FrightFest Diary: Day One
Another year has come and gone and we are once again in the hallowed halls of FrightFest, Europe's biggest and best (although I might be biased on that front) horror film festival.
This year it was really really hard to come up with a firm schedule. For every film you picked there were at least amazing sounding films you were missing. But after much thought and deliberation I managed to whittle it down and whilst it may kill me, I have over 20 movies to watch in this 5 day span. So no time to waste, and after an introduction from Steve Oram and Alice Lowe of Sightseers fame we were on our way.
THE RANGER
It seems that after GREEN ROOM and HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES the next big trend in genre movies might be "punks vs. [insert crazy thing here]" and honestly I'm okay with that. Punks vs. Nazis, Punks vs. Aliens, and now we have Punks vs. Psycho. A group of kids head to a cabin in the woods to lay low after some trouble and predictably things don't go very well. See, one of them has a secret and a connection to the local park ranger who takes the rules a little too seriously.
Whilst not as ridiculously bombastic with the kills as last year's opening film CULT OF CHUCKY there are some fun gore moments to be had here. It's also really well made and first time director Jenn Wexler shows the twisted state of main girl Chelsea's mind in ways that are really trippy.
Maybe not quite the most fun for an opening film, but interesting and Jeremy Holm is one sinister maniac.
Verdict: 3/5
Now, can we have Punks vs. Werewolves, please?
SUMMER OF '84
Alright, it's nothing new to say that the 80s are very played out in media at the moment, but while we've seen IT and STRANGER THINGS and the like, SUMMER OF '84 has a genuine feeling that makes the setting more real and less like a nostalgia gimmick. It's from the team behind TURBOKID, a crazy MAD MAX type post apocalypse adventure which I saw at FrightFest a few years ago and really enjoyed.
The story of an imaginative boy who sets out with a group of friends to prove that the cop who lives across the road is in fact a serial killer, this film actually plays out for the most part like a very quirky coming of age drama. We spend time with these kids, we get to know who they are, and we care about them when the possibility of danger comes up. It helps that the young cast are all great. It really plays with the idea of small towns and the paranoia that you don't really know who or what you might be living next door to. It also builds up to a fantastically memorable ending. A real must to check out if you can.
Verdict: 5/5
Got a full day tomorrow, so I will say sweet dreams for now.
Happy watching.