Ah, the final, sad day of the festival. Despite having sat down to 24 movies over the 5 days by the end of the night, I was still raring to go and wanted more! A testament to the fantastic organisation of Alan Jones, Paul McEvoy, Ian Rattray and Greg Day, I think, as well as the welcoming atmosphere generated by both the Empire cinema and the rest of the audience. Though I’ve heard some issues people had with certain members of the audience, I have absolutely no complaints and had a great time among everyone involved. I seriously cannot wait till next year, though I’m hoping to make the Glasgow event to tide me over (and gutted that I can’t make the Halloween ICA event).
My memory is a little hazy, but I don’t believe we had much in the way of surprise extras on this final day, which only had 5 films in the main screen before the traditional carnage at the Phoenix. We had a screening of the “making of” DVD extra from the British movie Tormented (plus Q&A with the cast & crew), and I believe it was on this day that we had an exclusive clip from the new version of Dorian Gray. Both look OK, if unspectacular.
Reviews after the jump of the main screen movies (no discovery screen again) – Zombie Women Of Satan, The House Of The Devil, Case 39, Heartless and The Descent 2.
Zombie Women of Satan
A travelling burlesque troupe arrive at a commune to give an interview for an Internet TV station. Unfortunately, one of the owners has been performing experiments on the lingerie-clad inhabitants, turning them into bloodthirsty zombies.
In recent Frightfest history, there’s been a trend to have a zombie walk outside of the cinema (where people dress as zombies), followed by a screening of a British zombie-themed movie. This year’s entry is a little bit of a strange one, basically an off-the-cuff project from a Northern burlesque house. According to the Q&A, the major players hadn’t even met 6 months before this Frightfest première, and the film’s co-directed by and stars a guy who performs under the name of Pervo The Clown!
Needless to say, this isn’t a serious horror movie. The best way to describe it is a kind of broad Northern English comedy along the lines of Roy “Chubby” Brown or Peter Kay with extra gore and nudity. How you take this movie really depends on whether the style of humour gels with you – by the time you’ve seen a midget take an elephant-sized dump or the leader of the lingerie-clad cult screwing a zombie, you’ll probably like it or hate it.
To my tastes – it was OK. It’s certainly nothing I’m going to go out of my way to see again, but it was passable entertainment. Given that I absolutely loathe some of the more recent British horror comedies like Evil Aliens (although I love Shaun Of The Dead, of course), I was expecting to hate this. Given that I was entertained for most of it, that’s a good sign in my book.
Rating: 
The House of The Devil
A young woman desperate to move out of her college dorm accepts an offer of a new apartment, but doesn’t have the money to pay for the deposit. Desperate, she find a suspicious-looking but high-paying “babysitter” job that turns out to entail much more than she bargained for.
After problems with The Roost (which apparently received a mixed reception at a previous Frightfest due to a muddy print) and the long-delayed Cabin Fever 2 – Spring Fever (more on that later), Ti West returns with a fantastic piece of throwback cinema. Everything in this movie, from the soundtrack and title sequence to the clothes and brick-sized Walkman used by the main character, is a perfect reference to movies of the late 70s and early 80s. Even the theme of the story – a satanic cult kidnapping young people for use in black magic ceremonies – is deliberately reminiscent of the hysteria of a past age.
This is also the biggest flaw for some members of the audience. The movie is deliberately slow, with a tangible feeling of dread replacing gore and quick cutting. For me, this worked brilliantly. There’s something just not quite right about the job, the situation or the employers, but it’s a feeling of unease rather than any specific problem. The main character is suspicious, and her best friend more so, but this is such a unique opportunity for her that she’s willing to take a risk, but no further than most of us would in her situation.
I’ve not seen his previous work, but I think I’ll keep an eye out for Ti West’s future projects. It’s just a shame that he’s been so badly treated by studios. According to his Q&A, West had completed Cabin Fever 2 as a very tongue-in-cheek splatter comedy. Inevitably, the studio didn’t get it and re-edited the project behind his back, eventually performing re-shoots behind his back. He’s tried getting the Allan Smithee credit to remove his name, but that’s not been possible for various reasons. A shame, but I hope the original cut sees the light of day in some way, but I don’t hold out much hope for the studio cut. I’ll be looking forward to West’s next project, though.
Rating:
Case 39
A stressed social worker takes a special interest in her new case, culminating in her saving the child from an attempt to murder her. Taking the child under her wing, she soon realises that nothing is as it seems and the child may in fact be something other than human.
I’m not sure exactly why, but this movie has been constantly delayed by the studio following its initial 2008 planned release date. In fact, director Christian Alvart’s following film Pandorum is actually scheduled for UK cinema release a whole 2 months before this! It always strikes me as being very strange that a studio can have a movie on its shelves for so long, making absolutely zero money (see also Trick ‘r Treat), especially as I can’t see any details of extensive re-shoots being demanded. A shame too, as this isn’t a bad movie but will probably be overlooked in the face of more recent creepy kid movies like Orphan.
Frightfest always has a mainstream studio horror movie that feels like filler, and to be frank Case 39 was definitely this year’s. Starring Renee Zellweger and Ian McShane, the movie never takes any major chances and offers the requisite number of shocks before the end credits. Two things save the movie from utter mediocrity. First, the director by Alvart is quite good – we don’t get much of a clue about the true nature of the child until quite far into the movie. hints are given, but the central mystery is something of a surprise, and the way the movie develops from the point of the reveal is entertaining.
However, the main accolade has to go to child actor Jodelle Ferland (the little girl from Silent Hill). She gives a performance that’s utterly convincing as both the sweet-natured little girl and the evil she eventually becomes. The film essentially hinges on her performance (especially if you don’t like Zellweger), and she carries it admirably. Overall, the movie is passably Hollywood fodder, but a little better than many recent movies (and at least it’s not a remake).
Rating:
A young man born with extensive birthmarks – including a heart-shaped one over one eye – is shunned by society except for his close family. His local London estate is under siege from violent demonic-looking thugs and he soon enters into another world beneath the surface. The devil himself wants to make him an offer he can’t refuse…
Philip Ridley’s return to film-making for the first time after 1995′s excellent The Passion of Darkly Noon was one of the most highly anticipated films of the festival. Frightfest was it’s world première, star Jim Sturgess was on stage to play a couple of songs from the soundtrack and most of the cast was in attendance. The result is pretty good, though it falls a little short of the hype.
Part of the problem is that other than a few interesting images and plot twists, we’ve seen it all many times before. The central conceit is basically Faust, relocated to modern-day London and with a character who feels justifiably cursed from birth. Many of the central plot points are predictable, and some of the design work is fairly clichéd.
However, Jim Sturgess’ central performance is extremely good and emotionally engaging enough to distract from the flaws. Ridley’s visual style and light touch with most of the character scenes work very well, though I could personally have done with a little less of the family bonding stuff that dogs the opening “aren’t we all wonderful Cockneys” stuff before the action really gets going. Overall, it’s a great return for Ridley, albeit probably the weakest of the three movies he’s made so far, with some affecting imagery and a great soundtrack .
Rating:
The Descent: Part 2
Rescue crews are searching for the missing women from the original movie, but are of course searching in the wrong place due to the fake route plan that was submitted. However, across the country Sarah is discovered, covered in blood and suffering from amnesia about what exactly happened to her friends. A suspicious cop convinces rescue workers to take him down with her to find the others before it’s too late, but Sarah remembers just too late what it was they encountered down there…
As far as unnecessary sequels go, this isn’t a bad one. That sounds like damning with faint praise, but the original movie had an excellent downbeat ending that left no opening for a sequel – at least not one with the same characters. Unfortunately, Hollywood is what it is, and when the movie was released in the US, it was re-cut to have a more positive ending. That left an opening for a sequel, and so here we are.
What’s nice about The Descent 2 is that it doesn’t waste a lot of time getting to the point – of course, to see the crawlers return and start killing people. The eye-rollingly clichéd amnesia plot is only there for long enough for us to get back underground, after which the stakes are raised and the gore ramped up. It’s definitely a bloodier movie than the first, although this is at the expense of the suspense. Whereas the original scared the hell out of me before the crawlers even turned up, there’s no such feeling of claustrophobia here. One nice touch is that we get to see some of the bodies left behind from the previous movie – this gives a nice connection to the original, as well as a retroactively depressing view of how close the girls got to escape last time.
Overall, a decent sequel and entertaining enough, but no classic. Débuting director Jon Harris also seems like a talent to look forward to when he manages to get his hands on original material.
Rating: 