2023 Film Round-Up part 2: action & animation & franchises

• ·         Oh, so animations and franchises and action and such:

 Part 1 has the dramas.

 

 

Takashi Yamazaki’s ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ epitomised all the fun and seriousness of a kaiju premise, mindful of the wartime origins and analogies whilst giving a worthy human drama with weight instead of killing time. And when the monster action starts, it’s so, so good.

The reality defying action in Chad Stahelski ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ made my gripes about Jalmari Helander’s ‘Sisu’

churlish and unreasonable, but different expectations for different films. I anticipated more from ‘Sisu’ and expected nothing less from ‘John Wick’. (Then again, I recently watched some King Hu films and unrealism has always be a part of action, I guess.) ‘Chapter 4’ was ridiculously long, which was appropriate for its silly self-aggrandisement, and I was just waiting for the undeniable thrill I got from the first 40 minutes of ‘Chapter 3’. Then I began to drift, and John was across the table from another underworld adversary with just a bunch of cards between them and a bunch of expendable henchman standing around the sides of the ornate room… but I had to go for a bathroom break and I figured I could miss the bad guy pontifications and hoped I would be back in time for the action. Well, I went, and about five minutes later came back and the bad guy was still speechifying. Then followed a full-on fight on a dancefloor across several levels but no one noticed because, y’know, fighting is just like dancing or something. Of course, none of this would work without Keanu, a man of a certain age who continues to dazzle taking on these fight scenes – and indeed, learning nunchuks (and yes, yes, Tom Cruise). But it was the overhead view following a gunfight through many, many rooms that really got my thrill levels up. The last movement (last hour?) entertained me mostly. Still that first 40 minutes of ‘Chapter 3’ I will stand by.

 

But if a bloodbath with the same negligible relationship to reality, then Kim Hong Son’s ‘Project Wolf Hunting’ will more than do the trick. A perpetual bloodbath of a film that just changes genre or sends in helicopters with new bodies to massacre when it needs to. To this, one of the film’s strengths is that no one seems to be safe. That guy who you think to be the main villain? The one who you think might be the eventual hero? Pffftt. Not that you’ll be invested, as this is pure 2D stuff, but… Then the sci-fi-horror kicks in. For braindead gory fun, it’s entertaining, undemanding, slick, goofy and unrelenting. Thin on substance, probably overlong, frequently inventive, culminating in a growth of narrative at the very end that probably hopes for a sequel.

Choi Jae-hoon’s ‘The Killer’ had a similar John Wick Vibe with its tongue slightly in its cheek.  A rudimentary set-up is just to prop up a number of action set pieces, the best of which is inevitably a hallway fight. It’s bright and breezy – based on the web-comic! & adapted from a popular novel “The Kid Deserves to Die” written by Bang Jin-ho – doesn’t waste so much time on characterisation, although it avoids overt cartoonery, even some gun-fu that isn’t just pow!pow!pow! - also peppered with some genuine nastiness. We’re left in no doubt that Bang Ui Gang is a brutal piece of shit, but Jang Hyuk can also turn on the charm and reassure us that this is all good movie anti-hero-kicking-butt fun. There no insight or depth, although the plot does weave a decent web, but it’s un-insulting in its shallowness and offers some nice fight choreography (by Hyuk). 

Xavier Gens 'Farang' added to Impressive Fight genre. Action movie cliches perfectly intact: when you go a new city (in this case: Bangkok), find a high building, go to the rooftop and take in the panorama. There’s not the social commentary you might have expected/hoped for, and there’s probably too much ticking of tropes, but when it finally gets to the hallway and elevator fights, that’s everything. A film like Choi Jae-hoon's 'The Killer' and even 'Extraction 2' know to get on with the fights and play cursory attention to predictable, familar set-up, but 'Farang' is happy to wallow in comfort-action.  Nassim Lyles is magnetic enough presence and the fights look visceral and painful. And then it’s just silly season.

Talking of action, Sam Hargrave’s ‘Extraction 2’ shirked much of its bond to narrative and instead offered impressive one take action sequences which, in themselves, were impressive and that’s what we came for, even if the film was average. 

But for something more serious, a little more ‘City of God’, there was Jadesola Osiberu’s ‘Gangs of Lagos’. More Traditional Gangland Tropes than the furious criticism like others such as 'City of God' and 'Gomorrah'. Oh, there's anger here - the exploitation of the street-level gangsters by the crime lords living in opulence; political corruption - but it errs on the side of formulaic. Tobi Bakre is a striking presence that centres the whole thing, but there are lapses into cheaper melodrama and a score that is applied to everything in a way that implies amateurishness. The street slaughters pull their weight, though, where it's obvious that budget restrictions aren't hindering the extras'/stuntmen's enthusiasm, and there are a couple of splashes of gore. Most of the ingredients are here, but it's mostly admirable rather than successful.

Dan Tratchenberg’s ‘Prey’ returned Predator to some kind of credibility, very enjoyable and infused with a Girl Power streak. More successful was the hint that a franchise of Predator films set at different periods, against various communities (vs. Centurions; vs. World War I/II soldiers; etc.), was possible and offered a variety of possibilities. But I doubt we’ll get that.

Although erring on the side of earnestness rather than fun – every five minutes we’re reminded that the patriarchy isn’t respecting how kick-ass this girl is – this is probably the least insulting Predator sequel. A little temporal relocation and forgoing the Urban Jungle stuff, a little reboot of the predator’s look and some decent action and we’re in solidly entertaining territory.

Similarly, ‘Evil Dead Rise’ was better than expected. An awful trailer thoroughly put me off, framing it like some ‘Insidious’-inspired pantomime, but people kept telling me It’s Actually Quite Good and then I saw it was directed by Lee Cronin, and I liked ‘A Hole in the Ground’. Some nice claustrophobia and some genuine nastiness and conviction rather than silliness to the gurning possessed. And although it didn’t excel in any way, it wasn’t lazy in intent and didn’t devolve into zingers, despite a reductive promo campaign. It’s debatable whether sticking the ‘Evil Dead’ label to it helped or hindered.

•  Super-stuff
  

Whereas animated features like ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ were too average and ‘Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham’ a mess, ‘Merry Litte Batman’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ proved delightful.

Although aimed at a younger demographic and possessed of character design that is often repugnant (even Alfred), Mike Roth’s ‘Merry Little Batman’ is consistently amusing family fare without resorting to nudge-wink gags at the adults or compromising the villains’ nastiness. Well, there are a couple of gags at the expensed of Schumacher’s ‘Batman & Robin’… but it doesn’t indulge. That Batman is voiced by Luke Wilson should be a clue, as well as the pop-rock Christmas tunes, to a more grungey-slacker absurdism. The humour comes from 8-year-old Damien Wayne’s hyperactive desire to follow in dad’s footsteps. Damien (sterling work from Yonas Kibreab: “No pictures! Only justice!”) bounces around causing mayhem and stumbling into Joker’s plan to bring crime back to Gotham City A film that happily embraces the absurdities of the Batman mythology whilst relating to the younger audiences’ need to prove themselves. Bright, breezy, funny and oddly ugly at times.

Taking the cue from the possibilities opened up by the Spider-verse, Jeff Rowe’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ happily freewheels through styles when the desire takes. More successfully, it lets genuine teens voice the Turtles and got the cast to do their voice-work in groups, generating a real energy of adolescent banter. It’s this that is the real magic ingredient, as the issues of difference, rejection, and acceptance all coast along merrily. It’s often funny, as grubby as it is colourful, less headache-inducing (or stunning) than the Spider-verse and, most of all: fun.

 ‘Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3’: James Gunn rounded up ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ with more epicness, some fan service, some surprises and some fuck-you as he added vivisection to the mix. There were still Daddy Issues, but the proof of how unpredictable Gunn’s mixture of dark-and-schmaltz outlook on the genre can be is that, at one or two points, you really do think he might kill off some major character. He even throws on an ‘Old Boy’ homage. Overstuffed, yes, but fully entertainment. And me, I could have done with more Baby Groot.

 

 But of course, ‘Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse’ was king of the genre. I had the same reaction as I had to the prequel: immediately – Whooo, slow down! And then – oh, wow! I didn’t know this was a “to be continued” ( I like to know as little as possible) so the ending came as a pleasant surprise and I just chuckled with satisfaction. Groundbreaking stuff. 

One last note on the super-hero stuff: Quentin Dupieux’s ‘Smoking Causes Coughing’ happily started from the point of mocking the genre’s absurdism before turning into a portmanteaux that widened its targets to embrace all kinds of silliness with some horror garnish.

FrightFest 2023: 'Monolith', 'Cobweb', 'Pandemonium', 'Herd', 'Farang', 'Transmission'

Director: Matt Vesely.
With: Lily Sullivan, Ling Cooper Tang, Ansuya Nathan, Erik Thomson.
Australia 2022. 94 mins.

Although conveyed only through telephone calls to a journalist seemingly willing to compromise herself when desperate, the mystery is riveting. Her investigation of sinister “bricks” is bizarre enough material to be gripping. Is she falling for a conspiracy or mass-delusion? Like 'Void of Night' or 'Pontypool' for example, a film that demonstrates that spoken-word genre storytelling can still work as a dominating factor is cinema. Down-the-rabbit-hole horror with an excellent Lily Tyler where all the clues do add up, there’s a little class commentary, lots of creepiness and a conclusion that, even if it goes in the direction you anticipated, still offers a few surprises to satisfy.

Director: Samuel Bodin.
With: Lizzy Caplan, Anthony Starr, Cleopatra Coleman, Woody Norman.
USA 2023. 88 mins.

Above average studio fare, there enough feints and genre-play to make horror fans laugh with recognition (oh, home invasion masks now?). The FrightFest audience also chuckled away at the scenery-chewing of Caplin and Starr as the parents who evidently neighbour ‘The People Under the Stairs’. Thoroughly entertaining. Cannier than you might expect with a genuine underlay of fairy-tale nastiness.

Director: Quarxx.
With: Hugo Dillon, Ophelia Kolb, Arben Bajraktaraj, Manon Maindivide.
France 2023. 95 mins. 

Excellent start with two guys accepting they are ghosts now, post car crash; but then it goes into twisted fairy-tale land about a bullying preteen girl whilst still seemingly referencing the first tale … and then there’s the tale of a mother not coping with the suicide of her daughter… and although always fascinating, not initially recognising this was a portmanteau meant I was mistakenly trying to find links and continuity where there was none. This also speaks to a confused conception when gluing these tales together, a lack of clarity. The first segment has a wit and promise that the rest doesn’t follow, so however interesting it may continue to be, whatever play and despair it may have with devils and damnation, it never recaptures it and a feeling of disappointment remains.

Director: Steven Pierce.
With: Ellen Adair, Mitzi Akaha, Jeremy Holm, Corbin Bernsen.
USA 2023. 96 mins.

 A gay couple just need a zombie threat to sort their issues out. Despite interesting-enough exploration of toxic masculinity in a militia context, it lets its insistence on being a mundane romance drag it into ridiculous and then redundancy - another film that doesn’t seem to realise how selfish and stupid the protagonist is, getting people killed - as long as they’re doing it for love. And when you’re screaming out in emotional pain, the zombies passing right by don’t notice.

Director: Xavier Gens.
With: Nassim Lyes, Olivier Gourmet, Loryn Nounay, Vithaya Pansringarm.
France 2023. 96 mins.

Action movie cliches perfectly intact: when you go a new city (in this case: Bangkok), find a high building, go to the rooftop and take in the panorama. There’s not the social commentary you might have expected/hoped for, and there’s probably too much ticking of tropes, but when it finally gets to the hallway and elevator fights, that’s everything. A film like Choi Jae-hoon's 'The Killer' and even 'Extraction 2' know to get on with the fights and play cursory attention to predictable, familar set-up, but 'Farang' is happy to wallow in comfort-action.  Nassim Lyles is magnetic enough presence and the fights look visceral and painful. And then it’s just silly season.

Director: Michael J. Hurst.
With: Vernon Wells, Felissa Rose, Dave Sheridan, Sadie Katz.
USA 2023. 73 mins.

Admirably ambitious in telling its tale through channel-hopping, providing a jigsaw narrative, but the core story of a filmmaker pursuing occult fascinations for apocalyptic ends is old hat and not distinctive enough. It can be hard to distinguish between the intentionally and unintentionally bad acting and the digital sheen does not suit all formats being homaged, so despite some impressive sci-fi effects, it occasionally looks unintentionally cheap.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities

Lot 36

Director – Guillermo Navarro

Writers – Regina Corrado, based on an original story by Guillermo del Toro 

Stars – Tim Blake Nelson, Sebastian Roché, Elpidia Carrillo

Graveyard Rats

Director – Vincenzo Natali

Writers – Guillermo del Toro, based on a short story by Henry Kuttner 

Stars – David Hewlett, Alexander Eling, Ish Morris

The Autopsy

Director – David Prior

Writers – David S. Goyer, Michael Shea, based on the short story by Guillermo del Toro

Stars – F. Murray Abraham, Glynn Turman, Luke Roberts

The Outside

Director - Ana Lily Amirpour

Writers - Haley Z. Boston, Emily Carroll based on a short story by Guillermo del Toro

Stars – Kate Micucci, Martin Starr 

Pickman’s Model

Director – Keith Thomas

Writers - Lee Patterson, Guillermo del Toro based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft 

Stars – Ben Barnes, Crispin Glover, Oriana Leman

Dreams in the Witch House

Director – Catherine Hardwicke

Writers – Mika Watkins, Guillermo del Toro based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft

Stars – Rupert Grint, Ismael Cruz Cordova, DJ Qualls

The Viewing

Director – Panos Cosmatos

Writers – Panos Cosmatos, Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Guillermo del Toro

Stars – Peter Weller, Steve Agee, Eric André

The Murmuring

Director – Jennifer Kent

Writers – Jennifer Kent, based on a short story by Guillermo del Toro

Stars – Essie Davis, Andrew Lincoln, Greg Ellwand

‘Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities’ is a handsomely mounted series, containing many vivid, memorable performances and set pieces. It’s a much more intriguing and impressive selection than the cartoonery and scrappiness of ‘Creepshow’, and arguably more consistent (different aims, of course). Del Toro introduces each episode, pulling an item from the puzzle-box-like cabinet that triggers the story forthcoming and names the director. This generosity also acts as a badge of quality, for this is a bunch of pretty esteemed filmmakers. Ultimately, it’s a cut above as a selection. 

In the first episode, ‘Lot 36’, Tim Blake Nelson’s angry performance is all. It’s directed by Guillermo Navarro who has collaborated with Del Toro several times previously and is chiefly a cinematographer (he did ‘The Devil’s Bone’, ‘Hellboy’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, for example). The setting of a storage facility and Nelson’ abrasiveness as Nick Appleton are the hooks, but the narrative is a bit front-loaded; meaning when things take a turn for the supernatural, it seems like it hasn’t left itself enough time. The monster is the kind beset by CGI and it’s just a bit average and underwhelming, despite a superior adult tone.

Vincenzo Natali’s ‘Graveyard Rats’ is the kind of genre fare that, having established its protagonist as somewhat reprehensible, sets about gleefully putting him through the slapstick horror wringer. Rats, claustrophobia, taphophobia and more horrors are poured onto greedy, graverobbing Masson’s head (a game David Hewitt) to absurdist amounts. Natali – who established his genre credentials with ‘Cube’, ‘Splice’ and many episodes of genre series – channels his inner-Raimi and delivers one of those wild horror rides that fits just nicely in the 40 minute format. Nothing original but Natali’s direction delivers a better and more enjoyable slice of EC comic-style Gothic terror than many. The dental examination of a drowned corpse was one to make me wince.

And if corpses being messed with makes you queasy, then ‘The Autopsy’ will hit your buttons. David Prior’s ‘The Empty Man’ had plenty of genre savvy and mashing-up and ‘The Autopsy’ exhibits further his sure hand. Starts off in earnest looking like a police procedural (a serial killer tale, perhaps) and then moves into realms more … otherworldy. It helps that it has scored a seasoned veteran like F. Murray Abraham as the lead, especially when he’s working solo for the most part and can carry it all effortlessly. The tone shifts subtly and the shocks creep up accumulating in a go-for-broke gruesome ending. A full bloodied horror that gives equal attention to creeps and squirms and, wherever else it goes, has no intention of pulling punches.

It's true that this series doesn’t really try with its titles. However, Ana Lily Amirpour’s ‘The Outside’ is the one that hits something heartfelt and horrific more than any other entry, It has an almost Joe Dante feel, in that Dante was good at surface gloss and the truly creepy in equal amounts, at serving up acidic slabs of brightly hued satire. Ana Lily Amirpour hit renown with ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’, so you know you’re in safe hands with the social commentary. Kate Micucci gives a brave performance as a woman who finds the pack of pretty but vacuous work colleagues fascinating and impenetrable and just wants to belong. Martin Starr’s performance as her husband is wonderfully warm and humane, and between these actors there’s a hook that goes deep. It’s the episode that has haunted me most and has begged that I mull it over. The shock did hit hard (oh yeah, of course: taxidermy) after the surreal turns had surprised, and it eventually ends up as tragedy. 

Keith Thomas’ ‘Pickwick’s Model’ has a winning period setting as an upcoming artist stumbles upon another whose paintings, in typical Lovecraftian fashion, acts as insights or instigations into untold otherworldly horrors. Or something. A chief pleasure of Lovecraft is that much of the horror remains abstract, of the imagination, untouchable. In visual adaptations, this can be a muddle, but this, as many are are prone, goes for what gross-out it can find for an anchor. Get past Crispin Glover’s distracting accent and it’s an entertaining if undemanding creepy tale.

But Catherine Hardwicke’s ‘Dreams in the Witch House’ is a depiction of goggle-eyed Rupert Grint stumbling through a Lovecraftian mess. Period recreation, the scary and the goofy and the maudlin barely hold together, leading to an end note that we don’t really care about. But it least it can be credited with the best title. 

Panos Cosmatos’ ‘The Viewing’, however, puts things firmly back in the singular vision vain. His beautifully composed shots, the auditory immersion breaking out into synth numbers to hit the pleasure zones, his broad use of colour plus his usual tweak of psychedelia – a kind of sunburnt trippiness – gives the simmering build-up and escalation a somewhat truer sensation of Lovecraftian horror, of meddling in and unleashing unimaginable horrors. One of Cosmatos’ dodgy guru types (Weller on fine form) gathers a group of artists and scientists together to try and penetrate the secrets of something he has acquired. The last image of set free horror is one to linger long after. 

Jennifer Kent’s ‘The Murmuring’ is the nadir of the series’ titles; yes it’s alluding to the murmurations of birds as well as ghostly voices, but even so. It gets all the marks for performances of Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln and an increasingly unsettling build-up. Kent knows that jump-scares don’t haunt, even if she knows that noises in the night do. But as with her breakthrough triumph, ‘The Babadook’ there isn’t much subtext or thematic subtlety, with all the analogies pretty upfront. If the slow burn ultimately arrives at something quite routine - horror being a way to process grief, etc - there are enough creaks and bangs, empathy and quiet ghosts to hit the mark.

To your Last Death & Max Reload and the Nether Blasters - Grimmfest May Madness

 To Your Last Death

Jason Axinn

2019, USA

Writers: Jim Cirile, Tanya C. Klein

Originally conceived as alive action, it seems, but ‘To Your Last Death’ being an animated horror distinguishes it in a way it probably wouldn’t have been otherwise. Dysfunctional siblings are summoned by their psychopathic and obscenely wealthy arms dealer father and unleash death traps and cosmic malfeasance in equal measure. The animation is the style familiar from ‘Archer’, the characters are the antagonistic kind and there are enough bonkers and outrageous touches – ‘Saw’-style death traps; reprehensible Russian henchmen; a little time-travel; comic-book style omnipresent beings for which we are just playthings; but surely missed out on a killer robot – to make this entertaining throughout. The faintly clunky animation only makes the pulpy excess and ultra-gore more amusing.

Max Reload and the Nether Blasters

Writers & directors: Scott Conditt & Jeremy Tremp

2020, USA

And here it is, the 80s homage that always pops up at a genre festival. This follows features such as ‘Beyond the Gates’ (homagey fun) and ‘Game of Death’ (playing things straight and nasty) in gamer culture unleashing demonic apocalypse; one might even include the delightful ‘Deathgasm’ in this playpen with its metal nerdiness.

Comic book colours – red lightning! – likeable young protagonists, retro-synth score, genre favourite cameos playing to the gallery – Kevin Smith! – thick messaging about the power of friendship, nerdiness and lots of retro-video gaming love. Although it has to be said that neither Max’s (Tom Plumley) proclaimed asshole lone-wolfish and the apocalypse are thoroughly convincing, but it’s light, funny, fun and exudes a lot of goodwill. It also contains one vivid and creepy moment where our heroes travel through a city where all the people have glowing red eyes.  And it’s all resolved with gameplay. 

The Devil Rides Out

 

Terence Fisher

UK, 1968

Screenplay: Richard Matheson

A Hammer highpoint, from its vivid opening credits ‘The Devil Rides Out’ hits the ground running and careens along with the pacing of a tense thriller. Richard Matheson – always a reliable voice – streamlines and improves on Dennis Wheatley’s original tale of the diabolical (he even sent Matheson a thank you note). 

Christopher Lee as Duc de Richleau presides over all, such a mammoth presence that they have to send him off for research just to let the other characters do their thing. Lee’s air of superiority and arrogance remain, as with any of his villainous roles, but here every “You fool!” is offset with a little doubt and vulnerability too. There’s the aura of a repressed warmth. It’s there from the first scene where he smiles to himself when watching his friend fly in, or the simple fact that he does all this to save his friend. Whereas Peter Cushing’s earnestness is casually convincing and brings gravitas and credibility to the absurdities, Lee seems like he would slap it into you. He is hellbent that you take this seriously, even as some of the dialogue, out of context, could be unintentionally funny; even when a shocking reveal is chickens in a basket, or trying to stave off the apparition of a black man, and even when the effects are less than stellar. For every telling delivery of a line about how his friend should take any of his cars, there’s Lee barking when answering the phone.

To counterpoint, Charles Gray is great casting as Mocata, Richleau’s flipside who oozes privilege and arrogance and carves his place as Lee’s superior effortlessly, as sinister as Lee is brash.

The classism and patriarchy are deeply ingrained in everything. Every man speaks to the women with a certain condescension. The accent of the English gentry is good for that. This is about two men of a certain age and class playing out their games of Good and Evil on the younger generation (Youth: don’t meddle with adult things you can’t hope to understand). But it’s the innocence of childhood that thwarts the forces of darkness, however much the adults flounder about. However, Sarah Lawson does get a central celebrated scene, dealing with a visit from Mocata, and Nike Arrighi as Tanith has all the mystery as a seeming conduit for Morcata. It’s decidedly old-fashioned and as Patrick Mower says (in the Studio Canal release’s extras) they felt it was so at the time, but he now sees it as aging well. It’s become a cult classic.

 

It has several memorable set pieces: the rescue from the Black Mass; the car chase in antique vehicles; Mocata’s hypnotism attack on Marie Eaton in a plush lounge;, and, of course, a night spent in a protective circle enduring a supernatural assault. And of course, the reputation of ‘The Devil Rides Out’ is that the effects let it down, but the strength of the story and execution makes the imagination compensation for what’s lacking. For my money, The Goat of Mendes hits the mark: simple but eerie.

And it has an ending that kind of ignores all the bad that’s gone on so that things can be idyllic again, which certainly seems in keeping with religious denialism. It’s a bit of an anti-climax: Richleau really doesn’t do anything, and the devil worshippers just wait for the recital that’ll bring about their demise to finish. But it’s true that the Hammer Horror feel, which Terence Fisher established from the start with ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’, is that the excellent production and art design by Bernard Robinson, James Bernard bombastic score, some old-fashioned Englishness and the pure insistence of moodiness overcomes any obvious weaknesses. (I like the observatory.) With a swift pace and consistently dispensing with memorable set pieces, ‘The Devil Rides Out’ is great occult entertainment. 

FrightFest 2020 digital - day 4

Shortfilm Showcase 2

Marcius Meedts’ ‘Werewolf’ has a group of friends playing the eponymous sinister party game. It’s very funny and nicely acted but ends on a somewhat perfunctory note – I wanted to see it play out more.

Ciaran Lyons’ ‘The Motorist’ offers a mixture of folk horror and surrealism and succeeds in the oddness that the short film format allows.  

What if you were stuck under siege in typical scenario with your asshole boyfriend? Charles de Lauzirika’s ‘Love Bite’ posits that culture wars will still be a thing when the world goes to hell. It’s slyly, cruelly pleasing that the film uses the word “snowflake” to truly trigger, and suggests that cheating is all they have.

Laura-Beth Cowley’s ‘The Gift’ is a neat animated feature about a woman gaining and accepting her feminine power, one with its roots in the history of women and witchcraft. Some nice facial expressions too. … Again, this is a trend I saw arising from last year’s FrightFest where women’s concerns are more prominent than ever in the genre, giving that little extra bite from familiar tropes. Hermione Sylvester’s  ‘Fuel’ also centres on a women feeling consistently harassed by men and the aforementioned ‘Love Bite’, ‘12 Hour shift’ and ‘The Columnist’ all have this already, and it’ll take precedent in ‘Dark Places’.

‘Wash’ by Kiggs delivers a nicely presented horror scenario just as ‘Povlotron 500’ creates a quick sense of future despair where all you want is some quiet time. ‘Keith’ plays on the monster-under-the-bed trope with a notable young performance from Mia Hemerling and voicework from Bear Winter-Perreu.  

It’s true that I probably enjoy giallo tributes more often than the original films themselves. With ‘Death Walks on Nitrate’ director Kevin Fermini follows the work of Cattet and Forzani in taking the giallo visual aesthetic as a springboard for psychedelica. Filmed on Super8, it’s visually inventive and enjoyable.

Dimiter Dimiroff’s ‘The Afterlife Bureau’ uses the short-film-as-skit with a nicely written riff on the bureaucracy of the afterlife.

 

 

Skull: The Mask

Armando Fonseca & Kapel Furman, 2020, Brazil

A pulpy mash-up of Brazilan mythology, comic book pulp, horror gore, slasher kills, demons and wrestling. This is the perhaps more honest fun as a homage because it is earnest rather than just using “homage” to wallow in the previous bad habits and weaknesses of genre. So in ‘Skull: The Mask’ this earnestness means that budgetary restrictions, rough edges and wavering acting are part of the package rather than weaknesses. For example, you know our protagonist is a tough cookie because she puts her hands in her pockets, on her hips, is contrarian and rips up cards of potential investigation leads because they are arrogant assholes. There’s a lot to remind of Jason Vorhees in Anhangá, the executioner of Tahawantinsupay a Pre-Columbian God, as he strides around town gutting people. There’s mythology, a hint of religion, street-level aesthetic, some decent gore that doesn’t seem heavily relying on CGI, commentary on corruption and plenty here to entertain. There’s always something going on. The visions of a red hellish otherworld are impressive, trippy and a highlight. A personal highlight: a priest pulling a sword from a statue of Jesus, as priest do. Also, our ostensible hero collecting a flamethrower from a tomb…? In the Q&A, Fonseca and Furman speak of how Brazilian horror is still trying to move on from Coffin Joe, but this conveys that same Go For It! gusto that José Mojica Marins ran on.

 

Two Heads Creek

Jesse O’Brien, 2020, Australia

Siblings go from the Brexit xenophobia in UK to the xenophobia in Australia in search for the truth about their mother. The humour and cultural representation is broad, but the cast know how to play and it’s consistently entertaining and funny. Of course, the locals shouldn’t be trusted. The encounters with Don Bridges as Uncle Morris are uniformly hilarious. It’s the kind of film that throws in a dance number as well as copious amounts of blood. It’s silly and fun with the underlying subtext that nowhere is welcoming to outsiders and that a government conspiracy will allow locals to murder. There’s some nice asides and barbs for the one aboriginal character too, right until the end. Like the best satire, it has an edge too.

 

Hall

Francesco Giannini, 2020, Canada

There’s a virus unleashed down a hotel corridor where some are having marital problems. The virus apparently incurs violence but mostly just causes people to lay in the corridor wheezing and croaking. Although the setting up of the characters and personal issues are fine – there’s a good portrayal of an abusive husband subtly undermining his wife – when the virus takes hold it becomes obvious that there isn’t enough story or inventiveness to keep things propelled. Instead, there are endless scenes of crawling down the hall, or our main protagonist Carolina Bartczak taking a long, long, long time to hobble down the hall on an injured ankle. Apparently she’s not quite concerned enough about her young daughter out there on her own to pick up speed; and when they do get out, she just strides away on that same injured ankle. And she doesn’t bother to alert anyone else attending the gala of the dangers, not properly. Also, since when do viruses cause someone uninfected to hear voices and hallucinate their father? The problems with the dramatic pacing are evident when there’s a long mid-credits news broadcast explaining more story.

 

A Ghost Awaits 

Adam Stovall, 2020, USA

A film that is obviously coming from a place of such good faith that I am happy to overlook many of my personal preferences. Macleod Andrews makes for an agreeable protagonist as Jack, who fixes up houses for rental. Temporarily kicked out of his place and with no one willing to put out for him, Jack stays in the property that’s his latest assignment… the only problem is that it’s haunted. With one location, lots of amusement, after a while the central joke emerges that Jack isn’t really spooked. Maybe my favourite is Jack refusing to be alarmed by a cabinet door opening by itself. This causes much bureaucratic disturbance amongst the spectral agency, which is the hub of the humour for the middle of the film and perhaps it’s best sequence with ghostly infighting. Then it moves into romance. The supernatural romance is not a sub-genre that I am particularly convinced by and typically I feel, as with many films that have conjured up a reliable temperament of humour, the urge to go for sentiment feels like a cop-out. But those who enjoy supernatural romance will feel differently. However, I still have issues with the idealisation of suicide as romantic devotion.

In the Q&A afterwards, the sense of good faith I got from the film was confirmed by Stovall and Andrews obviously being so smart and warm. Hence, it doesn’t quite tick all my boxes but that matters less than the fact that it’s smart, winning and nicely played.