Film4 Frightfest 2014 Day Four Blog

As the penultimate day ends, here’s a look at what horrific highlights were screened at day four of Frightfest:

Faults:
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs The World) and Leland Orser (The Guest) star in this intriguing drama which takes a look at cults. rose plays Ansel, an expert in cult organisations who is hired by concerned parents of Claire (Winstead) to de-programme her brainwashed mind after she is taken in by a new cult organisation known a Faults. An engaging script and powerful performances by Orser and Winstead makes Faults an invigorating watch.

Among The Living:
French horror directors Julienne Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Inside, Livid) bring a new nightmare to Frightfest about a mysterious masked maniac who hunts down three young boys after they discover him in an abandoned film studio. Part slasher, part home invasion, Among The Living is entertaining enough. While the young actors aren’t quite as strong as they could have been, their performances don’t really affect the film enough to bring it down too much.

Open Windows:
Elijah Wood stars in this fantastically presented high tech thriller. When Nick Chambers (Wood) wins a competition to meet his favourite actress Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey) and interview her for his website devoted to her, he’s over the moon. But things soon become sinister when he’s contacted by an unknown man who has access to her mobile phone and plenty more. Open Windows brings the found footage genre to an entirely new place, keeping the focus entirely on Nicks desktop. Multiple twists in the final act takes away from the inventive filmmaking but it manages to keep you enthralled from beginning to end.

The Shining:
Frightfest brings Kubrick’s classic back to the big screen in this one off screening of an extended version. A perfect place to present such an iconic film.

Home:
The Pact director Nicholas McCarthy brings a whole new set of jumps and tension in Home. Real estate agent Leigh (Catalina Sandino) gets more than she bargained for when she assesses a new property to put on the market. Before too long, her sister, Vera gets sucked into the haunted mishaps too. Though jump scares are often viewed as cheap in the horror genre, McCarthy will no doubt make it worth your while as they come in droves and bump the terror up to 11!

The Samurai:
This German horror about a young police officer’s attempt to track down a werewolf in his home town eventually turns into one of the festivals craziest films this year when a samurai sword and a man wearing a dress are added into the mix…

Frightfest daily Awards

Highlight: Open Windows
Low-Light: The Samurai
Most inventive kill: death by hardback book in Faults
Quote of the Day: ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ The Shining

 

Film4 Frightfest 2014 Day Three Blog

The halfway mark has officially been reached for this years Frightfest. Here’s a brief look at some of the offerings on yesterday’s horrific menu of movies:

Starry Eyes
Cheap Thrills producer brings this commentary on Hollywood in which Sarah Walker, a young waitress desperate to make it big in movies gets the role of a lifetime with the mysterious Astraeus Pictures. After some uncomfortable auditions, she comes face to face with her producer and eventually accepts the role in Scream Queen. What follows is an extremely gruesome transformation as Sarah becomes more and more removed from her previous self to entirely envelope herself in the role. Whilst it has some good moments, Starry Eyes fails to stay entertaining for most of the second half.

The Harvest
Michael Shannon and Samantha Morton star in this incredibly tense thriller as parents of a dying boy, Andy. When Maryann moves into the area she soon forms a friendship with Andy, but is quickly stopped from seeing him by his ever increasingly insane mother (Morton). But when Maryann finds the secret in their basement, she must act soon to save Andy’s life. With extremely strong performances all around, The Harvest quickly asserts itself as one of the highlights of this years festival.

I Survived a Zombie Holocaust
With plenty of zombie movies already out there, I Survived A Zombie Holocaust tries to create something more creative by being set on the making of a zombie B-Movie. But when the extras get contaminated by the water supply, their acting becomes stronger than before. A fun filled zombie flick, I Survived A Zombie Holocaust is sure to keep fans of the franchise happy to be along for the ride.

The Babadook
Essie Davis (The Matrix Reloaded) stars in this tension filled horror about a terrifying book entitled the Babadook. Relying more on atmospheric scares than jump scares, The Babadook will chill you to your bone and make you keep the lights on for a week…

Life After Beth
Dane DeHaan and Aubrey Plaza star in this rom-zom-com. Mourning the death of his girlfriend Beth (Plaza), Zach (DeHaan) starts to spend a bit more time with her parents. But when they suddenly start to avoid his calls, he finds that Beth is back and her grave is empty. It’s not long before Beth starts to change and soon enough the whole town is threatened with the arrival of a zombie. Although Life After Beth has an interesting idea behind it, it fails to keep it entertaining after the first half. Co stars John C Reilly and Anna Kendrick try their best to bring more but ultimately fail.

Time for today’s Daily Frighfest Awards:

Highlight: The Harvest
Low-Light: Life After Beth
Most Inventive Kill: Death by zombie sex – I Survived A Zombie Holocaust
Quote Of The Day: ‘Baba… Dook. Dook. DOOOOK!’ The most terrifying thing heard at Frightfest so far…

Film4 FrightFest 2014 Day Two Blog

With opening night out of the way, day two of Frightfest brings even more horror to entertain fans with not only 6 films playing in the three separate main screens, but 12 more in the two discovery screens. This of course means that choices have to be made and films must be sacrificed. Here’s a look at a select few of the films playing during day two

The Green Inferno
With release date problems attached to Eli Roth’s latest, The Green Inferno is perhaps one of the most exclusive screenings of the festival this year. Taking it’s title from the cult classic Cannibal Holocaust Roth has created a masterpiece and is truly at the top of his game right now. With gruesome deaths and truly terrifyingly uncomfortable scenes, The Green Inferno is an incredible piece of filmmaking.

Wrong Turn 6
Hosting it’s world premiere here at Frightfest, the inbred canniballistic franchise is now moving to it’s 6th instalment. This time focussing around a long lost family member of the savage cannibals who arrives at the derelict Hobb Springs hotel to find out more about them. Fans of the franchise will still have fun with the bloody deaths, however it takes a good while for it to truly begin…

Late Phases
Featuring a knockout performance by Nick Damici, Late Phases is a story of one mans fight against a Werewolf. The only problem is, this man is blind. Although it’s rather slow moving, Damici’s performance is strong enough to keep Late Phases interesting and entertaining along with director Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s use of practical effects.

The Last Showing
Horror legend Robert Englund is back in the genre with this extremely meta thriller. Englund plays Stuart, a former cinema projectionist who decides to make his own film with the help of two of the cinemas patrons. A fantastically written film which gives great commentaries on the state of modern cinema whilst mixing in plenty of thrills.

Dead Snow 2
Red vs Dead Director Tommy Wirkola brings the sequel everyone wanted to his Nazi Zombie smash hit. Picking up right where the first instalment left off, Dead Snow 2 is bigger and better, with more laughs and most importantly, more zombies!

Now time for the Daily FrightFest Awards:

Highlight: The Last Showing
Low-light: Wrong Turn 6
Most inventive kill: using someone’s intestines to siphon petrol for a tank in Dead Snow 2. Those smart Zombies!
Quote of the Day: ‘Hey! I didn’t know there was an ugly face convention in town!’ Which is clearly the best way to distract an army of Nazi Zombies…

Film4 Frightfest 2014 Day One Blog

With the August bank holiday just beginning, so too comes the Film 4 Frightfest. Now in its 15th year, the annual and infamous horror festival is bigger than ever at its new home at the Vue Leicester square.

Exploring the weird, wonderful and at times gore drenched delights of the horror genre, Frightfest remains the most high profile international celebrations of Horror movies in all their guts and glory. After a brief introduction from Frightfest regular Andy Nyman, fans were treated to an opening night triple bill.

The Guest
Kicking off proceedings was The Guest, the latest offering from You’re Next director, Adam Wingard. With a knockout performance by r Dan Stevens in a role which completely removes the actor from his days at Downton Abbey and a beautifully fitting soundtrack, The Guest was the perfect film to get fans geared up for the weekend.

Sin City: a Dame to Kill For
Next up was Robert Rodiguez’s follow up to the artsy comic book adaptation. Taking stories set both before and after the ones featured in the first film, Sin City 2 sees the return of familiar faces like Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis while introducing new ones such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Eva Green as the titular dame. While it’s nice to come back to Sin City after 9 years, it doesn’t seem to have any point to it. The new story lines aren’t enough to warrant a return, with the look and feel of the sequel being exactly the same as it’s predecessor, there doesn’t seem to be much to add to the franchise. Perhaps if this had been released closer to the first it would have had a bigger response, instead it feels like a belated film noir afterthought.

Zombeavers
What better way to wake the crowd up in the last film of the night than with a film which features zombie beavers! Plenty of laughs are had in this ridiculously silly B Movie as well as some nice throw backs to classic films such as Jaws and Die Hard. This is exactly the kind on inventive, odd and memorably titled indie horror that the Film4 FrightFest helps horror fans discover. A perfect way to round off the fist day…

And now for the daily FrightFest Awards:

Highlight: Zombeavers
Low-light: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Most inventive kill: Face gnawed off by a Zombie/beaver/human hybrid in Zombeavers
Quote of the Day: ‘I feel like a power ranger!’ Zombeavers – easily the best example of dirty talk in a sex scene yet!

Lucy Review

The Plot

After being inadvertently drawn into the trafficking of an experimental new drug, a typical young woman called Lucy is exposed to a massive dose of the strange blue substance, allowing her to unlock the full capacity of her brain and bringing with it seemingly unlimited superhuman powers. She has to quickly unlock the scientific and philosophical mysteries of her transformation with the help of renowned scientist, whilst doing battle with the criminal organization responsible.

The Good

Director Luc Besson has an impressive track record for films about strong women (Nikita, Leon) and deceptively intelligent science fiction fun (The Fifth Element). Evidently Lucy combines both those areas of cinematic expertise with impressive and original results.

Those that mistakenly dismissed the premise of the film because of its superficial similarities to Bradley Cooper’s recent ‘magic brain pill’ movie Limitless will be especially surprised. Lucy is far more unashamedly philosophical and poses many sincerely provocative questions about what it means to be human and our ultimate potential as a species.

Though the film is often propelled by simple plot points and action set pieces, it consistently delivers moments of legitimately profound intelligence. Among the spectacle of superhuman car stunts and superfluous gunfights, Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman in particular trade memorable insights into human existence and the true meaning of life.

Scarlett Johansson is simply perfect casting for Lucy, playing a character that quite literally evolves from a naïve and traumatized young girl to an unstoppably lethal god-like genius. Her performance and accomplished special effect are what truly makes her character’s transformation seem so profoundly believable and meaningful. She packs convincing emotion amongst mono-tone monologues about human existence.

Morgan Freeman likewise provides the familiar voice of calm scientific credibility in his typical professorial role. It’s another major asset for the film which keeps it on track as it take increasingly dramatic chances with ambitious special effects and ideas.

The Bad

Lucy will disappoint and most likely confuse anyone hoping for just another film where Scarlett Johansson dispatches bad guys with guns and eye pleasing martial arts. What sets this film apart from her recent costume clad Avengers adventures is a wealth of sophisticated ideas and highbrow philosophy. Ironically, not everyone will appreciate this effort to be so ‘clever’.

The film does demand more from audience’s imaginations as Lucy’s new powers exponentially grow. Quick reflexes or newfound language skills don’t require as much of an appetite for science fiction as telekinesis, body morphing and time travel.  Some will find the bold direction the film takes captivating, while others will find it just gives them a headache. Be warned the film requires some real thought.

The Ugly Truth

Lucy is a pleasing mix of Direcor Luc Besson’s best known and admired work. It’s so much more than the Limitless copycat some may have feared. Scarlett Johansson and a solid supporting cast keep Lucy entertaining and believable as it explore strange and thought provoking new territory. Well worth watching on the big screen for the special effects alone.