Director: Takeshi Kushida.
With: Akane Ono, Mone Shitara, Takuma Izumi, Shusaku Uchida.
Japan 2023. 94 mins.
AMSR horror, a little Cronenberg, a little Peter Strickland, very Japanese Mad Scientist Modern Gothic parent- child melodrama kind of thing. A little garbled, very mannered and ending with a pretty bonkers Grand Guignol promised by the poster. But then it does start with cello playing intercut with fruit slicing.
In the Q&A, Takashi Kushida spoke of how the AMSR sound design was down to both budget and control, certainly giving the film a distinct flavour (crickets represent anxiety, for example). He also believes the technology in the film (seeing through someone else’s contact lenses with a VR headset) is only a few years away. It won’t be for all, but it is distinctive.
Director: Erik Bloomquist.
With: Devin Druid, Emilia McCarthy, Amy Hargreaves, Catherine Curtin.
USA 2023. 95 mins.
The Bloomquist brothers deliver another solid but average horror, this time a slasher homage. Instead of family drama filler - although we get that too - there is a lot of local politicking and fighting, which is the point. Another film that posits American High Schoolers as somewhat obnoxious, but the adults aren't much better. There's a 'Columbo' tribute lollipop sucking Commissioner who is by turns annoying and the deliverer of the best lines. And there is a vivid enough masked killer, although any seasoned horror fan will figure much of it out long before we have to endure the overlong denouement of exposition.
Comfort food for slasher fans with nothing to offend or revive the sub-genre.
Director: Thomas Sieben.
With: Nilam Farooq, David Kross, Justus von Dohnányi, Olga Von Luckwald.
Germany 2023. 84 mins.
A one take feature is always likely to impress me because the choreography, blocking and effort involved instantaneously impresses. And ‘Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Dwells’ (clumsy title) is no exception. From the moment the woman walksinto the house, keeping up real-time drama with phone calls and wandering around in the basement upon hearing noises - like you shouldn’t – and into a nasty ghost story and… Well, there won’t be any surprises here, but Nilam Farooq’s performance is quite stunning, the one-take gimmick pays great dividends and, strikingly, it even fits in a real-time flashback/vision. Sieben also widens the scope by rooting it all in guilt and horror of German colonialism showing that, even as he lamented the lack of a German horror scene in the Q&A, he knows what it’s all about.
Director: William Friedkin.
With: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow, Jason Miller.
USA 1973. 122 mins.
A classic, of course, benefiting from Friedkin's Seventies realism to make it still startling. Even if you're atheist, one can't deny that their is a credible Catholic thought and consistency here, that it isn't silly, condescending or insulting like many of its like. Or as Mark Kermode answered when asked in the Q&A why he thinks this has lasted as credible when so many others don't, and he replied that it is because this is centred on one man's crisis of Faith whereas others go "ooga-booga!" Therefore, as he says, it's become a great commercial for Catholicism.
Of course, being an atheist, it won't convince, and it obviously weighs against science to argue its case, presenting medical tests as torture and doctors as somewhat closed-minded ineffectuals. But as an allegory for a mother dealing with her daughter's difficult puberty and/or mental health issues, or just plain acting up, it holds other power of meaning. You know, because science can't understand the aggressive mood-swings of kids. Nothing a little self-sacrifice/martyrdom won't solve.
But as a technical exercise, it's potency, its indulgence in exploitation as even as it never loses its grip on its highbrow concerns of Faith, has barely waned.
From the opening, home invasion is just a rock'n'roll party. But when this particular group of killers turn up at a school closed for Christmas but for just a few remainers, and after bearing with the tediousness of killers trolling and torturing their captives, the film becomes more interesting when the longer game is revealed. Yet, despite how likeable Madison Baines is and how smartly Georgia Aiken plays, it's quite a shallow vision of horror where, despite its insistence that wrong-doers get their just desserts, making friends with demons is cool and emancipating for the kids!
My picks of FrightFest 2023
Where the Devil Roams
Monolith
New Life
The Seeding
Raging Grace
And
‘Cobweb’ for being better and more fun than expected
‘It Lives Within’ for a slightly fresh perspective on standard tropes, and a full-bodied analogue monster
‘My Mother’s Eyes’ for bringing something odd
Average films with standout moments
‘Suitable Flesh’: parking camera gore-gag
‘Farang’: lift fight
‘Pandemonium’ opening story
Favoured Performances
‘Monolith’ - Lilly Sullivan
‘New Life’ - Sonya Walger & Hayley Erin
‘The Seeding’ – Scott Haze
‘Home Sweet Home: Where evil Dwells’ - Nilam Farroq
‘Cold Meat’ – Allen Leech & Nina Bergman
‘Raging Grace’ - ensemble
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