The Film4 FrightFest Weekender is part of the Glasgow Film Festival, and has become an annual two-day pilgimage for horror fans across the UK. It's the first time that I've managed to get to the Glasgow event, and I'll be here for the whole weekend – watching the full progamme of films (and blogging here after each one) as well as interviewing all the directors and stars in attendance. Plus having the odd beer or two with the FrightFest gang, of course.
It's a terrific lineup of films this weekend, with two of them having their world premieres. The films, in screening order, are: Little Deaths, I Saw The Devil and Machete Maidens Unleashed! tonight (Friday); and Rubber, Territories, The Shrine, Mother's Day and Hobo With A Shotgun tomorrow (Saturday). It's going to be frantic and full-on, and it all kicks off here at the Glasgow Film Theatre with the world premiere of Little Deaths, a British horror anthology from directors Sean Hogan, Simon Rumley and Andrew Parkinson. I'll be back here – nasty chest cold permitting – after the film (and the Q&A) with my thoughts ...
FRIDAY 8.30pm: LITTLE DEATHS
The night kicked off with an introduction, and a welcome to Glasgow, from GFF director Alison Gardner and the four FrightFest directors: Ian Rattray, Alan Jones, Paul McEvoy and Greg Day. That was followed with an introduction to the opening film, Little Deaths, from its three directors.
An anthology of three short films with the connecting theme of love and sex, Little Deaths was a terrific start to the FrightFest weekend. The film opens with Hogan's story, House and Home, about a couple who have a penchant for taking homeless girls back to their place under the pretence of giving them a hot meal and a comfortable bed for the night ... and then drugging them and having their wicked way. But things don't go quite as expected for Richard and Victoria when Sorrow joins them for dinner. The second film, Parkinson's Mutant Tool, involves Nazi experiments, drug-dealing couple Frank and Jen, and a mutant with an enormous penis. And Rumley rounds out the trilogy with Bitch, the story of the bizarre relationship between Pete and Claire, and her morbid fear of dogs.
In the horror world, we've had some terrrific anthologies over the years, from Creepshow in the 1980s through to the wonderful Trick 'R Treat, which was a hit at FrightFest in 2009. I don't know why we don't see anthologies more often, because Little Deaths works a treat. All three stories are different enough to each other to keep you interested, and what I liked best is that all three kept you guessing – the climax (heh heh) of each was never once telegraphed. And even better, all three are quite sick and twisted, with plenty of laughs and a nice smattering of nudity. Lttle Deaths will be getting a DVD release in the UK in June, through Revolver. Don't miss it.
11.30pm: I SAW THE DEVIL
An intense serial killer revenge thriller, Kim Ji-woon's I Saw The Devil blends action and blood-soaked horror in equal measure. It's the tale of a secret agent who goes on the trail of a vicious psychopath after said psycho slices and dices his pregnant fiance. But instead of killing him ourtright, agent Joo-yeon (Lee Byung-hun) decides to give Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) a taste of his own medicine ... by tracking him, beating him and letting him go. And then repeating the process. So to catch a monster, Joo-yeon must become a monster.
I Saw The Devil is tense and absorbing throughout ... and very, very bloody – most of the violence was excised from the film when it was shown in its native South Korea. But more on this later ... my cold has taken its toll, so I'm foregoing the night's final film – Machete Maidens Unleashed! – in the hope that I'll be up for the five-film haul tomorrow
In the meantime, I'll hand things over to Russ Gomm, who is here in Glasgow as the official FrightFest videographer, but will also be joining the regular reviewing crew for Screenjabber. Here are his thoughts on I Saw The Devil:
The latest in the line of Korean horror films is one of the most intense and violent. Similar in themes and tension as films such as Oldboy and The Chaser. The film is brutal and intelligent and deals with the pain of loss and suffering and also the dark side of human nature and revenge. Strong on content, brilliantly acted and beautifully shot, it is a visual experience to haunt you long after the closing credits. Long and slow burning but importantly so.
And here's what Russ thought of Machete Maidens Unleashed!:
In the same vein as Not Quite Hollywood, here's another brilliant documentary from Mark Hartley on a relatively unknown hidden sub-genre of film making. Fast and funny and full of fantastic interviews, especially John Landis and Joe Dante as they remember the era of film making. You will gasp and laugh at some of crazy and inventive film making techniques and the shocks of the bizzare styles and creations. A very lively doco which will leave you hunting down plenty of films that you simply need to watch.
SATURDAY 1.30pm
The FrightFest guys are giving out free Troll Hunter T-shirts to the queue, as everyone gears up for today's five-film marathon which kicks off at 2pm with Rubber. I'm feeling like a corspe today, so I'll fit in nicely with some of the FrightFest gang who partook of the raging Glasgow nightlife after last night's final film. I'm feeling somewhat hungover, which is the ultimate cruelty when you haven't touched a drop of alcohol ...
4pm RUBBER
I want to be the first to get the perfect descrption of Rubber out of the way ... it's surreally good. OK, stop your groaning. It's a cheesy line, but it's true – Rubber is truly bizarre, weird, silly, ridiculous and stone-cold crazy. But it's hilarious, fun and very, very entertaining. Rubber introduces a new psycho killer to the horror genre: Robert, the tyre. It's a French production but it looks like it was filmed in the Arizona desert, which is where we first meet Robert as he pulls himself from the sand and rolls off on his rampage of terror. At first he's happy merely crushing things under under his tread – a plastic bottle here, a scorpion and spider there. But when he comes across somethng that he can't crush, such as a glass bottle, he suddenly unleashes his uncanny mental power ... and the bottle shatters into a million pieces. As Robert rolls his way through the desert, he tests and grows his new-found power ... first on a rabbit, then a crow. Until he comes across some people.
Rubber is the weirdest, funniest horror film you're likely to see this year. It's uterrly mental, and takes great delight in messing with audience expectations, breaking the fourth wall in fresh, interesting ways. A minor quibble: it probably goes on a little long. But that didn't seem to bother most of the appreciative FrightFest crowd, who laughed like drains throughout. Rubber will be getting a DVD/Blu-ray release this year from Optimum, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Once you've seen it, you'll never trust those four round things on your car again.
UPDATE: Some good news on Rubber, for those of you who could not make it along to Glasgow – the film will be getting a series of special screenings in the UK in March and April. The first will be the Flatpack Festival @ Electric, Birmingham on Saturday March 26, followed by Celluloid Screams presents @ Sheffield Showroom Cinema on Tuesday April 5 and Midnight Movies presents @ The Ritzy, Brixton on Friday April 8. It will then be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 11. Do not miss it, whatever you do.
6.30pm TERRITORIES
I missed this one, because other business beckoned, so here's Russ again with his thoughts:
Territories is a film to make you think. I'm not entirely sure what it makes me think about, but it leaves me with an uneasy feel. It covers familiar territory (no pun intended) but leans towards a completely different route towards the end. Graphic and terrifying at times, the film is a very worthwhile watch if you think you have seen it all or want to take a peek at a genre film with a different edge. A truly haunting narrative and fantastic talent infront and behind the camera.
Coming up are the big three of the night: The Shrine, Mother's Day and Hobo With a Shotgun. I'll be back between each one with a quick rundown of what they're like (I'm expecting big things from Hobo) ...
8.30pm THE SHRINE
A proper horror from the makers of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, which I didn't really rate all that highly. This one is the tale of three journalists who go in search of a missing backpacker in Poland, and encounter a demonic cult with a penchant for hammering spiky masks onto ladies faces/. It's a real slow burner to start with – in fact, the first half hour really drags – but when the action kicks off, it kicks off with real gusto and a climax that you won't see coming. Great makeup effects lift this to an above-average chiller.
SUNDAY 1pm MOTHER'S DAY & HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN
A Sunday-afternoon, post-Frightfest catchup, on the train back to London from Glasgow. It's the first chance I've had to sit down and write anything after the frenetic mayhem of last night. The final two films played to a packed, appreciative audience, with the FrightFest guys conducting goody giveaways (not that any bribery was needed to have the crowd cheering wildly during both films).
Mother's Day is a remake, but for a change that didn't put me off – the original isn't one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever made. It's a home invasion/hostage drama, psycho thriller and "torture porn" all rolled into one. The storyline of this Darren Lynn Bousman version differs somewhat to the Troma original from 1980. This one sees the members of a criminal family return to their childhood home after a bank heist goes wrong, only to find that their mother no longer lives there and the new owners are holding a housewarmng party. They take everyone hostage, and wait for Momma (Rebecca de Mornay) to arrive to sort the situation out.
As remakes go, Mother's Day is one of the better ones. But it's not really a "remake" as such, more a "let's take these characters and build a new film around them". So the backwoods bunch – three brothers, their sister and Momma – remain, while the rest become a bunch of suburb-dwelling couples. As this kind of film goes, it's not too bad. It's entertaining, but there is nothing fresh or original here ... except for any exceptional and rivetting performance from De Mornay. It's worth seeing for her alone. Oh, and Shawn Ashmore pops up too, after brother Aaron appeared in the night's previous film, The Shrine. You can never have too many Ashmores!
So on to the final film of the weekend, and it's a biggie, the film that everyone has been waiting for ... Hobo With a Shotgun. And it was introduced by none other than director Jason Eisner himself – who, after a quick chat about the film with Alan Jones, told us all to go crazy and proceeded to remove his trousers. Luckily for us, he was wearing boxer shorts ... and he remained that way durng the film and for the Q&A afterwards.
What is there to say about Hobo? If you've seen the "fake" trailer that began it all, or even the trailer for the feature film itself, then you have a rough idea what to expect. But even that terrific trailer can't fully prepare you for what you are about to witness – one of the funniest, smartest, grungiest, silliest and all-round best grindhouse/exploitation films you have ever seen. Hauer gives one of his best performances since Blade Runner and The Hitcher, and the rest of the cast of mainly unknowns bull their weight (and shed their blood, and various organs and limbs) admirably. Hobo is a madcap work of genious from a very skillful filmmaker, and I can't wait tos ee what Eisner and his crew do next.
So that's it, my first Glasgow FrightFest Weekender is done and dusted, as am I. Thanks to all concerned for an absolutel blast, despite the fact that I spent much of the weekend moaning about my bloody cold (sorry guys). Full reviews of all films (plus a couple of VERY special interviews) will be on the site soon ... and roll on August!