SP: Yup! That’s five films down, six to go. Six. Films. To. Go.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that having spent 12 hours in a cinema the day before, a person would not be inclined to spend 14 hours in a cinema the following day. But this is not the time for rational, normal-person decisions – we are FrightFesters, and enjoy a Fest of Frights we shall! Thus:
SATURDAY – DAY TWO!
11.00 a.m. – EVIDENCE
SP: Pffft! Another day, another found footage movie. The premise for this one is slightly better, with characters you have the classic ‘like-but-would-like-to-see-killed’ relationship. They seem a jovial enough bunch but they could die horribly and you’d be happy. Which is lucky because here they are heading off on a camping holiday to film a documentary. Idiots. Sexy idiots. It’s never actually that clear why the main subject deserves a documentary; maybe he’s working on some sort of myspace page. Anyway, this isn’t a million miles away from Tape 407 but the drop into hell is starker and goes much further than yesterday’s home movie. It’s a rollercoaster ride but it’s just a shame that the ideas and style in the closing credits weren’t explored earlier in the film.
JS: It was definitely a world away from Tape 407, couldn’t have been more different. In Tape 407 things kick off sharpish, but Evidence takes it’s time introducing you to your camping buddies and the laughs (intentional this time) in the first chunk displayed some wit. It also sets up a few uncertainties in your mind as to what’s actually going on and where the final act reveal might take you, whereupon all those little theories I’d been constructing were tossed aside as the movie sprinted through a real batshit crazy home stretch. It’s never exceptional, but it is a lot of fun and reasonably thrilling once the obligatory running and screaming begins. It is a tad stretched, with the dash to safety -> have a breather -> RUNNING cycle getting a little repetitive towards the end, but I’d wholeheartedly recommend this for a few laughs and jolts with some beer and pizza (quintessential Pizza Zombie fodder really).
1.15 p.m. – PENUMBRA + THE OTHER SIDE OF SIMON
SP: The Other Side of Simon was a tasty little arthouse piece with a powerful central performance, which made an impact despite being a short. Recalling American Psycho and Clockwork Orange with a Jack the Ripper undercurrent, it really paced itself well and concluded in a nicely open-ended fashion. It might not survive becoming a full feature but you could get a good 60-80 minutes out of it. Nice wee surprise.
Penumbra is a Spanish/Argentinian film with a creepy mystery at its heart. The lead character has her rental home invaded but isn’t quite as stupid as most horror characters in this situation. In fact, she pretty tough and quick-witted. It slowly dawns on her that something strange is afoot and she gets proactive in attempting to escape. Things quickly unravel and come to a head with the arrival of, apparently, a very famous Argentinian soap star giving a lofty edge to a cameo role. It’s a fun film with some decent gory moments and was a definite favourite with the crowd.
JS: This was a bit of a gem, with a really interesting atmosphere all it’s own. It’s a slow burner, but the script and performances crackled with a quirky energy that made it a breezy and amusing joy rather than the crawl of foreboding it could have been. It’s got a little of the Rosemary’s Baby’s about it, and it’s a movie with enough class and pizazz that I would hope it would be enjoyed and respected by a wider audience than just the horror crowd. I say it was classy, but it still included the most gratuitous baby oil/bouncing bosom sequences that I’ve seen in a while. And I’m a fan of specialist cinema.
3.30 p.m. – RITES OF SPRING
JS: There were parts of Rites that didn’t work particularly well for me, as it slips into slasher territory for large chunks and John Carpenter is pretty much the only guy I can think of who has made the man in a mask with a knife genre actually scare me. While it didn’t put the willies up me, it is however a very good example of said stabby genre, and has the strong backbone of a very intriguing mythology propping it up. It’s a mythology that isn’t particularly explained but is hinted just enough to grip you and will definitely have me back for the proposed sequel to see the whole thing expanded. Remember Jeepers Creepers? Remember how much you really enjoyed it up to a certain point and then it fell apart a bit? Rites is barking up the same tree but holds itself together throughout, well worth a watch.
SP: Rites of Spring was a brilliant choice for mid-afternoon on day two. When you’re starting to flag a bit it always helps to have some old-school horror served up by the director (Padraig Reynolds) himself. Rites of Spring started with a palpably tense Chainsaw Massacre style hostage/cult sacrifice situation mixed in with a seemingly unrelated kidnapping plot. The meticulous cult scenes were effectively discomforting while the kidnapping felt like a dark caper… a weird combination for the start of a proposed trilogy! Luckily these strands eventually came together and created a fairly tense conclusion with enough questions unanswered to merit a sequel and yet resolved enough not to need one. It was a bit of a strange one but it did the trick before the long-awaited noodle break that preceded…
6.30 p.m. – L’ARRIVO DI WANG/ WANG’S ARRIVAL
SP: It’s important to have noodles before the home straight. Especially noodles from a proper movie takeaway box. Visit Wok to Walk to find out more!
JS: Man, them noodles.
SP: L’arrivo di Wang is an Italian film forged from the great metals of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. It’s not much of a horror film but it does has a nice creepy story to it. There’s some slightly dodgy government heavy-handedness at play that seems to be condoned as the film plays out but this may be something that’s lost in translation. In any case it’s impossible to discuss anything that happens without going into spoiler territory so let’s just say that if you want a decent story with a good climactic twist then L’arrivo di Wang is for you. And before you ask, yes, the name is going to change before general release!
JS: Before this we were shown the first scene of a currently in production Italian movie, but I swear I can’t remember what it was called. It did feature a man having his meat and veg removed forcibly, so that image may have driven out any other information.
I found Wang pretty refreshing at this time of the fest, as it’s more of a slightly sinister Outer Limits episode than a dark and brooding horror movie (you get plenty of dark and brooding at FF so it always perks you up a bit when something bucks the trend). It was really a game of two halves though, on one side you had some great suspenseful writing and a riveting performance from the really quite fabulously watchable (and previously unknown to me) Francesca Cuttica, but on the other there’s that age old bug bear of some really very ropey CG. When you’re watching low budget genre cinema it seems churlish to criticize a film for cheap effects, but I couldn’t help thinking throughout how awesome this would have been with physical effects. It was an immersion breaker unfortunately, but the movie still has plenty going for it. It was also the only point in the weekend when a director was asked by an audience member if his film was pro-fascism, which is nice.
9.00 p.m. – CASSADAGA
SP: The prime time spot on a Saturday is usually reserved for a general-public-friendly stinker. This year it was supposed to be The Devil Inside… but luckily this was changed to Cassadaga! Truly the gods were smiling. Don’t be fooled into thinking Cassadaga is without its problems though. It’s trying to do three things: messed up family psychology, serial killer/missing persons gore suspense and exorcism bullshit horror. It does what it can with these cliches but could do with trimming away the fat and leaving us with a proper bit of serial killer brutality – this being the best thread by a country mile. It doesn’t help that I hate exorcism fluff I suppose. The best bits in Cassadaga were the nutty room torture deaths, which were genuinely quite horrible body horror. The rest was decent enough padding.
JS: From the comments floating around it looks like the audience dodged a bullet in missing out on The Devil Inside, and as flawed as Cassadaga turned out to be I’d still rather watch it than an Unborn-style slick and toothless attempt at horror. The Unborn was shit by the way. I was pleased to hear what would be replacing it, Cassadaga being from the director of Dread, one of a cracking batch of Clive Barker adaptations that popped up in recent years. Dread left a real mark on me for being full of dread (as opposed to dreadful) and Cassadaga starts out with some pretty strong content that had the men in the audience squirming. It doesn’t quite hold all it’s strands together (one particular plotline is dismissed suddenly and never brought up again) and it puts it’s foot right in it with the ending, which was gloriously over-earnest in its efforts to tug the heartstrings. That sequence got almost as many unwanted laughs as Tape 401 sadly, which is a shame as up to that point it was a very serviceable if unremarkable watch.
THE MAIN EVENT
11.15 p.m. – THE RAID
A labyrinthine maze of drug lords, murderers and gang members... let's go to work.
SP: It’s been a long time coming but this is what the festival has been all about. The buzz surrounding The Raid has been building steadily for months, and hype can kill a film. It is a rare event indeed when the hype doesn’t do its subject justice. The Raid is a film so beyond hype, expectation, current industry standard and categorisation that it has to be seen to be believed. And apparently there are people running major studios who think this film had no merit.
Those people are the worst kind of idiot. These are people that are holding everyone back.
This Indonesian martial arts action flick is the most exciting, kinetic and inventive piece of cinema to be released in years. The film gives you the barest of introductions and plunges you straight into the heart of the action. Director Gareth Evans has a deft touch with pace and ensures that, at every moment, there is something holding your attention – explosive action, a beat of silence, something funny to give you breathing space – it’s all there in the cut. And it’s between this editing and the explosive choreography of star Iko Uwais that the meat of the action lies. The fluidity and brutality throughout is genuinely breathtaking. There were moments after several fight sequences when I realised that, quite subconsciously, I had been moving forward in my seat and holding my breath. Actually holding my breath. It’s ridiculous how good this film is. But the quality is not just in the action – the pulse of the film is also in the emotional impact. We see the physical exhaustion as the film progresses but Uwais and the cast also embody the emotional impact of the situation incredibly well. At times the hero is running away, in pain, exhausted or helpless – and you feel all of this through him. You care about the people he cares about and you empathise with them. In the week since I watched this film I have thought back on it and starting welling up at the memories… not crying mind you. I’m just incredibly impressed when the collective efforts of creative people make something spectacular. Combining physical and emotional punches in a film as exciting and visually powerful as The Raid is an absolutely amazing accomplishment. It cannot be praised highly enough.
JS: Wow. About 20 years ago I was channel hopping with a friend and stumbled on an action movie mid-shootout, and me and my friend were immediately riveted to what we were seeing unfold. As things got crazier and crazier we were whooping and cheering it on from the floor (way too excited to stay seated). It was one of those experiences where you knew that something inside you was being changed, and that the way you looked at action cinema would never be the same. That movie was John Woo’s Hard Boiled, and I’m sad to admit that in the 20 years since I’ve never seen an action movie that has made me feel the way I did that night. Sure, I’ve loved action movies, but none of them have electrified me to the same level. Until now.
The Raid has minimal pre-amble, enough set-up to let you know that these cops are heading into hell on earth and that things are going to get pretty hairy, but it can’t quite prepare you for just how crazy things get once those hairs sprout. The choreography is mindblowing, the energy completely off the scale and the direction and editing stylish and punchy without the frantic cuts most action movies need to convince you you’re excited. The Raid doesn’t need that, awesome things are happening and Gareth Evans is savvy enough to let you see it. Refreshing that. The sound design was also thumpingly effective, every hit rattling the skull and the music building tension when necessary and letting the action breath elsewhere (the film has since been re-scored for the Western release by Mike Shinoda, will be interesting to see what he does with it). It’s also relentless in a way that nothing, not even Hard Boiled can really lay claim to. Once the fighting starts you’re with Iko every kick of the way, and the man gets very little chance to relax (even at the screening he couldn’t resist throwing in some martial arts). Even the moments of calm are dripping with tension. Like SP, there was a point in the film where a fight ended, the last enemy hit the floor, and I realized that I hadn’t been breathing for the whole encounter. THAT’S what action cinema should do.
I know this all sounds like gushing hyperbole of the worst kind, but this is how The Raid made me feel. It made me feel like Hard Boiled did, it made me feel like a kid again, and I know that for that reason in 20 years time I’ll still be digging out my Cerebro 5D Holodeck Edition of The Raid and revisiting it as the classic it already is.
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