FrightFest 2022

Frightfest 2022 mini reviews

Had a blast at Frightfest 2022. Here’s my thoughts from the five-days-worth of movie viewing. Bear in mind that anything above a 5 is better-than-average in my eyes (I’m not Total Film)

Thursday (opening night)

THE LAIR

Neil Marshall tries to revive some DOG SOLDIERS style vibes again, this time with a sci-fi twist. Unfortunately it’s hamstrung by a slightly formulaic script, dialogue that’s pretty much 100% cliches. and occasional dodgy acting (and accents!) in places. But despite that, it’s all still pretty fun. Marshall remains a solid action director with a keen eye for stylish John Carpenter-esque visual flair. It’s about as good as DOOMSDAY (a film which remains a guilty pleasure of mine).

THE VISITOR FROM THE FUTURE

This quirky French sci-fi time travel comedy was a real crowd pleaser. Even with subtitles 🙂 Some very funny moments and slickly and inventively directed on what was probably a teeny budget. Drags a bit in places, but overall – Good fun!

SCARE PACKAGE II: RAD CHAD’S REVENGE

it’s like a horror-hipster flick. Scare Package II was a weird film. I haven’t seen the first one, but got the gist of it quickly enough. Quite funny, but the whole film felt like a giant in-joke for horror nerds which verged on the self-indulgent. Like a version of the Scary Movie franchise, except made by smart indie kids.

Frightfest 2022 – Friday

NEXT EXIT

This quietly beautiful and hugely moving film might well be the best of the festival. In terms of tone it really reminded me of Gareth Edward’s MONSTERS, one of my favourite films. It’s a sci-fi/horror flavoured indie Road movie with a fantastic cast of actors (especially the two leads) and a nicely observed and deeply humane script. Directed by Mali Elfman, daughter of Danny Elfman, it also unsurprisingly has an incredible score (Daddy helped out!) Highly recommended, but god – it’s so emotional. It made me cry so much in places.

THE HARBINGER

A solid enough little pandemic-set nightmare (literally). Elements of classic “haunted dream” movies, like PAPERHOUSE and JACOBS LADDER, and it starts strong in the first half but does fizzle out a bit by the end.

A WOUNDED FAWN

What starts out as a brilliantly stylish and tightly directed cat-and-mouse serial killer movie filled with Greek mythological symbolism takes a somewhat disappointing turn in the second half. It goes completely bonkers, full of striking visuals – but loses all interesting character interplay. I really wanted to love this movie- and I do, but only about half of it! 6/10 (but if the second half had been as good as the first – would have been 9/10 or even a 10!!)

NIGHT SKY

After the giddy heights of NEXT EXIT, sadly we now have a film that feels like its mediocre cousin. A sci-fi flavoured Road movie, reminiscent of films like STAR MAN and MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, but sadly lacking in comparison to both of those. The cast are decent enough, but the cinematography is unbelievably drab, and makes the epic American landscapes look like it’s set in Humberside or something. Also features some shockingly bad visual effects work at the end. Stuff so bad, I’m amazed they left it in the film. Not good. The director clearly needs to be buddies with a good Post guy or gal. Like me 🙂

FINAL CUT

This is a French remake of “One Cut of the Dead” – a well-regarded Japanese film that came out in 2017 and – to my shame – I haven’t seen yet. So bearing in mind I haven’t seen the original, here’s what I thought: IT’S AWESOME! A really clever concept, executed brilliantly. A meta film-within-a-film, this is a great love-letter to the art of movie-making. Which is perhaps what drew Michael Hazanavicius (who won an Oscar many years ago for the THE ARTIST – another film about the love of cinema).
I adored this and not knowing the original I’d call it a 9/10.

But the people sat next to me at the screening had seen the original and said it’s practically a shot-for-shot remake and slightly pointless. So if you’ve seen the original, you might be disappointed.

Saturday films

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT

The latest film by Benson & Moorhead, the creators of SPRING and THE ENDLESS, this was their lockdown project. Shot mostly in their LA apartment with just B&M and 1 crew member – who together did all the acting, shooting and sound recording. It’s very much got a stage-play quality as a result.

It’s an intriguing journey into the world of paranormal conspiracies in the suburbs of LA – which is a pretty weird place anyway 🙂

Benson & Moorhead are the two leads, and both give probably the best performances I’ve seen them do so far. It’s very much about the interplay between them, and the relationship they have on screen. It’s also an expression of love for amateur filmmakers. It doesn’t really build to the grand conclusion I had hoped, and most of its mysteries remain shrouded at the end, which is a little frustrating. But it’s still a decent film, worth seeing.

SHE CAME FROM THE WOODS

An utterly generic, but highly competent summer camp slasher. The tropes come thick and fast, but it knows exactly what it wants to achieve and does it (mostly) with aplomb. A solid beer’n’pizza movie.

LOLA

An intriguing mashup of the found-footage/alternative history genres. Very low budget, but pretty well done. Cool soundtrack by Neil Hannan of The Divine Comedy – bizarre pop songs of an alternative history.

For period films like this though – visual consistency is crucial to maintain the illusion, and I was really yanked out of it a couple of times by some too-digital looking FX and captions work. A decent little sci fi film though with some fun ideas.

DARK GLASSES

Dario Argento’s latest movie – number 21 in a long career. It is – surprising no-one – a giallo thriller, with attractive Italian ladies, lots of stabbing and gore and a pounding synth score. It’s very silly, but that’s part of the charm of his movies, isn’t it?

DEADSTREAM

A deliriously fun satirical horror comedy – like THE EVIL DEAD meets PEEPSHOW. A fantastically well observed and zeitgeisty script with a hilarious, powerhouse performance by writer/director Joseph Winter. This is the best “Frightfest moment” I’ve had at the festival so far – the audience had an absolute ball with this one, and there were many moments of spontaneous applause! It’s so fun. The spirit of Sam Rami for the internet age.

Day 4 of Frightfest. Mo’ movies, mo’ mini-reviews!

UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE

It’s a Quentin Dupieux film, so I knew it would be as mad as a bag of hammers going in. But I really liked this one – it’s more “quirky” than insane, with a witty script that almost feels like a lighter version of Charlie Kaufman. That’s not to say there’s no darkness in there too. Overall it’s a fascinating little fable about time, ageing, vanity and insecurity.

H4Z4RD

A fun crime caper almost entirely set in the interior of one car. This Belgian movie features a script by Trent Haaga (who previously penned the excellent CHEAP THRILLS) and is a pacily directed urban adventure with some hilarious – and comically inept – characters. It’s got a real 90s techno vibe, harking back to classics like RUN LOLA RUN. Fun!

WOLF MANOR

A fun setup – with a film crew making a cheap vampire movie in a spooky house, but who then come under attack from a werewolf – and this film starts out pretty well, with an array of amusing characters (with some very recognisable stereotypes for anyone who’s ever been on a shoot!) The script isn’t bad, but sadly the actual horror scenes don’t work – not least because they show the werewolf way too much and it’s clearly just a man in a suit – and not remotely believable. Ironically it becomes the very thing it was parodying at the start – a crappy b-movie.

THE PRICE WE PAY

The last film of the evening and a pretty solid choice. Ryuhei Kitamura’s NO ONE LIVES was an amazing Frightfest experience for me and others many years ago. This film isn’t nearly as good but still a very entertaining horror thriller. The editing is a bit hyperfrenetic – not a good film to watch if you’re susceptible to epilepsy – but it’s directed with a reasonable amount of panache.
Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch might not be A-listers anymore, but they don’t sleepwalk through their roles in this at least. Vernon Wells, on the other hand, wasn’t so good as the main big-bad. He’s just not a great actor – and that role really kind of needed someone who could deliver the crazy dialog. Nonetheless, there’s far worse movies you could spend a late evening with.

Frightfest 2022 – Day 5. This was the last day of the festival. It’s been an amazing time, I’m so glad I did the full thing again 🙂

Final day’s movies were some of the best so far.

PIGGY

I loved this one – and glad I managed to rouse myself out of bed in time to get in and see it 🙂 A Spanish film about a horribly bullied teenager, who finds herself connected to a killer who seems to be happy to slaughter the people who’ve wronged her. In some ways, it reminded me of CARRIE – minus the supernatural elements. It’s a twisty tale, with some fantastic performances – especially from the lead, Laura Galán. A superb dark thriller.

TERRIFIER 2

I’ve not seen the original and to be honest, this looked bloody awful when I looked at the trailer the night before. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised on actual viewing. It’s an extremely gory slasher pic but done with a lot of verve and ambition. Tonally it sometimes skipped a beat a couple of times, when it jumped between humorously OTT gory kills and some which were uncomfortably verging on torture porn and felt a little too real. But mostly it’s just a lot of silly – almost pantomime – fun.

BURIAL

A terrific little WW2 thriller, following a small team of soviet soldiers tasked with delivering a mysterious coffin from Berlin to Moscow. They come under attack in a polish forest from a mysterious enemy. Lots of fun, decent performances and slickly directed on a tight budget (but doesn’t look cheap)

BARBARIAN

Apparently there’s a review embargo on this until later in September. But also – they’re happy for us to post on social media. So….. I guess I’ll just say this is a brilliant movie, very funny in places – and delivers the tension and horror when it needs to. A clever and well observed parable about the the unequal physical reality of men vs women. Anyone who spoils this movie deserves a horrible fate as it’s got plenty of good surprises in store. So go in blind and enjoy seeing it unfold in all its wicked majesty

FALL

A high-concept survival thriller that closed out the festival perfectly. In it, two female climbers attempt to overcome a past tragedy by climbing a 3000ft abandoned radio tower in the desert. Naturally it takes a turn for the worse, when the ladder breaks away – stranding them at the top!

This was hugely entertaining and very cleverly made. It feels very real (no dodgy greenscreen) and you get a real sense of vertigo. Not a good film for those who have a fear of heights! Nothing too much else to add – it delivers the promise of the premise very ably. Tense!

That’s it. Now I just have to wait 360-odd days for the next one. See you next year!