A surprisingly warm Glasgow greeted me this year, and a good thing too since my flight arrangements were so hectic. Luckily, everything went smoothly and I managed to get an hour or two in my hotel before wandering the street to the cinema. I’d recommend this hotel to anyone travelling to Glasgow, by the way. CitizenM is its name and it was pretty decent and for not much more than the Travelodge were asking!
I didn’t, of course, and after getting my ticket, enjoying a quick pint in the bar and buying this year’s t-shirt, I was ready for action.
First off was the British anthology Little Deaths, here enjoying a world premiere (though suggestions were made that this might not have been 100% true for whatever reason!). It’s a three story collection, each story directed by a different director – Sean Hogan (Isle Of Dogs), Andrew Parkinson (I, Zombie), and Simon Rumley (The Living and the Dead).
First up was Hogan’s “House And Home”, following a sadistic couple who get their kick by tricking and sexually abusing homeless girls. Unfortunately for them, their new victim has a secret that unexpectedly allows her to turn the tables. Second is “Mutant Tool”, a rather bizarre entry from Parkinson which follows a ex-junkie who falls foul of a corrupt doctor and the strange Nazi experiment he uses to manufacture a lethal drug. Third was Rumley’s “Bitch”, where a dominated partner in a series of strange fetish role playing games turns the tables on his girlfriend after she goes too far.
As the double entendre title suggests, this is a loose anthology tied together by a rough sexual aspect to each of the stories. They’re all fairly silly, especially the “Tool” segment, which got a lot of juvenile giggles. But, overall, it’s a fairly mediocre set of stories that’s probably OK for a laugh if it shows up late at night, but not a great opener for the festival. Then again, I have a rough time with other recent British anthologies such as Cradle of Fear, so you might think differently.
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On another level of class altogether was I Saw The Devil, the latest from versatile Korean director Kim Ji-Woon. Starring two heavyweights of Korean cinema (Byung-Hyun Lee from The Good, the Bad, the Weird, and Oldboy’s Min-Sik Choy), this tells the tale of a serial killer who murders a girl stranded in her car on a snowy night. Unfortunately for him, her boyfriend has connections in the police department that allow him to not only track him down, but also engage in a game of cat-and-mouse to prolong his revenge.
As with most Korean cinema, this is a little overlong and takes some wild lurches between comedy, action, thriller and horror. However, it’s a great movie, beautifully shot with some amazing sequences (look out for one where Choy stabs 2 people in a car). Especially compared to the previous film, this was an excellent piece of cinema and thoroughly recommended.
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Rounding off the night was another excellent piece of cinema, this time a documentary. Machete Maidens Unleashed is Mark Hartley’s follow-up to Not Quite Hollywood, an amazingly well received documentary on the Australian exploitation cinema of the 70s and 80s. This new film take a similar style, and applies it to the Filipino industry around the same time, largely concentrating on the output produced by Roger Corman.
There’s a decent range of talking heads present, from Corman himself to Joe Dante, Sid Haig, Eddie Romero and even the late Cirio H. Santiago. The format of the piece is a little simpler than the previous film, going in a roughly chronological order. There’s a huge amount of clips, and like the previous do, you need to have a pen and paper handy to note down some titles! Some movies are already well known among exploitation fans, but there’s some amazing looking obscurities on offer. Nudity is also copiously on offer, especially from the ladies – frankly a relief after the huge amount of male nudity in Little Deaths!
Overall, it’s a decent documentary that will most likely stand up to repeat viewings just so you can catch all the references. I’m not sure if watching the film at home would be anywhere as entertaining as the festival audience was, but it’s certainly worth checking out.
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