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9th October 2018, 08:13 AM
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Another GRIMMFEST down. I'm going to try and do a rundown of the films screened. Thursday Re-animator Hard to say anything new on this. Barbara Crampton was present throughout the festival. She introduced the film and it was damn nice to see it theatrically. Forget nonsense like the integral cut, the beauty of Re-animator is the ruthlessly efficient pacing and Stuart Gordon's ability to see that pushing everything as far as he can is both thrilling and hilarious. Its why the integral cut fails as a film, there's too much footage that wile interesting wrecks the films pace and makes it boring. Await further instructions A family Christmas starts of badly when the son comes home from Uni with an Asian girlfriend. Racist Grandpa and stuffy patriarchal dad begin making things difficult. As does his rather dim sister and her boyfriend. Things get worse however when the family wakes to find themselves sealed within the house. The TV begins giving instructions for the family which get steadily darker and more lethal. There's some problems with the film. Mainly continuity and editing issues.Also some extremely heavy handed satire. It also fails to do anything original with the concept. However its worth checking out as its throws in some interesting moments including some genuinely bizarre body horror. Girls with balls A french Vollyball team end up getting lost and running into a village full of hicks intent on hunting them. So far so predictable. However director Olivier Afonso is fully aware of this so decides to have some real fun with the concept. Every cliche of this kind of film is present however its all done with a sense of ludicrousness and an almost pythonesque sense of humour, essentially dissecting the rural horror genre with wonderful precision without becoming scream or scrimping on the brutality and gore. It's very new and I'm not sure it's screened anywhere else yet, one i'm definitely buying when it gets released.  |
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9th October 2018, 08:37 AM
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| The Silent Partner. A mild-mannered bank teller (Elliot Gould) suspects that a department store Santa (Christopher Plummer) is planning a robbery, and makes plans so that when he does, he ends up stiffing him, taking most of the money for himself and leaving the blame on the robber. But Plummer soon works out what he did, and he's not impressed... Susannah York co-stars in this unremarkable but still entertaining late 70s Canadian thriller, which also has a small early role for comedy legend John Candy.
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9th October 2018, 09:13 AM
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| Friday Lifechanger A shape shifter living in Toronto spends his days killing off people and stealing their identities. He's getting worried that the change is not lasting as long as it once did and wounds from previous identities are carrying over to his new form. Added to this sense of desperation is a woman he's obsessed with (Lora Burke from a highlight of last years Grimm POOR AGNES) who hangs out at his local bar. Grimm has a habit of picking up interesting stuff from Canada. This ones a terrific little low-key horror which runs 84 minutes and never outstays its welcome. It really gets into the head of a creature that is so determined to be someone else that he has no idea who he is. Framed A group of Teens holding a house party end up getting targeted by a group of nutters intent on live-streaming a home invasion. Pretty soon they're being tortured and killed for a growing online audience. It looks terrific, its got the sort of nastiness found in films like INSIDE and MARTYRS and does not flinch as showing extreme imagery. Its a real relentless assault on its audience from beginning to end. Unfortunately its also got a lot of issues with plausibility and I kept finding myself wondering why no one was calling the cops or just escaping when the crazies are occupied. It was enough to keep me really engaging with the film but i'm sure gore hounds will be happy with this. Office Uprising Office space meets The Crazies. A slacker working at an Arms manufacturer arrives at work one morning to find that everyone has been turned into homicidal maniacs by a weaponized energy drink. While not life changing or genre defining office uprising is a fun, humorous and entertaining little film that actually turned out better than the similarly themed belko experiment. Worth seeing. Dead night Produced by Don Coscarelli, the film has a family heading into the hills to a remote cabin promoted as having healing properties in the soil. As the father (played by A J Bowen) has cancer the trip appears to be a last ditch effort to save him. Things don't go well however. The family discovers a strange woman in the woods (Barbara Crampton) who promptly turns on the family and begins transforming them one by one into demons. Alongside this runs a true crime TV show that appears to show the conclusion to what is happening and begins raising the question as to whether the mother is actually insane. I really enjoyed this. It's definitely got enough original ideas thrown into the mix and a largely likeable cast as well a plot that invites repeat viewings. Hopefully this one will get a decent UK release, but more likely it'll be an import job. Tigers are not afraid A mexican film with a mixture of gritty realism and fantasy. Almost like if Guillermo Del Toro had done a Mexican set version of City of god. A group of street kids struggling to survive in a ghost town run by the drugs cartels. The gangs, who use black magic as part of their business are kidnapping the kids for sacrifices. A young girl whose mother has vanished ends up joining the kids gang and come into conflict with the cartel. Why this doesn't have oscar buzz is beyond me. Absolutely deserves to be in my top ten films of the year and possibly the best film of the festival. The child actors are uniformly great. The film does not flinch in its depictions of the cartels and has some genuinely nasty moments. It also manages to be completely tragic at the right moments and will have you reaching for your hanky. I really hope this one gets a decent release. Absolutely demands to be seen. Summer of 84 From the directors of Turbo Kid. This one is a radically different kind of film. A nostalgia piece about 80's childhood with a real Stephen King influence to the plot. A group of kids begin to suspect that a local cop is in fact a serial killer and begin following him looking for evidence. I was genuinely on the edge of my seat throughout this one. Manages to capture the 80's feel incredibly well. Some stuff left me dubious, like the hot babysitter who seems to have a thing for the main protagonist but its not a deal breaker. Astonishing ending as well. |
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9th October 2018, 09:50 AM
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| Saturday Brothers nest Two brothers intent on killing their step-father head up to the family home in the middle of nowhere to commit the seemingly prefect crime. However the pairs own issues and family history come bubbling to the surface as they go about their business and the plan slowly unravels in some genuinely nasty ways. Terrific Australian dark crime story that feels like a down under take on films like Blood simple. It's genuinely funny in places with a deadpan sense of humour. However, when the shit hits the fan it works perfectly without it feeling like a jarring change of tone. It's funny, tragic and in places genuinely horrifying. Well worth seeing. Piercing Adapted from a novel by the author of audition by the director of Eyes of my mother. The film opens with a new father stood over his child with an ice pick contemplating using it to kill the child. Instead he books himself into a hotel and hires a hooker to he can use the pick to kill her instead. He's a sadistic psychopath responding to childhood trauma and intends the murder to be a form of therapy for himself. All this is supported by his wife. He gets impatient and moves the schedule forward changing hookers. The new girl who arrives is more than a little messed up herself and engages in a little self harm. Things proceed to get weirder and darker from here! Scored entirely with music from popular Giallo's including deep red, what have they done to your daughters and Tenebrae. I really liked this one. Some people may find its style a little off putting but it feels genuinely unique and one I definitely want to see again. Nightmare cinema An anthology picture with directors like Joe Dante, Mick Garris and Ryuhei Kitamure. It has stories about plastic surgery gone awry, demonically possessed schoolchildren and alien invasions with a wrap around featuring a cinema with Mickey Rourke as a demonic projectionist. Not all the stories succeed but its got enough going for it to make it enjoyable. I got to chat with one of the writers who says everyone involved is hoping to make this a regular thing like Masters of horror. I really hope they succeed. The Witch in the window. An estranged father takes his son into the countryside to help fix up a house he's purchased. unfortunately the house appears to have a curse on it from the previous owner and the pair begin to realise they are not alone in the house. A great little haunted house film that refuses to make another fairground ride full of jump scares. Instead it focuses on character development and slowly building up the tension before letting the scary stuff happens, creating a growing sense of dread. The film has lots of details in the background that show up theatrically, where you can see the witch in frame without the camera actively pointing it out or the score suddenly indicating somethings happening. Well crafted and worth seeing. Puppet master the littlest reich A 'reboot' of the series from the makers of Brawl in cell block 99 and Bone Tomahawk. A comic shop clerk discovers a strange puppet in his dead brothers room. Discovering that its worth a lot of money he heads down to the auction with his girlfriend and his manager. At the hotel the puppets all wake up and begin slaughtering the guests in some extremely bloody ways. The film is very well written and directed and played terrifically with an audience. It's possible that certain scenes might take things a little too far and threatens to damage the tone of the movie, however its not enough to ruin the films entertainment value. Satan's slaves Beautifully shot Indonesian chiller about a family who finds themselves haunted when their mother, a famous singer, dies. However it soon becomes apparent that there's more than a simple case of haunting going on and we then get a weird mixture of occult conspiracy like the omen, bizarre zombie sieges and family drama. It's a weird mixture that doesn't quite fit together as well as it should but its got a definite future 'cult midnight movie' feel about it. |
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9th October 2018, 10:12 AM
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| Sunday The cleaning lady A beautiful woman trapped in an affair with a married man who won't leave her alone when she tries to leave or leave his wife and commit to her finds friendship with a disfigured maintenance woman who begins working as her cleaner. Her new friend has a dark side however and soon begins to go single white female on her, leading to a genuinely grizzly third act. A well crafted little thriller with some great acting and a well written script. Nothing Exceptional but worth seeing if you get the chance. Pledge A group of nerds on campus looking to get into a frat house get invited to an exclusive frat house based well away from campus. Everything seems good at first but things get darker when the Hazing begins with some genuinely nasty torture. The kids soon realise this is not a normal fraternity and look to escape. Another one that shifts tone, starting out like a darker frat house comedy before becoming something nastier. Well worth giving this a try. Alive From director ROB GRANT who has become something of a regular at Grimm with both Mon Ami and Fake blood being festival highlights. A man awakes in a strange hospital being cared for by a sinister doctor (played by Angus Macfadyen) whose care feels almost like a form of torture. Pretty soon he is joined by a young woman and the pair begin to plan an escape from their captor. The film plays as a cat and mouse game between the patients and their doctor, however it gradually throws in a great twist that makes sense and is consistent with what you have seen before. I got to speak to the writer of this one Jules Vincent who was very interesting to speak to and filled in a lot of info on the production process. I really like this one. Devil's Doorway Found footage movie that draws its inspiration from real life horror. Set in 1960 a priest investigates a reported miracle at one of the Magdalene laundry's. Given what we now know about what these places were like then its unsurprising there's a dark secret. The film throws in demonic possession, ghosts and it suggests that what has happened here has cursed the place entirely. I had seen this before and was a little luke warm on it, but seeing it theatrically with an audience it worked a lot better and I really enjoyed it. I'll take your dead. A man living out in the middle of nowhere disposes of bodies for criminals from the city. He's saving the money he makes to take his daughter away from the life that seems to be mentally affecting her. She's a strange child who seems to talk to dead people that haunt the farm. Things go wrong when a fresh body dropped at the farm proves to be someone not quite dead and the cleaner who is not a killer saves her life. This leads him into a head on collision with the gang. While not everything here works, its well written and paced enough with well developed characters and a sense of pathos. The final act is genuinely great but also is the point where it throws in things that might not work as well as it should. Worth seeing though. |
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9th October 2018, 10:17 AM
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| Anna and the apocalypse. A highschool the musical style film that melds in zombie apocalypse surprisingly well. I'm not keen on musicals, and the bubblegum pop tracks that open the film really didn't work for me but to its credit I stuck with it and once the zombie mayhem began then I was into it a lot more. It's surprisingly dark for a teen pop movie with some characters dying nasty deaths but this all added to the charm for me. I would happily recommend this film especially if you actually like musicals as in spite of it not being my personal preference its a well crafted little horror flick. Last film for this years grimm and a nice send off. |
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9th October 2018, 10:43 AM
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Thank you for those reviews from Grimm, Keirarts.  So many films that sound really good. I hope we get to see them on dvd in the UK. Not that i'll be able to recall them a year down the line.  |
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9th October 2018, 12:02 PM
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9th October 2018, 01:57 PM
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| Quote:
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
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9th October 2018, 08:54 PM
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Likes all round!  Demoncrat likes this. |
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