While working through a few new posts for this year (more reviews coming soon!), I decided to change up the theme I’m using in WordPress. This is going to be one of a few changes happening while I’m working on a few new things in the background. Why the change? Well, while I enjoyed the theme I was using, I couldn’t help noticing that it looked rather clunky and hard to read compared to other blogs I’m reading. Hopefully you like the new theme’s clean and easy format…
Disregard the header image for now, I’m working on a new customer image to replace it. Until then, comments are always welcome as ever.
So, here we are for the best movies of the decade. It’s not been a bad decade, despite what some people might have you believe. Critics will often point toward the seemingly endless and pointless run of remakes, from 2 year old Asian movies to 20 year old American movies. However, just as the 80s had a lot more to offer than the low-grade slasher movies that some people always complain about, so this decade had given us some of the most impressive and extreme horror of all time.
There were a few trends, ranging from the bloodless PG-13 horror market that’s run from The Ring through to Twilight, to the so-called “torture porn” that gotten so many tabloids foaming at the mouth. Mostly, this decade has been about breaking barriers, from independently produced movies like Cabin Fever and Paranormal Activity that clean up at the box office to the sheer extremities of the French new wave.
So, in looking forward to what the next decade can bring us in the genre, here are my picks for the top 10 movies of the decade:
OK, so here we are at the end of 2009, and to break my unfortunate silence recently, I’ve decided to list some thoughts on what I consider to be the best and worst movies of the decade. Since it would be wrong to to leave the year on a downer, here’s my picks for the worst of the decade (after the jump). I admit I haven’t seen some of these movies since they came out, but these were probably the biggest disappointments I’ve had all decade:
Directed by: Ruggero Deodato Written by: Gianfranco Clerici & Vincenzo Mannino Music by: Riz Ortolani Starring: David Hess, John Morghan (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), Annie Belle, Christian Borromeo, Marie Claude Joseph, Gabriele Di Giulio, Brigitte Petronio
Taglines:“Delivers Shocks To The Maximum … Pushes The Limits Of Acceptability”
“David Hess … star of “Last House on the Left” is loose again … DON’T GO IN THE PARK!”
As I mentioned in my review of day 2 of Frightfest, we were shown a “special sneak preview” of the French zombie movie The Horde. This meant that it was actually shown to us before the official world première, and as such there was a review embargo placed upon the movie. Now that it’s November and a US release date is set, I’m assuming that the date for the end of the embargo has well and truly passed, so here’s a quick review…
The story of The Horde concerns a derelict apartment building near Paris. It’s in a bad part of town, and controlled by drug gangs who have turned the building into a fortress impenetrable by police. A group of undercover cops storm the building, only to find themselves locked into a battle against the living dead, who rise during the siege.
From here on, the film progresses as you’d expect it to, but with a number of twists. The main thing to note is that the second half of the movie is pretty brutal. You’d have to expect this, given the high level of gore shown in recent French productions such as Inside, High Tension/Switchblade Romance, Frontieres and Martyrs. Here, the tension and gore really ramp up with some impressive sequences of devastation.
The general feeling I was left with was a decent movie with a great 3rd act, which most reminded me of a live action version of the video game Left4Dead, albeit without the different zombie mutant strains. Recommended.
EDIT:Finally! There’s a UK release of this movie, on 20th September 2010 by Mometum Pictures. No word of a US release AFAIK, but I’ll add it here whever it finally happens….
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.
The fourth day was an interesting one for me, largely because I hadn’t bothered with bed following the afterparty at the Phoenix bar the night before! That was the first time I’d been there after a Frightfest evening, and it was great to mingle with the regulars, along with the likes of David Hess and Joe Lynch who’d decided to go there as well. I think I’ll attempt a few more evenings there next year, though the only other night I made it there on this occasion was the insanely packed do after the final day.
However, for various reasons, the night meant that I missed Dead Snow (I ended up doing other things as I wasn’t sure of my ability to stay awake among other things, as well as the fact that the DVD release was the following day), as well as starting to drop off during Black. So, bear in mind with the following reviews that the Dead Snow review is from a DVD rather than the actual screening, so my opinion may be somewhat subdued compared to if I’d been with the crowd. Also, I can’t give a 100% accurate review of Black in the interest of fairness, as I’d been awake for over 36 hours at that point and the comfortable cinema seat was working against me.
It also means that my memories of any surprises are a little hazy. IIRC, this day was the one where we saw advance screening footage from Adam Green’s new movie Frozen. We mainly saw the trailer, which shows a lot of what happens in the movie – three skiers get stuck on a ski lift in mid-air after it’s shut down for the weekend, and have to escape before they freeze to death. In addition, there was another excellent Douche Brothers short from Green and Joe Lynch – all of the shorts can now be viewed online here.
The other “surprise” of the night (although everyone knew about it) was a presentation of John Landis’ other horror landmark, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, along with the making of the video. The music video itself was as entertaining as ever, despite being shown on a dodgy transfer. However, the documentary really dragged. I remember enjoying this back in the day, but the editing is actually atrocious. If someone happens to mention something else from Michael Jackson’s career, we get a 2-3 minute clip, sometimes the who video or performance! It’s unnecessary and really made the evening start to drag.
Movies of the day reviews after the jump – Dead Snow, Human Centipede, Coffin Rock, Night Of The Demons, Dread and Black. No Discovery screen reviews again – I didn’t see them!
The 3rd day of the fest was a memorable day for various reasons. Some of these were personal (such as a friend coming over for the day for his first Frightfest, which eventually turned into a drinking session at the Phoenix and zero sleep). Some were part of the festival itself (such as the crowd reaction to Giallo and David Hess’ live blues playing on stage after the first movie).
But, the movies were the important thing, of course. I not only missed all of the movies at the smaller Discovery screen (a deliberate decision for the whole event as I mentioned yesterday), but also missed the main screen movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I’ve heard good things about this movie, but at 150 minutes it was just too long for my state of mind at that point in time, so I went for a few pints instead! I’ll track it down and review below whenever I get chance to see it.
Other than that, there were a few surprises but nothing spectacular. George A. Romero recorded a special message including an exclusive clip from his new movie Survival of the Dead. It looks OK, certainly miles ahead of Diary of the Dead, but we’ll reserve judgement. The clip showed a guy fishing, the twist being that it turns out he’s fishing for zombies rather than fish. I liked the reveal, and I’m guardedly anticipating the full movie. Other than that, I don’t remember there being any other exclusives shown, but my notes went missing and my memory’s fuzzy!
Reviews of the movies after the jump. These were: Smash Cut, Hierro, Giallo, Trick ‘r Treat, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl and the final short of the weekend, Sad Case.
Maybe I’m just a little slow on the uptake, but here goes. Parallel to the recent announcement that YouTube will be trialling paid-for movie rentals in the near future, it came to my attention that they have a page here that lets you stream full movies for free. They’re of variable quality and have the usual idiotic regional restrictions attached, but there’s a wide and varied selection. Movies available to me currently include Slave Of The Cannibal God (a.k.a. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TZJCNM?ie=UTF8&tag=80sfear-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000TZJCNM, where ex-Bond girl Ursula Andress gets stripped naked and smeared with the putrefied flesh of her long-dead husband), Pigs! (a rare grindhouse feature, covered in the excellent Nightmare USA book), Just Before Dawn, Ghost Galleon (the third movie in the Blind Dead series) and infamous “video nasty” Driller Killer, among the usual public domain titles like House On Haunted Hill and Attack of The Giant Leeches.
It’s worth checking out if you haven’t already, especially as it’s not clear whether this freebie service will continue once the paid-for rentals go live.
The second day of Frightfest was the first full day of the festival – starting at 11am and going well past 1.30am the next morning! As ever, the crowd was friendly, with lots going on. I managed to chat with a few of the people I’ve seen there in previous years including the Mondo Movie guys Ben and Dan, It was also a great time to get to know everybody sitting around me (hi, Sarah!) as well as to develop some in-jokes and camaraderie with the crowd in general – for example, the digitally projected warning to turn off mobile phones often had an image of the mouse cursor left on the screen. People would try to guess where it would appear next, and there was a hilariously audible groan whenever it failed to make an appearance!
There were a few interesting extras to the proceedings on this day. The most notable was Vincenzo (Cube) Natali introducing an exclusive clip of his upcoming new movie Splice, starring Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody. The movie seems to be about scientists working on creating brand new forms of life through genetic experimentation, but getting too emotionally involved with the results. The scene played showed a newly formed specimen escaping from an incubator, and Polley and Brody disagreeing on whether to treat it as hostile while stopping its attempts to escape from the lab. The CGI on the creature was very good (and unusual, given that Natali has made his name with minimalistic movies), and reminded me a little of the escape scene from Species – though admittedly much better.
On top of that, we had another hilarious in-jokey Douche Brothers clip from Adam Green and Joe Lynch, the brand new trailer for Universal’s remake of The Wolfman with Benicio Del Toro (which looks good, though the constant delays are a concern) and a trailer for Charlie (The Fast Show) Higson’s new horror novel The Enemy.
Now, the problem with this year’s fest is that for the first time there were 2 screens. The main screen was massive, but the “Discovery Screen” was only able to hold a fraction of even the weekend pass holders. On top of that, movies often clashed – some discovery showing clashed with two main screen showings! Given that this was my first full weekend at Frightfest, and given the fact that there really wasn’t anything I was absolutely hyped to see at the second screen (and the fact that nothing looked utterly terrible upfront on the main screen), I decided not to bother. Rather than risk choosing the wrong movie, I decided to treat it as though the second screen didn’t exist.
So, no reviews of the Discovery Screen showing here, though I may edit these reports when those movies appear on DVD. Reviews of the movies played in the main screen follow after the jump: The Horseman, Beware The Moon, An American Werewolf In London, Shadow, The Horde and Macabre, as well as the short movie Paris By Night Of The Living Dead.
