Screen presents our roundup of Film4 FrightFest interviews, blogs, reviews and more.
NEWS
Universal falls for American Mary
Berberian Sound Studio strikes a chord for IFC Midnight in the US
INTERVIEWS
Sharp shooters: The Tower Block team talks about dodgy punches and their plans for a new horror
Season well: Paul Hyett on his directorial debut The Seasoning House
BLOGS
Vamping it up: a sneak preview of Neil Jordan’s Byzantium
‘aving a Bubble: Cockneys Vs. Zombies brings the laughs on its world premiere
REVIEWS
American Mary - “A vast step forward from the Soska twins’ 2009 feature debut Dead Hooker In A Trunk, this retains the energy and perversity of that shaggy dog story but with far more tact, control and intelligence” [pictured]
Berberian Sound Studio - “An idiosyncratic, impeccably crafted mindbender that shifts between the beguiling and the bemusing”
Chained - “It’s also a problem that there have been a plethora of abduction, restraint, sexual torture, surveillance, serial murder and chained-in-the-basement movies in recent years and Lynch’s slightly higher-toned direction doesn’t really bring enough fresh to the overtilled field.”
Cockneys Vs. Zombies - “Blessed with enough self-aware humour and some smart cameo performances to set it apart from the usual pack of low-budget British horror fare”
Dead Sushi - “Garish, gory and gleefully silly, the engagingly schlocky Dead Sushi (Deddo sushi) may well be low budget and campy as it blends martial arts with culinary chills, but for fans of any unrepentantly silly Japanese horror/monster films will enjoy its late-night loopiness”
Grabbers - “This little Irish genre movie is like everyone’s favourite parts of Tremors and The Guard rolled together”
Hidden In The Woods - “Purportedly based on a Chilean criminal case, this inept, hateful effort is a strong contender for the uncoveted title of the Worst Film Ever Shown at London’s FrightFest”
The Inside - “Treads familiar territory with its use of supposed found video footage as a way into a terrible tale of murder and monsters, though its strong use of sound effects and a game series of performances bely its low-budget origins”
Maniac - “It is not an easy film to watch, and while admirable in structure and style it is really one only for gore hounds and Elijah Wood completists”
may i kill U? - “A zeitgeist-riding black comedy… may i kill U? has a great deal of interesting editorial content and some fine performances but suffers from too many tone shifts tone from crotchety comedy to slapstick horror”
Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut - “This ghost of a film which might still be finished at least shows that leads Craig Sheffer and Anne Bobby, whose characterisations seemed thin in the release version, did a much better job than we were allowed to see”
Paura 3D - “Not quite as strong and unusual as The Arrival Of Wang, this still marks the Manettis out as promising genre talents”
The Possession - “Moviegoers who prefer their horror creepy rather than gory may enjoy a good shudder with The Possession, a moderately elegant chiller about a young girl possessed by a nasty little demon”
Stitches - “Noble manages the trick of playing a failed clown who tells unfunny jokes well enough, but the film would have been stronger if Stitches were funnier at first and scarier later on”
The Thompsons - “There are action and horror scenes, with a side order of peculiar sensuality, but the film resonates because of the odd, unusual characterisations”
Tower Block - “A good, low-budget suspense picture with a bit of London grit, this begins with an all-too-ordinary crime and spirals into an unusual, challenging siege situation”
Tulpa - “The fine distinction between magnificently absurd and simply foolish is mostly observed – though, despite several sustained attempts at misdirection, the whodunit angle is as transparent as it usually was in the 1970s”
V/H/S - “Though themes and character types recur (a few too many callous bastards getting comeuppances), the stories (and filming styles) are varied enough that the film doesn’t suffer from the repetition which makes recent found footage horrors hard to tell apart”
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