WE GO ON
Day Three opened with my favourite movie (by the tiniest smidge) of the whole weekend, a superbly written and executed tale of Miles Grissom (Clark Freeman), a guy who is so scared of death that he offers $30,000 for proof the afterlife exists. From all of the replies he receives he narrows his search down to three people, all of which have different methods to prove that, indeed, we go on. What Miles could never predict is where this is about to take him...
I loved this movie. The story is cleverly constructed, the horrific, comedic and emotional beats are all timed to perfection and at the heart of it all is the great on-screen chemistry between Freeman and Annette O'Toole, who plays Miles' mother Charlotte. This also makes for an interesting conflict within the main story because although Charlotte doesn't believe there's anything after death, she's more than willing to help her son who is totally driven by his faith that there must be.
Freeman and O'Toole are outstanding in the central roles but there are also noteworthy turns from Giovanna ZacarÃas as a medium and Jon Glover as an academic who attempts to bring a more scientific approach to ghost hunting. Also, without wanting to turn this into a spoiler-fest, I should mention Jay Dunn's performance as Nelson. He's just great in the role. I'll say no more other than SEE THIS MOVIE, RIGHT NOW.
TRASH FIRE
And now to my second favourite movie (just the tiniest smidge behind We Go On) of the whole weekend, Richard Bates Jr.'s blacker than black horror comedy featuring some of the most hilariously brutal dialogue you're likely to hear in a long while.
Owen (Adrian Grenier) and Isabel (Angela Trimbur) are somehow a couple despite Owen's issues with commitment and his generally vitriolic view of, well, everything and everybody. When Isabel announces she's pregnant, Owen decides to turn over a new leaf, which involves making peace with the remaining family members he hasn't seen since a tragedy many years previously.
I loved Excision, I loved Suburban Gothic and Trash Fire makes it three out of three in terms of Richard Bates Jr. hitting it out of the park. Deftly mixing laugh-out loud one-liners with unexpected jolts, this is a brilliant, unpredictable and vastly entertaining hour and a half which I really didn't want to end. Grenier and Trimbur are both terrific, as is a particular Excision alumnus (not saying who that is here) who makes a telling contribution to the plot.
The characters are well-drawn, the humour is excoriating, there's a vast supply of quotable dialogue, the tilts into horror territory are unsettling and brilliantly effective and I really wasn't expecting it to end the way it did. SEE THIS MOVIE TOO!
DEAREST SISTER
Village girl Nok (Amphaiphun Phommapunya) travels to Vientiane in order to help her much richer cousin Ana (Vilouna Phetmany) who has lost her sight. Although Nok is shunned by Ana's servants she is attracted to the material delights of the capital which complicates the relationship with her cousin. And although Ana may have lost her sight, she has gained the ability to communicate with the dead, resulting in a series of otherworldly encounters which have far reaching consequences...
Dearest Sister is only the 13th film ever to have been made in Laos and director Mattie Do is the country's only horror filmmaker. It would be a shame if this assured and measured piece of cinema is dismissed just because it's labelled a horror movie. Personally, I think it works just as well if viewed as a relationship drama with a supernatural element.
It also works as a fascinating insight into Laos itself and what makes its society tick so I felt transported into a world of which I knew little beforehand. It's some achievement that this movie was even made in the first place, I'm even happier to report that it's well worth your time and it's genuinely different from most genre flicks out there. It was also a pleasure to listen to the incredibly enthusiastic Mattie Do talking about the film afterwards - she's a force to be reckoned with and I'm looking forward to see what she does next.
PET
Seth (Dominic Monaghan) is a security guard at an animal shelter whose lonely existence receives a boost when he meets old high school acquaintance Holly (Ksenia Solo) on a bus. Finding out as much information as he can on Holly, Seth attempts to use his newly-found knowledge to begin a romantic relationship with her but things go very wrong, one thing leads to another and, wouldn't you know it, Seth's imprisoned Holly in a cage located in a disused room in the shelter's basement. Ah, you kids!
At this point, you're probably thinking it's another torture porn movie and, to be fair, that's where most movies would go. However, Pet immediately throws in a twist which changes the dynamic and the expectations completely, then continues to wrong foot the viewer as the battle of wills between captor and captive goes into overdrive.
Featuring two pleasing central performances from Monaghan and Solo - as people who are definitely not what they initially seem to be - plus a generous amount of gore, this should leave you with a smile, albeit a nervous one, on your face.
RAW
Closing the festival was Julia Ducournau's tale of Justine (Garance Marillier), a confirmed vegetarian who follows her older sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf) into vet school. Made to eat rabbit kidneys as part of the many rituals the new intake of students are put through during their first week, Justine suddenly finds she craves meat. And we're not just talking burgers here...
This movie appears to be marketed as an unrelenting feast of gore and although there are a few pretty disgusting moments in Raw they're nothing that most horror fans won't have experienced before. Stories of audience members passing out at TIFF just goes to show a) the Celluloid Screams crowd is made of sterner stuff and b) how wussy are the audiences at TIFF?
To be honest, the splashes of the splattery stuff actually serve the plot, which is a sharply observed, blackly comic portrayal of a young woman coming to terms with how her life - and how she herself - is transforming.
Marillier and Rumpf convince totally as sisters, bickering one moment, comforting each other the next and the movie never tips over into the festival of blood and guts it possibly could have been. As a matter of fact, it's the restraint shown over most of the running time which gives so much more impact and emotional clout to the gruesome moments. It's a mightily impressive full-length feature film debut for writer/director Ducournau.
And that was it for another Celluloid Screams. The 2016 edition brought us moments of outright weirdness, a smattering of controversy and a consistently absorbing and entertaining line-up of films. Personally, I'd venture that this was the strongest line-up yet and I have no idea how the bar is going to be raised even higher next year but if there's one festival that delivers again and again, this is the one.
It would be remiss of me not to thank the festival's Programme Director Rob Nevitt along with Polly, Sarah and the rest of the Celluloid Screams festival staff who do such a sterling job and put in ridiculous hours year after year. It's massively appreciated by the growing numbers of us who have no qualms about sitting in a darkened room for three days watching horror film upon horror film. To the outside it might sound like an endurance test but it's far from that. It's a joyous place where you'll meet some of the genuinely nicest people around and when you've been here once I guarantee you'll want to come back.
Here's to Celluloid Screams 2017!
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