FrightFest 2015: Day One

Cherry Tree

How not to kick off the FrightFest weekend, it's a decision that one can't quite can't fathom how or why Cherry Tree was the opening film for this years festival, it seems to be the opinion of everyone at the festival that this was a stinker of a horror film. From the director of Wakewood I should have seen this coming; with yet another witchcraft horror where a teenage girl makes a pact with a local witch of the Cherry Tree society of witches to save her father from his imminent death in return give her a child that will be sacrificed. Despite the film having many elements from the gory blood soaked fantastical depiction of witchcraft and a stylistic approach that gives us moments of visual fairs, but the film is so crudely executed and progresses both narratively and with the character developments that makes giant leaps forward that make it incredibly hard to connect and find the narrative either believably or engaging - it literally seems that the new hockey coach reveals herself as a witch to our young protagonist and the next scene the young girl is onboard and unquestionable follows and commits to this horrible pact. In a world where in the realms of comics with great stories and characters in recent publications of Coffin Hill and Scott Synder's Wytches - surely there's potential for the film world to create something on that level of quality in the visual media of cinema, but Cherry Tree reminded much of Dario Argneto's Mother of Tears - the blood and violence is there but the rest is an utter mess.

3/10

Turbo Kid

Heading into Turbo Kid there were rather mixed expectations; didn't know whether this was a film that was going to be so bad it's good or a genre film made with the best intentions of recreating that post apocalyptic vision of the future that we had in the 80's with the likes of Mad Max/Road Warrior; fortunately this turned out to be the latter. In a year where Fury Road is getting all the critics attention it's actually Turbo Kid that is the better Mad Max film, the low budget action post apocalypse action hell ride that is Turbo Kid is not only a hell of a good ride that delivers the action, gore and futuristic vision of the future in a fake 80s movie fashion, at its very core is a wonderful heart felt story that is very charming, with one of the best performances of the year by Laurence Laboeuf as Apple, her loveable wacky and fully committed physical and emotional performance really does elevate the film into a realm of greatness. There's a great soundtrack to boot and a level of restraint shown by the director to ensure that film doesn't go too OTT and become mindless action orientated fluff that is forgotten in a breeze, no Turbo Kid is a film that you will want to revisit on numerous occasions, yes it's an acquired taste in terms of style and approach to filmmaking, but if you can get on board and forgive the film for a rather awkwardly paced beginning, you'll be rewarded with one of the most intelligent and entertaining post apocalyptic films in recent years. The references and homages are in the DNA of the film and not like so many films shoved in your face, a personal highlight was a certain Rat-Monkey from Braindead.

8/10

Stung

Giant killer mutated Wasps out on a killing spree that is localised to a garden party full of the older generation in a small town. What could have been great fun turned out to be a bit of a mess here, the film seems to lack a sense of cohesion in the direction of this creature feature and considering that they had Lance Henrikson on board for the project playing the town mayor, you'd hope that the film could at least deliver on the fun factor if not on the scares. Early on the build up to the attack of the killer wasps is actually very well crafted and with Clifton Collins Jr channeling his inner drug and alcohol induced Edward Furlong, the film has some pretty well crafted characters to drive the film forward, but too soon is the film thrust into a more closet and claustrophobic feel with a much smaller cast, the film loses its balance between the comedy and the horror. The effects and transformations feel and look uninspired, it's almost as if this film was just made for tax purposes at a certain point, to be fair it's not as if the film is a disaster or even a bad B-Movie but it's a rather bland straight to dvd title that does have some merit and highlights but they just aren't delivered upon enough to save the film from mediocrity; Stung lacks the venom to leave an impact on its audience instead it's more like an annoying buzzing bee that's volume is far to loud for its size.

4/10

2015 Film Challenge

Last year I managed to watch 99 new releases of that year; the list of these films can be found here and just for the sake of a good laugh and in jest of David Fincher and my disdain for his direction since Zodiac, the title of this list is 'Films of 2014: I watched 99 films and Gone Girl ain’t 1' - since making this list, I have actually sat down with Fincher's Gone Girl and was left feeling nothing but hatred of yet another travesty from a director for who I once loved; but not to get caught up with negativity around my thoughts on Fincher as a director, at the start of this year I challenged myself to surpass last years efforts of seeing 99 new releases in the year of 2015. I'm keeping track on my watch-list for this year on my Letterboxd account which can be found here 

Admittedly and to my concern at this point in time, I'm really flagging behind in my challenge - as you can see from the list on Letterboxd I've only managed to find the time to catch up with 8 films of 2015 (UK releases & Festival Films) and June is fast approaching - I'm hoping that if I can find the time and the finances to make another trip to Film4's FrightFest Film Festival in London later this year, I can start to bulk up the list rapidly and as I always try at the end of each year to cram a number of films in a short space of time as I catch up with films that I missed at the cinema from earlier in the year, the aim is to at least make the 100 mark and maybe push on further; it's all just good fun and essentially pointless but if I keep you all posted on each film I see on here it might drive me to not only write and update the blog more frequently and check out more films in the meantime.

Below I will just give a summary of the films I've seen to date, not in any great detail but short text of thoughts and ratings out of 10 just for good fun and for you all to see how the year 2015 has treated me in terms of films and the experiences of consuming them.

Films of 2015 (in chronological order of my viewing)

Enemy 3/10: A mind-bending thriller that left me frustrated and annoyed and with a vile colour pallete that was too bloody yellow; that ending though? WTF? shocking yes, but nothing more than a jump scare.

Predestination 7/10: A low key Science Fiction film that has an interesting conception and makes the most of it which the parameters of the genre, maybe just lacking some gravitas to make turn it from a very good film into a great one.

Force Majeure 6/10: A film that had my expectation levels set pretty high and given I expected something more grandiose in nature, there really just wasn't enough here to make an lasting impact, it all felt rather confused in its direction and nature.

Whiplash 9/10: A brutal and powerful film that hits all the right beats and in J.K. Simmons has surely one of the truly outstanding performances of the year and Miles Teller holds his own to give credit where its due. Not a fan of Jazz or Drumming per-se but couldn't help but grow to love the music and the passion on show here.

John Wick 7/10: Many had said this was a return to form for Keanu Reeves and while I'd say he's perfectly okay here, you can't help but feel he is mis-cast in this role. Wonderful action film with well crafted and editing action set pieces if not let-down by a repetitive score. And who doesn't enjoy a good revenge flick?

A Most Violent Year 6/10: A most enjoyable film, but apart from the brilliance of Oscar Isaac in the leading role, everything around him just feels like a collaborative near-miss; a film that should have been great is nothing more than a subdue dramatic affair that suffers from a rather bland ineffective script, enjoyable in the moment but not a film with legs to stand the test of time and repeat viewings.

Avengers: Age of Ultron 4/10: A sequel that should have aimed to surpass the original on all fronts, instead I was left waiting to be entertained; the action scenes were just a blur and characters like Thor were given next to nothing to do. Caught up in it's childish humour, Joss Whedon forgot to tell a story and forgot to entertain us in the process. Lacklustre. Oh and Hulk/Black Widow - utter bullshit.

Mad Max: Fury Road 8/10: For as much as I was blown away in the moment by all the batshit crazy action sequences in this film, I was equally just as disappointed. It's not a Mad Max film and it's non-stop action to the detriment to the overall experience - I didn't care for the story or the characters so the film carried no weight and outside of the trailer scenes the rest has become a blur. Yes there is such a thing as 'too much of a good thing'

Well that sums up my film experience of 2015 so far to date; now I really need to play catch up if I'm ever going to get close to last years total, let alone surpass it, but where there's a will, there is a way.