FrightFest 2011 – Day 4 Review

• 4th Sep 2011

Quite how I managed to survive on 4 hours kip half way through the festival is anyone’s guess, but Saturday left me with so much enthusiasm for the festival I just did it. I was up and made the long journey back to the Empire Cinema for opening film, The Divide. I purely wanted to see this for the cast involved. Michael Biehn (who just does not seem to work enough), Courtney B Vance (whom also appeared in Final Destination 5 and is a face I also don’t see enough in films), as well as Milo Whatshisface from Heroes and Rosanna Arquette. The premise sounded daft and I had low expectations. These expectations were met in early scenes as the world comes to an end and a group of tenants from a high-rise apartment building end up hiding out in the cellar with the super (Biehn – looking ragged in the face, but totally in shape). From here it’s anyone’s guess where the plot goes as there are outside forces threatening them and a divide between the group as they are forced to live with each other. But the film keeps changing its track as minutes tick by. Sympathetic characters become very unlikeable and even those that go a bit nuts have quieter moments of sadness about them. The film was directed by Xavier Gens who was responsible for the Hitman film adaptation of the popular game. He at least displays visual flare from time to time with this new film. I must say I was very surprised at how interested it kept me. Especially considering how barely awake I was when I arrived on site. So thumbs up to some great performances and a very downbeat and unpredictable plot.

I stayed in the main screen for Andy Nyman’s Quiz From Hell 2 and then the Short Films Showcase. 10 mixed bag ventures where the comedic films played better than the more serious stuff this year. If I’m honest (and I heard this from others) they should have screened them in a different order. The two comedy highlights (Brutal Relax and Banana Motherfucker) were screened far too close to each other and even had a bad knock on effect to the serious films that followed them. It may have been better to see the serious stuff then bring us up with a giggle, instead of the other way around.

But it can be quite amazing just what you can pack into a short film and this is part of the joy of being at FrightFest. You get these little treats as well as, perhaps, some trailer trash exploitation movies from decades gone.

Today’s Carpenter homage was They Live and it was the most clever of the lot. It took on the 3D debate and incorporated it into the fight scene from They Live. Clever idea and obviously includes one long-ass fight!

After this was The Innkeepers from Ti West. A very slow burning little film about two young people working the last weekend at a hotel before it closes down. Both are obsessed, to a point, about an urban ghost legend within the building and set about trying to record anything they can find. Whilst this happens, they have to interact with the few remaining guests that have come to stay at the hotel.

This was a well structured story and when the scares happen they are truly frightening. Yet, at the end you are almost angry at characters that seem to have no logic flow in their thought process. If you want to make contact with ghosts at least have a reason? We are never given a full or satisfactory reason why.  Also, when they do make contact why do they run away? Then, why bother coming back for more if they suspect it’s all a bit sinister? It defied logic by all means and the film ends very abruptly with little to no explanation for anything. Full marks to the actors and for the directorial and editing talents on display here but the script needed a bit of tweaking in order the give the film a little more purpose. Otherwise, this was probably the film that scared me the most!

Saint was up next and it sees Saint Nic turn to the bad side as he goes on a rampage in the modern day. This one is strictly horror comedy territory with elements of some of the best 80s horror flicks you can think of from Gremlins to The Fog.

Kill List is probably the film with the biggest hype and has already, to a degree, been reviewed and rated highly by critics way in advance (including Filmwerk). It was, therefore, no surprise to anyone that it come out as one of the best flicks of the entire weekend. But I had previously made a comparison to the ending of last year’s A Serbian Film and The Last Exorcism; so I felt that was more justified when another punter made similar remarks to me. A great film that is as hard hitting as it is confusing by its moments of closure.

Detention I missed and is one of the two or three I missed that I wish I hadn’t. But time was riding against me, especially this deep into the festival. Even so, I made it to The Phoenix again for lively conversation before starting an epic 2 hour trip back home.

Steven Hurst