Frightfest 2011: Day 1 (25.08.2011)

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark: The opening film of the weekend was a high budget Hollywood drama with little to commend it.
Katie Holmes plays the fiancee of Guy Pearce who is renovating an old house for them to move into together with his young
daughter by his first marriage. Like nearly all such houses, it is dark and gloomy and the girl is withdrawn despite Holmes's
attempts to become friends with her. A hidden room is discovered and the girl spends time in it being interested by the voices she hears - these belong to some ratlike creatures dwelling in the depths below the house but communicatins through
a barred grate. Pearce is wrapped up in his work but a major failing of the film is the complete lack of chemistry between Katie Holmes and him even when it is obvious that matters are going awry. Even the sacrifice Holmes makes to save the child produces a reaction on about the same level as finding the wrong newspaper had been delivered.
Final Destination 5 - 3D: I am not too enthusiastic about 3D films but the effects in this were, for the most part, well done and justified the use of the third dimension. The plot is basically the same as before - you cannot cheat death even though you may delay it. Starting with a college field trip in which an accident on a bridge results in a number if spectacular deaths while some of the students manage to escape, the film then produces the final death of all of them one by one up to the final
scene which takes us back to the very first film of the franchise. Enjoyable tosh.
The Theatre Bizarre: the first late night film we have ever seen at Frightfest is episodic with different directors telling six tales between them with an odd linking performance by Udo Keir. As with all such films, the episodes vary considerably. The first one with a young couple crossing paths with a voluptuous witch who is seen at first as a crone is one of the better ones as was that of the two lovers in a hotel room but the others varied between average and less than average.