FRIGHTFEST 2004 FESTIVAL REPORT
DAY FOUR: MONDAY 30 AUGUST

And so to the fourth and final day of Frightfest and, as ever, a certain amount of fatigue is setting in. But there are still some interesting titles to come and spirits are still high, despite the lack of sleep!

First up today is Jian gui 2 / The Eye 2, the Pang Brothers follow-up to their amazing 2002 ghost story, shown to great acclaim at a previous Frightfest. Advance word on the film wasn't great -in fact many of the reviews were damning and there was a very real fear that this sequel simply wouldn't live up to the original.

And it didn't, though it's certainly not as a bad as some of those reviews would have us believe. Pregnant and suicidal Joey [Shu Qi, from Feng yun xiong ba tian xia / Stormriders [1998], Office yauh gwai / Haunted Office [2002] and The Transporter [2002]] fails to take her own life in a drug overdose and in the aftermath finds that she can see the spirits of the dead awaiting reincarnation. As she becomes increasingly unstable, she starts to fear for the safety of her unborn child who may be under threat from the wife of her former lover.

Having nothing whatsoever to do with the original film, The Eye 2 has lots of good moments [the first appearance of the floating ghost during a delivery in an elevator, the unexpected arrival of the ghosts of a father and son who died after falling from a building, Joey's own attempts to leap from a hospital building in a last suicide attempt] but sadly not enough of them. It's not a patch on the original, lacking the pace and the inexorable build-up to a major pay-off finale and, worst of all, it's just not scary. It looks no different to any other of the higher end Asian horrors we've seen recently and we've come to expect a lot more than that from the Pang Brothers.

Ordinary is the word for The Eye 2 and frankly that's just not good enough after all of the amazing Asian horrors we've been exposed to of the last few years. It was a disappointing start to the fourth day and the first film of the weekend that I felt cheated by.

The next film was so much better however. One Point 0 was one of those films that turns up at Frightfests with no fanfare, little advance word and consequently absolutely no expectations. And in this case, it turned out to be one of the highlights of the weekend, a brilliant science fiction thriller full of unexpected twists and turns and dripping with paranoid tension.

Lonely computer engineer Simon J spends all his time in his grim apartment working on some mysterious code that he doesn't really understand. He starts to receive mysterious parcels, placed in his apartment and apparently empty. Trying to find out what's going on, he reluctantly makes contact with his strange neighbours and starts to suspect that someone's out to get him - but who, and why? The revelation is as exciting as it is unexpected, making One Point 0 another welcome addition to a recent glut of intelligent science fiction films that eschew CGI action in favour of well developed and intriguing ideas.

Claustrophobically directed by first-timers Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson, it bears traces of David Cronenberg and, like Code 46, the work of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson in it's dark and deeply paranoid exploration of the misuse of emerging technologies and the tricky nature of perceived reality. Excellent performances are the icing on the cake and its always a pleasure to see Udo Kier and Lance Henriksen doing their thing, even if it is supporting roles as small as these. It's a slow moving film, but there's nothing wrong with that - Renfroe and Thorsson, who also co-wrote the script, take their time developing the plot and the slow-burn leads to an effectively chilling and downbeat pay-off that more than rewards your patience.

A wonderful film that marks Renfroe and Thorsson as huge talents for the future, One Point 0 disappointed some Frightfesters but enthralled just as many. Definitely one of the highlights of the weekend so far - but make sure that you read as little about the plot as possible before seeing it!

Previous Frightfests had acted as the launch platforom for the first two instalments in a serial killer trilogy from Britain's Tartan Films, Chuck Parello's Ed Gein [2000] and Matthew Bright's Ted Bundy [2002], both of which I'd disliked immensely. So I wasn't really looking forward to the final part of the trilogy, The Hillside Strangler [2004], screening here in its uncut form and introduced by producer and Tartan main man Hamish McAlpine.

Again directed by Parello, this account of the activities of Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, a pair of rapist killers who stalked Hollywood in the late 70s, was sold to as being deeply shocking but anyone who grew up watching 70s exploitation will find nothing new here. As with the previous films in the series, it's a dull, blandly directed effort which, apart from the violence, could well have been made for TV. Performances are passable but, like the previous films, you never get the feeling that you've learnt anything new about these killers or why they were doing what they did - which begs the question, why bother making the film at all? None of the Tartan serial killer films seem to take a point of view on their subject and, while trying to remain objective and non-judgmental might seem a good idea in theory, in practice it results in a film that's uninvolving and pointless. Done right - as in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer [1986], still the yardstick by which this sort of thing is measured - it can be fantastic, but here, it’s just irritating.

The Hillside Strangler is certain to offend some with its unflinching portrayal of Bianchi and Buono's depravations, but the more hardened will simply find it dull. It distorts the facts, fails in McAlpine's stated aims to portray the killers in an unsymapethic light [like the previous films, which McAlpine admits got him into some trouble, it seems to invite identification with one of its killers, Bianchi] and ends so abruptly that one can't help wonder if the producers simply gave up on it. I can't say I was disappointed as I wasn't expecting much, but this was certainly one of the lowlights of the weekend.

Next up came Casshern, one of the films I was most looking forward to all weekend. Much has been written in recent years on Japanese horror, but the equally impressive and prolific science fiction genre hasn't fared quite so well in the West. Sure, we get the Godzilla movies, loads of anime and the bastardized Hollywood remixes of costumed superhero shows, but we rarely get to see the more ambitious live-action SF movies that proliferate every year.

So Casshern was hotly anticipated - and it didn't disappoint. Despite the epic 141 minute running time. this was a hyper-paced crowd pleaser, brimming over with more ideas, visual poetry and massive scale action than a whole years worth of western SF movies. The plot is busy and full of incident: in the aftermath of a devastating war, the Earth is dying. Scientist Dr Azuma develops a technique to allow human bodies to regenerate using "neo-cells," though deeply suspicious political leaders are reluctant to support his plan. Instead, he gets funding from a shadowy military faction. But an accident at his lab creates a group of mutant humans, reborn from the severed limbs of fallen warriors, who dub themselves neo-sapiens and determine to destroy the human race. The only thing that stands between them and the fall of Mankind is Azuma's son, Tetsuya. Killed in the war, Tetsuya is revived as the super-warrior Casshern and takes on the neo-sapiens and their robot army...

Mere words can't convey the mind-boggling complexities of Casshern - in his introduction, Alan Jones suggested that we don't worry too much about the plot [it's been condensed down from the 48 episode TV show Shinzô ningen Kyashân [1973]] and simply revel in the film's look, promising us a visual experience unlike anything else we'd ever seen. And he wasn't wrong! From its opening scenes with their towering, jaw-dropping set design, through the kinetic, bewildering battle scenes [one particularly brutal and breathless Casshern / robot army smackdown drew an appreciative round of applause from an enthralled audience] to the pastoral epilogue, this film simply oozes style and visual invention from every frame. It makes something of a mockery of my claim from a couple of days ago that CGI was becoming passé - when it's as good as this, it still has the power to impress and amaze.

With such visual overload, acting almost doesn't get a look in, though everyone acquits themselves well enough, The music perfectly complements the visuals, full of bombastic fanfares, grinding guitars and pounding rhythms. But this is a designer's film and the grandeur of the sets and old-school anime mecha designs are a joy to behold - the outrageous flying machines often recall the Heath Robinsonesque work of anime god Hayao Miyazaki. Former music promo director Kazuaki Kiriya [making his feature debut here] marshals his design, editing and effects teams perfectly, even throwing in a few traditional anime snippets as a nod to the story's roots while gleefully laying waste to entire cities in the kinds of nuclear obliteration rarely seen outside anime.

Bold, brash and quite brilliant, if there's any justice Casshern should do for Japanese SF what Ringu [1998] did for J-horror, with only its extraordinary length and - to Western eyes - unconventional story-telling alienating the multiplex crowds. Casshern is slowly infiltrating Western markets in this newly minted subtitled version, making its debut at Frighfest - make sure you catch it as soon as possible.

Finally, the main event came to a close with another hotly tipped entry, The Machinist. Director Brad Anderson's last film had been the excellent, creepy ghost story Session 9 [2001] and much had been made of the extraordinary lengths that Christian bale had gone to to lose weight for his role, so my interest had been piqued as soon as the film had been announced as Frightfest 2004's closing film. The first shock in this brilliant tale of amnesia, paranoia and guilt is indeed Bale's astonishing appearance - his skeletal frame and haunted, sunken eyes rob him completely of the good looks that had prompted many to tip him as the next James Bond, and it's a queasy, upsetting sight.

Bale plays Trevor Reznik, a Los Angeles blue collar worker who hasn't slept for a year. Distracted by a sinister newcomer, Ivan at the grimy plant he works in, Reznik causes an accident which leads to one of his colleagues, Miller, having his arm amputated. Haunted by strange notes that appear in his apartment, obsessed with the mysterious Ivan who seems to be following him and torn between a hooker he frequents and the waitress he visits every night at an airport coffee bar, Reznik finds his life falling apart as repressed memories start to resurface with terrifying consequences.

The big twist bears more than a passing resemblance to that in another film that became a cult favourite a few years ago [to name it would be to ruin the surprise here, but once you've seen it you'll know what I mean - if you really want to know what it is, click here] but there are still enough fiendish twists, directorial flourishes and outstanding performances to make Anderson's film distinctive. Bale steals the show in a tour-de-force performance that must rate as one of the best of his career so far. He runs the whole gamut of emotions from fear to anguish to guilt in a performance worthy of the highest praise and any awards that might be passing - I've been a fan of Bales' since his amazing turn in Spielberg's Empire of the Sun [1987] at the age of just thirteen but this beats everything he's done to date.

Anderson fills out the supporting cast with some familiar faces - John Sharian [seen as Antonio in Romasanta], Jennifer Jason Leigh as hooker-with-a-heart Stevie, Michael Ironside as the hapless Miller and, in an extended cameo, Brithorror fave Anna Massey as Reznik's landlady. But the real star of the show is scriptwriter Scott Kosar whose complex plot is a lot more satisfying than the script he wrote for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, one which keeps you guessing at all turns, keeping his cards close to his chest until the big reveal. His vision is brought to life perfectly by Anderson who proves that Session 9 was no fluke - his dark and moody mise en scene is the perfect representation of the darkness in Reznik's mind, and his clever use of Barcelona settings never once fails to convince you that you're actually almost 6000 miles away in Los Angeles, a quite remarkable achievement.

Anderson was on hand afterwards for a lively and informative Q&A and then... that was it, it was all over for another year. My personal favourite Frightfest will probably always be the 2002 event - although we had to endure the likes of Nine Lives [it pains me even to think about how awful that one was], Halloween Resurrection, Swimfan and Ted Bundy, we also had such gems as Donnie Darko, Frailty, Honogurai mizu no soko kara / Dark Water, My Little Eye, Spider, Katakuri-ke no kôfuku / Happiness of the Katakuris and Jian gui / The Eye. But in terms of sheer consistency, 2004 will be hard to beat. I usually close these overviews with a listing of the good, the bad and the indifferent, but this year that seems pointless - only The Hillside Strangler and Amor Só de Mãe were truly bad and The Eye 2 disappoints only by comparison to its predecessor and the other Asian horrors we've seen lately. Otherwise, this was an outstanding line up and it's hard to know how they'll top this next year.

So instead, a few random observations: in almost every respect, Frightfest 2004 was a quantum leap forwards from previous shows. The newly revamped programme / brochure was their best yet; the goodie bag given away to the weekend pass holders surprised everyone, stuffed as it was full of t-shirts, the Bizarre magazine Frightfest tie-in, lots of bits and pieces, a horror trailer DVD and, astonishingly, the newly released Wes Craven Collection DVD box set, courtesy of Anchor Bay UK [thanks guys!]; the line-up of guests was amazing, particularly the outstanding Hellboy panel which for many people will be the highlight of the weekend. There was just so much that was right about this year's show that one's in danger of simply gushing. But it really was an excellent weekend and all praise to organisers Alan Jones, Paul McEvoy and Ian rattray for getting it all together.

And that was it - Frightfest 2004 was all over.

Except for...

FRIGHTFEST EXTRA

Like a good DVD release, this year's Frightfest came with its own extra, one last film on the Tuesday night that they hadn't managed to get into the main line-up but which they really wanted us to see anyway. And as it was the latest in the current wave of Brithorrors, Christopher Smith's Creep, I certainly couldn't turn it down.

Despite the rigours of a long and tiring weekend, there was a good turn out for what proved to be a fantastic, energetic debut from Smith that recalls Death Line [1972] but which took its own path into darker, nastier territories. Franka Potente stars as a young woman, Kate, who finds herself stranded on Charing Cross tube station one night after a chance to meet and try to pull George Clooney goes horribly wrong. Attempted sexual assault from a drugged-up work colleague is just the beginning of Kate's problems as she and a handful of London's marginal night people [a pair of homeless junkies crashing in a disused access tunnel, an uptight security guard, a captured sewer worker] fall foul of the Creep, the shrieking mutant product of unstated medical experiments, trapped for years in a secret, long-walled-up bunker - and now he's loose and on the rampage.

Though it takes a bit of a leap in these security conscious times to accept that someone could find themselves locked in over night in a London tube station [as many Londoners will tell you, getting into the stations is often much harder than getting out!], Creep is still a great debut for Smith. He wisely doesn't get too bogged down trying to explain the lab and what went on there, dropping just enough clues to let us piece it all together for ourselves. He makes great use of the Underground setting, perfectly capturing the grimy claustrophobia of tube travel in London while adding a powerfully spooky edge with the truly appalling look and actions of the Creep. There's a magnificently squirmy torture scenes, a nasty piece of business with a broken fingernail, far too many rats for a rodent phobic like me to be truly comfortable with and a fast and furious pace that never lets up. The hilarious final shot manages to capture the downside of London life brilliantly.

Smith and Potente were on hand to answer questions from an appreciative audience who seemed to love the film, and it was one of the best Q&As I've ever seen. Smith is hilarious, self-deprecating and honest about both himself and his film, quickly admitting to the obvious influences [the tube scene from An American Werewolf in London [1981] and the aforementioned Death Line - Alan Jones jokingly warned us against saying "Mind the doors!"] before explaining more about how the film was made, dropping a few hints about his next project, a psychological horror set on a boat, and bantering endlessly with Potente. She entered into the spirit of the thing with stories about dying rats and misbehaving dogs and they both seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves.

All-in-all Creep was the perfect epilogue to Frightfest 2004 - instead of opening with a crap British film, the ended with a great one, proof positive that Brithorror is still alive and well!
KEVIN LYONS

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