Tuesday 30 August 2011

Frightfest 2011 Reflection


Some ruminations on the event that was Frightfest.
Watching 23 films across 5 days was nowhere near as brain boiling as I thought it would be, there wasn't too many real clunkers in there and some of it was just incredible. A vast majority of the films had directors and cast in attendance for Q&A's which were mostly interesting and occasionally enlightening. Although there were some daft questions, including this gem from the Kill List Q&A: "The violence in that scene was quite intense, did you mean to put it in?", Director (with massive sarcasm): "No. I was as surprised as you when I watched that".

Before the main evening films there were sometimes short presentations of forthcoming films, often introduced by the filmmakers, the most interesting being one called Cockneys Vs Zombies with Richard Briers and an Uzi. Seriously.
Sometimes there were short film tributes/homages to John Carpenter. The best of these was They Live where two friends violently disagree over 3D cinema culminating in a massive alleyway fight, one chap constantly brandishing a pair of 3D specs and demanding "Put on the glasses!".
There was also a selection of 'Grindhouse' trailers from a forthcoming compilation. They provided some of the weirdest moments of the whole event and featured a film titled "The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!", King.

We only missed 2 films (Chillerama & Detention), we got some quiz answers right but not enough to win so good thing we didn't actually enter, we missed the interview (Larry something?), we ate an absurd amount of pizza and saw Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet. Here's a couple of lists:

5 favourites:

1. Kill List
2. Troll Hunter
3. The Innkeepers
4. The Woman
5. The Glass Man

5 not favourites:

1. A Night In The Woods
2. Panic Button
3. The Holding
4. Deadheads
5. Vile

Thanks to Joe for being Hardcore To The Max. His words, not mine.

5 comments:

  1. Right, after sleeping for most of today, here are my lists.

    Top five
    1) The Woman - sick, savage and poetic
    2) Kill List - harrowing and confusing
    3) Trollhunter - "trrrrroooooollllll!!!!"
    4) Innkeepers - scary and charming, but didn't like the ending
    5) The Glass Man - funny, sad and creepy but needs at least half an hour cut.

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  2. Shittest 5

    1) Deadheads - fucking atrocious. Worst by a mile.
    2) Panic Button - stupid and shit.
    3) Theatre Bizzare - lazy, boring bollocks for the most part
    4) Senentuntschi - needlessly confusing and unpronounceable
    5) The Saint - that ending was probably the most retarded thing I saw at the festival, which is quite an achievement.

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  3. The Glass Man remains my favourite of the films I saw. Troll Hunter is great fun an all, but I don't think it'll linger in the memory in quite the same way.

    You could (and do!) say the setup in The Glass Man is too long, but I wonder if it would be quite as effective in lulling you into a false sense of security if it was a lot shorter.

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  4. Well done to you all. Now hit the showers...

    Bryce.

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  5. The They Live! tribute is online.
    Watch here

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