So after a somewhat disappointing Frightfest ‘Halloween Special’ last year at the Odeon Leicester Square, we were looking forward to this years bash at its potential new home The Vue. Although being plagued with the same old ‘air conditioning’ problems The Vue is a good space with a great bar area and a nice side entrance for smokers. Definitely leaning back towards the excellent atmosphere of the ICA. We're sure this will be Frightfest’s new home for its Halloween all-nighters and we’re assured the heat situation will be sorted for next year, but this is something that HAS to happen! Trying to stay awake with sweat dripping down your neck is NOT fun… it makes the evening unnecessarily uncomfortable. So was the night a success, well this is mostly down to the films so lets run through them:
(Scores are out of 10)
Bad Meat was an enjoyable teen boot-camp horror that we initially thought we’d dislike. However the characters were really well played, pace was lively and had some good humorous moments. What destroyed the film entirely was its failure to KILL any of the characters and its abysmal ending which left the crowd and the films special guests speechless. What was unforgiveable was the writer and leading actress had not seen the film prior to the screening so were unaware of the terrible ending.
Was a little cringey.
Cassie – 5/10
George – 4/10
Livid was a nice French supernatural horror with some beautiful filmography, great make up and stylised set pieces (with some cracking taxidermy). What unfortunately let it down were some overindulgent complexities with the narrative and not enough tension to really let the scare moments build and work. That said it was enjoyable and definitely worth checking out.
Cassie – 5/10
George – 5/10
Human Centipede 2 was the feature of the night with all cast and director Tom Six present. Great introduction from Dr Heiter (Dieter Laser) too! Now we’re at Frightfest! Shot in black and white and mostly on hand held camera, part 2 is in stark contrast to its predecessor. With buckets of gore it documents an obsessive and deranged fan of the first film who attempts to create his own human centipede, but on a much bigger scale. As with the first film it clearly goes out of its way to upset the audience, but what doesn’t ooze from the print is a sense of anger or malice. Through the disturbing imagery comes a sense of shall we say ‘fun’. Clearly the cast had a laugh making this monstrosity and that clearly comes across. What’s more disturbing is the BBFCs knee jerk reaction to ban this film, and ultimately now make it the most sought after film to watch, simply because it depicts the ultimate ‘fanboys’ copying and mirroring of a film. That said the cut footage may be too strong by standard BBFC guidelines, however the film played OK, with no obvious jumps were footage had been removed.
Cassie – 6/10
George 5.5/10
Faces In The Crowd followed and offered some light relief from the relentless gore of Human Centipede. It was Alan Jones’ choice for its obvious Giallo themes, however this was a far cry from the slasher favourites of the 70’s and leant more towards films like ‘Sex In The City’! It was soppy and Marian Faithfull’s role as a therapist offered some unintentional humour, as did Nip Tuck’s Julian McMahon’s beard. The heat was unbearable for this!
Cassie – 1
George – 2
Cold Sweat was next and was the feature that saw the most nodding off. Argentinean horror about some geriatric rebels torturing women with various explosives. A little more invention than your average ‘Hostel’ fare, although ultimately fell into the ‘seen it all before’ camp.
Cassie (Only saw beginning and end, unavailable to grade)
George – 3
The Watermen was the final film of the evening and after some caffeine interjection we were ready for it. Jason Mewes was the obvious draw to this film about a group of well to do, thick as pigshit teens who embark on a fishing trip which goes horribly wrong. Picked up by mumbling inbred fishermen they get tortured and picked off one by one. The biggest mistake being Jason Mewes is the first to die. If you thought ‘Cold Sweat’ was the only ‘seen it all before’ flick of the night you’d be wrong. The horrible clichés were rife and without a tongue or cheek in sight. The script was appalling and acting was plain bad. Unfortunately these were the least of its problems. The endless torturous elements of these type of films are done with a real nasty misogynous nature and seem to totally misunderstand what genre fans want. We’re sure we’re not the only people who turn off when films go down this route and in our eyes these ‘throw away’ torture flicks are more harmful than ‘Human Centipede’ could ever be. Maybe because they wont be watched by real fans and people who really understand the genre.
Cassie – 2
George – 1
The new venue is good and back on track with the atmosphere definitely on the up. Maybe the films let it down a little this Halloween, but did the night redeem itself for us to go next year? The juries out.
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