Category: GFF strand – FrightFest

A film about a vampire-hunter with an unintelligible Elvis drawl hunts a vampire chick in Transylvania. Running time was twice as long as it needed to be, maybe more.

Just walked home in the dark in knee-deep snow after pure shiting it at a horror movie at the GFT. That’s hardcore filmcore. Although not as hardcore as the GFF staff, some of whom slept overnight in the cinema so they could open – bravo!

The director was supposed to be there since it was the premiere but he got stuck in Preston because of the snow and had to send a video introduction filmed on his phone from inside the train toilet. Pity he couldn’t be there, because he would have seen the most die-hard horror fans who’d trekked through the worst snowstorm in a decade to be there, all shiting it and shrieking at his movie.

Ghost Stories is very very good. It is a fucking great movie. It’s basically composed of three short stories that are wrapped up together in the last act. It is one the best ghost story type horror movie I’ve seen in ages. Properly gets a good chilling vibe going, an eerie M. R. James feel, old school.

The first story stars Paul Whitehouse, excellent in this dramatic role. From this first I knew I was gonna love this movie. It builds expertly utter creep. There are a few jump-scares, and there are a few loud-for-scary exchanges, but the film is so much more than that. It builds a total atmosphere of look-over-you-shoulder, can’t-watch-now suspense, that by the time you see anything, you would jump out of your seat regardless of how loud or quiet it was. There is virtually no gore or overdone makeup grossness. This film just lives by its piano wire-tight tension. I realised this movie had got me when I was watching Paul Whitehouse venture down into the darkness, and I heard myself think in my head, “I’m afraid”.

Definitely go see this at the pictures when it comes out in August. It is definitely a movie to see with someone you can jump with and then laugh. I pure let out the terror moo on a couple of occasions. Fucking A!

Well, that was one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had in a cinema. Never seen a director heckle his own movie before. The guy was drunk and just shouted out “the miracle of life!” every 20 minutes throughout the duration of the film. It was like having a live, shitfaced DVD commentary on.

The Night of the Virgin is a gross-out cherrypopper venereal horror. Funny but at times overlong, it definitely is memorable. Where else in cinema will you see a guy cum all over ultrasound photos of deformed foetuses? 

For what could be a very misogynistic film, since it essentially is about rape, it is in fact a character study of three women, and actually explores the psychological framework that would put and keep a woman in the position of aiding in the rape/murder of other women. In that way it’s more a movie about misogyny and about how women get co-opted into patriarchal violence. Good film.

A coming of age cannibal flick. Strong sister relationship at the centre of the story. Very good.

Fucking cool murder road movie. Keeps you going, good.

A film about an Albanian family in a blood feud with a witch. A bit like The Witch but modern day. Visually striking with a creepy vibe.

A film about a vintage clothing shop owner who goes off the rails when her husband has an affair. Overlong, slow and unfocused, but the main actress is actually great and gives a really good performance.

That film is a hot mess, top to toe. Far too much of nothing happens. There’s no tension, no reason to care about the characters, and the first half hour is just ass shots of bikini bottoms. Great concept, awful execution. 

A solid redneck chase movie. It was fine, but I just felt it needed to get there faster. There’s no reason this movie couldn’t be leaner, tighter. Not everything needs to be explained, repeated or in slow motion.