MadS

 

Mads

Writer & Director ~ David Moreau

2024, France

Stars ~ Lucille Guillaume, Laurie Pavy, Milton Riche

 

Well, it had me fully interested as soon as I realised it was a One-Shot Wonder, but then gave a quite jaw-dropping title credit sequence. I went in not knowing which direction it would take, and the allure is in the angle David Moreau takes to a familiar subject. Just like the ‘V/H/S’ series conceit can give an immediacy and veracity to regular tropes, or how ‘In A Violent Nature’s approach provides a little deconstruction of the Jason Vorhees’ style of slasher. ‘MadS’ isn’t trying to reinvent any wheel, but just taking a certain route to make something well-worn exciting again.

 

Of course, the technical achievement of a One-Shot Wonder is alone worth watching – it’s all that driving alongside vehicles, the choreography, the dedication of the actors – the logistics dazzle and Philip Lozano’s gliding camera is rarely incomprehensible. Rather, the gimmick tracks the route of infection, and just seeing a familiar trope done at a slightly different angle of intimacy and subjectivity invigorates it. One night out becomes a nightmarish descent into martial law. The trip into chaos is tightly steered.

 

It's not about narrative, but just the sheer careening into increasing fear and craziness in real time. One of the best sequences is Romain (Milton Riche) just getting home, already high for a night out and with a corpse in his daddy’s car, trying to make sense of how he deals with the situation: it’s here the subjectivity has the most resonance, with the character being duped into a WTF?! horror moment and wondering what to do next (just carry on as normal?).  

 

As a victim’s-eye-view of an End-of-the-World event, ‘MadS’ makes an effective evocation of the confusion with a punkish, pell-mell energy that complements its tag-team structure.

Heretic

 

Heretic

Writers & Directors ~ Scott Beck, Bryan Woods

2024, USA-Canada

Stars ~ Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East

 

It’s obviously Hugh Grant’s tour-de-force, but Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are just as impressive. All three could have been 2D and that would have served the purpose of a Fun Thriller, but Beck and Woods script is more interested in these characters struggling with their beliefs. They are all trying to impose their faith on one another, but it’s the girls that are seemingly aware of the flaws in their Faith and absorb them.

 

Beck and Woods’ script goes through Gothicism, philosophy, twistiness, social commentary, Escape Room dilemmas, parlour games, clues and straight-up horror motifs (what’s in the basement?). It’s all to the power of keeping the audience on their toes through speeches on Monopoly and theism. It’s a bold film that halfway through tells the audience to settle down to hear a lecture of derivations and reiterations (which is fascinating).

 

Grant pulls out the Goofy Britishness to winning effect, but he conveys something frighteningly lost deep within his character, something that makes him a mansplainer of the most toxic kind. It’s a self-aware performance that says, “All this charm? It’s a mask.” His character is one of those people that hold you hostage and batter you down with passive-aggressiveness and the righteousness of their (conspiracy) theories under the guise of having some salient points and criticisms. And moving goalposts where necessary. And in the age of toxic social media interactions, this feels a particularly zeitgeisty villainy.

 

Yet ‘Heretic’s aim is also obviously for genre pleasure – whether mystery or horror or whatever – so it never feels preachy or slacking. Even so, it’s the debates that are the strength – it’s very talky. Of course, it has a cast that can keep up, from Grant’s posh boy passive aggressive menace to Thatcher and East’s fully believable and sympathetic Mormon girls. Their vulnerability and ordinary is tangible. There’s a criticism of trying to forcibly impose your view upon others under the facade of debate, a criticism of evangelism, and if the ultimate effect is fun over disturbance that’s why it’s attracted allegations of shallowness. Even so, that’s also surely going to propel it as a cult favourite.

You Only Live Twice - single by Buck Theorem

This Nancy Sinatra spin has always been a favourite of mine, by  John Barry with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.It's true that I probably like John Barry's James Bond music more than the films themselves (except for 'Casino Royale' 2006, which I consider to be one of the very best action films). Music so thrilling.

 Anyway, here is my effort:

FrightFest Halloween 2024

FrightFest Halloween 2024

It’s funny how you slip into that film festival routine so quickly – eating improperly, snacking, recognising faces, seeing friends, etc. This year, as some of us retreat to the big screen for genre treats, outside they are turning the middle of Leicester Square into Paddington Bear Promotional Peru – and perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems especially busy.

To the films…

Sam Yates’ ‘Magpie’ is a slick, well presented anti-toxic masculinity revenge thriller, but one that doesn’t seem to think we’ve caught on long before the revelation.

 

Isaac Ezban’s ‘Parvulos’ has a similar structural flaw: it is too long and feels it because it doesn’t quite know how to place its beats. There are also tonal instabilities that throw you out a little (no zombie sex in front of the kids, please) and a little queasy quirk about vaccines. Three brothers trying to survive the apocalypse: the young actors give it all; the aesthetic is so washed out it’s often black and white; there’s some nice casual build-up, but it’s all increasingly a little bitty. You can tell it is heartfelt, which seems to make a blindspot to its deficiencies, but it meanders along long enough for the audience to notice.  The aesthetic and the central horror of potential starvation do a lot to make this memorable, but if you’re bored of zombies this won’t change your mind. 

 

Airell Anthony Hayles ‘Advent’ has an inspiration that’s more troubling than anything the film offers (The Blue Whale Challenge). It lacks the imagination to exploit its limited household claustrophobia, or to go for jump-scares, or to make the challenges surprising or disturbing, or to fill the short running time with interest.

Guido ​​Tölke’s ‘A Bitter Taste’ also suffers from being too long and tempo issues: it dives straight in and veers between beautiful visuals and the kind of over-editing that hints at desperate amateurishness. It’s not amateurish, but it is messy and lacks a focus and pace that would make this fun. It has a giallo flavouring, and the wild body-horror of the finale almost makes it worthwhile, but it’s exhausting rather than amusing.

I was probably expecting ‘Alien Country’ to be a little ‘Mars Attacks’, which it isn’t, but it’s funny and goofy. Obviously in love with its Utah Small Town Americana, it’s K.C. Clyde’s natural funnyman charm that holds it all together while peppered with small winning gags (“Chase mixtape”; “Zombies – this far North?”; cops discussing bakery). Endearing.

Yusron Fuadi ‘The Draft!’ is generically stumbling along it’s tropes, when suddenly its title makes sense and opens up a host of meta-gags. Even the score set to “overkill” and a gag reel make sense in context. Surprisingly smart and amusing.

Chris Reading’s ‘Time Travel is Dangerous’ is winningly funny from the start – two slightly daft and self-obsessed vintage shop owners use time-travel to stock their store – but gets lost in a story that takes a less interesting, more self-obsessed and less funny inter-dimensional story. It's "How did we end up here?", but in a way that squanders interest.

Any seasoned horror fan will get where this is going from the opening credits collage. Teddy Grennan’s ‘Catch a Killer’ makes for a thriller whose stylishness belies its B-genre concept, but it’s slick, entertaining, very enjoyable and hosts a great central performance from Sam Brooks. And for once, the romance feels worthwhile rather than performative. I for one appreciate the swiftness of the ending as opposed to a originally conceived protracted showdown that would have highlighted more problematic elements.

It's the slow burn of Emma Benestan’s ‘Animale’ that draws you in with Oulaya Amamra’s soft-and-tough performance riveting from the start. The slow burn allows the etching of the community and character to soak in. If it ends up being more obvious than promised, not realising that it need not be, it is nevertheless fascinating, exhibiting a sure hand and sense of place and culture in the Carmague region bull running context. And what to do with a bull running woman, eh men?

 

So it's the back-end selection that proved most rewarding.

 Performances of the festival: 

• Oulaya Amamra ~ 'Animale'
• Sam Brooks ~ 'Catch a Killer'
• K.C. Clyde ~ 'Alien Country'