Frightfest 2022 day 4: "Mastemah", "Incredible but True", "H4Z4RD", "The Ghost Writer," "The Price We Pay"

Mastemah

Director: Didier D. Daarwin.

With: Camille Razat, Olivier Barthelemy, Feodor Atkine, Bruno Debrandt.

France 2022. 100 mins.

After tragedy, a psychiatrist moves and starts a practice in a small town. But tragedy seems to follow and the presence of a threat in a troubled patient. 

A questioning of psychiatry succumbs to the supernatural. There’s a point where all the style and formal tricks become overkill whilst waiting for the answers. It is nicely made and performed but a shorter runtime would have minimised the treading water which leaves the ideas and potential stranded. By the end, it is a bit too standard, for all its visual flare and/or excess.

Incredible but True

Director: Quentin Dupieux.
With: Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker,
Benoît Magimel, Anaïs Demoustier.

France 2022. 74 mins

Accessible Duprieux comes in a satire of magic realism that doesn’t feel the need to go further than a limited time portal in your house and an iDick to illustrate human absurdity. In this case, how people will go to extraordinary lengths and delusions to keep up gender constructs of youth and desirability. Light, easy and surreal, this is not quite the divisive film I anticipated as it's fun with a little cruelty to spice things up. 

H4Z4RD

Director: Jonas Govaerts.
With: Tom Vermeir, Jennifer Heylen,
Frank Lammars, Dimitri ‘Vegas’ Thivaios,

Tim Mielants.

Belgium 2022. 88 mins.

Filmed totally from within a car, this is a fun and furious thriller that is perhaps ultimately not a quite as goofy as expected from the first half. One of those “One Bad Day” plots where the bad luck just piles on for our petty-crime adjacent protagonist. He and his car must take punishment upon humiliation until he learns his lesson (well,we can assume he does). 

The formal fun and pounding soundtrack and some off-colour gags make this entertaining, a memorable entry in the lowlife farce sub genre.

The Ghost Writer

Director: Paul Wilkins

Stars: Luke Mably, Laura Ashcroft, Andrea Deck

2022, UK

A malcontent writer goes to his late father’s cottage to find his muse. She turns out to be one of those constantly/annoyingly vamping femme fatales with a violent boyfriend and a murder mystery. There’s much mileage to be gained from Mably’s antisocial character, and the scenery, but there’s nothing that spooky to this haunting. And it doesn’t help that the muse is just made of regular stock types, indicating that this writer works from staid tropes. There could have been a commentary on his the tropes speak to deeper complexity, but the writing that is meant to be so great, which we hear in narration, isn’t very good. But it does gather decent isolated cottage atmosphere.

The Price We Pay

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura.

With: Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff,

Vernon Wells, Gigi Zumbado.

USA 2022. 85 mins.

Another tale from Kitamura of characters that think they're in a crime thriller but then discover they are actually in the splatter genre. And even the typical screw-loose member of the botched robbery team isn't safe. Such mash-ups aren't to everyone's taste, but I like a little sleight-of-hand. Doesn't waste time on much backstory, but just gets on with the criming, a little set-up and then the gore. It kind of lets the side down by pausing for a little villain exposition, but mostly it just speeds along. With some death scenes designed to get the horror crowd laughing and applauding, this is fun for those with strong stomachs.

Frightfest 2022 Day 3: 'Something in the Dirt', 'She Came from the Woods', 'LOLA', 'Dark Glasses', Candy Land', 'Deadstream'

Something in the Dirt

Directors: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead.

With: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead,

Sarah Adina Smith, Ariel Vida.

USA 2022. 116 mins.

Another wonderfully heady offering from the Moorhead & Benson duo. What starts seemingly as a couple of guys find incredible phenomena in their LA apartment, which thy then intend to document/exploit, unfolds into full-scale conspiracy theorising and increasing sadness. Filmed by the duo and producer during lockdown, again it’s the stacking up of ideas that engross (morse code in fruit!), but their evocation of male relationships are always excellent. As an vocation of thinking you have something wold-shattering that you can't quite reach so head into conspiracies and delusion, it stands as a striking analogy. 

From the first flush of friendship to the moment where the more you know of someone, the more you can hit your target hen you criticise, they excel at providing deep characterisation so that even their arguing during mid-phenomena doesn’t strain credibility.

She Came Frrom The Woods

Director: Erik Bloomquist.

With: Cara Buono, Clare Foley, William Sadler, Spencer List.

USA 2022. 101 mins.

Summer camp. Kim Wilde's ‘The Kids in America’. Yep, it’s the 80s homage. The turning point from coming-of-age to horror is the high point, coming as a surprise, and from there on it’s a well-done homage of things you’ve seen before, but enjoyable as horror comfort food. With acting  a cut above average and a somewhat uninteresting spook.

LOLA

Director: Andrew Legge.

With: Emma Appleton, Stefanie Martini,

Rory Fleck Byrne, Aaron Monaghan,

Hugh O’Conor.

UK 2022. 76 mins.

Hugely impressive and inventive alternative history filmed with a Bolex camera and vivid imagination, blended with reimaged historical footage. A highlight is the music by Neil Hannon, reinventing popular songs for this alternative reality. It's all thoroughly convincing. The scope the film is able to achieve is wide, with the skill to hand to make it work while formally playing with the medium. Quietly stunning, provocative and a festival highlight.

Dark Glasses

Director: Dario Argento.
With: Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento,
Andrea Gherpelli, Mario Pirrello.

Italy 2022. 86 mins.

We are at the stage where there are not any set-pieces to offset the daftness. Admittedly, I find Argento films unintentional comedies, and this is no different (excepting ‘Suspiria’, which I love). Dodgy “blind” acting; dodgy police procedure; “Let’s hide in the reeds!” and the water snake attack with the following road fight, is notably comedy gold. Unconvincing. But funny.

Candy Land 

Director John Swab.

With: William Baldwin, Eden Brolin, Olivia Luccardi,

Sam Quartin.

USA 2022. 90 mins

And here’s the grindhouse homage. But even though you feel you might catch some some very nasty germs or a STD just by watching it, and even though it’s explicit, it never quite feels sleazy. But it IS gory and a shocker. One of those films that IS the era rather than just pastiche, but with a modern sensibility. Well played and effortlessly engrossing, it’s got its subversive side in that it’s not the blasphemous sex workers that are the unhinged.

Deadstream

Directors: Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter.

With: Joseph Winter, Melanie Stone,

Jason K. Wixom, Pat Barnett.

USA 2022. 87 mins.

Showcasing Joseph Winter’s brilliant comic performance, this is both hilarious and scary. The relatively new internet culture genre is truly finding its footing, and perhaps reaping more multi-layered rewards than just straight Found Footage. Certainly, our funny internet-celebrity protagonist has to face manifestations of his own fame-hungry demons.

Peppered with many great one-liners and details that reap narrative rewards later, belying its seemingly superficial veneer. The social media comments scrolling are sure to provide even more comedy upon a second watch. But, again, considering how daft this is, and no there is just something inherently creepy about empty buildings like this. I admit also to being on edge at times.

FrightFest 2022 day 2: 'Next Exit', 'The Harbringer', 'A Wounded Fawn', 'Night Sky', 'Final Cut, 'Midnight Peepshow'

Next Exit

Director: Mali Elfman.

With: Katie Parker, Rahul Kohli, Karen Gillan, Rose McIver.

USA 2022. 103 mins.

(Cool poster.) In a world where the existence of ghosts has some scientific proof, a mismatched couple head across the country with the intention of giving up their lives to further study.

Despite the supernatural backdrop (and a fine creepy opening), this is mostly a road trip of two central brilliant performances of an odd couple going through existential crisis. If it perhaps becomes a romcom for horror fans, the characters and performances convince hard, with a lot of humour and pathos on the way.

The Harbringer

Director: Andy Mitton.

With: Gabby Beans, Emily Davis, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Cody Braverman.

USA 2022. 87 mins.

Horror being the perfect genre for expressing the personal and global anxiety and terror of the pandemic. ‘The Harbinger’ starts with standard ghost/demon spooking, but as it goes on its use of dreams and despondence gets increasingly sophisticated so that it becomes apparent that the film is after deeper existential horror.

Rooted in crucially warm and believable performances, the failing reality and psychological threats are layered on to capture the dread and fear of the early pandemic years, especially the psychological toll. It proves itself something truly haunting and captures that sense of being at a loss and losing all the time which defined the early days of the pandemic.

A Wounded Fawn

Director: Travis Stevens.

With: Sarah Lind, Josh Ruben, Malin Barr,

Katie Kuang.

USA 2022. 91 mins

With some formal play, style, psychedelica, and great performances, this pumps colourful juice in the serial killer genre. It’s a kind of abstract revenge and Final Girl flick where the murderer-in-denial is tormented seemingly by a group of performance artists (embodying his obsession with myths). Trippy and artfully done and topped off with an audacious closing credits sequence.

Night Sky

Director: Jacob Gentry.

With: Brea Grant, AJ Bowen, Scott Poythress, Sandra Benton.

USA 2022. 96 mins.

Another slow-burn road movie with good central performances ('Next Exit' being the other), this one is like 'Starman' crossed with 'No Country for Old Men'; although Alan Jones namechecks road movies from the '70s. With the thriller element in play, the narrative keeps moving until the canyon and bright lights finale, and up until then its proven decent if not quite profound entertainment. Includes a decidedly nasty, pontificating hitman and Brea Grant effortlessly doing "innocent".

Final Cut

Director: Michael Hazanavicius.

With: Romain Duris, Berenice Bejo,

Finnegan Oldfield, Gregory Gadebois.

France 2022. 111 mins.

Unneeded remake of brilliant 'One Cut of the Dead'. It wisely expands on the meta by namechecking that this is indeed the French make of the Japanese original, but with very few new jokes of its own it only illuminates the strength and artfulness of that source material. When you know the gag, the first crucial long-take seems to have missed the point - the opening long-take of the original was amusing if seemingly clunky, but clearly timed its errors so that they never quite clued you in to this being "bad", never quite made you give up before its reveal. I am not sure that the timing and sensibility of this version would not have just signalled "bad" or made me suspicious from the off. When you know the original, it is likely to bore here because you know what's coming. However, so strong is the gag that when the second half kicks in, there is still a lot of hilarity still to be had.

Midnight Peepshow

Directors: Jake West, Airell Anthony Hayles, Andy Edwards, Ludovica Musumeci.

With: Chiara D’Anna, Richard Cotton,

Sarah Diamond, Roisin Browne.

In the sleazy side of London, Soho, men are arseholes and women are femme fatales and sirens, all manipulated by the mysterious entity "Black rabbit", a dark website for transgressive sexual fantasies. The film mostly avoids exploitation (it's mostly the men who get the worst here), but with its sinister Russian sex-abusers organisation (which apparently is only interested in the handful of cast that we see, despite a seemingly global audience), undernourished motivation, a little "A Serbian Film" imagery and nonsensical surrealism, it's not as transgressive as it thinks. Despite Richard Cotton's devoted and haunted performance and a great sleazy Soho atmosphere, it doesn't quite convince. (I am thinking 'The Beta Test' and 'The Special' did this better.)

FrightFest 2022 Day #1: 'The Lair', 'The Visitor from the Future', 'Scare Package 2: Rad Chad's Revenge'

 So this is the first time in … three years that I have attended in person, what with on thing and another. I saw stuff digitally, of course, except for last year when they did not have a digital option.  And being back in the thick of things is fun. Here we all are at the huge IMAX screen. Certainly last time, I really, really appreciate not just the size, but the all-immersive sound-system, which increased by enjoyment of the psychedelic-ambient scores of ‘Bliss’ and ‘Daniel isn’t Real’ and, especially, ‘Climax’. So maybe we can lament the days where FrightFest was held in a 1,300+ screen, but the IMAX sound size and sound-system arguably make up for that.

Anyway, great to be here again, just indulging in the insanity of doing nothing but watching films back-to-back for days.

 

The Lair

Director: Neil Marshall.

With: Charlotte Kirk, Jamie Bamber,

Jonathan Howard, Hadi Khanjanpour.

UK 2022. 90 mins.

 

Starts off with some sharp editing and vivid Middle Eastern terrain. In this desolate land, we nevertheless find ourselves in a hidden bunker full of humanoids in suspension tanks, and we know where we are. What we get are decent monsters (somewhere between Spawn and ‘Return of the Living Dead’s Tar Man, and you can’t help but be reminded of Marshall’s far superior debut, ‘The Descent’) versus hilarious Tough Talk and posturing as if the drama has been taken from an army recruitment commercial (is the tongue-in-the-check? Certainly the audience seemed to enjoy the hokey one-liners). Marshall is too good a director for this not to make the most of its low budget, but the editing does get increasingly incoherent and it’s a little to tropey to overcome its shortcomings.

 

The Visitor from the Future

Director: Francois Descraques.

With: Arnaud Ducret, Florent Dorin,

Enya Baroux, Raphael Descraques.

France 2022. 105 mins.

 

Off the mark with a hilarious pre-title opener with time-traveller trying to convince a couple of lowly workers to press the right button to stop a nuclear explosion. This start maybe implies a goofier film than what follows, but it’s consistently funny, including a number of sight-gags (a fight in the lounge conveyed through time-travel pop-ups is a highlight), doesn’t get bogged down in its paradoxes and sentiment and with even some time for zombies. Hugely enjoyable and smart in that it skims over the multi-verse and post-apocalyptic stuff with speedy explanations and vivid visuals. It’s earnest performances help sell the underlying message that the end-of-the-world is all down to human responsibility and individual flaws.

 

 

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge

Directors: Aaron B. Koontz, Alexandra Barreto,

Anthony Cousins, Jed Shepherd, Rachele Wiggins.

With: Jeremy King, Zoe Graham,

Rich Sommer, Graham Skipper.

 

With a lot of meta going on here, this sequel takes a punch at the absurdity of horror sequels – ‘Saw’ and ‘Halloween’ come in for special treatment – so that when characters are eventually left shouting that it doesn’t even make sense at the villain’s ultimate exposition, that’s a good gag at the genre. But long before then, the gags have been missing more than hitting, with an overreliance on homages to get chuckles (‘Re-Animator’, ‘Hellraiser’, ‘The Fly’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘Friday the 13^th’; many quotes verbatim), and the anthology only tangentially relates to the overarching tale. Each of the short films have thei merits - a "Final Girl" parody; even some spookiness to the 'Three Men and a Baby' derivd ghost story touching upon internet conspiracies and gullibility - but even for a skit-natured narrative, it falls into incoherence. The underlying commitment is obvious, but the repetition lets the shoddiness shine through so that proceedings become a chore, even with the hint that something equally celebratory and critical and interesting is trying to get through.

Nope

Nope

Writer & Director – Jordan Peele

2022, USA-Japan

Stars – Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea

On the Brain Rot podcast, director Mick Garris says “I think we’re in a really good place because diversity had become important to getting films made.”; and on the Evolution of Horror podcast, Tananarive Due says how she doesn’t think themes of the black experience can be shoved back in the horror box, post-‘Get Out’. ‘Get Out’ being a game-changing breakout hit that touched the nerve of race relations but did so through the lens of appropriation rather than red neck racism. It was smart, funny and recognisable in its “Don’t Go There!” narrative: it wasn’t difficult. Peele’s second film, ‘Us’, was more of a mess, going from home-invasion though spookhouse to conspiracy horror. Whereas ‘Get Out’ was admirable for its stripped-down precision, ‘Us’ was enjoyable for its anything-goes and everything-in gusto, even if it didn’t quite gel. And he’s good at this stuff: his Key & Peele sketch “White Zombies” is a favourite. In ‘Nope’, the social commentary concerning race is there, but it is arguably more contextual and cultural rather than the thematic engine. Diversity is finding interesting niches in the tropes of genre.

 

Just to mention that the trailers for ‘Nope’ were good at teasing without giving it all away (the ‘Us’ tailer was awful).  And ‘Nope’s slower, smouldering pace seems to have left many wanting, or lingering wondering if they enjoyed the film or not. Both Peele’s previous films had a key flaw in that the story stopped for exposition. ‘Nope’ doesn’t have that and is all the better for letting the audience put the information together. For example, it doesn’t quite spell out that the objects falling from the sky is non-digestible UFO shit, but we get the gag. It is the kind of conclusion you can imagine two pals coming to when just riffing and laughing over a nerdy beer/coffee. There’s the black comedy, not just when characters say the title of the movie. This also allows for an all-time Gothic classic image of a house being rained on by blood.

 

‘Nope’ has a lot of similar vivid imagery – Peele is good at that. The clouds. The range. The plastic horse and inflatables. The UFO swooping down. The carnage in the TV studio. Actually, the subplot with the rampaging Gordy the chimp is the part that takes up much centre-stage but doesn’t truly gel with the rest. This is surely meant state the themes of animal aggression, bland entertainment and Wild Things Can’t Be Tamed, but this doesn’t avoid the fact that this is a lot of flashback for a secondary character and plotline: Jupe (Steven Yeun and Jacob Kim). We already got the themes of blameless animals being exploited and potentially dangerous from the early scene of OJ Haywood supplying a film set with a horse, waiting for his extrovert sister to arrive. And Daniel Kaluuya’s wonderfully taciturn turn speaks volumes about the character’s solitary nature. For a film set on a ranch with a lot of Western genre nods, the horses sure get short shrift; mostly they’re just bait. But this Gordy chimp sequence is a real chiller and beautifully done, nevertheless. Peele is good at horror set-pieces.

 

There was and is a lot of fan theory surrounding 'Nope', but mostly it’s a monster movie, and it’s highly entertaining on that front. And like many monster movies, you’ll be left unsatisfied by stupid character behaviour just so the monster can do it’s thing (Just go inside? & Why sacrifice yourself for no good reason?). And would something of such a nature really be reliant on eye contact to feed? But just go with the flow. Its slower, more contemplative pace isn’t typical of mainstream monster films, and although it has ambitions above its genre station, it is lots more fun than perhaps its pensive tone implies. And for a film somewhat critical of exploitation in the aim of cursory entertainment, it offers a lot of Big Spectacle.

I Am The Twister - "Death on a Virtual Pier"

Around 2007-ish, in the era of MySpace (remember that?) I was going through a period of unemployment and putting up some dodgy recordings of mine online. My friend Paul West said, “Hey I can play instruments now. Do you want to make music?” And so I Am The Twister was born. 

We recorded songs on a 4-Track I had somehow been given by acquaintances and our songs were loosely geographically set in a run-down English seaside town. Our friend James Eastwood (ref. Lunar Engine) played drums on the tack “Marie Hate Song”. It was called “Death on a Virtual Pier”. 

 Now it’s on Spotify (always been on Bandcamp). 

 We still have tracks recorded from then that no one has really heard. I Am The Twister is active again and shall release those past and other new tacks imminently.

Amusements

 This month, I got to see Bloodywood live, I must sayI moshed to my heart's content. This was the "Nine Inch Naan" tour, I believe. So much fun and so wonderfully heavy. The band came out into the crowd when we were waiting for the show to start and handed out naan. Beneath the Indian folk metal outraged exterior, you could see they were having such fun. I was happy to be in the thick of it. 

Somehow found myself right at the front.

"Nine Inch Naan" tour vinyl.

________

This is the sound of my childhood.

The sound of my teenage years.

And some horror comedy...