In the second of my post-Whitby round up, I’m reviewing the films I did see. I was going to do this reflecting the order I saw them in, but I think it makes more sense to do them in alphabetical order (mostly because my notes are scribbled on the film list I printed from the bramstokerfilmfestival website, and they’re alphabetical there!). They’re all short and sweet, and many of them were written in the dark. Apparently it’s like touch typing; the less you think about it the easier it is to read afterwards!

The blurbs I saw for each film can be found here. The shorter blurbs I’ve just copied here, but the longer ones I’ve summarised.

(ETA – this post didn’t survive the transfer from blogspot to wordpress very well. Bit of post-production tidying up here!)

Al’s Beef – B

Director: Dennis Hauck
Country: American
Genre: Horror, Western, Short
Tagline: She’s got revenge written all over her.
Summary: Bloodied, barefoot, and branded like cattle, a mysterious stranger comes to town with an aim to kill the man that done her wrong.

A strong Western, with good plot and direction but some annoying discontinuities.

Back Alley Butcher – D+

Director: Joseph Guzman
Country: American
Genre: Horror, Short
Summary: A pregnant woman is stolen from her home and her unborn baby taken from her.

Well made vignette, but no plot, no characterisation and hence no impact.

I’ve actually copied the original blurb below. I’ve bolded the bits you wouldn’t know if you just saw the film.

Back Alley Butcher tells the story of Ruth, a down on her luck, unwed pregnant waitress, whose world is turned upside down when she is abducted in the middles of the night in a brutal kidnapping. Back Alley Butcher takes place in the late 1970‘s where the lack of modern technology made the world a more vulnerable place. The movie explores the hush-hush world of black-market adoptions and will introduce the audience to the term, ‘Reverse Abortion‘ a phrase people will be talking about long after the credits roll. This is an original story that has not been explored in recent horror movies. It’s uniqueness and chilling subject matter lends itself to horror audiences looking for something new.

The last italicised sentence is not so much “not obvious in the film” as “not obvious in real life”. There were other fetus abduction films at the festival!

Bitch Slap – B+

Director: Rick Jacobson
Country: America
Genre: Horror, Sexploitation
Summary: Though they claim to be working together, these three hot women have their own agendas as they fight to find the diamonds in the desert.

A lot of fun, with some cute flashbacks. Does what it says on the tin, but not as groundbreaking or feminist as it thinks. At all.

Blood On The Highway – B

Directors: Barak Epstein and Blair Rowan
Country: America
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Tagline: There’s a sucker born every minute!
Summary: Three twenty-somethings find themsleves in fate, Texas, a town populated by dimwitted vampires and oversexed hicks.

Not my sense of humour (our protagonists are two arseholes and a wimp) and Nicholas Brendon’s cameo is pretty gratuitous, but overall entertaining.

Brothers Keeper – C+

Director: Martijn Smits
Country: Holland
Genre: Horror, Short
Tagline: Ours is a strange history.
Summary: Two brothers, one gruesome to look at, work together to trap and kill prostitute in God’s name.

Overall enjoyable, but the plot was more straightforward (and a little cliche) than it seemed to think it was.

Caution Sign – C+

Director: Wade Carney
Country: American

Genre: Horror, ShortSummary: The sign said SLOW… or did it? A dark forest road. A heated argument. A caution sign.

Intense and unusual, but not very compelling.

Cheerbleeders – B

Director: Peter Podgursky
Country: American
Genre: Short | Horror
Summary: A pair of high school outcasts gain ultimate power over the cheerleaders, but it all turns sour in the end.

Ronseil (“It does what it say on the tin!”) revenge fantasy, well made.

Dead Bones – C

Director: Olivier Beguin
Country: Switzerland
Genre: Short, Horror, Western
Summary:  A bounty hunter tracking down a criminal catches up with him in a small half-abandoned village, where he soon discovers that the few remaining locals have unusual customs.

Starts well, but plot dissolves into a confusing series of disjointed scenes by the end.

Damned By Dawn – A-

Director: Brett Anstey
Country: Australia
Genre: Horror
Summary: During a violent thunderstorm, a family is awoken by piercing shrieks which summon the dead to rise again. Their lives explode in a blood soaked fury as they battle to save their souls from eternal torment with the Banshee.

An unusual baddie handled well, though the special effects are a little computer-gamish. Lots of background spooks and unseen scares.

Death In Charge – A-

Director: Devi Snively
Country: America
Genre: Short, Horror, Comedy
Tagline: Don’t tell mom the babysitter’s death.
Summary: An impatient single Mom carelessly mistakes the scythe-carrying cloaked one for her tardy babysitter and leaves Death to care for her precocious 9-year-old daughter.

Short, sweet, punchy.

Dying Breed – A-

Director: Jody Dwyer
Country: New Zealand
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Everybody has different tastes.
Summary: Zoologist Nina is convinced there are still tigers remaining in the Tasmanian wilderness, but that’s not all that’s lurking out there.

Deliverance vs Dog Soliders. Solid horror fare.

Excision – A +

Director: Richard Bates Jr.
Country: America
Genre: Short, Horror
Summary: Pauline struggles to handle her sister’s cystic fibrosis and becomes obsessed with surgery, knowing her sister will one day need a lung
transplant.

Disturbing and compelling; really powerful.

The Facts In The Case Of Mister Hollow – A-

Directors: Rodrigo Gudiño, Vincent Marcone
Country: Canada
Genre: Animation, Short, Horror
Tagline: Look Closely…
Summary:  An investigation of an unusual photograph reveals a tapestry of secrets hidden in the details, and a tale of kidnapping and murder captured in a haunting moment.

Strange and haunting, requiring hard use of brain!

Georges Intervention – A

Director: JT Seaton
Country: America
Genre: Horror | Comedy
Tagline: 9 out of 10 interventions are successful… this is the 1
Summary: George’s friend stage an intervention; they’re worried he’s eating people. But then, he is a zombie.

Smart and fun, an original take on the zombie genre.

Hair Extensions (Exte) – B

Director: Sion Sono
Country: Japan
Genre: Horror
Tagline: What lovely hair you have…
Summary: Hair extensions and the women they kill.

Fairytale-esuqe. Some unfortunate characterisation cliches, but overall the plot is original. Rapunzel’s Revenge!

How My Dad Killed Dracula – A

Director: Sky Soleil
Country: America
Genre: Short, Comedy, Horror
Tagline: One of the greatest Halloween stories of all time.
Summary: A Halloween practical joke turns a family tradition into a night of comic terror when two young teens don’t believe their cousin’s dad killed Dracula. Insisting on proving it, Dad picks up a shovel and starts to dig.

Funny and deft, perfectly done.

Inside (À l’intérieur) – B+

Director: Alexandre Bustillo
Country: France
Genre: Horror
Summary: A pregnant widow awaits a a ride to the hospital, but another woman breaks in and a battle for both their lives begins.

Intense and Explicit – I couldn’t watch the final scenes. Some characters are TSTL (Too Stupid Too Live) and it requires strong suspension of disbelief.

It Came From Another World! – D-

Director: Christopher R. Mihm
Country: America
Genre: Sci-Fi, Comedy
Summary: When Professor Jackson’s colleague and best friend Dr. Frasier  doesn’t return from a scientific expedition in the deep woods, the Professor is sent to find and retrieve him and stumbles across a mysterious “Rock From Outer Space”.

Affectionate pastiche very badly executed. Running gags mostly unfunny, though there’s some good one-liners.

Kirksdale – B-

Director: Ryan R. Spindell
Country: American
Genre: Horror, Short
Tagline: Sanity is a state of mind.
Summary: In the Deep South in the 60s a quiet mental hospital is not all it seems.

Unorignal, but well done.

The Machine Girl – B+

Director: Noboru Iguchi
Country: Japan
Genre: Horror
Summary: The life of a young, Japanese schoolgirl is destroyed when her family is killed by a Ninja-Yakuza family. Her hand cut off, she replaces it with various machines-of-death, and seeks revenge.

Very silly; if Rodriguez had found a female Jet Li… Modern Kung Fu, complete with hookey dialogue and cheesy effect. Cartoon Violence at its best.

Nightlife – A

Director: Timothy Sanderson
Country: America
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Tagline: 300 years, and they’re still living paycheck to paycheck…
Summary: Mockumentary about Vampires and the geeks who hunt them.

Perfect example of the genre. Very good characterisation, though felt longer than it was.

Orlok – 3D – AB-

Directors: Keith Carter/F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany/America
Genre: Horror
Tagline: From the Bottomless Pit He Came!
Summary: 3D re-imagining of Nosferatu, the Silent classic based on the story “Dracula.”

Original film is still very good, and stands up against modern interpretations. The 3D is quite fun, and the scenes where it’s applied are well chosen. The soundtrack was alright, but random gibberish and moans to represent dialogue and some mistimed music make it an irritant.

Schrik – B

Director: Martijn Hullegie
Country: Holland
Genre: Horror, Short
Summary: Barbara and Olivier like to play games and scare each other!

Good and well made. Slightly cliche, but deftly explored.

Smile – B?

Director: Yuval Markovich and Noam Abta
Country: Isreal
Genre: Horror, Short, Animation
Summary: A very sinister and unsettling student film from Israel.

Very, very strange. Paranoic, and very hard to rate!

The Fox Family (Gumiho Gajok) – A

Country: Korea
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Summary: Disguised as humans, a family of fox spirits run a circus, waiting for the day they can consume human lives and make their transformation permanent.

Hilarious. Well made, very entertaining, and a musical!

Thicker Than Water: The Vampire Diaries Part 1 – F+

Director: Phil Messerer
Country: America
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Tagline: The family that prays together… slays together
Summary:  An ordinary suburban family have their world turned upside down when their youngest becomes a vampire.

Out of focus, bad editting, cliche, bad audio… Acting was pretty good, though.

Wasting Away – A+

Director: Matthew Kohnen
Country: Germany and America
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Summary: An oddball comedy from the perspective of the brain munching monsters themselves.

Brilliant! A great execution of a wonderful idea.

So, overall?

Zombie Comedy is my new favourite sub-genre, I think. I still love the big supernatural creature features Australia and New Zealand do so well. South East Asia does fun and kooky, with new takes on myths we take for granted in the west. France proves again it can do compelling and disturbing, but it’s so hard to watch. America manages to tick each box, but then, it is a very big country… 😛