This year was the FrightFest Halloween selection that I enjoyed most since I have started going, admittedly only a few years ago. And if there was any theme, it was “Don’t Go In The Woods”. The imagery of threateningly dense trees was reccurring. ‘Lovely, Dark and Deep’, ‘Superposition’ and ‘Blue Light’ all had this, and it’s true I’m probably not interested in camping (I blame ‘Willow Creek’). Overhead shots of cars on roads through woodland was also frequent because everyone has a drone now.
The Waterhouse
Writer and Director: Samuel Clemens.
With: Alan Calton, Michelangelo Fortuzzi,
Lara Lemon, Lily Catalifo.
UK 2023. 84 mins.
Three criminals hide out in a remote house, their frictions a little murky but not overly played. It’s crime-meets-the-supernatural time and as weird happenings and black-outs occur and seems to be bringing things to a head, three sexy sirens turn up.
The three thieves are less laddy and broad than you might expect, performed with some nuance, but the women are just sexy-bossy-seductive. So, you know, what is happening is not so hard to work out. Undoubtably reaching for enigmatic ambience, for which the single coastal location contributes much, and yet there’s an absence of tension and mystery. You know it’s a low budget film when the character spends long time starting the film searching the one location, trying to muster up tension. But there is some nice cinematography - you can’t really go wrong with the sea and the moon. And when it runs out of steam, it relies on it ‘Evil Dead’ drone shot (then I couldn’t decide if the final revelation came as a groan-inducing pun). But it’s all a little pretty, a little garbled and ultimately underwhelming.
He Never Left
Director: James Morris.
With: Colin Cunningham, Jessica Staples, David McMahon, Sean Hunter, Mary Ellen Wolfe, Hailey Nebeker, Will McAllister, Jake Watters.
Writers: James Morris, Michael Ballif
USA 2023, 97 mins
Starts with an underwhelming first kill, but as soon as the car boot opens and Colin Cunningham pops out, the film compels with his performance and a laying on of other stories and angles running unseen but parallel. Cunningham excels as a fugitive trying to control his temper one minute and losing it the next, in a constant state of panic and guilt.
You might be forgiven for thinking that we're not in the slasher flick the poster promises, but it's that too - even if it does that diffusing technique of carrying the story right into the credits. There's a lot to superficially enjoy, but its underlying theme of broken people due to bad parenting and child abuse - and the fact that one of its endings has the agents in pursuit of the fugitive lamenting the legacy of serial killers but not quite catching on - has the film reaching for greater depth and leaving more than the usual residue by respecting trauma. In this way, it’s also interested a little in dissecting its own crime-meets-horror genre, having its cake and eating it.
Maria
Directors: Gabriel Grieco, Nicanor Loreti.
With: Dana Panchenko, Sofía Gala Castiglione, Malena Sánchez, Magui Bravi.
Argentina 2023. 70 mins.
Another proposed homage to 80s excess and ridiculousness that piles on absurdity and nastiness for Midnight Movie status. But a lot of its threads come to little or nothing and we're left celebrating eager killers because the victim is set-up as vile. The highlight is a discussion about the difference between 'Robocop' and 'The Terminator' as robots or enhanced humans. It seems a little 'A Serbian Film' at one point (or even ref. ‘Squid Game’ for masked vile and debauched 1%) and gleefully silly the next, righteously angry inbetween, but too tonally inconsistent for what seems to be a somewhat serious intent. Moreover, it’s this wish-fulfilment that sidelines Maria herself so she’s reduced to smirking approvingly while revenge is meted out. Not enough focus or fun and yes, those are ‘Metropolis’ namechecks.
Eldritch, USA
Directors: Ryan Smith, Tyler Foreman.
With: Graham Weldin, Andy Phinney, Cameron Perry, Aline O’Neill.
Writer: Ryan Smith
USA 2023. 99 mins.
Horror musicals, not quite my thing: though ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ is a favourite; didn’t care for ‘Anna and the Apocalypse’, although it’s very popular; but I thought ‘Stage Fright’ (2014) funny. My taste didn’t include the musical numbers here, or the kind of cheesy affectations that go with musicals, but the songs neither got in the way or really contributed to the humour (though the occasional amusing lyric). The highlight is the funny ritual set-piece as they missing the target when trying to bring back the dead. And then it goes HP Lovecraft… but there’s enough to make you laugh (even if the ‘Hellraiser’ gags, and the appearance of ‘TheTrolley Problem’ made me laugh in context) and charm. It’s a shoestring zombie-comedy-musical that will probably win you over with its good naturedness.
(The poster for FrightFest made me think this might be a Mike Mignolia inspired animated feature, which I got quite excited about, but it wasn’t and there are varying posters for this, which aren’t so misleading.)
Lovely Dark and Deep
Writer & Director: Teresa Sutherland.
With: Georgina Campbell, Nick Blood, Wai Ching Ho, Soren Hellerup.
USA 2023. 87 mins.
Leaning on the ambient horror aesthetic, Sutherland’s debut has a Lennon – an excellent Georgina Campbell – who gets her Park Ranger position where her motivation is to follow her obsession for the park’s missing persons, of which her sister is one when they were kids. Lots of torches gliding over trees in pitch darkness, creeping atmosphere amidst the bright stunning landscapes, disquieting soundscapes, then failing reality and such. Jonathan Deehan describes the narrative as “…the character’s journey often feels aimless, like a lost puppy stumbling through a Halloween maze of unconnected scare zones”, and that’s an apt outline. The enigma and abstractness is intriguing enough, and a lack of clarity does not necessarily sabotage the mood piece, but the motivation is a little hazy which rather lets down the whole excursion. We don’t get to know Lennon to any nuanced degree so it’s hard to be shaken or whatever come the ending. As consummate and achieved as the mood of trauma and unravelling reality is, there’s a sense that this isn’t as chilling as it should be.
Superpostion
Director: Karoline Lyngbye.
Writers: Karoline Lyngbye, Mikkel Bak Sørensen
With: Marie Bach Hansen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Mihlo Olsen.
Denmark 2023, 105 mins.
More failing reality, one of my favourite horror fears. Like ‘Marriage Story’ meets ‘Coherence’, a couple decide to and leave society behind, taking their young son with them, so they can repair the fractures in their marriage. This is a couple fully self-aware of their narcissism and privilege in the modern world, and there’s irony in that they will be blogging about their off-the-grid experience. But alternative realities have other ideas, and they are forced to face their marriage problems by negotiating with themselves. As always with doppelgängers scenarios where the definitions and characters get a little blurred (sometimes deliberately (can you impersonate yourself?); keep track), there may be a little confusion here and there, but Lyngbye’s film never loses sight of that aforementioned privilege and narcissism and what that might mean should a person be faced with this during a mid-life crises. A true existential, character study chiller, coolly played and sure-handed.
Hood Witch
Director: Saïd Belktibia.
Writers: Saïd Belktibia, Louis Penicaut
With: Golshifteh Farahani, Denis Lavant, Mathieu Espagnet, Jérémy Ferrari.
Iran/France 2023. 91 mins.
From the crash-course in witch hunts and modern belief in witchcraft that opens, it is obvious that this is a film that’s fully awake and that there will be no slow burn here. Indeed, the whole opening with our protagonist going through customs with her son is a gripper, showing that we are in for serious business (although the issue of prison is sidestepped). Indeed, Golshifteh Farahani is nothing less than compelling and fiery as a woman exploiting people’s belief in witchcraft on her estate as she dips in an out of her ongoing feud with her estranged husband. It soon becomes apparent that her son is everything that’s at stake, physically, emotionally and spiritually as the story launches into the witch hunting and becomes a chase narrative. Running at a unshakable pace, there’s nothing supernatural here, just a kitchen sink thriller with streaks of commentary about the role of women, the consequences of charlatanism and the bloodthirstiness of faith, whether a witch-hunt or a self-flagellation.
The Last Video Store
Directors: Cody Kennedy, Tim Rutherford.
Writers: Joshua Roach, Tim Rutherford
With: Kevin Martin, Josh Lenner, Vanessa ‘Yaayaa’ Adams, Lelan Tilden.
Canada 2023. 90 mins.
I often come across comments where people say horror and comedy rarely works, but I can assume they aren’t paying much attention. At FrightFest, the horror comedy is a staple and ‘The Last Video Store’ is another good example. Kevin Matin owns The Lobby DVD Shop, a real VHS store still hanging on – here called Blaster Video – and that’s the setting for this showdown with a demonic VHS tape. He’s the lead too.
A self-aware, self-deprecating, joyful homage in its own way, armed with only a single beloved location, two vivid leads and a number of good genre gags. It may not be anything exceptional, but it is highly likeable, funny and infused with a melancholy that makes sense of its purple-and-neon hued nostalgia and claustrophobia.
Blue Light
Director: Andy Fickman.
With: Bella DeLong, Amber Janea, Daryl Tofa, Ana Zambrana.
USA 2023.109 mins
With cast and characters set at a constant screech or scream, it’s a chore to sit through them being picked off seemingly by demonic pranksters playing with a harmoniser pedal.
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