Frightfest the 13th: The Bleedin' Good and the Bloody Awful

 

The good, the bad and the ugly from this year’s Frightfest…

 

5 MUST SEE’S

• Sleep Tight ****

Ever wondered what is lurking beneath your bed at night? Director of REC Jaume Balaguero delivers this dark and sinister psychological thriller about an apartment janitor Cesar who sneaks into resident Clara’s apartment at night and hides under her bed, waiting until she is asleep to carry out his disturbing fantasies. In addition to constructing a captivating plot about a man’s obsession, Balaguero creates a controlled suspense as well as a lasting intensity that seeps a creepy uneasiness.
 

• V/H/S ***

Six tapes, six stories, six directors. An anthology of short found footage clips that will make you give late night skyping a second thought. Framed by a story of a group of hoodlums who are paid to break into a house to obtain a certain rare vhs tape, the rest of the stories are the ones that they regretfully come across during their search. Boasting variety in plots, lengths and twists, V/H/S uses several shooting methods, covering every piece of technology that has a record button!

 

• Sinister ****

Ethan Hawke stars as true-crime writer Elis who is desperate to recoup his former success and make his next book a hit. But when he moves his family to a house that was once a crime scene in a series of family murders spanning five decades in a final hope for inspiration, he finds a box in the attic full of reels that contain footage of these deaths. Convinced that he is seeing mysterious figures lurking around his house that resemble those in the footage, he soon realises that he is way beyond his professional limits and that danger is creeping closer and closer to his family. A nail-biting supernatural thriller by director of THE EXORCIST OF EMILY ROSE Scott Derrickson that holds its restraint and suspense while offering plenty of scares that will keep you jumping out of your seat.

 

• Chained ***

Jennifer Chambers Lynch directs this dark chiller, delivering what she herself describes as a psychological look into “how monsters are born.” Cab-driver Bob spends his days kidnapping girls off the city streets, taking them to his secluded house in the country and raping and killing them before burying their corpses in his garage. When he carries out this ritual on Tim’s mother, young Tim is left in the hands of the serial killer. Time passes and, after years of being locked up and kept as a slave, Tim must decide whether he is to stay chained up in his captures house forever or choose the life of a killer for his freedom. Whilst CHAINED is both an adequately moving and troubling account of a deranged man teaching a young boy his murdering methods, the plot tries to do too much towards its conclusion and a climatic twist opens doors that are never sufficiently closed.

• Tulpa ***

SHADOW director Federico Zampaglione attempts to revive the Italian giallo horror genre in this classic whodunit murder mystery. Businesswoman Lisa spends her days at the top of the corporate game, but at night her little dark secret is exercised when she regularly visits an underground Club Tulpa where a Tibetan Buddhist guru teaches that personal freedom can be found through promiscuous free sex. But when her lovers in Tulpa are being murdered one by one, her secret world runs risk of being uncovered and her life is endangered. A colourful masterpiece that closely resembles the classic artwork and imagery of giallo directors Bava, Argento and Fulci but which ultimately suffers in its unnecessary and distracting use of bad dialogue and dubbing.

 

 5 AVOID THESE

 

• The Thompsons **

Our anguished vampire family return with a new name in this sequel to the 2006 feature THE HAMILTONS. Desperate for some place to go after being forced to leave their home town, the Thompson family are faced with an offer they can’t refuse: ancient vampire clan the Stuart’s offer them shelter, solace and a place to belong their cosy English town. But when they arrive it is clear that their intentions are not so welcoming. The story is comprehendible and the story runs smoothly enough, but the charming elements of its predecessor are absent: the mystery of whether it’s entirely a vampire movie is lost, and the poetic resonance that ‘they have a disease and are not monsters’ is imperceptible. With its content poorly sourcing the first film of the franchise, the quality of the plot stands alone and thus runs the risk of it simply being another teen-vamp movie.

• Under the Bed *

A child’s worst nightmare is played out onscreen when Jonny and younger brother Gattlin are tormented at night by a terrorizing monster hidden under their bed. With an engaging insight to Jonny’s mental and emotional past instantly raising questions about the truth of his claims -  similar to the opening scenario in supernatural thriller THE HAUNTING IN CONNETICUT - we are offered a promising start. But when the brothers decide to team up in a bizarre battle with the bed monsters with nothing more than a home-made doctor-who-like torch, the haunting horror cripples into nothing more than a kid’s fantasy film accompanied by cheesy acting and pointless random chunks of narrative. As the brother’s night terror unfolds and the monsters enter next-door neighbour’s territory, it appears that the threat is no longer restricted to under the bed - perhaps it should have been.
 

• After **

Two strangers survive a road accident and wake up to find that they are alone in their small hometown which is now an unfamiliar and unworldly existence. Being slowly engulfed by a foreboding black mist that conceals ravenous creatures, the two form an unlikely alliance to work out the truth about their lonely isolation. The sci-fi thriller goes through the motions of a struggle to understand the strange happenings in a race against time but the outcome is realised by the viewer long before the characters figure it out. AFTER is visually impressive in its bold exploration of dreamlike and imaginative atmospheres and, following a similar pattern than that seen in Gareth Evans’ MONSTERS, the blossoming relationship of the pair is a welcome diversion from the hardships of the situation. But again this falls short to being unconvincing and predictable- a severely dull watch after the visual splendour of the dark fantastical ‘world’ is appreciated.

 

• Outpost II: The Black Sun **

During the close of WW2, German scientist Klausener worked on a terrifying new technology with the power to create his own immortal Nazi army. Now a NATO force is being deployed to go to Eastern Europe and stop whatever is relentlessly killing everyone in its path. Ruthless war investigator Lena teams up with adventurer Wallace to track down infamous war criminal Klausener. But when the duo are confronted by a swarm of Nazi Storm Troopers, they find themselves in dead mans land and are forced to team up with the Special Unit forces in an attempt to stop the supernatural machinery behind their monstrous regime. While containing some brief references, the sequel lacks considerable relevance to OUTPOST, replacing originality and horror rudiments with 100 minutes of explosively brutal action set pieces. The narrative and script is lifeless but coherently sustained - at least until its conclusion takes several bizarre turns, one of which in the purposeless, cackling wicked-witch type nurse who chases the good guys around the tunnels with a hypodermic needle! The characters are not in the slightest bit interesting (if anything too serious for a zombie flick), nor has anything been noticeably advanced with the race-running, knife-stabbing zombies- they’re still the blood-thirsty, human digesting brutal blighters we saw in the first! After the mediocre success of its predecessor, one wondered where else the franchise could go. But with this sequel set for a straight to DVD release and with a prequel in production, prepare for yet more Nazi Zombie regimes!
 

• Hidden in the Woods **

Chilean director Patricio Valladares treats us to a large slice of exploitation of the rawest kind! Brought up in forest isolation, tormented sisters Ana and Anny seize the opportunity to escape their sexually abusive father when the social services call. Taking their incest son/brother with them, the trio journey through in the woods to flee their former lives. But big time drug boss Costello and his hot-headed henchmen are determined to stop them in their tracks to find out where their now imprisoned father is storing a multi-million dollar drug stash. Rape, revenge, prostitution and cannibalism drive the shock factor in this Chilean frenzy. But unfortunately this can only make up for the unrealistic and seemingly motiveless madmen mafia pursuit, which too heavily features exaggerated machismo gun shoot-outs that boast plenty of violent carnage, but cop out of showing any respectful special effects.

 

More Gore to look out for:

• Paura 3D          
• The Seasoning House
• [Rec] 3: Genesis 
• Maniac
• Tower Block
• Sawney: Flesh of Man
• Before Dawn
• Berberian Sound Studio
• We are the Night
•  Inbred
• The Arrival of Wang
• Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut

 

To see more about the event, this year’s films and what FRIGHTFEST has in store for future dates and festivals, visit http://www.frightfest.co.uk/

 

 

FRIGHTFEST THE 13TH REVIEW

FILM 4 FRIGHTFEST THE 13^TH : THE HOME OF HORROR

Unlucky for some…

 

FRIGHTFEST, sponsored by FILM4, is a 5-day Horror and Fantasy Film Festival based in London that screens a multitude of UK, European and Worldwide premieres of the most highly-anticipated horror films of the year. Holding its first major event in 2000, Frightfest has since developed into a successful, not-to-be-missed annual event for fans of the genre. The festival is increasingly becoming recognised as not only the most highly regarded of its kind in the UK, but also in the world, alongside the likes of America’s largest and longest running horror film festival SCREAMFEST and fan-favourite TORONTO AFTER DARK FILM FESTIVAL.

Labelled by director Guillermo del Toro (PANS LABRYTNH, CRONOS, THE DEVILS BACKBONE) as “The Woodstock of Gore,” this UK horror event attracts the very best directors, producers, casts (and fans!) of the genre from all over the world, unveiling a unique mixture of talent from all enthusiasts across the industry.

In it’s thirteenth consecutive year, FRIGHTFEST THE 13^TH did not disappoint. As my third consecutive year at FRIGHTFEST I was pleased to be back amongst the real buffs of the genre and immersed in gore galore! Although FRIGHTFEST now holds three established events (a smaller version of the summer festival with a similar set-up and held in February as part of Glasgow’s International Film Festival, and also an all-nighter held over the Halloween period) it is this occasion that really comes alive with buzz and excitement and the prosperity and diversity that the genre can offer.

When I arrived at Leicester Square’s Empire Cinema early Thursday afternoon, I followed the ritual of picking up my weekend pass and the festival programme and started rooting through line-up’s and the short descriptions of each chosen film. I took out my pen and started to *star* what I thought looked to be the promising films of the five days, whilst too looking decidingly at the DISCOVERY SCREEN line-up. Despite it always containing a few appealing films, every year I can never seem to tear myself away from the MAIN SCREEN for the sake of my ever present “fomo”- fear.of.missing.out! (Though it’s always these films that you pretend are not there and later end up buying on DVD and being pleasantly surprised). With the festival appearing to grow in size each year, another of Empire’s screens (labelled the RE-DISCOVERY SCREEN) was being used to show the highlights of their Glasgow Festival – as well as this stretching the festival to host a grand 50 films, I think it’s a nice touch to give people who perhaps cannot justify the travel for a two-day event or who cannot get away from work twice a year the opportunity to watch the films shown at Glasgow in the months beforehand.

The World Premiere of Paul Hyett’s THE SEASONING HOUSE opened the weekend on Thursday evening. Known in the industry for his work on various British horror movies as a special effects make-up artist (THE DESCENT, EDEN LAKE, THE WOMAN IN BLACK), Hyett’s directorial debut kick-started the festival with a gritty, Eastern European movie about a girl who is kidnapped by the army during the Balkan war in the mid 90’s and used as a slave in a seasoning house. Mirroring the likes of MARTYRS and HOSTEL, Hyett generates a feeling of relentless claustrophobia as malicious physical and sexual torture is tightly bound within the walls of the house.

The festival followed its standard routine of screening five/six premieres per day back-to-back as you reluctantly count down from twenty-four to that final one film – an experience that must closely resemble one’s feelings when they unwrap their last rolo!

The mad Manetti brothers returned this summer with PAURA 3D following the encouraging reception of their first horror/sci-fi film L’ARRIVO DI WANG shown earlier this year at Frightfest Glasgow. A very different film to their first, PAURA- meaning ‘fear’ in Italian- intended to create exactly that, throwing the sci-fi elements aside. With an intriguing situation and a nightmare waiting to happen for three young boys perfectly set-up, the film falls a bit short in its final hour and the impression of a layered plot and a likely enticing twist in the story, gives way to an uninteresting easy way out.

NIGHTBREED: THE CABAL CUT was also a pleasant inclusion in the programme. Following many questions and queries over a substantial amount of lost footage that was shot but not included in its heavily reduced studio release in 1990, Russell Cherrington and Mark Miller have been on a quest to restore the original footage that was shot to follow Clive Barker’s original (3 hour) script. Having not seen the 1990 studio release before I wondered how the film had ever become successful without the additional footage. What appeared to be the most important and somewhat vital explanatory elements within the now 2 hour 37 minute film had only just been found and included (easily identifiable by the differing quality of the three ‘parts’.) Although the determined pair still have a long way to go with the project in terms of digitally remastering the newfound reels and VHS clips, they believe it will eventually reach Blu-ray - A masterful achievement for the pair and a true gift for all original lovers of the Nightbreed.

Back in February we saw a sneaky preview clip of Federico Zampaglione’s attempt at his own Italian giallo horror film, TULPA. With a good audience reaction and an as-ever excited Federico bouncing around the stage, I knew that the premiere of this film was in store for us this weekend. With obvious and self-stated influences from the likes of Bava and Argento, TULPA was a true love letter to 70/80’s giallo style. But perhaps too true – although the film looked cinematically attractive and the music score was spot on (composed by his brother and Andrea Moscianese and not, in Federico’s words, “a typical score you’d expect from a giallo… [but] something modern”), the characters voices were badly dubbed and the script was poor. Whether or not it simply didn’t translate very well to English I guess we will never know (unless they release a purely subtitled version) but it was an unfortunate comedic disturbance on the audience, deviating them away from the dark and ominous themed plot, and drawing attention to what seemed like playful, hammy acting. Federico delighted in key plot elements of the typical giallo with the deviant sexual presence, occult themes and symbols (A “Tulpa” being part of a traditional Tibetan Buddhism) and more crucially the whodunit murder mystery with the hidden killer in black cloak and hat…and not to forget, the black gloves.

Matthias Hoene revelled in this year’s line-up as director of zombie-infested geezer gala COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES and co-producer of council house versus lone sniper TOWER BLOCK (the weekend’s closing film.) Beginning before the film had, with his stand-up-comedy-like-introduction, Hoene didn’t fail to get the audience in high spirits – and at least this time it was intentional!

Spoilt by the number of cast and crew that attend these premieres, Q&A’s that follow- always made interesting by some quirky question from the audience or a bonkers story from the director. I’ll never forget Glasgow Frightfest 2011 when Jason Eisner stripped and did the whole Q&A for HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN just in his underpants!

Also featured as an intricate part of the weekend is the INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM SHOWCASE, ANDY NYMAN’S QUIZ FROM HELL, and some surprise guests and premiere trailers of upcoming releases (one of which was a first look at a new compilation trailer for Season 3 of THE WALKING DEAD due to be aired in the UK in October.) But what trumps these “special events”, especially this time, is TOTAL FILM’S TOTAL ICON INTERVIEW. This year, Italian horror director Dario Argento returned to Frightfest for the first time in four years (since his appearance at 2008 when his MOTHER OF TEARS got its UK premiere in the frightfest programme). While the interview with last year’s candidate actor/director/producer Larry Fessenden had been a highlight of 2011’s Frightfest, I knew that this time I was facing one of the biggest horror icon legend of the last four decades. Interviewed at length by Total Film’s Jamie Graham, Dario spoke about his upcoming Dracula 3D release and what inspired him to rework such a classic novel and, perhaps more interestingly, why he wanted to shoot it in 3D. But what was inevitably even more interesting than that was of course the questions about his previous influences; his mastery of the Italian giallo horror film (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, CAT ‘O NINE TAILS); how he entered filmmaking, and more specifically, the horror genre; and how he “imagined” or “dreamed” the artistically visual and audio elements so apparent in his most successful genre-classics (SUSPIRIA, PHENOMENA, TENEBRAE, INFERNO, DEEP RED.)

 

For a transcribed version of the entire interview, visit http://www.totalfilm.com/features/dario-argento-answers-your-questions/top-5

Exit Humanity

EXIT HUMANITY ****

Four years after his directorial debut with winter chiller, Scarce (2008), John Geddes returns with this gritty zombie meets American West drama.

It’s 1865 in Tennessee, in the midst of the brutal American Civil War, and Edward Young returns from a hunting trip to find his wife contaminated with a violent disease and his son missing. Being forced to shoot dead his beloved wife, he searches the forests for his son - but it isn’t long until he finds him in a similar infected state. His life ripped from him, Edward has nothing left. Believed to have failed as a man, husband and father, he is desperate to fulfil his last promise to his son and take him to a waterfall. Edward packs his son’s ashes and begins his journey, leaving his former and once-content life burning to the ground.

The ‘story,’ told as a first hand account from a diary that Edward kept during his ordeal, is framed by a series of chapters and narrated by Malcolm Young (Brian Cox), an ancestor to Edward and the beholder of his diary. While voice-over narration can often seem displaced and fall victim to becoming detached from the interior diegesis, the storytelling here is well upheld and well-balanced throughout. And what better voice to expresses the overwhelming emotions of battle- of remorse and pain, of anger and vengeance- than King Lear himself, Brian Cox.

Frequent but short animations of sketchbook illustrations give the picture another attractive dimension, being graphically impressive whilst constantly reminding the viewer of the raw storytelling format.

The first chapter of the account deals firstly with Edward’s unbearable sadness and the agony he feels over the loss of his loved ones, and secondly with his conflicting curiosity with the zombie-like, plague-stricken people. Edward studies the newly developed, irrational behaviour of an infected neighbour, taking notes of their biting nature in order to aid survival.

Exit Humanity disregards modern cinematic advances in zombie narratives. Here, we scrap the past century of the likes of Romero and Fulci and return to the very roots of zombie-ism. Portrayed as the world’s first encounter of the walking dead, we are offered a refreshingly unique take on an apocalyptic disaster quite like never before.

The figures themselves are not racing around the forest with gruesome dishevelled features and missing half a head. Recently revived in the likes of ongoing TV series The Walking Dead, they boast simplicity and are tastefully crafted (as tasteful as a discoloured face, black eyes and drooling mouths can be!) For blood-thirsty fans that thrive on blood, guts and gore, this is not the film for them – perhaps see the previous review for a film of this disposition.

The contaminated population are not the malicious, inhumanly strong and overly threatening figures, but portrayed as rather sympathetically helpless- as monsters that once were men- as Edward fearlessly clings onto his affected son whilst crying out in despair.

It would be easy to label Exit Humanity as a zombie movie. But that wouldn’t do justice to Geddes. The word ‘zombie’ is never used in the film, the contamination being referred to as simply “another plague.” As General Williamson’s doctor fails to understand what the disease is, it is eventually explained to have been caused by a supernatural curse – another nicely fitting flagpole of the 19^th century era and a somewhat different, but welcome, reasoning from that of the conventional scientific-experiment-gone-wrong justification.

The battle is not with the “plague” as such and Geddes never seriously initiates a human versus zombie feud. Instead, it is with General Williamson (Bill Moseley) and his possy who have heard that someone has immunity to the fatal bites. Prepared to kidnap and kill to get hold of “the one” and use them to produce a cure, is it the undead or living who really exit humanity? Moseley seems to have recently grasped the villain role firmly with two hands. First playing a child killer in Robert Lieberman’s The Tortured (2010) and now pulling off a convincing performance as a dastardly war captain trying to seize control of the population and showing no mercy for the innocent. Gibson however carries a large amount of the film as our true war hero, sweetly counterbalancing the wickedness of Moseley’s character. His emotional capacity is stretched by Geddes - and it certainly pays off. Gibson provides a truly compelling and heartbreaking performance of a lost man desperately trying to seek hope and redemption which he carries well throughout.

And of course, it would be hard to ignore the casting of much loved horror veteran Dee Wallace as an exiled witch ‘Eve’. With the ability to add grace to any horror film, this role fits our horror icon like a mask to a monster …[and is perhaps a warm-up for her more recent role as a guru in Rob Zombie’s upcoming The Lords of Salem, set for release later this year!]

After 108 minutes and when the credits started to roll, I struggled to uphold my initial thoughts that this was going to be a horror film. Yes, it has some resemblances to the established zombie film, but includes traditional conventions of the Action and Adventure, and even the Western style (with a two man gun stand off to conclude the combat) that we cannot ignore.

What Geddes unveils is well balanced, mixed-genre film revealing a true depiction of an honest man who has lost everything; an autobiographical tale of a broken man, stricken with grief and riddled with sorrow to the point of suicide, who finds a new reason to live. He learns to embrace a world of darkness; to embrace a life amongst the walking dead.

Zombie 108 (Z-108)

ZOMBIE 108 (Z-108) **

Funded by 900 genre fans and causing a big buzz within the horror scene, upcoming director Joe Chein delivers a pulsating, blood-gushing zombie flick.

A scientific experiment goes wrong and a virus is set loose in Taipei, turning the city’s people into ravenous zombies. While the Army and SWAT teams oversee evacuation, the neighbourhood Ximending’s gang- unaware of the chaos unfolding around them- try and disrupt their operations. But when they too come under zombie attack, the police and gang form an unlikely alliance for their best chance of survival.

It certainly isn’t an original storyline- something that perhaps would have saved it from being ‘just another zombie film.’ With obvious influences from the highly successful 28 days later franchise evident in the opening scene of rampage and disorder, a large proportion of the narrative feels in some way or another ‘borrowed.’ But what separates it from the countless number of zombie movies Chein has evidently watched and been openly influenced by, is the inclusion of a sideline plot. Whereas in zombie or post-apocalyptic movies we typically follow one group of strangers for the duration of the movie with individuals being picked off one by one until only the hero or heroine remains, Z-108 creates multiple characters stuck in different situations, stemming the narrative until they come together only towards the end. While the police and gangs are fighting off zombies and trying to prevent the virus from spreading to each other, we also see Linda (Yvonne Yao) and her daughter Chloe (Chloe Lin) being kidnapped and tortured by a mad-man making the most of the end-of-the-world crisis. Using captured zombies for manual labour to power the electricity in his home, and taking advantage of the helplessness of others and lack of police enforcement to kidnap, rape and murder women, the sociopath pervert (Chien Jen Hao) certainly broadens the scope of extreme shock and is a temporary distraction from the dull familiarity of the zombie led design.

What eastern directors, and Chein alike, seem to do so well is to take a step back now and again- giving the audience a necessary breather from the adrenalin pumping zombie action- and reflect on the emotions of the characters. A memorable example is when the gang leader or ‘big boss’ asks to kill his wife as she turns into a ravenous, blood spitting subhuman before him. The continually beating grunge/garage music which is likely to trigger a headache is replaced by a slower, more classical sound and the camera momentarily stops jumping around and trying to keep up with the pace of its soundtrack.

Die-hard genre fans have much to appreciate in the way of gruesome and grisly gore. With several exploding zombie heads, a mangled torso crawling along the floor and a body axed slowly to death, with a bit of martial arts thrown in, prepare for 90 minutes of stomach-churning as violence and bloodshed is not spared. Despite an impressive range of zombie effects (though neon yellow eyes and faces half mutilated as soon as they turn are perhaps a bit farfetched), the zombies themselves are run of the mill and the transformations are unimpressively sudden. Most of the characters ‘turn’ and there aren’t any that you can really cheer for (except perhaps the kidnapped woman who, when she exerts her revenge with an axe to the perverts limp body, you cant help but feel pleased for her.) The acting is acceptable but nothing exceptional, the generic foreigner confronting a naked zombie with, “you can’t have my number, bitch.”

A zombie movie that certainly doesn’t stand out from the rest, and by no means a zombie classic that can be compared to the likes of Romero’s work. Although a decent first attempt to parallel the successful, spine-chilling horror genre films of Japan, new-kid-on-the-block Taiwan haven’t quite achieved the necessary level for a rivalry with this movie. But with the execution of the first zombie movie in the history of their cinema, Z-108 will certainly put them on the map with expectations of future horror releases.

A Simple Life

A SIMPLE LIFE ****

Five-time award winner at the 31st Annual Hong Kong Film Awards A SIMPLE LIFE is coming of age drama - but not the teen-angst tale that has been so deeply explored in the recent decades of cinema. Instead, a story of a woman coming to terms with retirement and old age.

Following a stroke, Ah Tao decides to retire as a maid and take up residence in a care home. But after 60 years of service to several generations of one family, she is still matron to one of the family members, Roger (Andy Lau), whom ensures she is in good hands when her physical health decreases. She struggles to be doted on as former masters and mistresses come bearing gifts and bring comfort, whilst trying to accept her condition as she watches both the old and young and less fortunate pass through the doors of the home.

 A Simple Life doesn’t just depict an honest and heart warming journey of a woman coping with the transition towards elderliness and frailty, physical deterioration and dependence. Amidst the gradual struggle and the inevitable and unfair robbing of health that old age brings, lies a touching story of a profound family friendship. Not blood-related members but as close to it (always referring to each other as god-son or Aunt), Ah Toa and Roger's relationship is not one of perhaps a conventional family obligation, but one of a deep sense of gratification and respect as their roles become conditionally reversed and their responsibilities for each other swap hands.

Andy Lau (Internal Affairs, 2002 and House of Flying Daggers, 2004) and Deannie Yip (who hasn’t acted in anything substantial in a decade) reunite after numerous past collaborations (The Truth, 1988 and Prince Charming, 1999), forming an inspiring and moving on-screen bond. Their sentimental connection is transparent in both their light-hearted and jovial exchanges (teasing one another as they walk through the park arm in arm), and when there is but little need for words.

Inspired by the true story of the producer (Roger Lee) and his servant, writers Susan Chan and Yan-lam Lee, and director Anne Hui bring plenty of heartbreak, but also a lingering sense of reassurance and joy, a welcomed measure of cheerful optimism, in this stunning portrayal of the latter period of one’s, ‘simple life.’

Playback

PLAYBACK *

My attention immediately captured by one review that described Playback as “Ring meets Halloween”, I envisioned an ingenious masterpiece derived from the concoction of two of my favourite horror films. Even when I heard that the cast included Christian Slater as the local cop, my hopes remained high and my fingers remained crossed as I held my breath for what could potentially be my “ideal” horror flick.

I needn’t have bothered. Within the first few scenes it was obvious that this was nothing more than a piece of mindless teen horror garbage- and not even a very good one at that- belonging to the genre’s relentless ‘junkmail.’ The likening of Playback to the marvel remake of the Japanese horror classic must have been purely its inclusion of a videotape and distorted TV screen, or perhaps the ill mention of it as one of the characters “favourite film.” As for its similarity to one of horror’s most legendary teen-slasher films…I’m still clueless to what it is.

The film opens in the past as we witness the live footage of a series of murders through the killer’s video camera. Fine. Jumping forward however many years, the communities hidden-but-not-forgotten secret is dug up by college student Julian (Johnny Pacar) to use for his school project on ‘what changed a community.’ But as he digs deeper into the infamous history of his town, he unlocks an evil; an evil back with vengeance and eager to possess and destroy anyone through video playback.

The plot plays out very much like this for an hour or so- a group of college kids trying to get hold of documents and stories. What gives the story a slightly more interesting disposition is when Julian’s friend Quinn (Toby Hemingway) comes across “the” video whilst working at a video sorting depot. After playing back the tape he becomes rapidly possessed, killing off Julian’s friends (none of whom we have any emotional connection to or association with) in a gruesome bloodshed form and possessing others by luring them to look into one of his hidden cameras and “zapping” them from his TV monitor. Other than that, I’m not sure what the significance of the handheld cameras was exactly, apart from capturing footage of naked girls to sell to corrupt-cop Christian.

I was left scratching my head, trying to work out if this was a story of the possession by an evil entity or indeed a slasher. I suppose we could applaud director Michael A. Nickles for entwining the two, despite the already implemented serial-killers-goes-viral formation. But its delivery is confusing and it comes across more as a disjointed jumble of concepts. What first appears to be a curse or entity full of revengeful purposes and even genetic motivations turns into a random massacre of teenagers who enjoy nothing more than pool parties, listen to dreadful music and be obsessed with a murder that happened two decades ago. It is for this reason that the acting is hard to comment on, the breadth of credibility automatically severely limited.

Even the climatic revelation of Julian’s former history in the film’s conclusion seems irrelevant, and the showdown between Quinn, Julian and his mum even less spectacular with hammy one-liners and a few too many gun shots. Unless for some reason you'd like to see Slater's head blown off by a shotgun, don't waste 1 hour and 38 minutes of your time with these teenagers!

Lovely Molly

LOVELY MOLLY ****

It’s been over a decade since director and writer Eduardo Sanchez brought a new dimension to the horror genre in his, newly coined, “found footage” paranormal phenomena, The Blair Witch Project.

Now, thirteen years later and with only one other sci-fi horror flick under his belt (Altered, 2006), Sanchez is back to deliver more supernatural suspense in this years psychological horror, Lovely Molly.

Molly (Gretchen Lodge) takes up residence in her long-abandoned former family home with her new husband Tim (Johnny Lewis). But less than three months settled into their new home havoc emerges for the newlyweds as Molly feels she is being terrorized by a dark and malevolent presence in the house; someone in her past which should no longer be present.

The opening scene features a close-up of a distressed Molly filming herself with a camcorder, the screen date and time stamped. We then see a montage of previous camera film from Molly and Tim’s wedding. But Sanchez has more in his repertoire than just found footage; the film soon switches to the conventional film form, with the camcorder effectively being used intermittently to track Molly’s whereabouts and discoveries.  

The musical score by Tortoise sets it apart from the eerie paranormal experience as a constant blend of loud, boisterous and sometimes incoherent noise replaces patient, nail-biting silence and regular crescendos. Even the volume of the doors when they creak is intrusive on the senses. Sanchez’ use of the heightened level of sound to highlight the raucous nature of the spirit successfully creates raw fear rather than suspense, an interesting and appreciated approach in delivering a familiar plot.

What begins as a traditional bump in the night story with opening doors, sounding alarms and faint distant voices, turns more and more ominous. With Tim working away, Molly is left to confront her tormentor who follows her beyond the reaches of the house, shown in a memorable CCTV footage scene of her at work. Molly is desperate to prove her sanity, but as her psychological past is revealed, her drug use resurfaces and the truth about her sister Hannah's (Alexandra Holden) dark deed is uncovered, those that are close to her- and the audience- can never really be convinced.

So, is this a paranormal plot of demonic possession, a story of the evil that can be driven from the effects of addiction, or indeed a tragic tale of a woman losing her mind? True to form, Sanchez opens a can of worms and refuses to close it, delivering an ambiguous and indefinite ending. As the conclusion sees Molly walking slowly into the woods and her sister in the house being lured to the closet by the aura, the uncertain audience are left asking, “What happens next?”

The Pact

THE PACT ***

Nicholas McCarthy directs his first feature film in newly released horror film, The Pact.

Following their mothers death, sisters Annie and Nicole reluctantly return to their former home full of painful and tormenting memories of their childhood there. Primarily the plot takes a definite path down the supernatural road, an eerie presence leading whoever enters the house through a door in the hall and to their fate. For thirty minutes we witness this presence haunting the sisters, most memorably in a short but shocking “Skype” scene. When Nicole disappears and Annie is left with the care of her daughter, she hunts down the history of the house and the victims that were once lured there. But as the supernatural presence reveals more clues and Annie finds a hidden room concealed by wallpaper, the element of the spiritual is forgotten as she unveils something a lot more ‘real,’ sinister and present among her: her family’s shameful secret.

The Pact is no doubt a combination of a series of familiar horror plots, borrowing from the modern haunted house tales such as Dream House (2011) as well as the covert serial killer film like Shadow (2011).  

Though the film struggles to claim any story originality, apart from perhaps the juggling of the two sub-genres, its style is captivating and largely sets it apart from horror movies of today. McCarthy abruptly and unexpectedly cuts scenes from the house, to another location, from day to night, effectively keeping up the pace of the narrative and showing a clear transition of passing time. The original score composed by Ronen Landa is a strings and key composition featuring violinist Anna Bulbrook (of indie rock band The Airborne Toxic Event) and pianist Dan Tepfer. The score plays softly and wistfully throughout, forming a dramatic and menacing atmosphere as the characters creep cautiously around the house. At a height of drama the music does not crescendo but remains one continuous tone, creating an effective shock and surprise. This method is most notable in the killing of the policeman as a knife punches up from the bottom of the screen and into the victim’s neck, the music remaining constant throughout the frame.

McCarthy ties off the film nicely in a short and sweet demise of “Judas” (the house’s lurking killer), avoiding the tiresome 10-minute ultimatums that films often fall victim to. While he keeps the audience attentive and succeeds in juggling the dispersive elements of the story to inform a logical conclusion, he falls short a little in the plot’s overall impact. The threat all too suddenly changes hands and the discovery of Judas is a bit too easy with a quick google research and an unconvincing scene with a weegie board, loosely tied around her mother’s religious status.

While the plot doesn’t have much to boast, the stark simplicity, yet arty, cinematographic style will certainly leave horror fans smiling.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything

A FANTASTIC FEAR OF EVERYTHING **

Simon Pegg stars in this new, qwerky British comedy. Jack (Pegg) is a children’s book author but is bored of writing fables about heart-warming hedgehogs. In order to break free of expectations he writes a book about the history of serial killers and becomes obsessed by murder. Trapped in the world of his new book and paranoid that he is an ancient killer’s next victim, Jack locks himself in his house in fear…a fear that someone is behind every corner, a fear of the constantly ringing phone… a fear of EVERYTHING. But when his agent rings to tell him he must attend a meal with a publisher who is interested in his book, he has only hours to battle for sanity and prepare himself for the now unknown and strange world outside of his apartment. But smartening up for a man he irrationally believes to be the grandson of one of histories most notorious serial killers becomes Jack’s trickiest challenge.

Without his partner-in-comedy Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul) Pegg has no-one to play off but his emotionally damaged, obsessively anxious self. It works. Pegg encapsulates a madman character brilliantly, as the long-haired British actor, in little more than dirty white briefs and a gown, creeps cautiously along his landing, kitchen knife in hand, frantically screaming at every creek and clutter.

 
The impression of a simple narrative about a man losing his mind to his dark writings, driven largely by a solo-performance, delivered by co-directors Crispian Mills and Chris Hopewell in the primary stages of the film is turned on its head in the latter half of the narrative. Amidst Jack’s fear of murder and serial killers is actually a fear of washing machines, rooted in his abandonment by his mother in a laundrette as a young boy. This bizarre phobia distracts from what was a peculiarly amusing and captivating storyline of a man’s psychological suffering and instead turns into a series of events leading to a crime scene which plays out his fear of being savagely killed. But playing on the irony of its-always-who-you-least-expect, his fate is not in the hands of his researched malicious multiple murderers, but of the local community officer. Trapped underground the laundrette with a young woman, Jack suddenly finds his long-lost logic and the comical efforts of his madman character all too quickly parish.

What starts as a promisingly original dark-comedy suffers to a distorted and spiralling narrative which never really pinpoints the tragedy or triumph of Pegg’s character. Although a worthy performance by Pegg in the most part, it is by no means a comedy classic in comparison to his previous works.

Moonrise Kingdom

MOONRISE KINGDOM ****

Director/co-writer Wes Anderson tells a qwerky tale of a young boy scout who flees Camp Ivanhoe, causing his Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), fellow khaki scouts and local authorities to search for him.

It’s 1965 in New Penzance, New England and two youngsters have the weight of the world on their shoulders; Sam (Jared Gilman), an orphan and least popular kid at camp, and Suzy (Kara Hayward), a “troubled child” in the eyes of her parents with no friends. A year after they first met at church, the two 12 year-olds flee their unhappy existence and try to make it on their own together. But despite Sam’s camping expertise, they don’t get far… with the scout hunt and Suzy’s parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) and sheriff (Bruce Willis) comprising a local search party, the young lovers have to do more than stab a hunting scout with scissors and set up camp at a nearby cove.

A worthy ensemble cast bring together a touching story of two emotionally damaged youngster’s pubescent struggle who find an unfamiliar comfort in each other’s company. Though the film deals with potentially serious issues, namely in the affects of adverse child/parent relationships, Wes champions a child’s willing independence and adventurousness, without undermining these still modern-day concerns. A doting sense of light-heartedness is imbued within their journey, rooted in Sam and Suzy’s innocence is a somewhat humorous but likely depiction of a childhood romance as Suzy asks Sam to feel her chest, ensuring him it will get bigger. The film’s comedic stance is signposted early on in Scout Master Ward’s militant attitude towards the boys, taking his role as camp leader seriously. As he observes his scouts activities he questions why one boy has built a den on top of a tree and gives another a warning for speeding on his motorbike. The random but striking appearances of Bob Balaban as a narrator, who once enters the diegetic narrative, dressed in duck-boots and a gnome-like hat, adds to the peculiarly pleasant droll composition.

There is a strong sense of a much-missed authenticity in the nostalgic return to rural America with the artificiality of the simple, stark locale with one-hut-one-man-institution and close-knit, Sunday school community. The red painted houses and the way Suzy is dressed (as well as her younger brothers, in their brown dungarees and side combed hair), coupled with the backing track of the orchestrated choir, is a firm nod back to the era. The use of Suzy's binoculars not only adds a worthy cinematographic element but too represents adventure and freedom, the 'superpower' to see further than her isolated existence. The juxtaposition of the geographical constraints of the island and the vibrant emotion writhing to break free is delicately positioned as situational for the characters involved yet metaphorically speaks wider of its self-defined plot dimensions.

Wes Anderson, admired for his direction in Rushmore (1998), has produced a breath of fresh air in this poetic world of dreamlike perfection. From the delicate opening sequence in which the camera takes its time to pan the quaint house of Suzy and her family, the camera seemingly drifts through each scene in search of a lost purity, capturing the idyllic setting that is 1960’s New England.