Part 1/Part2
Hey guy Arrow here! Although I couldn’t attend the London Frightfest this year,
AITH reader
Bradley Porter did and he cooked up an extensive report for us. So here it is
Brad’s journey in Frightfest Land!
Bradley: Once again, as Bank Holiday Weekend
descends upon the United Kingdom, the Fright Fest (number 5 to be exact) rears
it’s ugly head, now sitting on the shoulders of a bigger venue, and more
recognition! This years festival promised many things in return for the increase
in £30 to the ticket price, and the end result was decidedly mixed. So, without
further ado, here’s a step by step review of
FrightFest 2005
The crowd goes wild!
Friday 26th
August
11.00am – Night of the Living Dead
(1968)
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen
circumstances (basically amounting to no more than resistance to get out of bed)
we missed the screening of Romero’s first film and instead proceeded to Burger
King to catch up on some much needed grub.
1.00pm – Dawn of the Dead (1978)
(Read The Arrow’s Review Here)
We did catch this screening though, a
very welcome chance to catch up on what many believe to be the definitive zombie
movie. Although suffering from a cruddy DVD projection and sub par sound
quality, the film still packs a satirical punch, and had the crowd cheering out
loud many times. Rogers death and “re-birth” is as heartbreaking as ever, and
the one question resting on my lips as we left the theatre was “How in the Hell
did Ken Foree not become the definitive 80’s action star?!?!”
After this screening, we were allowed to
collect our goodie bags, traditionally the highlight of the festival, although
it is common knowledge that once you’ve seen inside your goodie bag, the rest of
the weekend will always pale in comparison! This year’s goodie bag included a
Children of the Corn Trilogy DVD Boxset, a random Tartan DVD (mine was
Confessions of a Trick Baby) and another random DVD, varying from Shaw Brothers
movies to Standing in the Shadow of Motown (to which I am still perplexed at it
being given out in a horror festival goodie bag. T-Shirts for The Descent (which
all of you HAVE to check out on it’s US release. Best horror film in god knows
how long) and Night Watch were included, along with a Make Zombies History glow
in the dark wristband, Night Watch and Fright Fest badges, Dracula comic books,
Anchor Bay trailer DVD’s, Brain Sweets, a Trojan Condom and various other
assortments.
Existential Zombie?
3.20pm – Day of the Dead (1985)
(Read The Arrow’s Review Here)
Due to the collection of goodie bags
taking longer than expected we missed this screening as well. Shame, but I
wasn’t gonna be crying biscuits over it!
5.00pm – Greg Nicotero Presentation
This was a treat! Nicotero, the head of
KNB effects studios gave a presentation, primarily about the effects in Land of
the Dead, but which also covered some of the other projects they were working
on. He showed a presentation reel which highlighted some of the prior work
they’ve done and also gave a glimpse of the work on Hostel (Which Nicotero
describes as the most fucked up film he has ever seen, that it is like nothing
else we have ever seen, and how proud he is to be involved in that film) and The
Chronicles of Narnia (which I always assumed was a WETA project but apparently
not. The Centaurs, and Fawns look especially impressive).
On this reel were a couple of effects
shots deemed unsuitable for the film (by the MPAA of course) and one was a new
technique he said they were all very excited about but was not used which
involved an attachment on someone’s arm which looked as if it was part of the
arm itself, allowing a ‘zombie’ to take multiple bites and chunks out of the arm
in one continuous take… completely bloody, and a crying shame it was cut! One
more titbit of info… Nicotero told us how he has just finished reading the
script for the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel, and that if it stays in that
form it is proper superb fucked up shit, and will shock us all! Good news on all
fronts, I could listen to this man talk for hours!
Greg also passed around a few
animatronic zombie heads for us to play with, as in the picture of my friend Ant
below, and the guys behind us were making a load of noise throughout the whole
presentation and we knew they were friends of Nicotero, but we were still rather
annoyed! We had no idea who they were, and we even turned to them to ask them
for the zombie head with no clue to whom we were talking. Well when the lights
went up (after a superb joke regarding the ending of Planet of the Apes) we
turned around to see that we had been talking to (and moaning about) none other
that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright! Sitting Behind Us! How stupid did I feel?!?!?!
I left the theatre in shame….
The Romero machine!
7.00pm – Land of the Dead (2005)
(Read The Arrow’s Review Here)
Well you guys have already
seen this
film, so I’ll keep it brief. The film was tremendous amounts of fun, and the
audience whooped and cheered like only a horror audience can, although overall
the film did feel like half a film, with little exposition… but overall I
couldn’t ask for a better time at the movies! 7/10
The real highlight of this film was a
Q+A with George A. Romero himself and the producer of the film. Romero was
everything you could hope him to be. A gargantuan man (much taller than I
expected him to be) and sporting a Foree Electronics name tag with his name on
it (given to him by Pegg and Wright on the LOTD set) the overall impression of
the Q + A was of a man just happy to be making his “little zombie movies” again,
and he added that he was hoping to be able to make a direct sequel to LOTD!
When asked about his involvement with
the Resident Evil film, he commented that they were in pre-production on the
film, and had the script written featuring the story from the original game in
the house, but the studio didn’t want it in the house… which confounded Romero
as in his mind why make a movie of a game which doesn’t follow the game? He
admits that he was fired off the movie, and didn’t have a care in the world
about what happened with it! And when asked about the remakes of Dawn of the
Dead and the Crazies his response was short but simple: “I just don’t care!”
9.00pm – A Bittersweet Life (2004)
Strangely enough, with the festival
being a horror festival and all, A Bittersweet Life was the film I was looking
most forward to over the weekend. This was probably down to the fact that at
last years festival Oldboy made me moist around the edges, and this brought back
the fuzzy feelings. Anyway, as the film began, the opening mini-fight scene and
the superb cinematography, which one comes to expect from Ji-Woon Kim, the
director of the equally visually stunning Tale of Two Sisters, floored me.
Then the film settled into a slower
groove and I was still digging it, as I don’t need to be battered with quick
cuts to enjoy my time in the cinema! Then after a couple of neat deceptions,
awesome torture scenes (man value your hands… seriously) and bone-crunching
fights I was prepared to have all (or at least some) questions answered.
So I waited…
and waited… and had one ending after another foisted upon me until I just didn’t
care anymore. The film scuppered a lot of the good will I had towards it in the
beginning, and although it still ranks as one of the better films at the
festival this year…. It was no Oldboy, and that’s clearly what it strived to be.
There were moments that had me laughing out loud, a sense of humour I didn’t
expect the film to have and the lead performance from Byunh-hun Lee (JSA) was
fascinating. Also, I was very impressed with the actor who played Moon Suk, who
reminded me of an Asian Sean Penn… if you ever wondered what that would look
like. 8/10
11.15pm – Evil Aliens (2005)
A comedy/horror gore-fest from the
director of Razor Blade Smile, Jake West. We missed this one, due to needing to
get a train home, but the buzz was middling to average to say the least.
Saturday 27th
August
Now that’s a line up! (Romero signing)
10.00am – Romero/Nicotero Signing
This was great and terrible in equal
measure. Lets start with the good… Romero is a legend. The artistic merit of his
films can be argued for centuries, but what stands is the contribution his films
have made to the horror genre, and cinema in general, so naturally upon meeting
and shaking hands with the man, I became star-struck and only managed to get a
few simple words out. Still I did manage to get my Dawn of the DVD signed! Being
personally told to “Stay Scared!” by George A. Romero is a highpoint of my young
life. Outside The Cinema Store were a few zombies made up by KNB studios, who
were shambling around with various beating implements with the sole purpose of
scaring the shit out of passers by.
Man this kept me laughing all morning.
One girl, must have been about 14-15 was too scared to walk past him so had to
cross the street! I did wonder to myself why one of the zombies looked so
familiar and it dawned on me that he was a zombie from Shaun of the Dead. I’ve
attached a picture so you can see for yourself. There’s also a picture of me
being eaten by zombies… couldn’t pass that opportunity up! On a negative note,
weekend pass holders were supposed to get priority to the signing so that could
get back to the first screening at 11.00am. But obviously the first priority of
The Cinema Store itself was to make money, and as the rule was, ‘If you weren’t
a weekend pass holder, then you have to buy a poster before you can get anything
signed’, there was obviously more money to be made off the non-pass holders so
it became more of a one of them-one of us rotation system, so we all missed the
next film which was…..
King Romero (again) and half of swell dude Greg
Nicotero!
10.45am – Do You Like Hitchcock?
(2005)
A made for TV Dario Argento movie in
Italian, about a young man obsessed with Hitchcock movies who begins to believe
his neighbours are re-enacting the plot of Strangers on a Train… something like
that… I couldn’t tell you for sure because we MISSED THE SCREENING! Dumb ass
Cinema Store! To be honest, we apparently didn’t miss much (except a very
crucial announcement regarding the 3pm movie on Sunday, Boo which I’ll get to
later…
1.00pm – Dead Meat (2005)
Man this was bad! I mean many of the
fellow festivalgoers were digging it, but I get the feeling it was more because
they felt they had to. See this is the first Irish Genre movie, with Zombies,
and Zombie Cows. The director is a friend of the festival, and he made the movie
out of his own pocket and he was there to introduce the film. And his producer
wore a BIG cowboy hat! So naturally there was a lot of anticipation for the
movie, and good vibes…. But while I can tolerate and occasionally enjoy movies
made on a budget that’s less than the cost of a quarter-pounder burger made of
fanny meat in Ireland, they have to at least exhibit some talent with a camera….
Or lighting…. Or make up… etc. One thing of note however, being in my eyes the
only watchable part of the movie was a very original altercation between a
vacuum cleaner and the eye of a zombie… enjoy. 2/10
3.00pm – The Neighbour No. 13 (2004)
No I seemed to be the only person in the
audience who dug this film… I dunno, yeah it was a bit laboured, and violence
wasn’t as madcap as it was thought to be, but it had a cool low key shooting
style, some small moments of extreme violence, and any film that doesn’t shy
away from killing children and animals is never a bad thing (as long as it’s
done tactfully!). The film itself concerns a shy young man, who was bullied as a
child at school, and has a schizophrenic alter-ego who acts on his behalf
exacting his revenge on those who wronged him. It’s a bit more complex that that
and once again as I thought we were gonna get some answers the film I waited….
And waited… and waited… (sensing a pattern here) with no real conclusion, but I
still had a good time with the film, and it’s probably worth checking out on dvd.
5.5/10
7.00pm – Wild Country (2005)
A Scottish werewolf movie will always
live in the shadow of the almighty Dog Soldiers, and this one was no exception
although it did have a different approach, which felt fresh for a while. The
first half hour of the movie was very funny and naturalistic, especially the
local priest who made me laugh on a regular basis (and whose part in the film
was refreshingly original) and the main performances were all pretty
naturalistic with an improvised feel. Martin Compston (he of the superb Ken
Loach movie, Sweet Sixteen) was a likeable presence once again even if the role
did feel like a step backward for him.
The last 20 minutes of the film were
also a blast, and held a few hilarious surprises. The problem came down to the
middle segment of the film, in which a horrendous puppet werewolf (whose
existence holds no logic throughout the film) attacking a group of teenagers in
the Scottish valleys, one of whom (Samantha Shields… porn star name if there
ever was one) has just given up her baby for adoption after it’s born. The
middle scenes, set at night are so dark and grainy that I often felt that I then
knew what it would be like to be a blind man. And for that the movie loses
points. Although I can see the film developing a cult following, and it was fun
when you could see what was going on. 6/10
We were informed that we were the first
people to see the film in it’s finished form and the director, producer and two
of the stars of the film Sammi Shields and Nicola Muldoon introduced the film
themselves. Afterward they returned for a brief Q+A and told us that the film is
not supposed to be that dark and that when the film is in cinemas it will be
corrected… thank god for that. Now I would also like to take this opportunity to
mention that Shields and Muldoon were fantastically good looking in person (as
opposed to in the film, where they looked a bit worn down)… and special mention
must go to Sammi Shield’s TITS, which were amazing. I have enclosed a shoddy
phone picture of her in a pink dress, where you can see for yourself! Enjoy!
9.00pm – The Roost (2005)
(Read The Arrow’s Review Here)
Man, like Arrow himself said
in his
review, this was a film with a lot of hype, and the introduction segments with
Tom Noonan were superb, but the film itself bored me to tears. Ti West is
obviously a major new talent in the horror genre, and the effects (on the low
budget) were incredibly used, the camera work was unique and its score, all the
work of the director, saved the whole film. But the characters and the story
were dire. All of the 4 main leads could have been interchangeable (even the
girl) as they were so devoid of any personality that an hour into the film, with
no horror really happening as of yet, with these 4 people was enough to send me
into a coma… which it did.
Ti West (The Roost Director)
And upon
awakening 10 mins later I became aware something was happening in the film, only
to find that the big horror in the film was….. bats. Yes bats! Bats which
apparently turn people into Zombies and possess qualities (unseen in the film)
that stop the lead characters running 100 yards to a car. Beats me. Shame. Ti
West was there as well, handing out his own publicity bats and stickers for the
film, and the man is a badger. Top bloke, and I do hope he gets a good script to
work from next time. 9/10 for the technical aspects 2/10 for the rest.
11.15pm – 2001 Maniacs (2005)
This was my favourite film of the
festival believe it or not. When Robert Englund appeared on screen the whole
audience erupted in cheers! Good to seem him on screen again. The film (itself a
remake of 2000 Maniacs) concerns a group of frat boys on their way to spring
break, who meet a couple of hotties, and a gay guy and take a detour to a civil
was era town called Pleasant Valley, where the town Mayor (Englund) and his wife
Granny Boone (Lin Shaye) invite the teens to be their guests of honour at their
annual barbeque! Also along for the ride are a black motorcyclist and his
Chinese girlfriend who instantly rubs the pure southern bred yokels up the wrong
way.
Now this is a town stuck purely in the
civil war era, with Negro slaves, and a teenage boy constantly chasing a sheep
with his pants down. I don’t wanna ruin too much for you, but this film
contained some of the most inventive death scenes ever, which had the entire
audience cheering. These include acid drinking, eye popping, bell crushing,
castration with metal teeth, head slicing, butt spearing and one beautiful scene
with one girl, 4 ropes, four horses and lots of flying limbs. Plus awesome
cameos from Eli Roth (who also produced), Peter Stormare and a dead Armadillo.
Tell me that doesn’t interest you? 9/10
Find the hot babes!
Stay Tuned for Part 2 of this report!