Photo Credit: Julie Edwards
As this is now the 11th year the festival has run in central London it has gained notoriety for showing a mix of upcoming Hollywood schlock, obscure foreign oddities, those films still waiting for distribution and the occasional horror classic. This is all interspersed with your standard Q and As with directors, actors and producers who usually appear as the proverbial “rabbits in the headlights” in front of hundreds of baying Horror fans.
Running from 26th August through to 30th August, here is a selection of what was on offer:
Hatchet II (USA 2010):
This World Premiere was the opening film, with stars Kane Hodder, Tony Todd and Danielle Harris in attendance along with director Adam Green.
Having never seen the first film, I feel I could come into this with a certain sense of objective opinion. There were certainly many others in the audience who were new to the franchise and Adam Green’s work, but were there to be entertained by something that had been billed by the director himself as much better than the original and funny as fuck.
The film had a certain retro charm to it that many mainstream Hollywood horrors have attempted but often failed. The boogeyman Victor Crowley, as played by Jason Voorhees stalwart Kane Hodder, had an interesting backstory and genesis consisting of botched birthing, mutated outcast and burnt victim. Tony Todd gave his dialogue a certain weight, in both delivery and tone, and Danielle Harris’s lopsided face was not enough to distract from a fine scream queen performance. Fright Night director Tom Holland as Uncle Bob also deserves a special mention as the best of a hit and miss bunch of peripheral characters.
Green certainly does not shy away from showing a bloody good amount of gore and entrails, each kill was as inventive as the last and was met with rapturous approval from the Frightfest crowd but I feel that “Hatchet II” was simply a thank you to the fans rather than a labour of love. To be honest, he seems so well liked here that he could have simply ejaculated over the front row and they would have lapped it up whilst cupping their hands in an outstretched “please sir, can we have some more” Oliver pose. Apparently this is playing in your AMC theatres as an unrated feature. Give it your cash when it finally gets released as its good to see a horror not compromise on the gore for the sake of a rating.
Primal (Australia, 2009):
Six friends on a field trip to an ancient site full of beautiful cave paintings are picked off by a friend infected by an ancient primordial disease. You know the one, it turns you into a flesh eating athlete and can’t be cured with pain killers and a good nights sleep, rather a quick chop with a machete and a shotgun to the face.
This had an interesting premise and was a welcome change of direction and tone after the obvious tongue in cheek humour of “Hatchet II”. It was certainly funnier, with each character in the camp given well drawn out identities and motivations. Leading lady Zoe Tuckwell-Smith especially gives a fantastic performance as claustrophobic Anja, who has to overcome her fears to escape the horror that lies within the caves. If this sounds Descent lite then I’m doing it a disservice as it revels in sexual politics, has fun with the premise and contains a fantastic use of the “C word”.
Eggshells (USA 1969):
Part of the Tobe Hooper retrospective, Eggshells is his little seen counter culture movie from the late 1960s which takes place in a hippie commune which is being manipulated by a presence in the basement. Even though there are obvious aesthetic links to Texas Chainsaw, this film is a psychedelic student film showcasing a filmmaker yet to find his voice. The sound is screeching to the point of ear bursting and I’m not sure what I got out of it apart from a headache and a reinforced feeling that the sixties was somewhat full of idiots most of the time.
Isle of Dogs (UK 2010):
I won’t waste your time or mine. It’s a disgrace that this piece of mockney, cockney shit was playing at all. Detailing a Russian bride’s bid to escape her abusive gangster husband, it stars actors who aren’t good enough for a street corner let alone a big screen. To make it worse it wasn’t even a horror – just a nightmare consisting of piss poor actors screaming “CCCCCAAAAAAAANNNNNNTTTT” at each other like drunk fans of Prussian philiosophy.
F (UK 2010):
An addition to this “hoodie horror” sub genre which seems to be expanding in the UK (hoodies being bad boy youths who wear hoods and carry boy scout pen knives for “shanking”) F was an interesting piece of work which will no doubt fuel the right wing’s assertion that every teenager would rather kick you in the balls than help you with your shopping. Good performances all round from leading actor David Schofield as a physically assaulted, alcoholic English teacher , Ruth Gemmell as the Headteacher and the young Eliza Bennett as Schofield’s good girl turned bad daughter. It highlights the stresses of teaching in modern Britain but is somewhat OTT in its execution and dour ending.
Red Hill (Australia 2010):
A horror/western starring True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten and original Jimmie Blacksmith Tom E. Lewis, Red Hill looked amazing and harked back to early Carpenter such as Assault on Precinct 13 (something which F attempted but never really conveyed). Kwanten as family man Shane Cooper starts his life as sergeant of a back water Australian town on the same day a wrongly convicted aboriginal man (Tom E.Lewis) returns to exact bloody revenge on the locals who set him up. It uses the scope of the Australian outbreak beautifully and Kwanten will be fast tracked to stardom after this tough but sympathetic performance.
Cherry Tree Lane (UK 2010):
If anyone came to the UK after watching this and F you would think that the locals had turned feral and taken to rape and stabbing like it was tea and crumpets. Believe me, you would only be half right. Cherry Tree Lane sees an arguing, middle class couple sitting down to dinner only to be invaded by a gang of kids looking for the son who “grassed” their gangleader’s cousin to the police for drug dealing. As the parents are tied up and subjected to physical and emotional assaults you are left feeling an impending tense sense of doom and claustrophobia as the gang impatiently wait for the unlucky kid to return. This is a tense third feature from Paul Andrew Williams, but just like F leaves a bad taste of hopelessness in the mouth.
The Tortured (USA/Canada 2010):
Yet another addition to the tired “torture porn” genre (which isn’t really porn because that has ladies bits in it and a happy ending) The Tortured stars Jesse Metcalf as a doctor and doting father who has his six year old child abducted and murdered on his watch. As his relationship with his wife (Erika Christensen , the poor man’s Julia Stiles) falls apart, he comes to the conclusion that the moral high ground is for wimps and that torturing, and eventually killing, the murderous paedophile who killed his child will bring them together. Try counselling. It’s cheaper and would be more fun to watch. This is simply a wet dream for right wing, talkback radio DJs and drew laughter from the audience.
13 HRS (UK 2010):
Full of British soap actors and Tom Felton aka Draco Malfoy playing as convincing a drunk stoner as Jessica Tandy soaked in embalming fluids, this werewolf film falls into the usual horror trap of replacing genuine scares with simply matching the quiet/loud quota. The female lead Isabella Calthorpe does what she can with the script but even she falls into the horror clichés after an hour. Also, hairless white werewolves?
I Spit On Your Grave (USA 2010):
I wasn’t too keen on seeing this film, having not seen the original and wanting to have that baggage as I settled in, but I think my untainted mind and eyeballs were all the better for not carrying the weight. Apparently this is having difficulty obtaining an R rating in the US and I can see why. Even the liberal British cut has 20 seconds missing and it was extremely brutal in its depiction of multiple rapes and the resulting vengeance meted out by Jennifer Hills (a fantasticaly brave performance from Sarah Butler). I watched this whilst sitting next to Kane Hodder, and he wasn’t convinced by the “pretty boys” cast as the violating and violated rednecks, but he was convinced by the ability of director Steven R Monroe to kill off the protagonists with elaborate gory set pieces. I have to agree with the big guy. Because he punched me in the arm.
Monsters (UK 2010):
Without doubt the hit of the festival. Monsters director Gareth Edwards, a visual effects man by trade, has created a film that’s closer to evoking Close Encounters Spielberg more than Spielberg is currently capable of. The tale of benevolent extra terrestrials, their continued survival on Earth and the US military’s efforts to eradicate the “infection” is beautifully simple in its execution and visually a work of art. Lead actors Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able have more chemistry than Madame Curie’s kitchen and pull off this road movie with the right amount of romance, wide eyed wonder and respectful fear. A fantastic film already dubbed as this year’s District 9.
The Loved Ones (Australia 2009):
Despite all the ballsy female leading performances seen over the course of the festival the real breakout performance was that of Robin Mcleavy (also, I had a great interview with this girl). She plays Lola, the girl who has never been told “NO!” by her daddy – even when it means he has to drug and kidnap the objects of her affection, the object in this case being Twilight Eclipse’s Xavier Samuel. As a nightmarish prom plays out in Lola’s shack, her “date” is subjected to demeaning tortures and experiences the perverted relationship between daughter and daddy. A fantastic subversion of the generic prom picture, the film is brilliantly bizarre and gorgeous to look at. Lola is a creation I want to see more of, she’s dangerous, cute, psychotic and sexy all rolled into one.
The Dead (UK 2010):
It’s rare to see an African set zombie movie which has actually been filmed in mainland Africa and even rarer to meet genuinely nice filmmakers like The Ford Brothers. It’s a trait I hope they don’t lose as they eventually take the world by storm in the ensuing years. It’s the standard tale of stranded survivors fighting against the elements to escape the zombie terror that surrounds them, but the elements in this case are arid landscapes and the harsh, beating sun. Harking back to old school Romero zombies of the slow shuffle variety, and using the entire scope of the camera to showcase the epic landscape in which they filmed, the brothers have created a beautiful tale of hope against all odds.
Red,White and Blue (USA 2010):
A tough tale from Simon Rumley, director of The Living and The Dead, audience reaction has been polarised with this. For the first hour you wonder how this Larry Clark-esqe tale can be suitable for a horror film festival, but the final 40 minutes make your eyeballs pop out of your skull and quiver in the corner. Unknown Amanda Fuller gives a vulnerable, heartfelt performance and Noah Taylor again displays the chameleon range that makes him one of the most enigmatic and underrated actors of this particularly generation. This is hard hitting stuff detailing the real horror of everyday illness such as Cancer and HIV against the dichotomy the human condition. A tough viewing experience.
As a Frightfest virgin (I only attended The Human Centipede and the awful Descent 2 last year) I was surprised to see such an eclectic mixture of film and to be honest I’ve only just scratched the surface with this rundown as there were 27 films being shown across two screens.
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