FrightFest '24 ~ day 4

The Last Ashes

Director: Loïc Tanson.

With: Sophie Mousel, Timo Wagner, Jules Werner, Luc Schiltz.

Luxembourg 2023. 120 mins.

 

A revenge Western drama set in 19^th Century Luxembourg opens with the kind of absurdist black-and-white maltreatments that remind of the absurdism/cruelty of, say, ‘The Painted Bird’ or Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel ‘Laprova’. Then fifteen years later in colour and Hélène is back to burn it all down so she can make peace with her trauma and move on. The violence and sadism of misogyny and the patriarchy is the enemy here, and the pleasure is in seeing our defiant protagonist Hélène (an excellent Sophie Mousel) putting in place the pieces of her long-term vengeance. The film takes its time with this, but the consistent tone and engaging and unusual setting is always compelling, always boiling its elements. Often pretty, some nastiness, occasionally shocking and a gratifying finale, fuelled by an outrage at the absurdities and brutality of religious misogyny.

 

The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee

Director: Jon Spira.

With: Peter Serafinowicz, Harriet Walter, Peter Jackson, Joe Dante.

UK 2024. 104 mins

 

The animation that Spira employs to tell the tale of Christopher Lee’s may initially seem a little too cute, but by the end it’s all very moving. Lee’s history is fascinating and surprising long before he played Dracula, a role he seems to have spent the rest of his life trying to shake off, even up to his knighthood (which proves a perfect and hilarious note to end on). Regal, onery and, it would seem, surprisingly insecure. But it’s lovely to think he was having some of the best times of his life right up to his viewing choice with the nurses before he passed away.

 

AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH

Director: E.L. Katz.

With: Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Katariina Unt, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.

USA 2024. 85 mins.

 

Silly, but always entertaining. After “The Rapture”, people give up the “sin of speech” (?), and instead seem to get over communication issues by whistling and meaningful looks. And even its post-apocalypse, you’ll still have the chance at a to-the-death fight to some electropop. And although the monsters seem be only roaring dirt-covered cannibals, there are some good moments of practical effects gore.

 

In comparing with ‘The Last Ashes’, here it is a matriarchy that Samara Weaving wants to burn to the ground, although apparently it is all resolved with a little maternal instinct.

 

Saint Clare

Director: Mitzi Peirone.

With: Bella Thorne, Rebecca De Mornay, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley.

USA 2024. 92 mins.

 

‘Promising Young Woman’ as a High School comedy-drama, but missing the devastating sadness and intelligence of that film. Bella Thorne is memorable and well up to the task of trying to negotiate a general inconsistency of tone, but there’s a shallowness under the kitchen sink that’s thrown in (for example, the religious gestures the film makes aren’t explored). It’s a decent if superficial horror entertainment.

 

Invader

Director: Mickey Keating.

With: Vero Maynez, Colin Huerta, Ruby Vallejo.

USA 2024. 70 mins.

 

Shamefully, I had it in my head that ‘Strange Darling’ was directed by Keating and I was writing and saying how surprisingly different it was to what I knew of his work, although the Cool Retro vibe of ‘Strange Darling’ film was something I could see carrying over from Keating’s ‘Psychopath’. Anyway, after I had confessed and corrected my error (and put it down to sometimes just being stupid and getting carried away), ‘Invader’ was very different after all: rather than the stylisation and staginess, ‘Invader’ shouted a smash-and-grab intent. It’s a slender, brash and often intense home invasion tale told in hand-held fashion that – in their stage introduction – Keating and editor Valerie Krulfeifer warned we may have to look away and take a break from at times. And yes, sometimes the shaky-cam is confusing – blocking doesn’t seem to be a thing – but it is obviously deliberate rather than artless. Keating talked of trends in the nineties for films about Americans going abroad and getting fucked up, and how he wanted to invert that (and just stopped short of saying outright “Why do people want to come to Chicago?” Keating and Krulfeifer were light and breezy, likable and funny). And it’s true that the America presented here is litter-strewn, unfriendly, threatening and ultimately homicidal in a weirdo get-up. ‘Invader’ is a short but loud burst of social anxiety with no room for relief.

 

 

Frightfest 2022 day 5: "Piggy", "Terrifier 2", "Burial", "Barbarian", "Fall"

Piggy

Director: Carlota Pereda.

With: Claudia Salas, Pilar Castro, Carmen Machi, Fernando Delgado-Hierro.

Spain 2022. 90 mins.

The blood-drenched poster, although true to the film, perhaps implies a straightforward revenge-of-the-bullied flick, and although it's that too, 'Piggy' comes more from the long heritage of touching, rambling and empathic bildungsroman. Laura Galán’s performance is compelling as our bullied and put-upon heroine finds her Id unleashed in the form of a serial killer that takes a shine to her. There's then her moral dilemma of if she allows vengeance by proxy, thereby investigating the very revenge sub-genre we are in. If it ultimately doesn't challenge too much, it's a strong, self-aware drama whose move into genre shocks aren't necessarily celebratory and certainly not exploitative.

Terrifier 2

Director: Damien Leone.

With: Lauren LaVera, Owen Myre,

David Howard Thornton, Sarah Voight.

USA 2022. 140 mins.

Probably what non-horror fans think horror is: over two hours of sadism and outrageous gore with a magic sword get-out clause.

Burial

Director: Ben Parker.

With: Harriet Walter, Tom Felton,

Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner.

UK 2022. 95 mins.

A fine World War II that I expected to be a vampire flick, maybe, for a moment, but isn't. Rather, it's a solid wartime drama set in a horror landscape - coffin, woods, shadow-monster and isolated taverns. The tone is suitably austere but not drab and desperate, the performances good, the action decent too if occasionally lost in the shadows.

Barbarian

Director: Zach Cregger.

With: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long, Kurt Braunohler.

USA 2022. 102 mins.

As this film is especially best served cold, I will just leave it at: it’s good and brilliantly gamed.

(I'll probably write about it properly later...)

Fall

Director: Scott Mann.

With: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Grace Fulton, Virginia Gardner,

Mason Gooding.

USA 2022. 107 mins.

Aside from the dopiness of the character behaviour (don't tell anyone where you're going? maybe don't climb when it's so rusty?) and the predictability of the drama, its vertiginous thrills are entertaining.

____________

And so it was nice to be back in person at the festival. I made new friends. I realise that most/many of the audience were probably podcasters/bloggers/journalists. Horror-fantasy-science fiction  brings with it the most devoted crowd... nothing quite bonds people like genre films. 

I bumped into the guy outside dressed like The Terrifier, apologised and said "Don't kill me!" (but I don't think he heard me). This was just after I had seen a small cocky boy walk by and shout at The Terrifier "You're not a very scary clown!" And I thought "You haven't seen the film, kid!" 

I came to the conclusion that horror and arthouse fans are probably the most cine-literate and savvy.

I was bowled over when Neil Hannon turned up (I am a fan) and discussed with my neighbour how alternative reality films really reinterpret pop-culture via music in that way. This was regarding 'Lola', which was just as heady and stuffed full of ideas as 'Something in the Dirt'.

As usual, the films I expected least from turned out to be gems. The opening of "the Traveller from the Future" had everyone laughing. And "Deathstream" turned out to be my particular unexpected favourite in that it was so funny and well-written and genuinely unnerved me all at the same time. I look forward to seeing it again to catch the one-liners and onsceen social media comments that I missed fist time round. "Candy Land" impressed. I gleefully enjoyed the revelations of "Barbarian". 

Then I left two vinyl albums behind (Kate Bush's 'The Hounds of Love' and Portishead's 'Dummy', which I already have but seemed to need on vinyl) and had to return to the Empire only to find the cinema was closed up because of a 'Rings of Power' premier. So I had to wait a couple of hours before security would let me speak to someone to retrieve my goodies.

Anyway, again, day after day where all you are required to do is watch films and dash to find something to eat... I'll be back next year.

The Northman

 

The Northman

Director – Robert Eggers

Writers – Sjón, Robert Eggers

2022, United States

Stars – Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang

 

Alexander Skarsgård’s long-term desire to make a Viking film definitely hit the target with Robert Eggers, a director renowned and celebrated for his attention to verisimilitude and detail. Eggers calls says, “this is in some respects me trying to do Conan the Barbarian by way of Andrei Rublev”, a description that perfectly captures the twin poles from which it works: rip-roaring blood-and-guts machismo and downbeat adherence to period pseudo-realism. One minute, characters are primally impersonating roaring rampaging beasts, the next we are shored on the pixie-witch beauty of Björk, or the sharp and stony beauty of Anna Taylor-Joy.

 

This tone also makes it a bit of a mainstream outlier: ‘Conan’ had pseudo-seriousness and fantasy fun, and ‘Andrei Rublev’ had existential humourlessness and sublime artiness; but ‘The Northman’ falls somewhere in-between, so that one moment you’re enjoying the Defoe cameo and ‘let’s be a dog’ rituals, and the next you are stunned by a brutal one-shot village massacre which can’t help but remind of the similar unbearable sequence in ‘Come and See’. It’s a big-budget gung-ho action-art film with solemn interests. It is perhaps the same feel that puts off punters from Denis Villeneuve.

 

Starting with a growled narration that would put ‘The Batman’ to shame, ‘The Northman’ offers up an everything-all-at-once splash, like a fevered painting of a historical battle, anchored by the same source that inspired Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. If ‘The Witch’ and ‘The Lighthouse’ showed what Eggers could do on low budgets, this Viking epic sees him glorying in and using this budget for all it’s worth, as if he knows that he many never get such a chance again. It focuses on the beefed-up, primal wounded animal performance from Skarsgård as Amleth, frightening as a Beserker. His adored father, the King (Ethan Hawke), murdered by his uncle, who then marries his mother. All but orphaned, Amleth loses himself in Beserker rages, which we see in a stunning tracking shot of a terrifying Viking raid on an unsuspecting Slavic town. He is then reminded by casual post-pillaging gossip and a Björk vision of his vow to avenge his father. The ever-popular revenge narrative goes full-ahead, peppered with a little magic-realism and fantasy portentousness and ending up at the edge of a volcano.

But there is no deep slavish dedication to machismo here: the violence may start as exhilarating camerawork, but it’s horror. Amleth’s mission of vengeance brings nothing but ugly truths and betrayals, plunging towards that showdown by magma that doesn’t truly possess the catharsis that revenge is meant to bring.

 

Perhaps this dour, existentialist tone is why David Stratton calls it “surprisingly dreary”? Filmspotting feels the need to ask, “does the director’s new Viking revenge epic add up to anything but a bloody good time?” So which is it: drearily reflective or rip-roaring mindlessness? That Eggers delivers the pleasures from both ends without losing balance is ‘The Northman’s overall artistic success. Fun, furious fantasy and packed with a seriousness approach to theme and detail that will reward multiple watches. It’s epic, pretty, a bit crazy, a bit lost in its own detail and excess.

FrightFest Halloween day 3: 'The Returned', 'Breeder', 'Babysitter Must Die', 'The Reckoning'

The Returned

Writer & Director: Laura Casabé

2020, Argentina

1919 on a South American farm, driven by the grief of another stillborn child, the wife of a vicious landowner tampers with indigenous magic. And the title hints at the rest. But it’s not quite straightforward or predictable, mostly because it plays with shuffling the narrative and the revelations around across its three chapters. There’s a lot of underlying outrage at the treatment of the tribes with the ultimate appropriation surely being that of its children. A slow-burner that’s always picturesque and intriguing.  It has eeriness to spare, allows a certain mystery and a central story that is straightforward and engrossing once all the pieces are in place. And when it’s brutal, it doesn’t hold back.

 

Breeder

Jens Dahl

2020, Denmark

Writer: Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen 

A slightly different mad-scientist scenario, but it’s obvious as soon as she appears with all her icy glamour that Signe Egholm Olsen as Dr Ruben will do anything for her bio-hacking experiments into aging. When Mia (Sara Hjort Ditlevsen) stumbles on the truth, this involves dodgy boyfriends, grim basement prisons, something resembling torture porn, sadists, etc. It has a clarity and directness typical of Nordic drama (as opposed to a more hysterical US aesthetic) and it’s serious about medical and misogynistic abuse of the female body. It muddies the waters by having its key antagonist as a woman who sells her discovery to vain men, but it’s ultimately as straightforward in its viewpoints as any other mad-scientist scenario: it spends a lot of time establishing that the bad guys aren’t redeemable. Writer Thomsen introduced one of its themes as female empowerment, but it’s more a revenge fantasy against abusers of women of all kinds. The Female empowerment elements are surely more when the ladies work together to escape (my favourite is the chain-strangulation).

Babysitter Must Die

 Director: Kohl Glass

2020, USA

Writers: Julie Auerbach, Kohl Glass & Kevin Tavolaro

Just about to finish off a babysitting stint, uncool good girl Josie (Riley Scott) is suddenly under siege when a bunch of over-acting occultists do a home invasion. There’s plenty of fun to be had here with the best running gag being that Josie has a wealth of kick-ass skills learnt from Mustard Seed Scouts (my favourite, because it took me somewhat by surprise, was “drama”). Geek girls: your skills will be needed! All her suppressed anger is given free flow against the humourless invaders. gives a good rundown on the political subtext, where violent outsiders break into the homes of the bourgeoisie to reclaim what they say is theirs, via a Lovecraftian touch.

Even so, there’s nothing surprising or sharply satirical here like ‘Better Watch Out’, but it’s not as annoyingly smug and adolescent as McQ’s ‘The Babysitter’ (although continuing the story through the end credits doesn’t work for me). It’s fast, a little brutal, and shows that just a little spin and speed on familiar tropes can be entertaining, if undemanding.

The Reckoning

Neil Marshall

UK, 2020

Writers: Edward Evers-Swinell, Charlotte Kirk & Neil Marshall

In which a woman wrongly accused of being a witch gets her own back on behalf of all victims of Witchfinder Generals. Through everything, Charlotte Kirk always looks glamourous, and luckily being in a dungeon and abominably tortured doesn’t really dirty the defiance on her face or impede her ability to run and fight back. Sean Pertwee as Witchfinder Moorcroft probably gives the most intriguing performance of sinister whisper and delusion, perhaps inevitably reminding of Vincent Price’s control and menace is a similar infamous role. Moorcroft’s  female burnt-up-former-witch assistant with a  bad case of Stockholm Syndrome probably the most potentially interesting character. But this isn’t a study about how the delusions of religion are played out violently on women’s bodies: it’s mostly just a revenge fantasy (‘Breeders’, by comparison, wanted to say something about science’s appropriation and violation of women’s bodies). Everything is in italics and bold so there’s probably camp amusement to be had, but there are also some gorgeous vistas photographed by Luke Bryant in the first half.

Grimmfest Day 3: "HP Lovecraft's The Deep Ones", "The Unhealer", "The Ideal Host"

HP LOVECRAFT’S THE DEEP ONES

• DIRECTOR- Chad Ferrin
• SCREENWRITER- Chad Ferrin
• 2020, USA

· Taken from Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos featuring The Deep Ones, Chads Ferrin’s film is bright and breezy but surprise-free. Of course, having Lovecraft’s name up there will pull ‘em in, and of course there is some tentacle action. It does have a defiantly retro man-in-a-monster-suit that might make some laugh, but I found it more endearing than any CGI effort. Otherwise, a sunny coastal setting, a just-less-than-serious feel and a decent cast make for an enjoyable watch that doesn’t outstay it’ welcome, even if it’s unlikely to leave a real dent.

 

THE UNHEALER

• Director - Martin Guigui
• Screenwriters - Kevin E. Moore & J. Shawn Harris
• USA, 2020

Another bullied kid gets supernatural powers to exact revenge on his relentless tormentors when they go too far. Of course this sub-genre this plays on unfairness, but 'The Unhealer' does so more than just revenge. This is built-in even more obviously when his power is that where they hurt him, they suffer the effects; meaning the extent of the revenge depends upon their brutality to him. But victims can’t catch a break, however cruel the bullies are, supernaturally empowered or not. That’s the bitterest horror and the meanest aftertaste.

Elijah Nelson makes a sympathetic lead in Kelly, the script making consistent use of his eating disorder throughout. And of course, Lance Henrickson makes a mark in his cameo. Moore and Harris’ screenplay is more concerned with the human interest than showcasing the kills, with sadness and unfairness dominating the proceedings. In this way, ‘The Unhealer’ distinguishes itself and lingers more than most.

 

AN IDEAL HOST

• DIRECTOR - Robert Woods
• SCREENWRITER - Tyler Jacob Jones
• 2020, Australia

Usually at FrightFest there’s an Antipodean crowd-pleasing genre-comedy that really stands out: ‘Deathgasm’. ‘One Hundred Acres’, Two Heads Creek’, ‘Mega Time Squad’, ‘Turbo Kid’. This is my first time at Grimmfest, and the trend continues with ‘An Ideal Host’, showing again that Australian genre-comedy is just a cut above (or at least, those that we see).

A somewhat precious couple are planning to the minute a dinner party with old friends to stage a marriage proposal, but an old, uninvited and unwanted friend also gate-crashes to upset proceedings. But she’s not the only gate-crasher…

The brevity of the credits reveal how low-budget this is: one location, few cast, director Robert Woods also co-produces, edits, is the cinematographer, etc. But Tyler Jacob Jones’ script and the ensemble cast – mostly from a comedy group Woods is part of, it seems – are consistently lively and funny without over-egging the pudding that any obvious limitations don’t come to mind. (Regarding over-egging: one of my favourite gags is when the film interrupts a cliché montage of the protagonist dressing up to kick-ass with “Enough of that!”).

Like ‘The Special’, there’s a sense that anything might be on the table until it we get some grounding, so there’s some mystery as well as the humour to spike the attention. It even throws in some proper gore. And the effects were all practical too with inventiveness coming thick and fast (the windshield-wipers-as-weapon also a favourite).

 A delight.