The Friday Night Fright: The Last Horror Movie
Back in March I started Cinema Macabre over at Blogcritics, the idea being that some of the Blogcritics writers with a taste for the darker side of cinema could shout about their favourite genre flicks. The concept ran out of steam (or maybe that should be blood?) after only five “issues” with a lack of interest from most of the site’s writers being the main cause, but during its short existence Cinema Macabre served its purpose by highlighting some lesser known horror gems.
Which brings us to this weeks “Friday Night Fright”. The Last Horror Movie was featured in that first edition of Cinema Macabre (in fact it was my Brother Tony’s recommendation) and I made a point of picking up a copy. Now, just over eight months later, I’ve finally got around to watching it and I’m pleased to report that it’s every bit as good as Tony said it was.
The pseudo-documentary style film is a cheap way for filmmakers to get a project in front of the cameras but to do it convincingly requires a great deal of skill. Director Julian Richards makes it look easy, giving the film enough of a professional feel so that it doesn’t come across as some amateur dramatics project but still keeping it rough enough to make it seem real.
He’s helped no end in that quest for realism by Kevin Howarth. Howarth’s Max is a sociopath, but unlike other movie nutters, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer for example, he’s not socially inept, in fact he’s intelligent and downright charming when he wants to be. Yet his monologues to camera, which are effectively him talking to you, the viewer, are deeply disturbing. There are also some blackly comics moments that add to the viewers sense of unease because you know you really shouldn’t be laughing (some of the deleted scenes on the DVD are too comical and would have spoilt the films delicate balance).
This really should have been Kevin Howarth’s calling card to bigger things but instead he’s mainly done voice acting for video games since. He did reunite with Julian Richards this year though, to make Summer Scars, a very different film to The Last Horror Movie but one I’m now eager to see.
I’m also glad I picked the DVD up when I did as Tartan stopped distributing the film after it was mentioned in connection with a real life murder case. Shame on you Tartan for pandering to the Daily Mail mentality, movies don’t kill people, people kill people.
Summer Scars Trailer:
