Frightfest 2011 Roundup and Top 5

My Top 5 movies from Frightfest 2011, in no particular order:

TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL: Brilliantly hilarious farce and deconstruction of the hillbilly horror subgenre. A definite #frightfest highlight

TROLL HUNTER: Great fun. 'Cloverfield' by way of 'The BFG'. Sadly missing fe-fi-fo-fum based punning. #frightfest

THE WOMAN: Most intense, challenging film of #frightfest so far.

DETENTION: Holy shit. Pure visual and aural adrenaline. Feel like I've witnessed the birth of a future cult classic. @JosephKahn #frightfest

KILL LIST: I *think* it was one of 'the best of the festival. Slightly impenetrable plot but funny and riveting nonetheless. #frightfest
 Below you can see reviews of the rest of the films I saw at the fest.

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE: A fitting end to action-thriller fest 2011. See you all next year! (or in the phoenix) #frightfest

INBRED: Insanely gory hillbilly horror comedy. Possibly a little mean-spirited but inventive. #frightfest

SENNENTUNTSCHI: CURSE OF THE ALPS: Highly enjoyable twist Swiss thriller. Had my theory shot down by the director however...#frightfest

A NIGHT IN THE WOODS: Above average found footage stuff. A bit unoriginal.

DEADHEADS: New take on zombie comedy. A bit meh. #frightfest

SAINT: I was expecting a serious, dark fairytale. It was more like Friday the 13th starring Father Christmas. Good but very silly. #frightfest

THE INNKEEPERS: Really creepy slow-burn ghost story set in a hotel. Well executed if that's your thing. A bit plodding for me. #frightfest

THE DIVIDE: Post apocalyptic underground dwellers exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations. Good gore & bonkers performances #frightfest

CHILLERAMA: Tries so hard to be a midnight movie with only partial success.

FRIGHT NIGHT: Perfect #Frightfest fare. Funny, scary and silly. Great performances from Tennant and Farrel. 3D ok.

PANIC BUTTON: Quite an enjoyable tech-horror, with some attempt at social commentary.'Saw' on a plane, in a good way.#frightfest

THE WICKER TREE: Too slow and silly to be scary, a disappointing followup to the wicker man.#frightfest

VILE: Absolute torture-porn lunacy. Made no sense but was a pretty fun midnight movie to mock. #frightfest

THE GLASS MAN: After a shaky start, goes to some interesting, intense places. Plus the odd laugh didn't go amiss. #frightfest

URBAN EXPLORERS: Despite lack of subtitles, quite an enjoyable stalk-n-slash in the vein of 'Wolf Creek'. Cool premise also. #frightfest

A HORRIBlE WAY TO DIE: Slow burn thriller (a bit too slow at times) pays off towards the end. Inventive dreamlike camerawork too #frightfest

ROGUE RIVER: Somewhat generic 'last house on the left' riff. Nothing much to see beyond Bill Mosley's performance. #frightfest

THEATRE BIZARRE: A mixed bag quality wise. Preferred the nuttier episodes over the serious ones. #frightfest

FINAL DESTINATION 5: Highly entertaining with tons of fan service and some fun use of 3D. A return to form. #frightfest

DONT BE AFRAID OF THE DARK: Like Gremlins but without any jokes. Main little kid very good, acted rings around Katie Holmes... #frightfest

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What I've Been Watching 14-08-11

Image
It's been a while, gang. Let's do some quick reviews. I'll try to keep them to one sentence because I have a short attention span. Horrible Bosses 'King of Kong' director does good comedy, good chemistry between the main cast and the titular bosses are hilarious. The Devil's Double I like Dominic Cooper but his performances here were weak, rest of the cast also a bit crap, poor showing overall. Captain America Middle of the road Marvel movie, nothing to write home about, some of the CG was pretty shonky. Harry Potter 7(b) Some deliciously OTT performances (Snape and Voldy) and some good, dark imagery, one of the better entries in the series. Transformers 3 Say what you will; Bay can direct a thrilling action sequence, vapid pornography but I wallowed in it gladly. Super 8 A fantastic nostalgia trip, 'ET' meets 'Aliens' with a dash of 'The Goonies' thrown in for good measure. Bad Teacher Not as -bad- as the trailer wo...
Read more

What I've Been Watching 09-04-2012

Image
My, has it been two months already? Time sure does fly when you spend all your time in hot-tubs with super-models and playing shuffleboard on cruise-ships. Resurrect Dead This obscure documentary might be the best film I've seen since my last update, it follows a group of young men and women who are obsessed with solving the mystery the Toynbee asphalt tiles that appear all over the world. I won't reveal whether they figure it out or not but the journey is absolutely fascinating and the subjects' excitement is infectious. Chronicle Found footage movie in which a group of teenage boys stumble upon some sort of artifact that imbues them with psychic abilities. There were some great character moments here thanks to the script by Max Landis and some creative twists on the found footage angle but unfortunately the film is hampered by it's lack of budget. Overall, a pretty fun time but nothing spectacular. Woman In Black Harry Potter dresses as a grown up and is t...
Read more

Lady Vengence Review

Image
In an attempt to save some money I have decided to make a concerted effort to tackle my massive stack of unwatched DVDs instead of just buying new ones all the time, some of which I have had in my collection for years! So, the first film I decided to pop in was Park Chan-Wook's 'Lady Vengeance'. A film that has been sitting unwatched on my shelf for about 6 years now. The story follows our heroine as she is released from prison after 13 years after being wrongly convicted of the kidnapping and murder of a young child. It soon becomes apparent that she knows who the real perpetrator is, and has been plotting her revenge throughout her sentence... If there is one word to describe this film it's this; bleak. There are no flashes of dark humour here that have been present in the director's previous works, nor is there any let up from reminders that we are dealing with child-killers here and all the horrific connotations that brings. I can admire the film-making on displ...
Read more