FrightFest Day 5

The cast and crew of Zombie Diaries

All good things must come to an end and FrightFest is no exception. The last day was a mixed bag that gave us one of the best films of the festival and also the most disappointing.

Arriving too late to join in the mass zombie walk I found Leicester Square overrun with zombies, including junior members of the walking dead (see pic left). Fighting my way through the flesh hungry hoard I made my way to my seat for the day’s first film, Zombie Diaries.

Making allowances for the films obvious micro budget, this was a nice blend of Night of the Living Dead and The Blair Witch Project. The acting was variable and elements of the films structure could have been better (the final scene with the army weakened the ending) but this showed promise and an abundance of enthusiasm from all concerned.

During the Q&A that followed the directors were asked the budget of the film. Michael Bartlett rather than name the figure responded with “What was the budget? It almost cost me my marriage. It almost cost me my home.” Co-director Kevin Gates added two girlfriends to the tally. Clearly these guys were passionate about their film.

Talking to Bartlett after the screening he asked me about The Signal and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, two films he’d wanted to see. Horror it seems wasn’t just a genre he picked because it could be done cheaply but something he had a real interest in.

KM 31 retold the oft filmed The Crying Woman legend for a modern audience. Competently made and visually pleasing this nevertheless failed to capture me or, if the attendees for the director’s interview after the screening are any indication, many of the audience. It was a case of seen it all before as Rigoberto Casteneda blended traditional ghost story elements with some very Asian style shocks.

Not yet having seen Hatchet the showing of Spiral was my first introduction to Adam Green and his films. This was a dark, leftfield love story about one of life’s misfits. A little like Love Object without the inflatable woman or, as Green put it, as if “Hitchcock pulled Woody Allen over and fucked him in the ass.” A slow pace, no gore and yet the audience was captivated. The performance were spot-on from co-director Joel David Moore playing the socially inept Mason to Amber Tamblyn as the kind of girl every nerd dreams about and Zachary Levi as Berkeley, Mason’s only friend.

Adam Green’s reception showed he’s a FrightFest favourite and he knows how to work a crowd. All the other festival guests were accompanied by one of the organisers (usually Alan Jones) but Green was alone onstage. He answered a few audience questions before regaling us with his Twisted Sister story. I could attempt to retell it here but I’m not going too. The story will be on the Hatchet DVD, so go out and buy that, even if the film is crap (something I doubt very much after seeing Spiral) the story is worth the cost alone. I didn’t just like Green’s film but also the man himself, finding him open and honest, rare things in the movie biz.

Before the next big film we got treated to the In the Wall short, described by its director, Mike Williamson, as Edgar Allen Poe meets EC Comics and he was true to his word. This was Poe’s The Black Cat with an EC punchline, brilliantly scored by Clint Mansell with a first rate performance from Chris McKenna, it had the polish of a feature film. Best short film of the festival by a country mile.

Next was the day’s big disappointment that further showed Russia to be the weak link of the festival after the poor The Sword Bearer on Friday. Day Watch was one of the films I’d looked forward to most at the start of the festival but it was overlong, downright silly in parts and committed the Hollywood sin of throwing lots of explosions at the screen to try and mask the films inadequacies.

Alan Jones had been bigging The Orphanage up since day one and with Guillermo Del Toro’s name on it this was potentially the film of the weekend. Getting its first screening outside of Cannes this was another ghost story but this one showed how it should be done.

There are obvious Del Toro influences but this isn’t Pan’s Labyrinth 2, although it does make a nice companion piece to that film. Juan Antonio Bayona involves us with the characters just a Del Toro did with this years Oscar nominated foreign film but the fantasy elements of that film are replaced with a traditional ghost story. One member of the audience would later remark that it had similarities to Poltergeist and that’s true but the atmosphere is much more intense.

The films real ace though is Belen Rueda as Laura . It was revealed by the director after the film that she had shared a similar experience to the character she plays in the film and she must have used that in her performance. At one point she lets out a cry of such tortured anguish that even now, twenty-four hours later it reverberates in my head and has the power to move me to tears. To say too much about this film would spoil it but it delivers more shocks than any other film in the festival (it made the FrightFest crowd jump and that’s no mean feat) and yet shocks aren’t what it’s about. It plays with your emotions not just your fears and that’s what stays with you long after the movie has finished.

I stayed for the Q&Q session after the film. I shouldn’t have, I needed to get to Golders Green in order to catch the coach back to Leicester but it just seemed rude to get up and walk out after seeing such a powerful film. Luckily my coach was ten minutes late or I’d have been stranded in London overnight.

So now safely home what are my fondest memories of the festival? Well two films stand out from the crowd - WAZ and The Orphanage - and two people - Uwe Boll and Adam Green.

The big question is would I do it again next year? And the answer is a definite yes. I’ll be armed with my trusty cushion and if I get lucky maybe I’ll get one of the prized Premier seats.

Big thanks to Alan Jones, not just for being one of the festivals organisers but also for signing my copy of his Profundo Argento book. I’ve been reading Alan’s articles and reviews since Starburst first came out in 1977 (I was twelve). That was one of the factors that nurtured my fascination with the dark side of cinema and ultimately led to me going to FrightFest.

The photographs used are by Andrew Woolstencroft, my brother who put up with me using his flat as a hotel and also provided a taxi service when I got stranded at Purley (the sort of place where zombies can be seen walking the earth in the wee hours).

August 28th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Film & TV News | 2 comments