By Stuart Barr
Kicking off with the world premiere of A Night in the Woods (with Monsters star Scoot McNary), the final day of FrightFest 2011 was bittersweet. While it was a shame to have to finally leave the five-day FrightFest bubble, there was plenty of time to reflect in festival watering hole the Phoenix Artists Club on how 2011 has been one of the most artistically and commercially successful events in the 12 years of FrightFest.
While there was a generous helping of mainstream fare at this year’s event (including the really rather good Fright Night), FF2011 found the horror genre in rude health with films as original as Kill List and Detention, as edgy and provocative as The Woman, and as playful as Tucker & Dale vs Evil. The festival saw Israel’s film industry make a very impressive debutante with the clever slasher film Rabies. Always a supporter of home-grown talent, this year there was not only festival standout Kill List, but also Sean Hogan’s excellent low-budget shilled The Devil’s Work among the UK films. And that doesn’t include films that I didn’t see but which I heard great buzz about, like Ti West’s The Innkeepers and Dick Mass’s Saint.
So to round up what I saw on the final day, I have to start by telling you that I can’t give an opinion on A Night In The Woods due to an EM-BAR-GO. But moving swiftly on ...
The Devil’s Business
Sean Hogan’s film could serve as a nice appetiser for Ben Wheatley’s more high profile Kill List. Both films feature hit-men wondering out of the thriller genre and into the horror genre. Billy Clarke and Jack Gordon (also in Panic Room) play a veteran contract killer and his apprentice sent to kill an acquaintance of their gangland boss. However when they invade the man’s home they find it empty, but filled with satanic paraphernalia. Investigating they find evidence of satanic rituals.
Playing out like a cross between Harold Pinter and Dennis Wheatley, this is like stumbling on a really good episode of the Hammer House of Horror TV series. Whilst shot on an extremely low budget, and confined to a single location, this presents a good story, well told. The final 10 minutes are genuinely freaky and very effective.
Sennentuntshi: Curse of the Alps
It always happens, at some point five days of films, socialising and late nights catch up with you – resulting in a crash. This year Swiss fairy tale horror Sennentuntschi was the one. I fell asleep and woke up an hour into the film drooling and with no idea what was going on.
Inbred
From director Alex Chandon (Cradle of Fear), Inbred is a backwoods massacre movie set in northern England. A group of reprobate teens and two social workers are on a team building exercise and run into a community of deranged yokels who attack, torture and kill them. Played for laughs and extreme gore, Inbred borrowed far too much from The League of Gentlemen (especially the villain’s circus costume and black and white minstrel make up). It was also rather too nasty for me, I have to say I didn’t get on with it at all.
Having seen the closing film, it only remained to make my way to the Phoenix (along with what seemed to be every single one of the estimated 10,000-plus people who attended the festival) for a final night of drinking and socialising with the many BFF’s made through this festival.
FrightFest ... scary