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Friday
Friday saw me driving up to London and I arrived at Eddies around 10.30, so we jumped on the train and made our way into town, too late to catch all of the first film. The day saw us revisting the back collection of George Romero - Night of The Living Dead, Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead - these have all been rated before, so I'll skip them.
First up of the new films was his new "Land of the Dead". Zombies are roaming the planet and humans survive in protected enclaves around the world - but in the minority. Romero comes up trumps with a film full of political comment (that all other zombie films appear to miss). Dennis Hopper stars along with Asia Argento and John Legulazumo (or whatever). Cracking film and I'll go along with Eddies score of - 7/10
Next up was "A Bittersweet Life" which is a Korean film based around a gangster that makes a call of judgement to show mercy, but it comes back in spades to bite him on the ass. Excellent film, some great action but dragged a little in the beginning - a very respectable 8/10
The last film of the day was Jake Wests "Evil Aliens". We skipped this one, but did get to see two of the female cast making out outside! People either loved this or hated it.
Saturday
Saturday was kicked off with "Do You Like Hitchcock?" a "made for TV" movie from Dario Argento. Excellently filmed, pretty obvious twists and based on a great idea - 6/10
Next up was "Dead Meat" an Irish zombie film. Following the spread of infection from diseased cattle, humans are infected. What follows is a "by the numbers" zombie film with the added bonuses of "incomprehensible Irish guy", killer cows and a final stand. 6/10 from me - good idea and some great comecy moments.
Following "Dead Meat" was "The Neighbour No. 13". It kept me going for about an hour and then the whole thing lost me and it became quite tedious - 4/10
Next was "Wild Country" - a werewolf film based in Scotland. Excellently made, with the cast and crew on hand both before and after. Nice idea, spooky goings on and a fairly predictable ending. CG was pretty ropey, as were the werewolves but still gets a 6/10
Then was Ti Wests debut "The Roost". Evil dead with bats formula, excellently done and considering the budget and small crew was pretty good. Hopefully this young American guy will be funded in the future and we should see some cool films from him. 4/10
The final film of the day was "2001 Maniacs". Modern day version of "2000 Maniacs" and excellently done. Nice set of gore, decent effects and some good laughs. It was so cheesy it was ace :) 6/10
Sunday
Sunday kicked off with "The Collingswood Story". Not scary, not gripping and bland through and through - 3/10
Next up was "Marebito". Trying a little of this and little of that, it ended up being utter twaddle. Probably means a lot to hard core J-movie fans - 3/10
"Red Eye" was up next, replacing "Boo". No horror, but excellently done thriller. After being gripped throughout the film, it ended up a little "Scream(y)" which was disappointing - 7/10
Next up was the muchly hyped "Nightwatch"- the first of a trilogy from Russia. It's a sort of Lord of the Rings meets Matrix meets Underworld in a battle between good and evil. Truly excellent - I was gripped from beginning to end and am eagerly awaiting the followups "Daywatch" and "Duskwatch". Don't get the R5 release -
wait for the R1/R2 which will have the most exciting subtitles you have ever seen - 9/10
"Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist" was the last film of Sunday and quite frankly it was pants - however, it was astoundingly better than the Renny Harlin version. With some hideous CG (probably due to never being finished for production) and some odd effects involving
the possessed youth (watch for the "skateboarding effect" in the temple... 5/10
Monday
Monday kicked off with "Born To Fight". Out-bloody-standing! Real stunts, no wires, etc. Truly eye-opening and a great story with "balls to the wall" action and comedy elements - 9/10
After watching the brilliance of "Born To Fight", we were subjected to "Day of the Dead 2:Contagium". The worst acting, terrible lines from several of the cast but hilarious to watch. Especially the zombies who rationalised and discussed their predicament! 4/10
The Thai film "P" followed from brit writer/director Paul Spurrier. Excellent stuff. This was a local film for local people but it appealed to us in bucket loads. A young girl ends up as a prostitute to fund her grandmothers medicine. The magic her grandmother has
taught comes in useful apart from the fact that she forgets the the 3 rules - leading to all sorts of problems - 8/10
The penultimate film was "Antibodies". A german film about a rural policeman seeking to discover if a serial killer arrested in the city was responsible for the death a young girl in his area. Some great references to "Silence of the Lambs and a serial killer that
gets into his mind and wreaks havoc. Expect a Hollyood remake of this - 8/10
The last film of the festival was the Australian "Wolf Creek". Based on "true events", this charts the demise of 2 english back packers and their Aussie friend as they attempt to travel across Australia. There was a good amount of time building up the characters and when
the violence kicks in - it catches you by surprise. Brilliantly done - but could have done with being either longer and deeper or shorter with more action - 7/10
We got back to Eddies around 00.30am and I started my trek back home - finally arriving home around 02.30am. A great weekend of films, some great films and roll-on FrightFest 2006 (although I missed Shell terribly, especially as she was ill while I was away)...
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