FrightFest 2015 Day 1

Let’s see if I can do this without rambling too much. Can I update daily?

·         Jonathan Ross introduces

·         There seems to be less “Turn off your bloody phones” this year, at least so far

·         The FrightFest audiences are good

·         My goodie bag gave me a steelbook blu-ray of “The Woman” (hey, not bad! I have it already and mostly like it, so a result); “a dvd of “Banshee Chapter” (which I saw at FrightFest a couple of year ago and did not like) and a dvd of “Beneath” (which I have not seen).

The films:

CHERRY TREE is a lacklustre witch coven horror whose entire premise seems to be for the final stupid punchline. But I liked director David Keating’s “Wake Wood” well enough so would consider this a step back.



 

TURBO KID is a seriously fun homage to those dodgy, 80s post-Mad Max post-apocalypse VHS cash-ins. The 80s vibe is on-the-money, the lashing of gore decidedly modern, the performances endearing and the film is an obvious crowd-pleaser. An instant cult favourite.

 

STUNG is a giant wasp film and… well, it’s exactly what you would expect. Competently made and performed with nothing unexpected on offer, but with a weird negativity about women somewhere in there: for example, a stifling mother producing a defective son, a philandering wealthy wife and a girlfriend that won’t acknowledge the efforts of the main guy to please her. But of course, she will: all it takes is an attack of mutant wasps on a garden party she is catering for.