| Author | Message | ||
     Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.61.19 |
John and I had an amazing time at FrightFest even though we had to miss everything yesterday due to John being needed back at work. Still, we saw 15 out of 27 films – plus the short film showcase, so hey, not bad for our first time! Here’s a link to the films if you want synopses: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/2011films/dontbeafraid.html And here’s my report – incomplete and in no particular order: FINAL DESTINATION 5 was our favourite of the weekend. Far and away the best of the franchise. Absolutely stunning disaster (bridge collapse), wildly creative death scenes and probably the best 3D I've ever seen (and I'm not a fan of 3D at all). I'm sure the experience was enhanced by seeing it in a packed auditorium with people who cheered and applauded in all the right bits but I still recommend it as a sign that money and mainstream studios don't *always* fuck things up. Also of note was the fact that our seats were way closer than I’d ever normally sit (2nd row, off to the right), but that actually seemed to enhance the 3D experience. It was almost like an IMAX film. We fully intend to see this one again in the cinema as soon as it’s out! Lucky McKee's THE WOMAN was absolutely stunning. A beautifully brutal film but not for everyone. I'm not even sure how to recommend it. *I* loved it (if one can really love such a film) but a lot of folk said they didn't see the point and didn't know why they had to see it. Maybe they left before the ending??? I had no idea where it was going but I thought the ending was right and powerful. It was a standout for me and I have even more respect for Lucky, who seems incredibly shy and nervous but still has the conviction to make a searing film like this. He’s being called a misogynist and the film is apparently “degrading to women”. I despair of the human race sometimes. FRIGHT NIGHT was just mediocre. David Tennant was fun but that's really it. Weird too that the 3D in this was really insubstantial compared to FD5. Come on, Disney! You have more money than anyone, so there’s really no excuse. This had one really great scene for me and one enjoyable cameo for fans of the original, but that was it. Plus – they made Peter Vincent a Vegas magician with a sexy vampire show (fair enough for a reboot/update) but then didn’t even exploit that! We only got about a minute of the Vegas show’s rehearsal. I still can’t believe they overlooked the chance to show lots of sexy vampire showgirl action. What a missed opportunity! I also felt let down by del Toro's DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, which I had high hopes for. It deteriorated into a mess with silly creatures, stupidly loud "Boo!" moments with no payoff and loads of stupid people doing stupid things. A real shame. TROLL HUNTER was a wildly entertaining low-budget creature feature from Norway. Scary and drily humorous in equal measures. Loved it! SINT (Saint) - Dutch horror from Amsterdamned director Dick Maas. The "true" story of the evil St Nicholas (Sinterklaas) who was a bishop-turned-pirate and who returns whenever there's a full moon on 5 December to slaughter as many people as he can. This one was wildly entertaining and I hope it gets a Christmas release. It features an amazing sequence of an evil zombie St Nick racing across the rooftops of Amsterdam on horseback - fantastic! THE WICKER TREE was an unexpected disappointment. Just not very good at all. And double sad for me as I was really looking forward to that one.  KILL LIST was hyped way too much and as a result, couldn't measure up. Lots of people loved it but we thought it was very muddled and it felt thrown together. After an overlong first hour it does suddenly shift into very scary territory which might make it worth seeing just for that. If any of you do see it, don't read anything about it beforehand and you should probably avoid the trailer too, as I'm guessing it will contain spoilers. Last of all, I loved THE INNKEEPERS although most people were disappointed in it. It does fizzle out at the end but it's nice to see a slow-burn atmospheric ghost story with some genuine scares and a likeable and quirky central character who doesn't do anything daft. I forgave it all its flaws. My top 5: Final Destination 5 The Woman The Innkeepers Panic Button Tucker & Dale vs Evil I'll leave it to JLP to report on the anthology films and comedies, as that's what he lives for.  | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
OK. My favourite films were: Final Destination 5 Panic Button The Theatre Bizarre Chillerama Tucker and Dale vs Evil and here's what I thought: FINAL DESTINATION 5: What she said. Seriously -just terrific entertainment and the only film from the entire festival that I'm recommending everyone at work to go and see. PANIC BUTTON: One of the best things about a festival like this is the unexpectedly good film you would probably never have bothered to watch otherwise. In fact we were almost about to go for lunch when we changed our minds and I was so glad we did. Four people win a competition on social networking site All2gther.com for an all-expenses paid trip to New York. Once they’re on the plane the computer starts to ask them questions that reveals that none of them have exactly pleasant pasts, and that whoever has trapped them on board has an even more unpleasant reason for doing so. The film is basically four people in a tiny confined space being terrorised and I couldn’t believe how suspenseful it was – the only film in the festival where I was on the edge of my seat and which delivered right up to the end. Hugely hugely recommended. THE THEATRE BIZARRE: I liked this more than pretty much everybody and it’s very flawed but it’s also very wonderful. An anthology film with six stories and an utterly bizarre, fantastic wraparound featuring Udo Kier (hooray!) as an MC for these tales by different directors. Richard Stanley’s Mother of Toads is sadly very ordinary despite the presence of Catriona MacColl, some misty locations and a Lovecraftian vibe. Next up is Buddy Giovinazzo’s I Love You which was just superb, although you may need to have been in a psychotic relationship to fully appreciate everything that the utterly loony bloke in this story says to his wife to try to convince her they should stay together. It all ends badly and bloodily and I loved it. Tom Savini’s episode features Lovecraftian genitalia and a very weird ending, The Accident is a beautifully shot tale of a little girl’s first encounter with death, Karim Hussein’s story is just an excuse to show needles going into eyeballs in an urban squalor setting and David Gregory’s Sweets is Ken Russell style mental in all the right ways. Like I said, it’s very flawed but there isn’t enough weird horror cinema out there at the moment and it deserves lots of points for trying. CHILLERAMA, likewise, deserves points for being outrageous and won’t suit everyone. In fact it probably suits hardly anyone. Another anthology film, and one I took some time to warm to, this one has much more of an insane drive-in vibe to it. Far and away my favourite story was the 1950s gay surfer beach party musical ‘I Was A Teenage Werebear’, that I probably enjoyed far more than any heterosexual has any right to. Our hero’s girlfriend is concerned when he shows more interest in bikers and scantily clad men than her and when he gets bitten on the bottom by a James Dean lookalike his repressed tendencies become fully rendered in song. “Love Bit Me on the Ass” and “You Always look the Other Way” were just two of the toe-tapping numbers that had me chuckling away as all the hunky leather-clad good looking boys metamorphosed into big fat hairy biker werewolves. Adam Green’s The Diary of Anne Frankenstein is an extremely silly black and white Nazi movie with Hitler creating a giant rabbi monster and Joe Lynch’s John Waters style faecal extravaganza needs to be seen to be believed. Or perhaps not. Adam Rifkin’s Wadzilla, about a giant sperm terrorising New York, opens the movie but like I said it took me a while to get into it and if you don’t like very very stupid sleazy daftness it’s probably not for you. More in a bit! | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
TUCKER & DALE vs EVIL: Another comedy, this time inverting the cliches of the backwoods slasher movie. Our heros Tucker and Dale are two hillbillys off to spend the weekend at their hut in the woods. Unfortunately a bunch of extremely accident-prone teenagers are also in the woods and pretty soon they start dying off through their own clumsiness and stupidity. Really funny and one of those ideas you wonder why no-one has though of before. Another recommendation. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.61.19 |
Yes, CHILLERAMA was total frat boy silliness but it was a midnight film in a packed auditorium where we were probably the only sober people so hey, what's not to like? It caught us in just the right mood, especially coming straight after the gruelling ordeal of THE WOMAN. What I loved most was the combination homage/parody of the decade each segment was satirising. WADZILLA was 1950s with lurid Technicolor and splendidly spot-on 50s dialogue, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREBEAR was 1960s beach party musical and very very catchy. DIARY OF ANNE FRANKENSTEIN was grainy 1940s pseudo-science and it even had a missing reel! **thumbs-up smiley** And DEATHICATION was 70s sleaze but fortunately (at least for us) didn't overstay its welcome. Abandon taste and maturity, invite some friends over, have lots of booze and you should enjoy it. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Highlights of the short films: DEMONITRON: THE 6TH DIMENSION: Someone please please please get them to make the entire film of this. I suspect I'm the only one who would watch it but I promise I would watch it 10000000 times to help recoup costs. Oh God I loved it so much I actually feel guilty. THE LAST POST: Far too professional for the short film showcase but it was the only film in the entire festival to make me cry. BANANA MOTHERFUCKER: Proof that some people don't know when to stop. Killer bananas from the jungle invade the world and spend an inordinate amount of time killing people in banana-related ways. LITTLE MUNCHKINS: Nuns and cannibalistic little girls in a short that's far more stylish than I'm suggesting here. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Thoughts on other films would include: THE KILL LIST: Far too over hyped at the festival a lot of this really wasn't my thing at all, really going overboard on the crime-type violence and boasting an ending that, while it was very scary, felt tacked on rather than the natural evolution of the storyline. Sadly the whole thing felt thrown together and rather amateurish to me and I was surprised to learn it wasn't the director's first film. A word of warning however: when this film gets viewed by a certain RCMB member I would suggest Leeds is firstly soundproofed as the noise of a certain Mr McMahon having multiple orgasms over it may be distressing to the general public. (Oh God Gary you are going to LOVE it - it is SO your kind of grim miserablist bleak violent father-son-family-orientated thing). | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.61.19 |
"I suspect I'm the only one who would watch it..." Hello??? Who was sitting next to you in seat B13 cheering at the demon cake??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbeW5A97tHM But yes, you're right about "The Last Post" being too professional for the short film showcase. The director, Axelle Carolyn, is Neil Marshall's wife and I remember seeing his name in the credits, although I didn't realise it was THAT Neil Marshall at the time. It was a lovely little film, though, and it made me cry too. Here's a trailer for "Banana Motherfucker". Imagine this going on for 15 minutes and you've kind of seen the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzA8WRAM5s8 And here's "Brutal Relax", which was funny but also went on too long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-6znWUbWWw Some fun effects, though! | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
THE WICKER TREE: Well it was never going to be very good, was it? better than I was expecting with some nice imagery and John Scott music but that was about it. THE INNKEEPERS: One of Lady P's favourites and while it boasts some very scary ghosts this was much too slow for me, with an opening half an hour where very little happens at all. THE WOMAN: Another Lady P favourite and a very harrowing film, although I couldn't really see the point to it. It's certainly not misogynistic (or ?feministic) and is a very grim tale of abuse that's very well made and has the integrity that's so terribly important when making something like this. But I wouldn't watch it again. SAINT: Santa Claus as a rooftop horse-riding child killer from the director of Amsterdamned - what's not to like? Great fun and with lots of good digs at the commercialism of Xmas. Best bits are where a horse falls from a great height onto a police car and the comment about it not being such a bad year because only 300 children got killed. Expect the Disney remake never ever ever ever. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
I guessed it was "that" Neil Marshall. Oh, and of course I know you liked Demonitron - after all we live in the 6th dimension most of the time! TROLL HUNTER: Great start to the Saturday when we watched 6 films. Another highly recommended movie, this one from Scandinavia and about absolutely MASSIVE trolls and the bloke whose job it is to keep the population under control. Some properly scary moments and some good gags mean as long as you're not averse to subtitles it's worth a watch. URBAN EXPLORERS: My vote for worst film of the festival by far. Lack of subtitles during the German dialogue didn't help but this tale of a psycho pursuing fresh young things through the tunnels of Berlin was awful for lots of other reasons, the main being the stupidity of the main characters. Kate thought the lesbian bit was subtly done whereas I thought it was done more to please the kind of people who make Michael Winner films successful. ROGUE RIVER: More psycho torture rubbish - young girl gets trapped in a house by mad Bill Moseley and his even more mad sister, is subjected to all sorts of terrible things etc etc. Very little else to this & I wish I'd gone to see The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry (the Paul Naschy documentary) instead. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK: I'd almost forgotten about this one! The festival opener and a huge disappointment. It starts really well but degenerates into silly monsters and poor scares. Lack of character focus didn't help. Everyone seemed underwhelmed by this one so thank heaven FD5 was there to get everyone into the swing of things. FRIGHTNIGHT 3D: ...was all right. The same bland teenage leads that seem to populate a lot of modern movies these days meant you really missed David Tennant when he wasn't on screen. Colin Farrel was ok but he lacked the presence that Chris Sarandon had, and as Kate has already alluded to I would have loved a collision between the real-life vampires and the Las Vegas vampire show at the end. The 3D wasn't up to much either. I think that's the lot! | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
I've just finished bashing out an account of this for my blog. Rather than go through it all again, I'll copy and paste what I said there (with apologies for typos etc)... -------------------------------------- DAY ONE The festival kicked off with the Guillermo Del Toro-produced, DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK. This remake of a 1973 TV movie concerns a young girl who is sent to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his new wife (Katie Holmes) in their fixer-upper mansion in the countryside. Within hours of arriving, the girl hears voices coming from the old boiler in the basement, and comes under assault from the hairy Gremlins living there. This is glossy, competent stuff, but the creatures are too comedic to scare, and there are some serious lapses in sense. Inoffensive, mostly tame, and best watched when you're 10 years old. From a remake to a sequel within the first two films, neatly summing up some of the problems with modern day film-making. But never mind, because FINAL DESTINATION 5 (in 3D, of course) was an absolute hoot! It brought very little new to the series, but the opening disaster was spectacularly staged, and the individual death-scenes mini-masterpieces of misdirection. It all climaxes with a particularly mean twist. I'm of the opinion that 3D is only worth bothering with for schlock and silliness, so it was perfect here, and executed splendidly throughout. The final film of the first day was the anthology piece THE THEATRE BIZARRE. The first segment of this sees the return of Richard Standley (Hardware, Dust Devil) tackling a Lovecraftian story starring Lucio Fulci regular Catherine McColl (or however you want to spell her name). Unfortunately, the results are fairly pedestrian. The rest of the stories are forgettable, and there are too many of them, and I found myself nodding off towards the end. I did, however, like the framing sequence, with Udo Keir, which had a genuinely nightmarish quality which I thought was missing from the rest of the film. DAY TWO I bypassed the first few films of day two in order to get a bit of a long lie-in. I also missed the guest of honour interview with Larry Fessenden, mainly because I have no idea who he is. Unfortunately, I returned to the cinema in time for URBAN EXPLORERS, the story of a group of the titular explorers who investigate East German bunkers under Berlin only to find themselves set upon by Lee Marvin's tramp brother who proceeds to kill and torture them. Dull in the extreme, and ruined further by the fact that the print we were shown did not include subtitles for the German killer (much to the director's disgust). Not that it would have made much of a difference. This was a miserable slab of a film, and probably the worst one I saw all weekend. German torture porn, eh? Hah - everyone knows that when Germans want to torture someone they just make them listen to David Hassellhoff albums. Anyway, next up was THE GLASS MAN, a British thriller starring Andy Nyman and James Cosmo. Nyman is that old trope - the businessman who has been sacked, but doesn't tell his wife and continues to go to work while his debts mount up. He is visited by loan shark, James Cosmo, who tells Nyman he will wipe out his debts if Nyman comes and does a 'job' for him that night. So far, so intriguing, but this quickly takes a turn into very familiar territory (to say more would be to spoil it). The performances were good, but the story so-so, and as a whole the film needed a good 20 minutes lopped off it. TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL, however, was great fun. The title characters are two rednecks who just want to fix up their cabin in the woods into a vacation home. Their plans are ruined when a group of teenagers turn up and, though a series of misunderstandings, come to believe that Tucker and Dale want to go all Deliverance on them. As the bodycount racks up, the beffuddled rednecks come to believe that the kids are part of some suicide cult, and from their the calamities keep on coming. Great fun, often very funny, and with some nice splatter, this was one of my highlights. The last film that night was VILE. Sounded dire, so I avoided it. From the audience reaction the following day, it sounds like I made a good choice. DAY THREE The third day started at 11am with Norweigan 'found-footage' monster movie TROLL HUNTER. A student documentary crew accidentally stumble across Norways one and only troll game-keeper, whose job it is to take out trolls (using tanning-bed rays, which turn the trolls to stone - or make them explode!) which have wandered away from their natural habitat and which are troubling farmers or the general public. Although sceptical, they accompany him on a hunt and find themselves embroiled in a series of encounters with real life trolls. Dryly humourous, and with some lovely fairy-tale troll designs, this film absolutely delighted the monster-loving kid in me. The matter-of-fact, seen-it-all-before hunter contrasts brilliantly with the knowingly daft troll designs, and the Scandanavian scenery is absolutely beautiful. This was another of my films of the festival, and I can't wait to watch it again. I had been greatly looking forward to THE WICKER TREE, Robin Hardy's follow-up to The Wicker Man, but was unfortunately disappointed. The set-up, involving two born-again Christian evangelists who come to the Scottish borders to bring God to us heathen Scots, is a good one but the execution is tonally all over the place. The humour is too broad, and often mis-placed; the performances variable, and Hardy, alas, fudges the ending spectacularly. On its own, it's an interesting failure, compared to the original, though, it's a disaster. We skipped PANIC BUTTON to fill ourselves with meat at a nearby BBQ place, but I've heard mixed reviews. One to catch on TV at a later date, perhaps. The evening commenced with the FRIGHT NIGHT remake (barely in 3D, and absolutely put to shame by Final Destination). I like the original, but it's been so long since I've seen it, I'm not as attached to it as a lot of people. This remake was, I thought, solid and entertaining and in no way a travesty of the 80s version. David Tennant's Vegas vampire hunter is good value, and Colin Farrell (who I usually don't like) plays his vampire as an inhuman creature barely capable of holding a conversation with the cattle he's surrounded by. Good fun. Fun is not a word that could be used to describe Lucky McKee's THE WOMAN, but then it was never meant to be. I've said elsewhere that with this movie, McKee gives us the most persuasive human monster of the festival - and it's not The Woman of the title! Instead, that distinction goes to the abusive father, whose actions drive this story. On a hunting jaunt, he discovers a feral woman in the woods, who he promptly captures and chains up in the basement. It turns out that this is his standard treatment for women - his wife is beaten and cowed, his teenage daughter pregnant by him, and his son very quickly picking up his dad's bad habits. You can read The Woman as a straight revenge thriller, or as allegory, with the woman in the basement representing the pent-up rage of the women in the family, but either way it's satisfying, tough, violent and angry. Hard to recommend to a broad audience, but an undeniably powerful genre piece. Directors Adam Green and Joe Lynch are Frightfest perennials, and this year they brought their frat-boy anthology CHILLERAMA. I'd already seen Green's segment at last year's 'fest (The Diary of Anne Frankenstein), and thought it was dire, so my expectations weren't high. They were lowered even further when the first sequence involved a giant, killer sperm attacking New York. The best I can say for that is that it a) starred Ray Wise; and b) was better than Cloverfield, but apart from that it was pretty puerile stuff. Not for me, and I left halfway through. It did leave me with the question though: if you have the money and resources to make a movie, why the hell would you make this?! DAY FOUR Your opinion on Xavier Gens' THE DIVIDE will depend on your opinion of the human race as a whole. Mine isn't all that high at the best of times, and after three days of London crowds, it was pretty much at zero, so I loved it. It begins with a nuclear strike on New York, which sends a group of disparate characters scurrying into a shelter that the buildings' superindendent (Michael Biehn - nice to see him again) has built in the basement. Sealed up, angry and scared, the survivors slowly turn on one another, until insanity, violence and the survival instinct kicks in. Needless to say, this is not a film with a high regard for humanity, but in its way I found it as powerful as The Woman. The best description I've seen of it is to consider it an origin story for the band of maniacs you often find roaming the wasteland in post-apocalyptic movies. That's as good a way of describing it as any. Next came the short film showcase, which I can't really comment on as I dozed off through the last couple of films, which were apparently the best. The general consensus seemed to be that it wasn't as good as last year's, though. Then came Andy Nyman's quiz, which I resolutely failed to win! And then we had Ti (House of the Devil) West's THE INNKEEPERS, a likeable, if slight, ghost story about two slackers manning the desk of an old hotel on its last weekend of operation. The leads are fun, the pace... relaxed, and there are some good scares. But overall this felt a bit Disney, a bit Woman in White, to me. It fails to give any sort of back story for the ghosts, and the plot is as insubstantial as its phantoms. I can't say I disliked it, but it left me with a sensation that there should have been a bit more to it. A missed opportunity, I think. When I was about eight or nine years old, I watched Dick Maas's The Lift, which ruined me for a few months afterwards. He was back this year with SINT (or Saint), a festive shocker concerning the European historic version of Santa Claus, who comes to life with his army of 'Black Peters' to snatch away naughty children (often by yanking them up the chimney and throwing them into a sack). This film starts off like Halloween, then turns into The Fog, before finding its own - bonkers - identity. Hardly a classic, but good, deranged fun. I seem to have missed all of the hype for KILL LIST, and went into it totally dry. I recommend you do too. Without giving too much away, the best way to describe it is a cross between Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes and a certain, little-seen chase movie from the 70s starring Peter Fonda and Warren Oates. I personally thought the acting was uniformly excellent, the violence graphic and uncomfortable, and the resolution nightmarish. Highly, highly recommended, and one which I think will reward repeat viewings. I definitely intend to watch it again as soon as possible. The evening ended with slacker/pop-culture/slasher hybrid DETENTION, which I don't feel qualified to judge simply because I think I'm too old. My other half, thought, who knows her pop-culture better than me, adored it. The only thing I can really say is that I liked it more than other, similar films like Scott Pilgrim or Kaboom! DAY FIVE Ah, the final day, by which point I had a pain behind my eyes and was seeing everything in widescreen. Decided to miss the first few films as I was knackered, but rolled up in time to catch SENNENTUNTSCHI: CURSE OF THE ALPS, apparently Switzerland's first ever genre film. This is based on a Swiss folk-tale of three hunters, alone in their cabin, who create a woman out of a broom, hay and bits of cloth, who comes to life, 'services' them, and then kills them in the morning and makes them into stuffed dolls. The actual plot of the film is a bit more convoluted, and plays some tricksy games with its timeline, but it's a solid piece of work, and well worth a watch. The countryside was beautiful as well. The 18 year old director of MY SUCKY TEEN ROMANCE, Emily Hagins, was the subject of a documentary called (I think) Zombiegirl, which catalogued the efforts of her then 12 year old self to make a zombie film. She's come a long way with this sweet riposte to the Twilight-generation, although there are some variable performances from her leads and some flat direction. Worth supporting, though. The last film of the fest was, sadly, not a horror film. Instead, he had Highlands-set thriller A LONELY PLACE TO DIE. Like Sennentuntschi, this had wonderful scenery, but the plot has some serious logic flaws, and the leads aren't well-drawn enough to make you care what happens to them. A bit crap, really. And not horror. And so ended another year. In summary, I'd say it was a far better line-up than last year, with my standouts being, in rough order: 1. KILL LIST 2. TROLL HUNTER 3. THE DIVIDE 4. TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL 5. THE WOMAN With the stinkers being: 1. THE THEATRE BIZARRE 2. CHILLERAMA 3. URBAN EXPLORERS The rest, I'd happily recommend, but only if they sound like your kind of thing. One of the most interesting things about this festival is how far opinions differ from film to film. There are some people in the crowd who decry anything with a supernatural element, and some who are only there for the gory films. Me, I'm for horror in all its forms, and this was a good a celebration and summary of the current state of the genre in cinema as you're likely to find anywhere in the world. ---------------------- John/Kate - lovely to see you both there! Catch you in Brighton next month! | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Hey John it was great to see you & Esther too - fingers crossed we can all make it next year! | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Thanks for the reports, guys - sounds like you all had a great time! I've noticed that The Woman is screening in Manchester shortly - might be at Cornerhouse, or might be as part of Grimm Up North. I'm afraid I can't remember where I saw it mentioned but it's one of those two. I've been hoping to catch The Wicker Tree at one of my local art house cinemas. I've read the book on which it's based (Robin Hardy's "Cowboys For Christ"), which I enjoyed as the "reimagining" of The Wicker Man it's supposed to be. I was looking forward to seeing how the film holds up - sounds like it might not be too good though. Still want to see it when I can. Once again, thanks for taking the time to tell us all about these films.  | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.61.19 |
Caroline, if we've lowered your expectations enough, you might really enjoy THE WICKER TREE. There is a lot to like about it. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Don't worry Kate. I didn't have very high expectations of The Wicker Tree to start with (having read the book). It's just that I've kind of followed this from the start. I think it was in 2005 when the book was first published and Hardy was at the Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford to promote it and talk about the planned film. The film's had so many stops and starts since then I just feel I've got to watch it as I already have a strange affection for it! | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.145.128.189 |
Just seen FD5 myself tonight. Brilliant 3d - in the opening credits I was starting to feel uncomfortable with all the different things my eyes were telling my brain were about to hit me. I kind of guessed the ending but that didn't stop me loving it. I won't say any more - spoilers - as the Doc would say to River. The bridge collapse was absolutely fantastic. Superbly done carnage. The deaths were lovingly executed, gory imaginative and plain old fun (if that's the right word). I know I'm not even considering laser eye surgery any more... Am I the only person who takes care to drive more carefully home from the cinema after watching a Final Destination film? | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.17.214 |
I too thought the bridge scene was phenomenal - for me the most frightening scene of the whole series. Me, I drove home with my eyes shut... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
I'll have to see this - I loved the first three films, but thought the last one was rubbish. This sounds like an improvement, a return to form. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
I'm almost ashamed to admit it but I got freaked out by an automatic door hissing open as I walked past on my way home from FD5... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I'm glad to hear all this, because I love the series, and hope they never stop making them, even if they're not so good. The concept taps into a kind of existential horror that can really only be done effectively by film (a book would just be tedious). The maliciousness of inert objects is an ancient fear, I think, as is the fear of the Powers That Be, that can "get us" through even the most innocuous of actions and circumstances.... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.196.50.241 |
Troll Hunter is great. Fright Night I did like mostly, except for the ending parts, and for a bit I didn't realize it was David Tennant underneath the pseudo goth garb! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Well, tonight I finally watched KILL LIST...and it was excellent. JLP was correct - the film was exactly my kind of thing. I've read a lot about people seeming to think the ending comes out of left field and makes no sense. I didn't think that; it makes perfect sense in terms of what comes before. It's all there in the imagery. This is a film that makes you think about what you are seeing, what you've already seen, and what you think you've seen. There's no exposition, so you have to watch it carefully and piece together what's happening. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.19.172 |
Finally caught up with The Woman and was taken unawares by it in many ways, not least by its disconcertingly satirical approach. An impressively relentless and unpredictable piece of work, I thought. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.19.172 |
Oh, and did everyone stay for the coda after the final credits? In some ways the most disconcerting scene of all! |