Frightfest 2015

Generally received poorly by all, including me and a strange choice to open this festival. There was a perfunctory feel to all areas of the production. Poor acting and lame direction seemed to show either contempt or a lack of understanding of the genre with only a quick buck in anyones minds. Shame, shame , shame.

Unlike the previous film, this film showed a complete understanding of it's target audience and was made with an abundance of passion and love. Mad Max made with pocket money it may be, but it had huge entertainment factor and genuine heart. More character work done in this than most blockbusters and Apple stole the show as well as our hearts. Bona fide hidden gem found.

In the same vein as other oversized insects/creatures wreaking havoc like Infestation, Grabbers and Big Ass Spider it didn't fully deliver like those did. That said it didn't fully fail either and had some moments to just about recomend it as a beer-in-hand late night flick. Just keep expectations in check.

This one kept me guessing as was an "is he mad or telling the truth" extended episode of The Twilight Zone type of story and may have been better as that. Some scenes felt a little padded to elongate the hour long story to a feature length (kind of) running time of 76 minutes. It was a decent story and had some good performances, particularly a good manic one from Larry Fassenden, and held my interest throughout. Also had the best Basement jump scare of the festival.

This was what I call a Packet Of Revels film in that some of it tastes good, some a bit nasty and some hit you harder than you thought when you bit into it. A mixed bag, then and gets you thinking and switching emotions and allegiances of characters as the story unfolds. Essentially speaks a lot about vengeance and it's moral and ethical repercussions on people both guilty and innocent. Liked it, despite having to eat the odd coffee one.

Well, it doesn't bode well when i couldn't even remember watching this. That said it wasn't too bad whilst watching it, just forgettable. Creepy moments and a mystery plot to work out (which I didn't but most did).

I was actively trying to avoid found footage films this year and go for films that had invested in tripods and tracks so was going to steer clear of this. A pre festival chat with Alan Jones persuaded me to watch this and I suppose it was worth it. The footage was "found", somewhere I guess, and was a young girls account of her trip to Jerusalem and whilst wearing her new google glasses type eye wear. (I would love a pair of these btw as it is linked to the internet and gives google maps, GPS, facebook messages, profiles, skype calls and everything, great invention, if it really exists) and documents the end of the world, literally. Demons, zombies and jumps scares and all. Good but more money should have spent on the CGI wings. Worth a watch, definately.

Heard great things about this pre festival and was really geared up for watching a creepy film with like minded folk. The director, Ted Geoghegan, informed us of his intention to create a homage to Lucio Fulci and he delivered (thankfully, he spared us the ropy dubbing) and thoroughly enjoyed it. A friend commented that it was murky and ugly to watch but I find most of Fulci's films to be like that so can only assume it was the Geoghegan's intention. creepy house film essentially and did have some hammy acting moments but was pre warned that this was intentional and was part of the homage. I have to say that I am getting a little tired of too many "homage to the 80,s 90s, Fulci, Giallo" films of the past and prefer a new style to emerge and directors to be there own voice but I did like it and will be watching again.

Well, the title says it all. Can't take this film seriously at all. It was Office Space meets Vampires. It was cheaply made and was going more for gross out dialogue and laddish type humour than scares and delivered exactly that. The gorey effects were hit and miss but was fun and irreverent and worked for the midnight audience.

Well, if this is anything to go by, Adam Schindler is one to watch. I loved this film. It is a great take on the home invasion movie and thoroughly intriguing. Great performances by all but especially from Beth Riesgraf. A real winner all round. Watch it.

OK, so this was another poor attempt at avoiding a found footage movie, but I was very conflicted as I have liked Adam Masons other films so wanted to check this out. Very pleased that I made the exception as it was riveting throughout. I thought it was clever and creepy and plays on your mind more after you've seen it. Some others didn't find it as good but I would recommend it.

OK, I have mixed feelings about this and the film got a mixed reaction too. I was struggling to stay awake during this but that isn't the films fault, I was just really tired. From what I did see (about 85% of it) I did quite like. It seemed a very faithful adaptation of the book and had some good narration from the monster, which I thought worked very well. The Monster (or Adam, in this version), played by Xavier Samuel, was very good and showed a great deal of confusion to his surroundings and was played very sympathetically. It was just the other characters that weren't quite as good. I would check it out.

I was really looking forward to this as I'd heard good things and was supposed to say a lot about bullying. It didn't, imo, and it was a huge letdown for me. It didn't make a lot of sense and the story didn't hold up to any scrutiny.

Good start, long and tedious middle, and a good ending. That's all I can say, really. Any film with a good ending deserves to be seen though.

Wonderfully entertaining Heavy Metal Band slays demons with copious amounts of blood. Really funny and definitely a great midnight flick. Found a little gem here that will be watched and watched again and again

Takashi Miike at his weirdest and arty best. I have to admit to scratching my head a few times and looks of confusion crossed my face. They were looks that were mixed with winces and sheer disgust at some of the imagery on show but he always seems to mix beauty with horror in ways only David Lynch can rival.

I simply had to watch this as the opportunity presented itself. If I was told as an 12 year old that one day I would watch this in the cinema with the director and Ray Charleson (the Elf with the bow and arrow) I'd say your were dreaming, but that's what I did and it was *beep* and a fantastic way. Cheesy, dated and funny with great 80s music. So pleased I saw it here.

DiBlasi explained afterwards that he was approached by the production house to help them with this as they wanted to make a 90s "Scream" type horror as they wanted to get into horror. This is exactly what he delivered, annoying, grating and unlikable characters to boot and it wasn't great (apart from a scary mask by the villain). Not when you compare it to his other outings like Dread or Missionary as those were much better made and more effective. It did do what he stated but enough of the homages to the 90s. Do your own thing.

Ok, first off, what on earth were they doing showing this film so poorly presented. It was in super duper wide-e-scope and looked bloody awful. OK, out of my system. The story was very interesting and well told (aesthetics aside) and was very pleased that I didn't walk out after 5 minutes. Well worth a look so please don't be put off by the awful presentation of the film.

OK Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban and Bret Sullivan, I take my hat off to you all! You have concocted a fabulous Christmas anthology that hit pretty much every note. The look, the music, the make up, the tone, the pacing, performances and twisty turn endings are great. The find of the year, for me and loved every frame. This was mostly shared by everyone who saw it, some more than others though. Special mention must go to the great William Shatner who steals the movie as the festive DJ who links the stories together. Great entertaining film.

Final day started with Iain Softley's first horror film since The Skeleton Key in 2005. This is a horror film, but in the sense of The Hitcher is a horror film. Just a run-into-the-wrong-person-at-the-wrong-time kind of film. It was a blumhouse production so was expecting creepy but it was something different. Won't spoil the story but go with it and will be entertained enough. Ending was a bit disappointing but a good ride getting there.

I was out of the door going to watch Howl and then was impressed by the introduction enough to turn around and watch this instead. Was so pleased I did as I enjoyed it enormously. We unanimously agreed not to over analyse it as we knew there would be lot of plot holes but we enjoyed the ride and the twist so just wanted to keep it that way.

This was the only film I ended up watching in the main screen on my own, without the family. It was very artsy fartsy and ultimately a film using symbolism to show how difficult it is to get an ex lover out of your system after the relationship has ended, for whatever reason. Well, that's what I saw it as anyway.

Decent psycho babysitter story. Couldn't work out some plot details and lot's of "why would she do that?" moments but enjoyed the ride despite not making a whole lotta sense.

The fest ended on a highpoint with 10 Halloween stories from 10 horror directors wanting to make a Halloween film you can play every year and have fun with it. Lot's of cameos from a lot of (but not all) horror directors (spot Landis, Dante, Garris, Green and others but no Lynch, Carpenter, Roth or Wan). Some stories were better than others but all decent with a good wrap around. Some labelled it self indulgent and I can see that, but I had a great time with them anyway and would like to see this done more often. Maybe one every few years would be good to keep the quality up.