Interested in promoting or otherwise supporting filmmakers who are aged 24 or under? You really should be: it’s a jungle out there, and we need that emerging talent coming through. With that in mind – it’s been one of their core aims since their inception – The National Film Festival for Talented Youth is about to celebrate its fifteenth birthday, and as part of these celebrations, there’s an in-person and virtual film festival coming up: if you are able to get to SIFF Cinema Uptown in Seattle, check out the live event on Saturday, April 30th (8:45pm Pacific Time). Happily, the festival will also be running a virtual component, with no geo-fencing, so it can be viewed anywhere in the world: this will be available from the point of the live event and through to May 8th.
Screening as part of the festival, the Thrills and Chills package is probably of the most obvious, immediate interest to Warped Perspective readers: largely horror-based, with a few dashes of surrealism and dark humour, the films on offer really are of a high calibre; if we were going to group them together in ways other than genre, then certainly many of them display a fascination with the domestic sphere and how happy homes don’t necessarily stay that way, however inviting and modern they might seem. Sure, this isn’t exactly a new thing when it comes to horror, but you can’t help thinking that a couple of years of being locked down in that very sphere has prompted a few new kinds of recurring domestic nightmares along the way…
With that in mind, the first film in the collection – Peaches and Scream – brings us two different viewpoints from its two lead characters. Young couple Thomas and Anna are heading back to her place for the first time, a home which she has inherited; it’s a stunning period building, replete with some unusual wall art which Anna assures Tom is down to her dad’s very particular tastes. This would be one thing, but it seems as though dad – and the rest of her family – are kind of works of art themselves. Alarm bells begin to trill, but it’s all quite low level at first; still, from the beginning, Thomas is a very sympathetic character for the audience, a kind of everyman in this increasingly weird situation whilst Anna seems to struggle to square up her home life with the expectations of others. The film has plausible, very natural dialogue and there’s a natural energy between the two leads which carries across a lot of the more bizarre goings-on, as well as keeping the film’s humorous touches alive and well throughout. (NB: this film will only be available in person, not virtually.)
Proto is another domestic horror with more than a few comedy notes, this time taking for its basis a very contemporary anxiety – namely the power we, as a society, have handed over to virtual home devices such as Alexa. The version of this used here is the ‘Proto’ of the title, and Proto is responsible for taking care of the apartment shared by Val (Lane Emerson) and Tom (Cal J. T. Moreno, also the director). Proto seems unusually keen on ordering things for the apartment – something which Tom refers to as “kinda creepy” – but it gets more intense, and harmful in fact (plus you will not see the likes of one of the sequences here again). Much of the film comes to us via Proto’s own point of view by giving us what Proto would ‘see’, making the device a kind of character in its own right; despite it being just a device, it also clearly has a malign presence from very early on, and the film does a good job of exploiting the certain kind of paranoia about being listened to, with a neat horror flourish at the end. The film is nicely paced across its ten minutes, too.
Talisman is also set in a new home, recently moved into by a Canadian-Chinese family (this is a bilingual production). From the start, there’s a strange dynamic at work here: it’s a beautiful house, but mother (Qingqing Yan) seems unusually superstitious, determinedly cleansing the house of ‘bad energy’ and looking pointedly for signs of good or bad luck; this is a concern to father (Danny Liang) and son Yi (Sean Lu), with dad alarmed that their son is becoming increasingly indoctrinated into these folkish beliefs. But Yi does begin to encounter odd phenomena, things which really frighten him; it seems that the family may have brought some bad luck, but why and how? Shooting Talisman so frequently from Yi’s perspective is very effective, as it questions his potential suggestibility, as well as his vulnerability – and he does seem to be singled out by the frightening goings-on in his new house. Did we need screen time and dialogue allotted to him getting frightened and fleeing the toilet? That sequence jars a little, but on the whole, this is an interesting film which makes great use of its setting, landing a few real-life points as well as making good use of more supernatural scenes.
Another Taste is rather different, this time a music video starring performer Kathulu Lemon: in terms of thematics, it’s all about an appearance of staid normality which gives way to sequences of blood and gore, starring Lemon herself. The video is sumptuous to look at and very effectively put together, with vivid colour, gorgeous framing and innovative, artistic shots throughout. It’s somewhere between Excision (2012) and Raw (2016) in terms of aesthetics. What’s not to like about that?
Smahorror, a Japanese film directed by Masaki Nishiyama, brings us an intriguing take on social media and its horror potential. Mobile phones and the terrors they facilitate are nothing new perhaps, and it’s worth saying that Japanese cinema has always led the way in terms of bringing contemporary technology into the fold (remember the use of CCTV in The Grudge?) but in any case, Smahorror does what it does very effectively. It starts with an Instagram story, introducing us to a group of girls investigating a rumour of a live-streamed suicide at their school. Fake, or real? The girls get drawn in, as events take an increasingly savage, alienating turn. The film blends its phone footage with more conventional footage throughout, doing so in interesting ways. As a result, it looks good whilst also managing a few very effective scares despite seeming familiar in several respects. It’s simple, clean and compelling, with a few neat tricks up its sleeve.
Spare Body is probably my pick of the collection here, as well as the darkest, genuinely scariest film too – it tantalises at some kind of dystopian nightmare society rumbling away in the background, but chooses not to explain all the mysteries incumbent on that, instead again invading a domestic setting with something perplexing, ghastly and very, very unpleasant. The opening scene shows us a package with a couple of logos printed on the outside: ‘Second Lives Now Possible’. it says, alongside a warning: ‘Do Not Open Until Necessary’. Cut to a teenager ignoring a similar notice displayed on the outside of a closet in his home, opening it to retrieve some cash hidden there. However, he notices a large object inside, and can’t resist a look. He’s horrified by what he sees, but – morbid fascination quickly draws him back: yes, it is a bad decision. This economical and disturbing spin on the idea that ‘curiosity killed the cat’ plays out extraordinarily well, with more than one incredibly equilibrium-disturbing scene. A simple idea, absolutely, but it all goes to show that with skilled handling it’s more than possible to weave something terrifying out of these simple elements. Bravo to writer, director and star Ethan Hunt: he’s one to watch for sure.
Finally, animated short Wendigo – taking North American folklore for a basis, but actually an Irish project – demonstrates plenty of ambition and vision, becoming hypnotic and surreal as its plot unfolds. It’s the story of a young traveller, Charlie (voiced by Marc-Ivan O’Gorman) who wishes to investigate the story of an ill-fated house, known locally as the Olsen manor. Aided by inn owner Fred (voiced by Dave Hendrickson), Charlie is able to get the history of the house, but a visit to the site itself seems to trigger something strange; soon, he feels like he is being pulled into the Olsen legend, as well as pursued by a strange, skeletal entity. Whilst the dialogue here starts out rather stilted – although it’s in keeping with the odd, quirky vibe of the film – things really take off as Charlie gets closer and closer to the mysterious phenomena which he has, ultimately, come to explore. It’s a film which boasts some very appealing visual sequences and let’s not overlook its soundtrack, which is very effective too.