as possible. This went down a storm at FrightFest and I can see it doing the midnight movie circuit for many years to come!
Click here for Part 2 of Steph’s Frightfest 2015 report.