FrightFest '24 - day 2

AN TAIBHSE (THE GHOST)

Director: John Farrelly.

With: Tom Kerrisk, Livvy Hill, Tony Murray.

Ireland 2024. 93 mins.

 

First Irish language horror film, a father and daughter fleeing the famine, a big deserted house they’re caretaking, all means plenty of Gothic potential. To this end, there’s plenty of walking dark hallways by lantern light, but as soon as dad starts chopping wood, we can guess where this is going. All the old school atmosphere is increasing forfeited by recourse to blaring jump scares and build-ups ending in moments designed for or inspired by trailers. And strobing. On the plus, the cast and atmosphere are strong and there’s plenty here to root for. A prolonged sequence with a wardrobe door that won’t stay shut and a drinking binge with the father that signals temporal displacement are highlights.

 

Bookworm

Director: Ant Timpson.

With: Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, Michael Smiley, Morganna O’Reilly.

New Zealand 2024. 103 mins.

 

Not a horror, but an odd couple buddy scenario when washed-up illusionist Elijah Woods has to take care of estranged and very, very precocious daughter Nell Fisher. We know where it’s going but Woods is at his most puppy-dog lost endearing and Fisher is aggravating, but deliberately so, and eloquent. It’s soft, funny, dabbles a little in near-Magic Realism with a panther at large and probably pushes its limits with life-threatening adventurism. But it comes fully garnished with gorgeous New Zealand scenery and an appearance by Michael Smiley.

 

Ghost Game

Director: Jill Gervargizian.

With: Emily Bennett, Kia Dorsey, Zaen Haidar, Vienna Maas.

USA 2024. 90 minutes.

 

Possessed of an inescapable flatness in all departments (which is very disappointing as Gevargizian’s ‘The Stylist’ has a lot to offer). The poster has more colour than the entire film.

 

Shelby Oaks

Director: Chris Stuckmann.

With: Camille Sullivan, Keith David, Michael Beach, Sarah Durn.

USA 2024. 99 mins.

 

Starts off as found footage mystery - disappeared YouTube paranormal investigators! - and moves on to other areas in an entertaining manner. (Director asked not to spoil too much.)

 

The Hitcher

Director: Robert Harmon.

With: C. Thomas Howell, Rutger Hauer, Jennnifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey DeMunn.

USA 1986. 98 mins.

 

Not having seen for decades, the restoration reacquaintance shows just how lean and mean with a pedal-to-the-metal pacing this always was. That’s why its reputation has been solid all this time. Rutger Hauer is terrifying and seductive; Thomas C Howell is thoroughly credible as the barely capable victim the Hitcher picks on. 80s action excess and existential crisis perfectly balanced: you hire a car to set across country to determine your masculinity but end up picking up its biggest threat.

 

Hauntology

Director: Parker Brennon.

With: Nancy Loomis, Samantha Robinson, Naomi Grossman, Zoey Luna.

USA 2024. 103 mins.

 

A mild horror coloured by LGBTQ concerns and themes of race. A feather boa of horror.

The Iron Claw

The Iron Claw

Director ~ Sean Durkin

Writer ~ Sean Durkin

2024,

Stars ~ Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson

 

Perhaps expecting a telling of the all-wrestling Von Erich family to go the way of all tropey sports films, it was only when realising that Sean Derkin was directing that I became intrigued. Derkin’s ‘The Nest’ had a faintly off-kilter manner, a chill and distance and a sensibility for melodrama that felt more indie than mainstream that I prefer.

The target of ‘The Nest’ is a self-deluded, desperate charlatan of a father, and ‘The Iron Claw’ similarly ultimately lays the blame of constant tragedy at the feet of toxic masculinity, enabled by a distracted/indifferent mother. Holt MacCallany gives an excellent bristling and bullying turn as the patriarch that turns his family into a cult. Or, as Letterboxd commenter dylan troesken writes, “when your“family curse” is just the mere existence of your father”. Fritz's way is more manipulation and psychological shoving whilst he leaves the physical punishment to the ring (as far as the film goes).

 

The fights are brutish and there is no doubt that they that they bruise, no matter the camaraderie of the faux-adversaries behind the scenes. This is violence made family-friendly and almost huggable by the set-ups and pantomime, by the operatic depiction of machismo. But faking it hurts and Durkin leaves no doubt to that. All this is as expected, but these fights that you assume to be the fulcrum of the melodrama are not the peak moments, as damaging and ferocious as they are, for they are almost the backdrop for the wider family narrative (and relegated to montages at times, made necessary to pack in as much story as possible). It’s the family drama that dominates and it is here that Durkins’ way with melodrama is most at play.

  

The Von Erich brothers have a strong bond, despite and because of parental figures that seem to swing between poles of dominance and disinterest: we see them partying but not in the kegging jock way we are familiar with such films. Their closeness is rendered in vignettes as well as bouts. We know the tropes, so when one brother says he’s going for a ride during an emotional peak, we know the narrative rules, but we skip to the consequences. It’s in daddy’s disappointed glare. It’s in the striking scene where mom has a grief-stricken fashion crisis when she realises she is wearing the same black dress as last funeral. The film is full of such moments and if there is inevitably a skipping-stone narrative over the major points, it doesn’t dimminish the cumulative gut-punch.

And for sure, those that know that story might be disappointed with omissions, which defines these kinds of films. Indeed, the Letterboxd comments is dotted with accusations that the film is a soft on Fritz. If you didn’t know the story ~ and I didn’t ~ it’s a shock to learn that there was another wrestling brother that followed a similar path. In passing, Mark Kermode’s review mentions that Durkin omitted Chris because: how much tragedy can you take? And yes, it would feel like heavy-handedness, surely? I mean, you can’t sell all this as fiction, right? Indeed, but this additional detail only belies a pattern, not a curse, of something damaged and damaging. No supernatural curse here.

There is a quiet anger marinated in heart ache here. But it’s Zac Efron’s performance as a somewhat gentle giant Kevin that stands out, a stunning wrestler’s physique almost blocking out all else until the nuances shine through. All this tragedy culminates in a moment where he gets to truly stick the landing with a most singular instant heartbreaker of a line. Like ‘Past Lives’, another film where you don’t truly realise the emotional impact until the finale.