FrightFest 2017 - Day 3

THE BAR

Álex de la Iglesia. 2017. Spain

A group of people argue and reluctantly collaborate when trapped in a Madrid coffee bar after they see someone shot on the street when leaving. What’s going on outside? How do they get out? It’s the old under-siege narrative that allows for plenty of friction, humour, characterisation, suspense and notable acting and de le Iglesia’s ‘The Bar’ delivers on all this. We know from such examples as ‘Night of the Living Dead’ through ‘The Mist’ to ‘The Similars’ and many, many others that people do not particularly respond well to such stress and this is no exception. There’s a lot of comedy drawn from the religious ranting homeless guy Israel (Jaime Ordonez) and the bar’s owner (Terele Pávez), and it’s of course informed by post-9/11 paranoia (hey, that guy has a big beard!), and naturally spins our initial assumptions about characters. But as rounded as they become, characterisation mostly crashes for the last act in the sewers. What it’s about, rather than the infection/zombies outside which we don’t see, is how such situations reduce people to their worst before their better natures usually kicks in. And it’s surprisingly ikky for a film set in a coffee bar, reminding us how close we are to bodily fluids and base levels, even in an environment that it meant to indicate civility, by primarily using cooking oil and the sewers. 

ALONE

David Moreau. 2017. France

Based upon Bruno Gazzotti’s French/Belgian comic book, a teen girl goes to the funfair and wakes up in a deserted city. Then she meets other teens and they slowly bond as they wonder where everyone has gone and what are the walls of clouds closing in? Moreau directed the thoroughly unsettling ‘Ils/Them’ and this is equally slick but doesn’t quite surpass the limitations of its Young Adult Fiction format. The kids are decently drawn and there are lots of nice incidental details around them; there’s the sensible lead girl, the slightly timid rich kid who seems only too pleased to have a gang of friends to pal around with; there’s the sullen delinquent who has to be won over; etc. The script never loses sight of their youth, having them all wanting to sleep together for safety or the moment where one boy immediately turns to overwrought angst when he thinks he’s been too drunk to remember killing someone. The adventure also knows to tap into the teen fantasies of driving unrestrained through a city and indulging in what an empty hotel has to offer.

But of course there’s a more immediate threat where it seems someone is out to kill them. (And here you should stop reading if you really don’t want spoilers:) But the answer to the mystery is that it’s a limbo is unimaginative and the idea that the afterlife is represented by a white stately home is trite. And then it ends on a cliffhanger that will lead into the sequel and it’s here that I reveal my ignorance of the source material, for where will this go: ‘The Hunger Games’ in the afterlife??

JACKALS

Kevin Greutert. 2016. USA

And speaking of ‘Ils/Them’, few films can match that one for home invasion terrorism. ‘Jackals’ starts strongly with a p.o.v. long take of an entire family being killed before it’s ‘based on a true story’ premise kicks in. A family kidnap their son who has joined a murderous cult intending to de-programme him; but the cult wants him back and pretty soon, the house is surrounded. A few years ago, FrightFest screened ‘Faults’, an insidious and tricksy de-programming drama which teased questions about character and need. ‘Jackals’ is the opposite, a straightforward nocturnal under-siege tale.

The drama and perspective rarely rises upon TV movie-of-the-week with characters acting somewhat stupidly and impulsively from emotion, giving the cult the edge, which somewhat undercuts the tension and undermines dread. Its main interest is in the suggestion that de-programming may not be possible – and certainly it will take longer than given here. But it is solidly made and delivers enough chills to be worthwhile.

ATTACK OF THE ADULT BABIES

Dominic Brunt. 2017. UK

A conversation heard outside the cinema:

Guy 1: … I’ve been hearing about ‘Adult Babies…’

Guy 2: (Shakes head) Oh mate.

Guy 1: Well I guess you have to have one or two films low on the pole…

Guy 2: Ah mate, it didn’t even reach the pole.

Brunt's 'Bait' was decent, but this is a thorough embarassment. 

VICTOR CROWLEY

Adam Green. 20178. USA

The existence of this sequel was a big secret that it was not even being listed in the FrightFest programme (it was called “Hatchet: 10th Anniversary Special event”). Green told the tale of how it was George A Romero himself that told him that the ‘Hatchet’ franchise was bigger than him now and who was he to deny the audience what it wanted? So here it is, and it certainly plays on all the crowd-pleasing notes. It’s almost like a horror version of ‘Airplane’. But Parry Shen makes for a likeable protagonist with the characters being archetypal enough that there’s no need to invest when they are killed off. It takes time to be clever with the revival of Crowley (rather than just having some devil-dog piss in the swamp or whatever) and makes good use of its crashed-plane limitations. There are plenty of genuine jokes (“Sign this!”) and fun to be had for this is the realm where an audience cheers outrageous deaths committed by a seemingly unstoppable celebrity ghostly killer. You know how this goes.

GAME OF DEATH

Sebastian Landry & Laurence Morais-Lagace. Canada. 2017

A bunch of typical young partygoers gather around a pool to kill time with sex, drugs and alcohol and toy with an old fashioned board game that, as soon  as it has drank their blood; it demands that they kill 24 people to “win”. And by winning, it means survival. Pretty soon, after an exploding head, they know it means business. They best get killing quickly.

The FrightFest programme calls it “’Jumanji’ meets ‘Battle Royale’”, but I was thinking it has the downbeat artiness of ‘It Follows’ with the low budget aesthetic of ‘Beyond the Gates’. The character introductions come as moments that blur with a detached knowingness, setting a tone more aligned with indie cinema than ‘Porkies’. There’s the drug dealing pizza boy, a brother and sister with an incestuous vibe, a guy with a dick drawn on his face, etc. This crowd are probably one-step removed from the types you find in ‘Final Destination’ but their mercenary if distressed edge is the kind of casual cruelty that you find in Brett Easton Ellis. A few characters see this as a welcome excuse to let their kill-instinct run free, but rare for this kind of enterprise, the characters try to find some moral solution to their dilemma, especially as this comes from the probable psychopaths, leading to slaughter in a hospice. As the game sets a time limit for the killing, things move briskly and urgently and the 70+ minute running time keeps things tight. It’s a brutal, rapid, and sly and more thought-out than these things usually are.

It's Alive

Josef Rusnak, 2008, USA

Another mediocre remake which only goes to reveal just how sharp-toothed the original was. Larry Cohen - who created the initial “It’s Alive” films (the first in 1975) and drew out the concept and implications thoroughly and interesting across the sequels - also has a hand in writing this remake, but there nothing here updates or expands the idea. This version seems neutered by all the mannerisms that have often compromised mainstream contemporary horror. 

Firstly, as contemporary horror films are apparently only fleeting interested in real adults, we have ludicrous casting in Bijou Phillips and James Murray as a hot young expectant couple who look as if they have only just graduated from High School Musical. If there is an enlightening horror film about young women giving birth to monsters as an analogy for post-birth mental illness, this is not it. For his part as dad, Murray gets to do very little but maintain his designer stubble and turn up for the denouement. For all of his early interest in looking after the kid, he actually seems to do very little of it. No agonising conflicts of the roles of fatherhood for him: there’s world of difference between his part here and John Ryan’s father from the original – one is nuanced and interesting and one isn’t. We are left with the mother as the focus, but Bijou Phillips - who maintains her attractiveness no matter how messed up we are told she looks or how crazed she is becoming - cannot hold up a role that asks for so much more maturity. Her motivation and mental health are never truly explained or convincingly rendered as she tolerates her baby’s slayings and hides the mess (with barely a trace left, it has to be noted). Just because, you know, she actually really, really wants a baby, just like all girls do, and all mommies love their babies, no matter what they do - to the point of mania, right? 

Another side effect of the youth of this central couple is that the supposed ‘son’ role from the original “It’s Alive!” is now a younger brother. We are presented with details for him - he is wheelchair bound, a loner and melancholic, and a girl at school tries to befriend him - but this go nowhere. Similarly, the missing cat - disappearing in the film’s one great surprise moment - is barely mentioned. Corpses pile up and get disposed of with so much ease, it’s a wonder Bijou just doesn’t slap her head and put her hands on her hips and go, “Oh, not again! Will you quit this, monster baby?” The film looks slick, has a general aesthetic of moodiness but suspense is squandered and emotional involvement is nonexistent.

This is one of the films generated by the revived Amicus studios, and it does seem a misspent opportunity, full of aimless performances and subplots that go nowhere. Again, a mediocre re-imagining feels simply like a cash-in on a cult favourite. By reducing the scope of the original to one family and one remote house (and how do they afford that big place??), the wider social commentary evaporates and all we are left with is a queasy pro-life morality tale warning that girls who have sex young and then try to abort will be punished with monstrous children.