FrightFest Diary: Day Four
The big one, my liveliest day at FrightFest yet. Which is ironic when the day both began and ended with the walking dead.
THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD
By now we all know the basic zombie movie formula. Outbreak, mass panic, group of survivors band together, things go horribly wrong probably due to humans being worse than the zombies they are fighting. This movie strips all of that down to simply one man trying to survive, and it is sheer elegance in its simplicity (kudos to you if you get that reference). The movie isn't afraid to let the silence sit as we watch our protagonist Sam go through the minutia of trying to live in a dead Paris; clearing out the building he happened to be in and trying to get by with only the zombie trapped in the elevator (played amazingly by French actor Denis Lavant) for companionship. Then one day he meets another survivor who makes him consider the possibility of venturing out further than his safe haven. It is a wonderful examination of human survival and isolation and has a more personal focus that many zombie movies lack. A real hidden gem worth seeking out.
Verdict: 5/5
GHOST STORIES
Now for something completely different. Ghost Stories started life as a stage play which I was intrigued by but never saw, brief concept teaser trailer was shown at FrightFest 2016, and then last year this movie came out. A strange story of a paranormal investigator being sent to look into three cases that will challenge his beliefs and possibly his very reality, this is a very eerie film that both pays homage to and reworks the traditional English ghost story in a mesmerising way. So what could be better than getting to watch the film with a live commentary from directors Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson? It was a lot of fun to hear these two talk about the film, discussing locations, influences, and the importance that practical effects played in the movie's production. They're really great guys and this was an utter treat.
Verdict: 5/5
GHOST MASK SCAR
I knew very little going into this film, only aware that it was a Japanese-Korean thriller of mistaken identity based around plastic surgery. Miyu goes to Korea searching for her older sister and meets Hana, a very kind and beautiful plastic surgeon who lives with her lover Hyoshin. I was enjoying the plot play out as we discover each of the three women's secrets, and then in the third act it all fell into place for me what this movie was: a reworking of the origin story of Kuchisake onna, one of the most famous urban legends in Japan. Also known as the "Slit Mouthed Woman", Kuchisake onna wears a surgical mask (common in Japan during cold and flu season) and approaches people with the question "watashi wa kirei desu ka?" "am I pretty?", then revealing her face with her mouth sliced almost ear to ear, and depending on your answer may either cut your mouth to match hers or simply kill you. There are various origins for her, with a few featuring a motif of sisters and plastic surgery which was the clear inspiration here. It was interesting, it was different, it was bold, and I found myself really liking it a lot. The movie isn't perfect, things get a little silly in the very end with CGI blood splatters and a rampage, but I can forgive that when I really admire what the movie does with the rest of the story and what it set out to do in reworking a piece of modern folklore. Also it looks wonderful, unsurprising when director Takeshi Sone is also a cinematographer (he also shot One Cut of the Dead).
Verdict 4/5
TERRIFIED
The most genuinely creepy film of the festival. This is from Argentina and tells the story of the creepy happenings in a neighbourhood and the paranormal investigators who try to look into things and get way over their heads. It has a lot of atmospheric and creepy moments that will make you look askance at your wardrobe whilst laying in your bed, and one sequence involving a corpse sitting down for a nice bowl of cereal. The first half of the film is great, dealing with the overlapping stories of the residents and their encounters with whatever is happening, the movie is quite vague about what exactly these entities are, in a nonlinear fashion that reminded me of JuOn The Grudge, but when the investigators show up things do drag quite a bit. The soundtrack is also more than a little invasive with heavy strings that feels very derived from the soundtrack for the Insidious movies. But despite the minor faults it still brings the chills and is absolutely worth watching.
Verdict: 4/5
ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE
A Scottish high school coming of age musical zombie comedy. Do I really need to tell you anything else when just that summary alone will either sell you on this or completely repulse you?
Well, if I do, teen Anna and her friends have to try and save their families trapped in the school and fight off various hordes of zombies, all while singing their hearts out.
This was a lot of fun and doesn't go halves either on the musical elements or the zombie gore action; the songs are good and I am very much hoping for a soundtrack that I can listen to come the Christmas season, and there are some great kills here, including a seesaw decapitation that brought the house down. As for the plot it's nothing special, it's back to that typical plotline that I enjoyed being subverted in The Night Eats The World, but the form is so novel and the execution is so entertaining that it's hard to be too bothered by that. It's a perfect Christmas movie in the sense that it's fun and you're not gonna tax your turkey stuffed brain watching it. It just also has more decapitations.
Verdict: 4/5
One day more and Frightfest will be over all too soon. But will it end on a bang or a wimper? You'll have to wait and see.
Happy watching.