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.