FrightFest 2011 – Day 5 Review

• 5th Sep 2011

Thanks to the lateness of getting home the night before, this one man army finally keeled over and gave in. A long (well, 6 hour) sleep later and I was off back into the centre of the city for the final day. I deliberately missed A Night in the Woods (which I was told by everyone I met that saw it was pretty bad). I also missed Deadheads which I was actually looking forward to but it was to be a media wall heavy day so I did my duty and then caught the next flick.

Sennentuntschi: Curse of the Alps had a lot of different responses, but is an original film worth checking out. Based around a myth about a group of herdsmen who create their own woman, use and abuse her and pay the price for their misdeeds. Well, we should put the brakes on right there… This film is far more complicated than that. It toys around with various time frames and groups of characters. It really takes its time getting where it wants to go, but ultimately starts to escalate in the second half. It needs a patient viewer but ultimately it is rewarding for this Swiss thriller.

I considered the Discovery Screen when I had time, but Atrocious was screening for the final time, and I had seen it and well, didn’t rate it.

Inbred was next up for the main screen and whilst Alex Chandon (who looks a little bit like Lionel Blair) has grown considerably as a film maker, it’s still a daft tale that provides a few laughs. It’s worrying when the most noise seemed to be coming from the cast on screen, as well as the real life cast sat behind you (clearly happy with the result of their film). So happy they cheered every name as they appeared on screen at the opening credits (which are fairly quiet opening credits) and then whenever someone got to do something loud on screen. I guess you had to be there (as in: on set with them), but as much as I enjoyed the film, I didn’t enjoy it that much!

Rabies got its final screening and the film that closed the festival on the main screen was A Lonely Place To Die. Like the opening film it had its moments, but was ultimately let down by weakness towards the end. We reviewed it this week as well, so you can catch the full opinion there.

And that was it. So to pick the best of the fest in rough order of preference:

Kill List

Chillerama

Rabies

The Woman

Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil

(With perhaps special mentions going out to The Inkeepers; Midnight Son and The Divide).

It was off to the farewell bash after interviewing the FrightFest team (which you can read in the next post). Truly the most fun I have had at a film festival ever and can recommend that anyone even remotely interested in film check it out when it swings round next year. The team are to be commended for their continual hard work throughout each year as they bring us the best show they can. For a film fan this more than makes up for the total debacle that was Empire Magazine’s Big Screen event a fortnight ago. A shame they don’t have a team like this working on it.

FrightFest 2011 also may have cured me of my hatred for the Wilhelm Scream. The audio scream that stands out like a sore thumb in any film it is inserted to. But one film here not only used it; but had one character repeat it four times in a row making it sound more ridiculous than ever. I still think it needs to be put into retirement and this occasion may have been a grand opportunity to send it off in style.

For those of you that can’t wait a year, or even for the Glasgow fest, there is the all nighter in October coming soon!

Steven Hurst