FrightFest 2013 Day 2
Day two of the festival saw both Discovery screens opening up giving attendees a multiple choice of films. A lot more talent shipped in to promote the films, Goodie bags were given away, various Q&A’s took place after various films, Adam Green returned to the festival with Hatchet III and Holliston; Ben Wheatley got the variety Award and Interview; Gareth Evans showed up for V/H/S/2 and brought a short, but very violent scene from The Raid 2 with him. This is all (and much more) in just the second day of the festival!
And the shop is open for business! And of course those FrightFest T-Shirts are here!
And these specially designed one sheets are very nice!
Lead actor of Dementamania – a surprising little film
Ben Wheatley 
On the third part of our Frightfest 2013 Podcast we interviewed Graham Humphreys.
The Main Screen Movies
The Dyatlov Pass Incident
Renny Harlin returns to horror once again and he goes down the found footage route. A small group of young American students seek to find answers about a notorious incident all the way off in the snowy regions of Europe.
Quite how they expect to solve anything simply by visiting the exact spot is anyone’s guess as they never state a good reason why, simply that it all happened in mysterious circumstances and they expect to find something that the local authorities didn’t.
Harlin brings a bit of directorial experience with him, but any jokes, quirks or visual flourishes can’t disguise the nasty CGI-tastic third act that destroys any of the imposed suspense or scares.
Dementamania
After stepping on a Wasp in the morning, Edward Arkham’s day at the office pretty much goes on a downward spiral as literally every little thig begins to work his nerves. Is he losing his sanity? Is he imagining things? We’d like to think so after all of the bloody carnage that goes on inside this man’s head.
Hatchett III
Victor Crowley resurrects for this third installment. Adam Green is back as a writer/producer on this one while returning cast members Danielle Harris and Kane Hodder reprise their roles. Along for the ride are a few familiar faces (and some very nice surprises) in this fairly run of the mill sequel. Back out to the swamp we go. A mixture of police, paramedic and armed forces are the ones in trouble, whilst Harris’ Marybeth goes on a hunt for some sacred ashes! Not sure if this plot divide was inspired by other horror third part The Dream Warriors, but the ante is upped in terms of firepower being taken to the swamp.
This one does the job it says on the tin. Expect over the top kills and gore, and to be laughing all the way from start to finish. Job done.
Haunter
Vincenzo Natali returns with this twisty and intriguing premise about a family who a re living the same day over and over again. Only the teenage daughter Lisa seems to notice, but breaking the cycle proves futile at first, and ultimately dangerous for everyone, and so she starts to unravel the mystery of their situation.
Despite holding it’s narrative threads together the film ultimately plods along with little thrills except cheap “sound blasts” to act in pace of actual scares.
V/H/S 2 (3)
The second helping of segments right away is a step up, if not light years ahead of its predecessor.
Flavour of the moment Gareth Evans perhaps delivers the best made, the most exciting and also the bizarrest of the four main segments – really taking his budget and running with it as far as he can.
100 Bloody Acres (2)
A black-comedy for the festival that puts the grim into the humor and reaps a few bloody results from its twisted premise. This isn’t as broad as Tucker and Dale vs Evil, but it stays true to its own tone.
The less attention paid towards the characters motivations the better. This isn’t one that should have been built around the characters (more there interactions instead). This is bound to put a few smiles on many faces come the end of the evening, but it could very well have been funnier a little more often.
