POD
Rarely
do I say that a film feels longer than its actual runtime and it be
said in a positive manner; but I do feel that POD does feel like the
exception to the rule here, at only 76 mins in length the film is filled
with such great suspense and tension and keeps the audience guessing
as to the direction of the script where the balance of the the
psychological and supernatural elements are played out very finely tuned
that it didn't matter which pathway the film took at its final turning
point as the audience would be onboard with either direction. The
performance by Brian Morvant as the sucluded and unhinged Martin as his
siblings Lyla and Ed travel out to the family cabin to attempt a family
intervention following a distressed voicemail message; the interplay
between the actors has real chemistry and there's a sense that POD is
supernatural mystery in the vein of those 2 parter X-Files of
yesteryear. The introduction of genre workhorse Larry Fessenden might
not sit well with everyone, but it worked for me. What is a POD? Is
there anything behind that locked door? And what is hidden in the
Basement? Genuine scares ensue and a mystery that keeps you on your toes
and compelling.
7/10
The Rotten Link
Enter
the rural world of a small Argentinian community where we are introduced
into this inclusive community through a stocky and quite clearly a
mentality challenged oaf by the name of Raulo the local lumberjack as he
delivers recently chopped fire wood to the nearby houses of the
community on foot. Soon it becomes apparent that this small community is
on the rather odd side of humanity; everyone has the purpose and its
suggested that if you become 'used up' then you will longer pass in the
world of the living. A slow burn where the drama takes on a rather black
and dark sense of humour that gives us a great set of characters that
really pulls us into the world of the bizzare that explores the
mentality of a small closed off community much in the vein and pacing of
Bedevilled but with the sense of humour that we find in Calvaire and
this blend really makes for a rather interesting film where the
characters really keep us compelled, and while the pacing at times can
seem to get rather bogged down a little in places, it's ultimately paid
off well with a gory and blood soaked final act that will please the
most hardened horror fan, it's certainly not a film for everyone given
the pacing and the fact that it's much more a condensed drama/thriller
on a whole, but a film of the incestual nature with whorehouses where
those of all ages take great pleasure in, at times in joint experiences;
The Rotten Link is bizzare and wonderful.
7/10
Worry Dolls
I
can't imagine why or even fathom how I came to the expectation for this
film to be one of the highlights of the festival, obviously I hadn't
seen any of the trailers leading up to this years FrightFest or surely I
would have be able to pick this film out as the stinker that it well
and truly is. The film kicks off with a kidnapped teenage girl that
escapes from the grips of a clearly deranged serial killer, only for an
immense mount of gore to be spilled by a our mad man with a 3 foot long
drill as a more extreme Leatherface weilding chainsaw homage. The fact
that the film does tend to linger on the gore for far too long to turn
the shocking violence into something quite comical sets the film up on
very shaky ground - and from then on we have just a series of stupid
people making stupid and inplausable actions that really does beg the
question - What were the writers thinking? There's a voodoo angle that
plays out in rather predictable fashion to coincide with the actions of
rather dumb police officers; Worry Dolls is a strange beast as it's
unclear as to want to make of the intention behind the script; it
certainly doesn't work as a horror film and even less so as a crime
thriller; the entire cast feels mis-cast here and deliver nothing more
than lucklustre performances across the board. Worry Dolls might not be
as offensively bad and mis-guided as say a former FrightFest horror show
like Dark Touch, but its certainly a damp squib with a laughably
pointless stinger post credits scene.
3/10
III
A
rather unique and special film for this years FrightFest; not entirely a
genre film that one would expect to see at the festival and quite clear
why this film ended up in the discovery screen section of this years
line up; made out to be an exploration of fear with a sense of
Tarkoviskian fairy tale with rich beautiful photography, the film itself
is a rather striking Arthouse film that explores the world of a small
european town that is struck down by a mysterious disease that takes the
life of the mother of two sisters (Ayia and Mirra) - soon after the
death of their mother, Mirra the younger sister falls ill herself and
Ayia seeks the advice of the local parish priest who has been a close
family friend from a very young age; the priest reveals a path into the
subconcious world where Ayia is forced to confront their deepest fears
in this vibrant dreamlike fantasy world, the film becomes a bizzare mix
of Inception meets Pan's Labyrinth with that eastern european essence of
a Tarkovsky - and while what follows becomes all rather complex and
theoretically spellbinding, I couldn't say that the film was convouluted
in any way; easy to follow yet intelligent, those expecting a film with
monsters and creature abound that feature in the trailer might be
disappointed, but as a dreamlike experience with a lasting effect that
is best left to ingest over a good nights sleep - III has a lot to offer
and though it might over stretch itself in the finale here, at least
it's reaching for hefty heights even if it doesn't quite have the
execution to be considered unconditionially successful.
7/10
JeruZalem
Oh
found footage how I fail to find the enthuasism to really commit to any
indepth writing/review or basic sharing thoughts on a genre where the
example at hand is rather lacklustre and lacking in originality or
something that might resemble something vaguely different than the
vanilla that we are offered with JeruZalem - with a title and poster
like this, it's easy to on the surface see this as a direct-to-dvd
rip-off of World War Z; and in all honesty if you took World War Z and
slapped the found footage style with the use of the Google Glass
technology to showcase the horror and carbon copied the key stand out
moments from REC and Cloverfield then you have JeruZalem in a nutshell
basically. Now I'll have to admit that my opinion and thoughts of this
film are kind of swayed into the negative given my experience of
battling with motion sickness and the nausea that plaqued me from start
to finish, the film has its moments of hitting the right beats to create
some really great atmosphere, but most of the key scenes just felt
lifted from the likes of REC and Cloverfield and just not as well
executed as either of those films, JeruZalem is certainly not the worst
example of the found footage genre, the characters and the setting for
the film are both fine and like I said it does have itself moments, but
it felt unnecessarily bloated and lacked any great impact that would
ever lead me back for a repeat viewing; maybe for zombie/found
footage/post apocalyptic fanboys only.
5/10
Bloodsucking Bastards
A
horror comedy with vampires - boring, yawn, done to death; you might
say, but Bloodsucking Bastards is anything but boring and dull, its a
fun filled ride of death, blood and a troubled relationship, if you take
Shaun of the Dead and swapped the zombies for vampires and the streets
of London for a soulless office space of a lifesucking company then you
get a pretty good idea of what to expect here. Our lead character Evan,
who has just found himself dumped by his beautiful girlfriend and
co-worker Amanda, is an overworked employee that instead of recieving
the much expected promotion he believes he deserves, ends up effectively
being demoted and his new boss is a arch rival from high school coming
back to haunt him and turns out to also be a vampire and soon begins to
turn the entire office into real Bloodsucking Bastards that effectively
were anyways. Madness ensues and Evan with his best mate Tim (the office
slacker) team up to kill the horde of office vamps. With great writing
and a great cast where everyone gets the moment in the limelight and
no-one failing to deliver the goods, its an ensemble comedy horror that
doesn't suffer from any overshadowing of some of the lesser characters,
yes everyone will walk away talking about how fucking funny and
hilarious Tim is, but you'll be laughing out loud the entire time and
won't forget the highlights feature the supporting cast here -
Bloodsucking Bastards feels fresh and has a great sense of humour and
really hope that this film acts as a platform for much of the talent to
go onto great things in the future. Bam Snap!
8/10
