Burning Bright

Film 4 - (Friday)

The first film we have seen in the discovery screen. It was Tobe Hoopers eggshells in the main screen and I just didn't fancy that. I had seen the trailer for Burning Bright and really liked the look of it.

A simple plot really, a young woman and her autistic brother are trapped in a house with a extremely hungry tiger! Can they survive the night?

You will be surprised! I was!

Cast: Briana Evigan - Kelly Taylor, Charlie Tahan - Tm Taylor and Garret Dillahunt - Johnny Gaveneau.

Written by Christine Coyle Johnson and Julie Prendiville Roux

Soundtrack by Zack Ryan

Directed by Carlos Brooks

What I liked? Briana Evigan was brilliant, the tiger and the tension!

What I didn't like? Not much really!

Summary: As I said I was surprised, it looked good from the trailer, just wasn't ready for just how good this film was. From the description it sounds like a cliched animal-horror movie, with a bad cgi tiger etc etc.

Well the tiger was real, well for most of it, one scene it looked like a fake head, but other than that it was real! The plot is simple,it doesn't need to be anything more. The reason they are locked in the house is due to the oncoming hurricane! The tiger doesn't escape from anything it's actually let into the house to kill the girl and her brother. See the plot isn't as silly as it sounds, the doors are then boarded as well. So we have a hungry tiger, a girl and a little boy trapped in a house!

The film builds the tension really well, never really go's over board with silly scares, keeps it pretty real and keeps you guessing if the outcome is going to be a good one.

Briana Evigan is brilliant in this film, a weaker actress would have ruined this,she carried the film wonderfully well, helped by a good turn from Charlie Tahan, must not be easy playing an autistic kid. They worked well together, the direction was tight and the house was used well to build the tension and keep the film ticking over.

At 86 minutes this film delivered and never outstayed it's welcome.

Overall solid entertainment (8/10)

Dead Cert

Film 3 (Thursday)

The third film was a British vampire gangster movie. I suppose From Dusk Till Dawn meets lock stock.

A gang of tough gangsters loose their club to a Romanian businessman who turns out to be something a little more evil, a vampire! The gangsters take on the vampires in order to get the club back!

Cast: Billy Murry - Dante Livenko, Dexter Flectcher - Eddie Christian, Craig Fairbrass - Freddy Frankham, Steven Berkoff - Kenneth Mason and Lisa McAllister - Jen Christian.

Written by Ben Shillito

Soundtrack by Tim Atack

Directed by Steven Lawson

What I liked? Craig Fairbrass, Lisa McAllister and Dexter Flectcher

What I didn't like? Most of it really!

Summary: If this was a cross between From Dusk and Lock stock, it missed the mark by a mile. It looked cheap, it sounded cheap, the acting was average along with the action. Didn't help having a poor script though.
It had no flair, or imagination, just nothing I can't even remember the music score!

It was just watchable mainly down to Fairbrass and Flectcher but only just. The gore looked rubbish and considering it was a strip club it didn't really have much T&A on show. It seemed like they didn't want to push the line and kept it all a little too tame for my liking!

Overall - Average at best, could have been so much better (5/10)

Primal

Film 2 (Thursday)

The next film was a Australian movie, about a group of students looking for a rock painting in the out back. But things ain't what they seem by this rock and soon one of the party becomes ill and turns into a primal monster on the hunt for blood!

Cast: Krew Boylan - Mel, Lindsay Farris - Chad, Rebekah Foord - Kris, Damien Freeleagus - Warren and Zoe Tuckwell-Smith -Anja.

Written by Nigel Christensen (Story) and Josh Reed (Screenplay)

Soundtrack by Rob Gibson

Directed by Josh Reed

What I liked? The cast, the script, the comedy and the monsters.

What I didn't like? The poor CGI at the end, nearly runined it all.

Summary: This was quite a surprise really, I hadn't held out much hope for this at all. But it wasn't too bad. It had all the horror hallmarks, the group of stereotypical characters, out in the woods, no signal, no help for miles. Things would not turn out well! And they didn't!

What really saved this from being just another throw away horror film was the writing and the cast, they didn't ham it up, it was played straight and the script brought out some really funny scenes. It takes a good 30 minutes to get going, so we get to know the characters quite well. Once all hell breaks loose, it's got lots of really good moments in it, not just gore, but some good humour as well.

But when you think it's all going well, the last section plays out with some really rubbish CGI monster which brings the film back down to earth with a bump! It's a shame because up to this point I had really liked it.

Overall, the bad monster CGI hinders what was a pretty decent low budget effort, with good acting and some good gore and some funny scenes! (7/10)

FrightFest 2010 - The Films

Well last Friday, the 2nd of July was a date in many a Frightfesters diary, reminders would have been set for just before 2 that afternoon. All waiting and wondering what crazy gore filled films they would be seeing at the end of August.

2pm came and I was ready on the films page of frighfest, and 2 minutes early it appeared, 24 films and 2 documentaries in the main screen along with 10 films in the discovery screen.

For this years films I’ve decided to avoid trailers, write ups and reviews and as you will see there are a lot of films I will be seeing cold………

So here we go!

Thursday
Hatchet 2 Adam Greens sequel opens the festival. I liked the first one, a homage to slasher movies, on a low budget, it was clichéd but it never took it’s self too seriously.
Primal I know nothing about this film.
Dead Cert I did see the trailer for this abut 2 weeks ago while looking through the horror web sites. It looks ok, vampires in the East End!

Friday
Eggshells As this is Tobe Hooper Day! We are being shown one of his early films, rarely seen on screen, sounds like something to say yes I’ve seen that! As for the film again I don’t know much.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Who hasn’t heard of this film, many consider this film one of the greatest horror movies ever. I’m not sure however it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen it. Maybe on the big screen plus the frightfest crowd it could be a whole new experience.
Tobe Hooper – Q&A

Isle of Dogs May have seen a teaser for this, looked a little brutal and I think it’s British but could be wrong.
F Unknown!
Red Hill Another Unknown!
Alien Vs Ninja Unknown, except it will be a gore fest!

Saturday
Cherry Tree Lane Nope nothing on this.
The Tortured I have noticed the DVD on play but it’s not out till September so hadn’t paid it too much attention.
13 Hours And another one I know nothing about.
I Spit on your Grave Infamous video nasty, remade!
Monsters Now I do know about this one and it sounds brilliant.
Dream Home Nothing but from the timing I could guess it’s not western!

Sunday
The Pack I could assume a werewolf film.
Andy Nyman (actor) quiz and shorts
I think I will be nipping into the Discovery screen round about this time to see Outcast.
We are what we are And I have no idea what they could be!
Kaboom Nothing, I couldn’t even hazard a guess!
A Serbian Film Now I’ve had to look this up, as this is the talk of the festival. It sounds grim, sick and something a horror fan should see and maybe never see again.
The Loved Ones You would be hoping for a comedy right about now! Well Horror-Comedy! No idea!

Monday
Video Nasties Documentary and Q & A And off to the Discovery screen to see Amer!
The Dead And a zombie flick, at a guess.
Bedevilled I know nothing!
Red White and Blue And I have no Idea.
The Last Exorcism All I know is I could throw up! And not because of the 25 films before but because it’s hand held and I hate it!

So as you can see I know nothing about nearly all of this years films and I think I’ll keep it that way………………..

Frightfest.

Hi,

Now I must confess one of my favourite types of movie is horror. In my youth that was mainly what I watched, Prom night, April Fools Day, Halloween, Friday the 13th, an endless list of blood and gore. Brilliant!
And I continued to invest in the horror genre with my DVD collection, nearly 1/3 of my films are horror. And then I came across J-Horror, brought on by watching the brilliant Ring. These were some creepy films, Ring, Ju-On and a Tale of two sisters my favourites at the moment.

So that in mind 3 years ago I came across a film festival in London called Frightfest, a collection of horror and fantasy films shown over the bank holiday weekend in August.



OH YES!

I talked to my friend (Tony) about this and he was up for it as well. The line up announced in July, the tickets bought the day after and we were going to our first film festival! Pretty cool stuff!
2 months later and we were on the train to London. Our hotel was 5 minutes from the station and about 25 minutes walk from Leicester square, I remember the walk well, because it was raining, the only time in 3 years it’s rained on us. We arrived around 3 hours before the first film, not sure of what to expect and what to do we weren’t taking any chances. The Odeon at the bottom of Leicester Square was the venue, and there were quite a few festival goers already milling around the front of the cinema and in the foyer. We collected our tickets and found a bar, had a few drinks (something we both regretted by the middle of the 2nd film) and something to eat. 18.00 soon came around, we found our seats and our festival experience began with the Australian Horror-Comedy Black Sheep.
Now the film was ok, but this was a different type of audience, with this type of audience the film worked better than it should have done. They laughed and cheered at a gory death, even applauded at times. They wanted blood and gore and when it came they bayed for more! This was how to see horror films. And so the experience was a good one from the start and it only got better!

The Films

Over 25 horror, fantasy and sci-fi films are shown in 5 days. Many are UK premiers, some are World premiers, some will never see a cinema screen outside this festival. Like the brilliant Trick R Treat we got to see this year, out on DVD in October.
You get the lot from Zombie movies (which I’m not keen on), ghost stories, slasher movies and evil kids. Grim films, really grim films (The Girl next door), fun films, very funny films and of course some utter rubbish too, well you can’t expect it all to be good can you!
Thinking about this more, I think each year deserves it’s own post, I mean there are over 25 films for me to talk about each year so this could become one massive post. The good thing is my reviews are never that big, so catch the rundown from each year and my thoughts in some future Fright fest blogs – coming soon!


The Organisers

Alan Jones, a renowned journalist and writer of horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres in all media fields. Paul McEvoy, co-owner of the Cinema shop (London and Nottingham) and long time horror fan. Greg Day who has worked in TV and Film PR for Channel 4 and Channel Five and finally Ian Rattray who is a film distributor and film booker, working in the industry for over 20 years.
Four men with a passion for films, I would guess mostly Horror and Fantasy, but I’ve never actually posed the question to any of them what other genre’s they do like. Something I may ask next year (Yes we are going back for Year 4!).
They manage the weekend brilliantly and even though it looks extremely hard work and they look somewhat stressed at times they are always willing to engage you in conversation, about the films you’ve seen, the stars, the way the weekends going, or just anything to do with films. If you ask and they know they are likely to tell you.
We were late for the Monday morning zombie movie, while getting our wake up coffee, Alan Jones came over to see us, shortly after all we were joined by the other 3 and we had a good chat about Frightfest and each of their backgrounds. As it was 10 years old what better way to remember it but get them all to sign our programmes, which they gladly did.

The Directors and Cast

A fare few Directors come along to promote their films and I suppose they enjoy seeing it played in front of a genre-friendly audience, because these are the people who are going to get it more than anyone. Various cast members also turn up, some stay for a few days, some stay all weekend. They are all told by the organisers that the public will engage them and there’s nowhere to hide!
So unless they leg it out the door at the end of the film, they tend to get asked for autographs, about the film, what they are doing next and so on. Most are willing to talk to you, if only for a brief moment. Most are just happy to be told you enjoyed the film, the direction or their part, I guess it makes them feel they have achieved something worth while.

Then we have some Directors which just keep coming back, Joe Lynch, Adam Green and Neil Marshall. Neil’s wife Axelle Carolyn is almost always with him. I always wondered if Axelle came to keep Neil company, as she’s been there the last three years, but I think it may be Neil keeping Axelle company as it would appear she is the horror expert. I picked up a book at the festival called It Lives Again! This is a history of horror films from 2000 to 2009, a very good read I must say. Then I found a picture of the author with Neil, (who had written the preface), and a caption stating the relationship between the two. I was more than a little surprised, they were married.
So the book will be returning with me next year in the hope I can get it signed.

"Me, Joe Lynch and Tony"

Joe Lynch, the director of Wrong turn 2 which played at the Festival in my first year has also been here the last 3 years, even without bringing a film to the 2 of them.







"Me and Adam Green"

Adam Green, another who had come for the last 4 years but who has a couple more films to his credit, Hatchet, which I really liked, Spiral which showed in my first year, not bad a sort of thinking man’s horror, and this year we got to see the trailer for his new film Frozen, which looks great!
But these two have gone one step further than most, in our 2nd year the 2 of them created a series of “on the road to Frightfest” shorts, taking the opening sequence from the Twilight Zone: Movie, and coming up with 5 very funny shorts. They can be found on You Tube.
With this years showing of American Werewolf in London, they did their own version, again brilliant, even Alan Jones ended up in one of them.
In my 2nd year and the year of The Dark Knight, I spent 20 minutes talking to Joe Lynch about the Batman film. He urged me to see it on an Imax screen, we were back in Manchester on the Tuesday and in our Imax on the Wednesday. All I can say he was right, awesome! Joe Lynch reminds me of Quentino Tarantino, his enthusiasm for film and this genre is infectious and he and Adam are great to chat with.

It’s moments like these that makes the film festival so damn good, ok the films – yes, but the conversations with actors and directors now that really makes it worth while.

The Audience

You may think this would be a whole load of horror frenzied geeks, well not quite, or not as many as you would think really. They are horror fans pure and simple, they love the genre, looking at the countless horror t-shirts which drift pass me in the foyer they really love this genre. And you need too, 25 horror films tests the biggest geek!

I’ve tended to talk to the people sat around me in the theatre, but not really got into many conversations with anybody else. Something I should do, because these people would be just as interesting to discuss horror with as the directors or cast. I think this should be my aim next year, talk to more geeks like myself!

So the 3rd year has been and gone, I’ve seen 84 films, missed only 3 and enjoyed nearly all of them to some degree. Only a couple I’ve really hated!

They have been 3 brilliant weekends and I’m looking forward to a few more!

ROLL ON YEAR 4.