Status: Single
Country: UK
Signup Date: 1/22/2008
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Friday, August 28, 2009
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Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
I got home last night at 4 in the morning. I went straight to bed and then got woken up at 6. I decided to get up and not stay in bed, as I didn’t want to sleep in and miss today’s events as today they were showing the re-mastered print of ‘An American Werewolf In London’! And they were also showing the documentary ‘Beware The Moon: Remembering An American Werewolf In London’.
I had time to get ready at my own pace and not rush around. I had a big breakfast and then I head off to Central London. I got to Leicester Square for about 10 o’clock. I bumped into Clive coming off the tube, and we made our way over to the cinema. Clive had arrived early so he could get a ticket for ‘I Sell The Dead’ at the Discovery Screen. Frightfest has a second screen this year for films that would work better on a small screen. (I was hoping to get Blood + Roses into this screen) Tickets are free to full / day pass holders and they are issued on a first come, first served basis, and hence why there was a queue when we arrived. Clive joined the queue. I had decided to stick to the main screen for the festival, so I didn’t queue up. Instead I made myself useful by getting us some coffee.
When I got back, with coffees in hand, the queue hadn’t moved. As it was the first time they had ever given out tickets for the Discovery Screen, so it looked like they were having a few teething problems. What they were, I don’t know.
As the queue started to move, Ian Rattray (one of the organisers of FrightFest) came over and I was able to have a quick word with him about getting Blood + Roses into one of the other FrightFest events. As well as FrightFest, they also hold, the ICA Halloween All Nighter and Glasgow Presents. He told me to send the film to him directly and he would have a look at it. Then we were interrupted, as someone wanted to see a seating plan for the Discovery Screen, so Ian had to sort that out. Busy man that Ian.
So once Clive got to see the seating plan and pick the seat he wanted, we went over to the main screen and took our seats to watch the first film of the day, ‘The Horseman’.
‘The Horseman’ is about a father who’s daughter has died under suspicious circumstances. One day the father, Christian, receives a porn video which has his daughter having sex with 3 different men. The father then goes after the people who made the video and takes his revenge on them.
I thought I wasn’t going to like this film, but it was one of the best films shown at FrightFest this year. It looked to me from the FrightFest website that ‘The Horseman’ was going to be a mindless orgy of blood. I was surprised by how caught up I was in the film and this was due to the main character Christian (played by Peter Morgan). You really felt his pain and you could see how he could flip out, especially around this group of scum bags who were involved in the making of the porn film.The torture and kills in this film were very inventive. Actually some of them were squirm inducing and I will never look at a ball pump the same way again.
But unlike revenge thrillers where the anti-hero dishes out violence at no cost to himself, there are consequences for Christian. He becomes a self harmer, so to feel something. In the confrontations with the people who made the video, he does get hurt. He gets beat up, as the people don’t want to die. The only reason Christian comes out on top as he is more determined then the other guy. I find it is more interesting that he isn’t some indestructible killing machine, but a human being who has flipped out.
Along his travels he picks up a young girl, who you think is only in the film so Christian can share his feelings about his daughter to, but at the end she gets caught up in the whole mess in a terrible way. The last 20 minutes are the most suspenseful out of the all the films at this year’s festival, and that’s because you care for the plight of Christian and the young girl.
Also I have to say this is a hell of a feature debut by the director, Steven Kastrissios. His direction was assured and the pacing was spot on. The music. The music was great and complemented the film so much. (You can hear it on the trailer below) I can’t recommend this film enough. If you get a chance to see it, do, as I think it’s great and in my opinion a classic of revenge thrillers.
Next was the start of the ‘An American Werewolf In London’ double. First up was the making of documentary and then after that it was the film it’s self. I would of preferred it if the running order had been the other way around, but ho-hum. ‘Beware The Moon’ was really insightful, intelligent, heartfelt making of documentary. Nothing was left out and there was even a part about the shooting of the mock porn film, ‘See You Next Wednesday’. It’s about 2 hours long, but it was so good that the time flied by. Paul Davis and Romy Alford-Sancto have done a hell of job with it and you can tell by the time and effort they have put in that they are real fans of this film. (I have found a clip that wasn’t shown at FrightFest)
In the intermission between the documentary and the film, I met up with Clive (who missed the documentary and instead saw ‘I Sell The Dead’) Brendan Lonergan and Marcelo Fossá, by the pick and mix stand, opposite the entrance to the main screen.It was so busy in the foyer, it was the only place we could stand. I was also on the look out for an actress friend of mine, Nicola Jane Reading, but I couldn’t see her there. There was a particular large crowd, who I couldn’t see through. All these people were round some old guy who looked like John Landis. Oh it was John Landis.
I actually bumped into John Landis again, ten minutes later. I was at the front of the screen, as I thought it would be the perfect time to get a photo of the audience in the main screen. I put the camera to my eye, took the photo and put the camera down, just to have John Landis standing directly in front. I apologised and moved out of the way. Thinking about it, I thought it was very British thing for me to do, as I wasn’t really in his way.
Anyway, John Landis introduced the film and he is great story teller. He could remember so much from the making of it. He was very entertaining, and boy does he like to swear. When he finished his Q&A, after the film, he said “I going to be here to see some films, so... leave me the fuck alone!” Of course he didn’t mean it, as he still would pose for his photo to be taken with fans.
Ok! Back to the film. The film looked great for a film nearly 30 years old. (It was released in 1981) It was being projected from the Blu Ray version of the film, which the film has been re-mastered for. It looked great. There was a slight problem with syncing of the sound. People’s lips would move and then the sound would come out. But you know what, it didn’t bother me. I still enjoyed it. The film has aged well. It’s still funny and scary as ever.
For me to see this film on the big screen with an audience was a great thrill, as this was one of the first horror films I saw as a kid. My father thought it would be funny to show me this film, because as a kid I was a scary cat. I was afraid of the dark. I was afraid of spiders. I was afraid of being alone. So you can see why my father thought it would be funny to show ‘An American Werewolf In London’ to me. I was terrified, but I sat through the whole thing and then ran out at the end. I had nightmares for weeks.
I re-discovered this film again when I was teenager. Though it didn’t have the same effect on me, I had grown out of my fears, I still enjoyed the film on a different level. I got the humour, the characters, the effects, which are great. The transformation scene in the flat is the best werewolf transformation in film history and that’s because a) it is down in bright lighting and b) you really feel the characters pain. It’s also very sad. You feel sorry for the guy. After all he was a goofy American kid, who unfortunately bumbles into this whole situation in the moors.
I just want to end that ‘An American Werewolf In London’ has been a major influence on me as a filmmaker and there are a few references to ‘An American Werewolf In London’ in my film, Blood + Roses. Can you spot them?
After the film finished, I was able to find Nicola. She was in the foyer, standing next to the FrightFest banner. We had a quick chat, and then she had to run off. I went off for a drink with Clive and Brendan. Marcelo couldn’t make it, as he had to go to work. We had a drink in the bar above the entrance to the Empire Cinema (it’s part of the Empire Casino) and we stood out on the balcony and watched the crowds of FrightFesters down below. Soon it was time for the next film to start. We said goodbye to Brendan, who was coming back on Monday, we went in to see ‘Shadow’.
‘Shadow’ is about a marine, who has just come back from a tour in Iraq, and who takes a mountain biking trip to a valley called Shadow. He meets a girl, who is also mountain biking through the valley, and they start to fall in love. In the middle of their trip, they stop a couple of trappers from killing a deer. The trappers are quite upset by losing their price and decide to chase them into a supposedly haunted part of the valley. The local legend says that there is a cave where a whole village was killed in a cave by soldiers. But the legend is just a subterfuge for something more sinister lurking in the valley.
I didn’t like this film. I just want to say that off the bat. I found it confusing. It wasn’t clear where it was set. Is it America or is Europe? Who could tell. I didn’t care too much about the characters and the twist ending was very good. If you seen ‘Jacobs Ladder’, then you know this ending. As that film was interesting and scary, and the twist was a total surprise, this one was just a pale imitation.
The next film was ‘La Horde’. Now I would tell you what I thought of it, but there is a press embargo placed on it by the distributors. There were actually guys in the audience with night-vision glasses, making sure nobody was videoing the screen. You always see that warning in the cinema, but it’s first time I actually saw them in use. Anyway, I am going to honour this embargo and not write my thoughts of it. Instead have a look at the trailer and make your own mind up.
As I was heading into the final film of the day, ‘Macabre’, I bumped into Axelle. She asked me what I thought of ‘La Horde’ and I said # ##### ## (damn this embargo). Anyway, the conversation was over very quick, because her husband was trying to get her into the screen for the film. It was just about to start. Clive and myself both had an alcoholic beverage in our hands, which we couldn’t take in, so we had to drink up and we got in there just as the film was about to start.
‘Macabre’ is about a group of friends, who are seeing the married couple in their group off at the airport. The married couple are starting a new life in Australia and have a baby on the way. On their journey they pick up a distressed hitchhiker and decide to take her home. Unfortunately for for them, the hitchhiker’s family are a group of ageless cannibals, who look to carve up the group for supper and baby is a particular delicacy.
On the poster for ‘Macabre’ the tagline is that ‘everybody bleeds’ and boy everybody does. Everything ends up covered in claret. By the end people are slipping in blood. As for the story, I didn’t quite buy the idea that being a cannibal leads to you becoming immortal. But then it wasn’t just the villains who were getting back up from the dead, so were the heroes. Another thing I didn’t buy was the ‘magic’ drink the pregnant woman is given that makes her give birth in minutes. It seemed highly unlikely. And this was the only time they skipped on the blood.
I felt that the film went on too long. There is only so many stabbings, body parts chopped off and beatings you can see before it gets boring. There even bring in the most unlikely bunch of cops, in the third half, just to have more people to kill. I thought overall the film was okay and yes there was a lot of blood. And what’s with it with bad guys driving Land Rovers. This is the second film to have the bad guys who own a Land Rover. The other being ‘Shadow’. Do you think that get a villain’s discount?
So that’s the second day over and done with, and I never fell asleep once. Not even a nod. I couldn’t say the same for the journey home, as I fell asleep on the bus. I had to be woken up by the bus driven. Good thing I lived at the end of the line. Anyway, tomorrow is going to be good as we have Rob Wickings joining us for the day.
12:27 PM
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