FrightFest 2013 Day 5

27th Aug 2013

The last day is always the saddest day as it is shorter than the previous thee, and it marks the f9nal time that we all get to come together and rejoice in the types of films that we all love to see together.

The bank holiday Monday is no less hectic though as there were still multiple screens showing movies, and there was a good deal of buzz surrounding the films for the day. There were still plenty of guests, plenty of shorts to be seen, and some enticing little trailers here and there.

The short film of the day that was heavily publicised was called The Body by director Paul Davies. Davies was in attendance, but seemed to be let down at the last minute (as word would have it) by leading actor Alfie Allen. The short though itself (about a killer out disposing of a body on Halloween) was a treat. True it featured an actress we had already seen in a previous short film only a couple of days ago (doing pretty much the same routine), but the tone of the piece remained light throughout.

A huge highlight though was the announcement of a documentary from Sean Hogan on the history of 2000AD comics. “Warts and all” he described it on stage before showing a 2 minute sizzle real of what we can expect hopefully this time next year.

The saddest part of the day came when the four organisers came to say goodbye on stage at the end as it turns out we are also saying goodbye to the main screen at the Empire cinema as it is being taken down and renovated into two screens instead of the one big one. Alan Jones did assure us that FrightFest will be back next year, and it will be at the Empire – but under a different capacity. So FrightFest is about to change again – and change is good. Keep your eyes and ears open for news on the Empire cinema to see what changes are coming and how it will affect the festival for next year.

So it was a sad, melancholy time, but at the same time the closing film Big Bad Wolves (which proved to be one of the clear highlights of the festival) was actually the very last film ever to be screened at the Empire cinema on Screen 1. So being a part of that history certainly carried a bit of weight.

But the show and the party must go on. So after the final movie – everyone was off to the Phoenix for the late night final party! We will miss you Fright fest… Until the next one.

Keep those bloody phones off!

The main screen movies for the last day then:

Dark Touch

From Ireland, this moody, atmospheric horror oddity will wake any sleep patron of FrightFest up come the Monday morning screening.

Whilst it is smarter than your casual splatterfest, this film contains more child crying/screaming than any film in a very long time, which does go on to the point on anger/annoyance. On the upside there are some creative choices that are decent. The film can be very atmospheric and the effects work is largely good for such a low budget.

The performances ate largely irritable, it is also likely that filmgoers will be put off calling their daughters “Niamh”. Not because the girl is scary, but because they will be so bloody sick of hearing it called out in such a short space of time. If there is a F-word count from Joe Pesci in Goodfellas; Dark Touch equals it with this name.

This in combination with all the screaming and crying on a Monday morning at FrightFest who are perhaps a little sleep deprived, but don’t want to miss the rest of the festival. The effect is akin to wanting to be woken up, only to receive a bucket of ice water over your head: FrightFesters will leave this screening awake, but angry.

Banshee Chapter

A shaky camera low budget psychedelic supernatural thriller. This one has a lot of cheap film-making pushed to the max. Ted Levine makes a supporting appearance as a wacked out hippie writer along for the ride as an investigative reporter delves deep into government drug testing. What she finds lingering in the dark though proves to be a little bit much!

A curious little oddity, but it’s all smoke and mirrors when it comes to the torchlight scares.

Odd Thomas

Stephen Sommers returns to his darker sense of humour with this wonderful adaptation of the Dean R Koontz novel. Anton Yelchin proves himself as the lead character who can see and converse with murder victims and figure out how they were killed. Trouble starts brewing when all sorts of spectres start to appear in town, signalling something awful to come – and only Odd Thomas can figure it out and prevent the doom and gloom that is to come.

There is an over reliance on CGI as per usual with a film with e Hollywood budget, but Odd Thomas has just about all the right moves

We Are What We Are

A remake of a film that previously screened well at FrightFest – sadly it’s the one we missed as we were wrapping up our interviews. But do listen to the Podcast response as co-hosts should come armed with opinion!

Big Bad Wolves

From the directors of the fantastic Rabies, this was a true highlight of the festival. Big Bad Wolves is brutal and hilarious; beautifully shot; a wonderfully loud music score and some terrific performances. This is a strong film for the festival to go out on this year. Definitely directors to keep an eye on!

Our score round up looks like this for the films we managed to see that screened at FrightFest this year!

MAIN SCREEN

The Dead II: India (2)

Curse Of Chucky (3)

The Dyatolov Pass Incident (2)

Dementamania (3)

Hatchet III (3)

Haunter (2)

V/H/S/2 (3)

100 Bloody Acres (2)

The Hypnotist (2)

Frankenstein’s Army (1)