Phew! After a decent opening night, which started slowly but crescendoed up to the rousing, blood soaked finale of You’re Next, it’s already time for day 2! If you missed it you can read all about Day 1 HERE, but we’ve got to crack on because there’s no rest for the wicked at Frightfest!
Dementamania
Director: Kit Ryan
Cast: Sam Robertson, Vincent Regan, Kal Penn, Geoff Bell, John Thomson. UK, 2013. 83 mins
After being stung by a wasp in the shower, things get slightly weird for frustrated office worker Edward Arkham (Sam Robertson aka Corrie‘s Adam Barlow). He has cryptic conversations with a mysterious stranger and starts to get strange visions of brutally murdering his annoying co-workers… all while stewing over a “let’s be friends” email from his unfaithful ex-girlfriend.
Billed as The Fly meets The Office, this is a small and clearly low budget film but one that takes a nice idea and runs with it. Anyone familiar with Batman will see an obvious clue to what’s going on in the surname, but there’s enough mystery to keep you interested over the films tight running time. Strangely also features an unexpected cameo from Harold & Kumar star (and Obama advisor) Kal Penn which kinda adds to the off-beat, surreal aesthetic.
It’s not a classic but if you found it on Netflix it would probably be a pleasant surprise.
6/10
Hatchet III
Director: BJ McDonnell
Cast: Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Zach Galligan, Caroline Williams, Derek Mears. USA 2013, 81mins
When Adam Green first stood on the stage of the Odeon West End back at Frightfest ’06 and premièred Hatchet he became an instant FF Legend. A rockstar. Green could submit a stale turd in a DVD case and we’d give it a round of applause. So, following a trailer for his horror themed sitcom Holliston, he took to the stage to introduce the final instalment of his Hatchet series to some considerable fanfare.
Having written and directed parts 1 and 2, he stepped into the writer/producer chair for this final (as far as he’s concerned) outing of supernatural super villain Victor Crowley and his hatchet wielding murderous mayhem, letting his cinematographer BJ McDonnell take the director’s chair.
Picking off right where Hatchet II ended, we see survivor-girl Marybeth (Danielle Harris) blowing off Crowley’s head and then walking into a police station, exhausted, covered in blood and babbling about having killed the local boogeyman. Unsurprisingly the police are none too impressed with this story and she’s promptly locked up while the police and coroners head out to examine the scene of devastation.
Unfortunately, we all know you can’t kill Victor Crowley – he’s already dead! Cue gallons of fake blood and dozens of spectacular kills for Kane Hodder’s second most famous horror icon (Jason is still probably a bit more famous) followed by a bit of plot device friendly mumbo-jumbo and Bob’s your uncle.
Green and Co. must be commended for their unwavering devotion to practical effects, which not only look much better than CGI but are a hundred times more fun. It’s impressive that they’ve managed to up the bar for more and more impressive kills each film, considering that the original was pretty bloody spectacular in that regard.
It’s nothing special in terms of plot/character/acting and it’s particularly hamstrung by Danielle Harris spending most of the film in a jail sell sulking, if you want to see Victor Crowley ripping/smashing/bludgeoing ass for 80 some minutes then it’s a pretty good shout. Fun while it lasts but not much more.
6.5/10
Haunter
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Cast: Abigail Breslin, Michelle Nolden, David Hewlett, Peter Outerbridge, USA, 2013, 97 mins
Described in the notes as Groundhog Day meets The Others, this was the first real stinker of festival. Perhaps it would be more fair to describe it as a marmite movie… as we walked out and glimpsed one of our fellow FF friends they gave us the “what did you think?” look to which we succinctly mimed a blowing out brains out reply. They looked shocked and said that they absolutely loved it. It takes all sorts…
Though it stars the generally excellent Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) we were already on the back foot when we heard that Vincenzo Natali of Splice infamy was directing. To give him credit, the film looks nice and has an impressive dreamy quality, especially during the annoyingly repetitive Groundhog Day repeat cycle which takes up the first act of the movie.
But that’s really all we can think of that was positive. It was sooooooo boring. Breslin was so mopey it made the bit in Twilight where she sits in a chair for a year seem positively sprightful. Clearly aimed at a tween market, Haunter is definitely best avoided other than as a cure for insomnia.
2/10
V/H/S 2
Directors: Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez & Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto & Gareth Evans, Jason Eisener.
Cast: Kelsy Abbott, Hannah Al Rashid, Fachry Albar, Oka Antara, Devon Brookshire. USA 2013, 95 mins
Forgive us for perhaps stating the obvious, but anthology movies are almost always a bit of a mixed bag. V/H/S 2 is no exception, although in almost every way it’s a step up from the original film. The set up is similar, although this time it’s a private investigator and partner who have been sent to try and track down as missing student and thus break into a house and start watching the tapes.
One of the biggest problems that we had with the original was simply the constant shaky cam made us feel physically ill and when You’re Next man Adam Wingard’s segment began with the camera shooting through a futuristic prosthetic eye we thought we were in for another tough ride, especially since it was only a so-so start.
Moving onto the Blair Witch team of Sanchez & Hale we were even more worried – they’re no strangers to a bit of running shaky cam – but their clever first person zombie attack skit was fun enough to make us persevere.
We had been told beforehand by those in the know that it really picked up by part 3 and, true to form, The Raid director Gareth Evans and his bizarre Indonesian cult horror didn’t disappoint. Though each segment was allotted 20 minutes, this must have been closer to 30 and almost felt like watching the edited highlights of a 90 minute movie -and all the better for it. Many found footage movies have stretched a weaker idea over a far great length, so Evans should be applauded for that, even if the ending does go a bit batshit crazy.
Hobo With A Shotgun director Jason Eisener’s alien inflected finale was decent – a bit of teenage Jackass-ery interrupted by some visiting extra terrestrials – but other than the funny conceit of the camera being mounted on their dog’s collar there wasn’t that much in this for us.
We shouldn’t forget the wrap around story itself which is considerably more coherent and better thought out than the original, so hat’s off to Simon Barrett and series creator Brad Miska for that.
All in all, the concept seems to have found its feet with this film, having with the original having slightly stumbled into the world. The clear highlight was the third section but overall this is still definitely worth checking out.
8/10
100 Bloody Acres
Directors: Cameron & Colin Cairnes
Cast: Damon Herriman, Angus Sampson, Anna McGahan, Oliver Ackland, Jamie Kristian Australia 2013, 92 mins
Back in 2011, Tucker & Dale vs Evil was one of the highlights of the festival, as it de-constructed the murderous hillbilly tropes to gleefully gory and hilarious ends. Two years later and we’ve got its non-Union Australian equivalent, 100 Bloody Acres, which injects a dose of Wolf Creek-esque grim darkness into proceedings.
A young Aussie couple are travelling, along with their irritating English, to a music festival when their car breaks down. Having flagged down a truck driven by kind-hearted, but simple, local fertiliser producer Reg – and the gorgeous Sophie (Anna McGahan) having given him the eyes – they seem to be on their way until the boys notice a dead body in the back of the truck, bound to become the special ingredient in Reg and brother Lindsay’s trademark “blood and bone” fertiliser.
Obviously Reg can’t just let them leave after seeing that, so he takes them back to his factory where his overbearing, gravel throated brother (Sacha Baron Cohen lookalike Angus Sampson) is waiting to recycle them. We won’t say more but you can imagine that things clearly don’t go quite as planned (or it would be a pretty short film).
There’s a real darkness to the film that colours every laugh and that sets it apart from straight up comedies like Tucker & Dale. Everything’s a bit grubby, sweaty and nasty – there’s a scene of cunnilingus that will have you squirming – but it’s all done with an impressive lightness of touch without which it could easily have spilled over into pure grotesquery.
It’s not perfect, but it’s often funny, thrilling and memorable, … it’s even, dare we say it, quite touching at points. Overall it’s a very impressive debut for The Cairnes brothers and in particular an advert for Angus Sampson, who we’ll surely be seeing more of in Hollywood.
8.5/10