Frightfest: Monday 31 August 2015

Curve.   On her way to her wedding in Denver, Julianne hough decides to take the scenic route but

breaks down.   She is helped by a hitchhiker and she gives him a lift for him to turn creepy.   In an

attempt to escape him she deliberately crashes the car which leave her trapped in the car but he is

not.   He leaves her struggling but returns from time to time to taunt her.   Then a flash flood which,

apart from nearly drowning her, moves the car so that she can get free.   Once out of the river, she

goes to the nearest house for her travails to start all over.   Good idea, well made.

Night Fare.   Two friends, one English returning to Paris after some time, the other French, are in

love with the same girl and go to a party to join her.   They deliberately avoid paying the taxi fare

on their way there but the taxi driver follows them and chases them, killing those who interfere.

The denouement was a bit far-fetched but the film was well paced and well-acted.

Nina Forever.   Rob attempts suicide after his girl friend has been killed.   Holly who works at

the same supermarket takes up with him and they end up in bed together but find Nina, the dead

girl, also there.   An oddity but quite jolly.

Goddess of Love.   A stripper is dumped by her boy friend, the love of her life, and goes more than a

little crazy.   With the co-writer playing the stripper this was no better than most vanity pieces.

Tales of Halloween.   The final film of the Festival but, alas, one film too many for us.

Frightfest: Sunday 30 August 2015

Over Your Dead Body.   Takashi Miike set the action around a new play based on a classic ghost

story with the action on stage being reflected offstage.   I found the film rather confusing but the

staging and cinematography were beautiful with strong performances from the leading players.

Road Games.   An English hitchhiker saves a beautiful girl from the driver of the car she was in.

Learning of a serial killer in the area, they decide to travel together and accept a lift from a local

who insists hey go with him to his house for dinner.   His house is actually a small chateau and

they not only eat there but stay overnight though the lady of the house played by the Frightfest
guest of honour, Barbara Crampton, does tell the hitchhiker to lock his door.   They leave but are grabbed by the farmer on the chateau's land which leads to bloodshed and an unexpected twist.
The acting was on the hammy side and one wonders why the local landowner did not tell the
Engglishman that the girl was his daughter.

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key.   A restored giallo with the delectable
Edwige Fenech and Anita Strindberg as the main females.   Very typical of the classic period of
giallo with odd angles, a black cat and a male lead obsessed by the memory of his dead mother.
Unfortunately, the film broke down shortly before the end so the final moments remain a mystery.
As with many giallos, the style and imagery are more important than any cohesive plot with the
level of acting none too high.
Scherzo Diabolico.   A bored accountant denied a pay rise concocts a plan to kidnap his boss's
daughter but things go wrong.   With a soundtrack of classical piano sonatas, the film is well made
and one of the better offerings of the weekend.
A Christmas Horror Story.   William Shatner is the dj at a local radio station on Christmas Eve
with his performance framing a series of scary stories - a family going into the forest to cut down
a tree with the son becoming possessed, a family being stalked by the Christmas demon and Santa
Claus being attacked by his elves who have become zombies - with the final scene that of the
station's roving reporter going berserk.

Frightfest: Saturday 29 August 2015

Bait.    Two friends tire of working in the local market selling snacks and look forward to owning and
running their own cafe.   When the opportunity arrives, they are lent money by a man who seems
friendly but is actually the local loan shark.   Even though they actually do not take the money, he
insists that they owe him for his time and the debt escalates as does his treatment of both of them which ranges from rape to beatings until they turn on him and have their revenge.   A nasty little
film but well made.
Frankenstein.   Created by a married couple of scientists, Adam is the modern version of the
creation of Frankenstein who breaks out of the laboratory and, understandably, has no moral control.
However, something is wrong with his makeup and he breaks out in facial lesions with only a black
tramp befriending him (an unusual role for Tony Todd).   Interesting concept but flawed.
Some Kind of Hate.   A put-upon teenager finally reacts to the bullies but a little too violently so
he is sent to a reformatory in the desert.   He is harassed here as well but accidentally summons the
spirit of a girl who had committed suicide there.   She takes revenge on his tormentors for him.
So-so
Rabid Dogs.   Basically a noir rather than horror, it tells of a bank robbery gone wrong (as they
all seem to do in films) which leads to the crooks kidnapping a quiet man taking his daughter to
hospital for a kidney transplant.   Promised his freedom in time to get her to hospital, he has no
option but to go along with their plans.   They subsequently kill the husband of a newly-wed
couple taking the wife with them but then find themselves caught up in a local festival which they
have to endure.   Finally, they reach their intended destination on a river where the crooks have
arranged a get-away boat but.... the quiet man is not the milksop he has seemed to be and the
daughter is not his.   Stunning twist in the concluding minutes.  Brilliant performance by Lambert
Wilson, excellent one by Francois Arnaud as the lead crook and a what am I doing here one by
Virginie Ledoyen as the widowed bride (not her fault as the part was seriously underwritten.

Frightfest: Friday 28 August 2015

Hellions.    A pregnant teenager waiting for her boyfriend on Halloween finds herself besieged by

a group of pumpkin-headed callers who declare that they want her unborn child.   She is, however,

resourceful enough to keep them at bay until daybreak.    Overall the film is neither gory nor really
scary though there were some effective scenes.   

The Rotten Link.   Set in a remote Argentinian village, the community is full of degenerates and

whores.   One of them has been taken by all but one of the men because her mother believes that

something bad will happen if she does have sex with all of them.   She eventually is raped by the

last man.   This leads to her brother, who seems a few slices short of a full loaf, to proceed to kill

all of the village.   Very black humour which I did not care for though it was well made.

The Diabolical.   A problem with not reviewing films at the time is that some of them are then no

longer remembered.   This one made no impression on me at all.

Jeruzalem.   Three American tourists go to Israel, one of them with the latest Google device as

a going away gift from her father.   This results in a variation of found footage which is just not

to  my liking - so we left after about 20 minutes!
Final Girl.   Abigail Breslin plays a Nikita type killer with the film taking her from childhood through training to her first killing.   This was a big disappointment as neither the training section
nor the extended period of her killings had any pace or excitement about them.   She looked
anything but capable of killing in hand-to-hand combat.   Rubbish

Frightfest: Thursday 27 August 2015

Cherry Tree.    This year we reverted to the full Festival Pass which means we saw rather more films
of which this was the opening one.   A girl learns her father is dying but is consoled by the glamorous
field hockey coach.   The coach is head of a witches' coven and the girl agrees to join to save her father whose illness is mysteriously cured.   However, he then is burnt to death in a car crash when
the girl tries to get out of the bargain she made.   This leads her to try and destroy the coven which
she does succeed in doing.   Reasonable effort without being memorable.   For a British film this
was well above the average.
Turbo Kid.   In a post-apocalyptic world, a teenager survives by scavenging and trading while being
keen on comic books.   He meets a strange girl called Apple who is kidnaps by Zeus who controls
the water supply.   Plucking up courage he rescues her to discover that she is actually an android but
this does not stop him.   Full of typical comic book violence and mayhem, the film is a delight and
the more so for being unexpected with Laurence Leboeuf as Apple giving, for me, what turned out
to be the best performance of the weekend.   This was a brightly coloured film which somehow added
to the enjoyment.

Stross, Charles: Rule 34

A female DI whose current job is policing internet porn becomes involved in the murder of a
fetishist though she is immediately sent back to her regular duties until other European police
post details of similar crimes.   At the same time a petty criminal on probation becomes the
Edinburgh Consul of a new republic spun off from Kyrgyzstan.   Also on the scene is an enforcer
for a criminal conglomerate.   With a number of devices that puts the story sometime in the future -
all conversations inside police stations are automatically recorded, buses can be diverted from
their regular route for a fee on the spot and segways in regular use - the three main characters
interact.   The petty criminal was previously arrested by the DI, her friend Dorothy, a high-flying
executive, is more or less raped by the enforcer and they all are involved in both the first murder
and others in some way.   I did find some of the interaction a little forced and do not think this
novel is up to the standard of the others I have read by this author though it passed the time

Black, Saul: The Killing Lessons

A rather nasty serial killer novel written by Glen Duncan using a pseudonym.   The chapters move
between the tribulations of a young girl who escapes the first killing spree in which her mother and
brother are killed, the investigations of female detective with a definite drink problem which is
compounded by the FBI agent with whom she has to work doing her best to ruin her, and the ongoing
work of the two killers.   The main killer is a splendidly drawn illiterate who marks his victims by
leaving an object either in a wound or other orifice, all the victims being young(ish) females.   The
reason for this dates back to his attempts to learn the alphabet using a coloured picture board with A
for apple, B for balloon and so on.   The author maintains a high level of tension throughout whether
with the ongoing dilemma facing the little girl, the continuing police/FBI efforts or the killers'
search for new victims.   The latter coalesces on one victim whose disappearance is noted in time for
the lead detective to eventually find and save her.    Well written and worthy of the praise other authors of similar works have bestowed on it