SAT 1ST MAR - 11AM - VIDEO NASTIES: DRACONIAN DAYS
Director: Jake West. UK 2014, 80 mins. Cert 18
WORLD PREMIERE - The highly anticipated follow-up to their
critically acclaimed VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE
documentary, director Jake West and producer Marc Morris continue uncovering
the shocking story of home entertainment post the 1984 Video Recordings Act. A
time when Britain plunged into a new Dark Age of the most restrictive
censorship, where the horror movie became the bloody eviscerated victim of
continuing dread created by self-aggrandizing moral guardians. With passionate
and entertaining interviews from the people who lived through it and more jaw
dropping archive footage, get ready to reflect and rejoice the passing of a
landmark era.
My love of horror was born in the early 1980s when my parents
bought me a B&W portable television for my bedroom. I used to stay up late
on a Saturday night to watch the BBC2 horror double bills. Another highlight of
my week was the Saturday afternoon trip to a video rental store in a nearby
town. The video nasties debacle was still a couple of years away and the
shelves were awash with lurid images. I
used to stare agog at the video covers on display; I Spit On Your Grave, SS
Experiment Camp, Cannibal Apocalypse.
Then the 1984 Video Recordings Act forced video stores to clean up their
act and the weekly pilgrimage to these once hallowed purveyors of perverse thrills
was never the same again. I’ve seen
Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape documentary and loved
it. Last year one of the highlights of
Frightfest Glasgow ended up being a documentary. I’m confident this year will be no different.
SAT 1ST
MAR-1.30PM-THE SCRIBBLER
Director: John Suits. Cast: Katie Cassidy, Michelle
Trachtenberg, Eliza Dushku. US 2014, 88 mins, Cert 18.
WORLD PREMIERE - Based on writer artist Dan (DOGHOUSE)
Shaffer’s celebrated graphic novel comes a thrilling blend of sci-fi action,
film noir and mind-bending slasher. ·Dealing with multiple-personality
disorder, Suki moves into a halfway house for recently released mental
patients. But residents are dying at an alarming rate in the facility as
dissociative Suki undergoes an experimental procedure to cure her illness
involving ‘The Siamese Burn’ machine designed to eliminate her unwanted
identities. But she's losing time, and the machine is changing, doing something
new, something that turns her world inside out and highlights the dangers of
mechanical thinking in an organic world.
First up I can confirm that the source graphic novel
(adapted here by its author/artist Dan Schaffer) is excellent and in the right
hands should make for a quirky, thrilling 88 minute thrill ride. I’m unfamiliar with director John Suits’ previous
work but, here, he’s assembled a remarkable cast that includes not only two Joss
Whedon alumni but also Katie Cassidy from CBS’s Arrow in the lead role of Suki
and the always brilliant Garret Dillahunt who, although not bearing any kind of
physical resemblance to the character of Hogan as drawn in the comic, will,
based on past form surely knock it out the park. Off the back of having enjoyed the graphic novel
so much I’m much more excited about this one than I was initially.
SAT 1ST MARCH -
4.00PM - TORMENT
Director: Jordan Barker Cast: Peter DaCunha, Katharine Isabelle,
Stephen McHattie. Canada, 2013, 90 mins, Cert 18.
UK PREMIERE - Newlyweds Cory and Sarah Morgan head to the
country for some much-needed family time where they hope Liam, Cory’s
struggling 7-year-old son from his previous marriage, will learn to accept his
stepmother. But arriving at their home they discover someone has been living
there while they were away. ·After speaking with the Sheriff they assume the
intruders have moved on, however when Liam disappears they discover just how
wrong they were. For they must confront a deranged family of killers who have
been hiding in the house all along and are now holding Liam in their sadistic
cult-like grip.
The presence of Katharine Isabelle (American Mary) and Stephen
McHattie (Pontypool) in this slice of home invasion horror provides more than ample reason
to be excited about Torment. The former
has been excellent in everything I’ve seen her in, even turning the rather
average 13 Eerie into something worth watching whilst the latter was simply
incredible in both Pontypool and last year’s wonderful Haunter where he proved
he could deliver an awesome bad guy (seriously...check it out).
Another good portent is that Torment comes to us courtesy of Spanish production company Filmax International who have consistently delivered some of the most impressive genre movies in recent
memory including the [REC] series and Miguel Angel Vivas' vicious Kidnapped. Reports suggest that
this is less a display of blood-soaked You’re Next style carnage and more an
exercise in suspense. I’m fine with
that. Here’s hoping it delivers.
SAT 1ST MAR -
6.30PM - MINDSCAPE
Director: Jorge Dorado. Cast: Mark Strong, Taissa Famiga,
Brian Cox. US/Spain2013, 95 mins, Cert 18.
UK PREMIERE- John is a mind detective, paid to enter
people’s memories and uncover the reality behind crimes. It’s down to people
like him to explore the shadows of the psyche sifting out selective fact from
false recognition fiction. But what will he make of his new assignment, the
brilliant, troubled and allegedly sexually abused teenager Anna? As John enters
her mind and becomes more involved in her total recall, he must decide if she
is indeed the victim of unspeakable trauma or a very clever and manipulative
sociopath. Produced by Jaume Collet-Serra (ORPHAN, UNKNOWN, NON-STOP), can you
guess the twist ending?
Mindscape director Jorge Dorado has an impressive resume as
Assistant Director having worked with both Pedro Almodóvar and Guillermo Del
Toro. That’s enough to make me sit up
and pay attention. He also finds himself
in charge of a great cast here. Taissa
Famiga has been consistently impressive in American Horror Story and I’m
looking forward to seeing Mark Strong taking centre stage for a change. The presence of Brian Cox is just the icing
on an already delicious looking cake.
The only problem I have is that this kind of thing has been done many
times before and as a result it’s going to be tricky for the film-makers to
negotiate the minefield of the familiar and deliver a truly surprising twist
ending. Twist endings are in and of
themselves often a bullet in the foot of a movie. If the movie is overly reliant on that last
minute surprise why bother watching it again except perhaps to pick up on the
moments that telegraph it. Here’s hoping
that Mindscape has more going for it than a sting in the tail.
SAT 1ST MAR -
9.00PM - ALMOST HUMAN
Director: Joe Begos. Cast: Graham Skipper, Vanessa Leigh,
Josh Ethier. US, 2013 80 mins.
SCOTTISH PREMIERE - Mark Fisher disappeared from home in a
blinding blue light flash. His friend Seth Hampton was the last person to see
him alive. Two years later, a series of atrocious, grisly murders leads Seth to
believe that Mark has somehow returned, but changed into something different,
strange… not of this world. Mark has indeed become a humanoid alien receptacle
for evil - and the last place you should look is in his cellar. The surprise
hit at Toronto Midnight Madness, this short, sharp shock of super-violent
scares and sci-fi splatter announces director Joe Begos’ arrival as an exciting
genre talent.
This movie first came to my attention back at the start of
2013 when my Afraid of the Dark co-conspirator Sam Inglis (24 Frames Per Second) and I were trying (and ultimately failing) to pull together a Glasgow based
horror film festival of our own. I
trawled the internet for anything that looked like it would play well to a
festival audience. In the course of
doing so I came across so many sub-mediocre looking movies that I was filled
with joy when I came across something that looked special. Almost Human was one of those special looking
movies; one that would potentially be a killer addition to the line-up we were
assembling. Everything about it, the
poster, the trailer, screamed old school until its throat was raw and
bloody. It looked like a lost movie from
the halcyon days of video rental when horror was booming and venerable classics
were dropping into the orbit of genre fans like a meteor storm of gruesome
thrills. So yeah…I’m looking forward to
Almost Human and hope it lives up to the poster/trailer.
SAT 1ST MAR -
11.15PM - KILLERS
Directors: Kimo Stamboel, Timo Tjahjanto. Cast: Ray Sahetapy,
Oka Antara, Rin Takanashi. Indonesia/Japan, 2013, 140 mins. Cert 18
UK PREMIERE - Join The Mo Brothers (MACABRE) on a dark
voyage into the warped minds of two men with nothing in common: Nomura, a
self-obsessed serial killer residing in Tokyo who posts his sick handiwork on
the internet, and Bayu, a failing journalist and struggling father in Jakarta
who turns sadistic vigilante. Connected through their violent blood-soaked
incidents, both men inexplicably start to feed off each other. But as their lives
become more uncontrollable, each of them starts a shocking journey into a toxic
maze of violent self-discovery. Fresh from Sundance comes this twisted tale by
NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE producer Ushiyama Takuji.
My knowledge of the Mo Brothers doesn’t extend beyond Timo
Tjahanto’s contributions to The ABC’s of Death and V/H/S/2. His L is for Libido segment of the former was
just plain wrong on an abundance of levels whilst Safe Haven, his collaboration
with Gareth Evans (The Raid) for the latter kicked my arse so hard I couldn’t
sit down for a week. It was far and away
the best thing in V/H/S/2 and one of my horror highlights of 2013. Having cast my eyes over the trailer for Killers
I’m certain this is going to end Frightfest Glasgow 2014 with an explosion of
hyper-kinetic, peddle to the floor, unadulterated violence. Word of mouth from the Sundance Film Festival
where it premiered suggests this delivers big time. Bring it on.
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So concludes my preview of Frightfest Glasgow 2014. My preview of Day One can be found here. If you're attending the festival be sure to drop back in over the course of the next few weeks. We're far from done with our coverage of the biggest horror event on the Glasgow calendar. Share your thoughts on this year's line-up below or via the Afraid of the Dark Twitter Feed (@AOTDBlog).
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