FRIGHTFEST 2004 FESTIVAL REPORT
DAY THREE: SUNDAY 29 AUGUST

The third day of Frightfest 2004 kicked off with a screening of the latest offering from Dario Argento, Il cartaio / The Card Player. It's a film that has divided Argento's fans like few of his other films, many being alienated by the lack of on-screen violence, muted photography and hysterical, over-the-top finale. I loved it, finding it a major step forward from the wonderful Nonhosonno [2001] and proving that il maestro hasn't lost his touch just yet - in fact on this second viewing, it seemed even better.

Originally conceived as a sequel to La sindrome di Stendhal / The Stendhal Syndrome [1996] but changed when Argento fell out with daughter Asia, Il cartaio follows the efforts of Inspector Anna Mari [Stefania Rocca] and Irishman in Rome Inspector John Brennan [Liam Cunningham] to track down a serial killer who slaughters his victims after challenging the police to a game of video poker - if they win, his potential victim is freed; if they lose, he kills them.

Certainly it has its faults - the dialogue [much of it improvised by the cast, and boy does it show] is ridiculous and the Perils of Pauline style finale [complete with a ludicrous coda that had the audience in uproar] is Argento's most insane ever. But where it's good, it's very good indeed - the performances from Rocca and Cunningham are excellent, there's unbearable tension during the poker scenes [the police are forced to watch the victim via webcam while trying to concentrate on the game] and Claudio Simonetti's electronic score is excellent. Add to all this plenty of those floating Steadicam shots that we've come to expect from Argento, the obligatory black gloved killer and a squirm inducing examination, in hideous close-up, of every facial orifice of one victim on a mortuary slab and you've got a film that's a long way from Argento's glory days of the 70s, but which still has much to enjoy. It's certainly not his worst film, as Alan Jones claimed from the stage afterwards [he's even told Argento that!], being a lot more enjoyable than the drab Trauma [1993] and the unspeakable Il fantasma del opera [1998].

Continuing Frightfest's long tradition of showcasing the best in Asian horror, the next film was the bizarre Thai horror comedy Buppah Rahtree [2003] directed by Yuthlert Sippapak, director of Meu Beun Lok Pra Jun / Killer Tattoo [2001]. It begins as what seems to be a serious drama - shy student Buppah Rahtree is approached by the rich and spoilt Ake who seduces her and gets her pregnant. It turns out that Ake and his boorish friends had placed a bet that couldn't sleep with her and he abandons her to have an abortion alone, a procedure which ends up killing her when it goes wrong. The film then takes the bizarre turn for the comic when Buppah returns from the dead to torment the oddball inhabitants of the apartment block she's haunting while awaiting Ake's return.

Completely mad and often hysterically funny [the whole Exorcist sequence is wonderful], it's a cut above some of the Thai horrors we've seen lately, beautifully shot, well acted and full of glorious sight gags and in-joke references to other hits. The characters are what make the film work, though ironically the title character is perhaps the least convincing of them all - but there's plenty of serious oddballs propping up the supporting cast to make the film constantly watchable - Dave, the Downs Syndrome shop assistant; a pair of hideously obese cross-dressing hairdressers; a fake priest who dances wildly and makes noises like a chicken while running a scam with the apartment's landlady; the real priest and his assistant Damien who try to exorcise Buppah with constant references to William Friedkin's blockbuster; and the rude shop owner who dismisses a pretentious, ghost story hating wannabe scriptwriter and his sycophantic girlfriend with a succinct "Fuck off!"

"You won't have seen anything quite like Buppah Rahtree before" promised the brochure and they weren't far wrong. It's not going to be to everyone's tastes but anyone with am interest in the more bizarre strands of Asian horror out there could do a lot worse than to track down this wholly unique and utterly deranged offering, deservedly a massive hit in its native Thailand.

The inclusion of short films in the Frightfest programme had always been an important element of past weekends and this year, a decision was made to lump all of the shorts together as an international showcase, another innovation this year that proved popular. Seven films from seven directors [some of who were on hand to introduce their work] from seven countries, they were generally an excellent selection, though one of them did provide the first disappointment of the weekend.

Alexander Woo's Rex Steele Nazi Smasher [2004] is an animated spoof, riffing on the old Max Fleischer Superman cartoons and loaded with references to every pulp serial from the 30s. It's lightweight stuff but great fun. The Italian Xchange [2004], directed by Giovanni Pedde [who attended the festival] and Vittorio Testa was intended as a trailer for a longer work, one which now seems to have found a backer. A strange, haunting story about dreams being passed from one person to another like a virus, it's strange, stylish and compelling if ultimately rather slight. It bodes well for the feature version though which could be one to watch for.

Mexican Ezzio Avendano Lopez was on hand to introduce Otro ladrillo en la pared / Another Brick in the Wall, his hilarious, crowd-pleasing homage to George Romero zombie movies that culminates in the most amazing sequence of the massed undead [raised by the chant "suspiriorum, tenebrarum, infernium!"] dancing the Camarena! It's a wild and inventive short that had an appreciative audience screaming for more by the end credits - definitely the best of the bunch and a tragedy that were probably never going to see it ever again, such is the fate of most short films.

Tez Palmer, special effects technician on 28 Days Later... [2003], and former sound engineer Matt Johns were on hand to introduce their Brit short Who, a clever, twisty tale of a man who wakes in a desolate moor with no memory of who he is or how he got there and the terrible truth he uncovers as he backtracks his steps. Intended as a calling card for their production company, Pseudo Productions, it's a good sign of what we might have to come from the company who have been set up to produce new horrors.

Jaime Alonso de Linaje turned up to introduce the Spanish Êla guarida del ermitaño / In the Hermit's Lair [2003], a film he made at film school in which a man's jealousy manifests itself as a murderous monster. Defiantly old school in look and feel, it's another fine calling card for a director who may well prove himself capable of bigger things in the future.

It's black and white, it's stylish, it's about unfaithful lovers... it's got to be French. L'autre / The Other [2004] is a slight but very, very moody piece about a woman suspicious about her boyfriend's behaviour who follows him and finds that her worst suspicions were correct - he's got a lover, but it's not at all what she was expecting. This one didn't play quite as well as some of the others with the rest of the crowd but I thought it was excellent - atmospheric, creepy and oozing style.

The showcase ended with the Brazilian Amor Só de Mãe / Love from Mother Only from director Dennison Ramalho who gave me my first sense of disappointment so far this weekend. I've yet to see a Brazilian horror film that I've liked and this was no different - it'll come as no surprise to learn that Ramalho is working on the new Coffin Joe film as this muddled, pretentious mess looks and feels exactly like one of Jose Mojica Marin's much over-rated monstrosities. Filho [Everaldo Pontes] lives with his mother [Vera Barreto Leite] but lusts after Formosa [Debora Muniz], a local sexbomb who turns out to be a Satanic monster who wants him to murder his mother and cut out her heart to prove his love for her. Dull, confusing and oh so desperate to shock, Amor Só de Mãe was frankly unwatchable rubbish that brought an otherwise fabulous weekend back to earth with a bump.

Another regular fixture of previous Frightfests had been the Trailer Trash feature, a compilation of ageing trailers, adverts and other ephemera dredged up from the vaults of the Prince Charles cinema. This year, sadly, there wasn't going to be one, despite it being advertised - instead Ian Rattray presented us with a ten minute extract from Alien vs. Predator [2004], still unreleased here in the UK. I can't say it made me any less cynical about the film, but it was much appreciated by the audience.

Things got a lot better with the next feature, Michael Winterbottom's excellent near-future love story Code 46 [2003]. In a future where genetic engineering has become commonplace, Code 46 is the international law regulating the natural birth of children to ensure that the parents aren't too closely genetically related. Travel is restricted by the terms of an individual's papele, a combination passport / ID card, some of which are being forged in a printing plant in Shanghai. Married family man William [Tim Robbins] is sent to investigate but finds himself falling in love with his chief suspect Maria [Samantha Morton] with disastrous results.

Wearing his influences proudly on his sleeve [Code 46 bears all the hallmarks of both Philip K. Dick and William Gibson], Winterbottom has created one of the best science fiction movies in years - beautifully shot, brilliantly acted [Robbins and Morton are outstanding] and shot through with so many inventive ideas, it's going to be looked back on in years to come as being right up there with other classic near future thrillers like Blade Runner [1982] and Gattaca [1997], mark my words.

Winterbottom cleverly conveys the future setting in the most economic ways imaginable - the technology is disarmingly simple but effective, the exotic locals of Shanghai and Jebel Ali give the film its otherworldly ambience and the copious use of loan words from a dozen different languages suggest that language has evolved. All great background texture, the likes of which is all too often overlooked in lesser genre movies, all adding immeasurably to the believable background against which Winterbottom sets out his genuinely moving love story.

It's probably best to know as little as possible about Code 46 before you see it so as to get the full effect of this remarkable film. It again divided the Frightfest crowd but trust me, this is going to be seen as a classic one day - get in now before everyone else discovers it!

"Delicatessen meets Deliverance" was how Alan Jones described Fabrice du Welz Calvaire / The Ordeal [2004], the bonkers tale of a young cabaret singer, Marc [Laurent Lucas] who finds himself stranded at a remote inn as Christmas approaches and at the mercy of both the mad innkeeper [who thinks Marc is his wife Gloria who left him years ago], the mad village idiot [who things he's his missing dog Bella] and the inbred morons from the nearby village [who just want to gang rape him].

Shot through with a vicious streak of black humour, Calvaire flip flops backwards and forwards between full-on humour and confrontational shock scenes, all cannily directed by du Welz and brilliantly photographed by Irreversible [2002] lensman Benoit Debie, who also shot Argento's Il cartaio. The village dance scene is utterly hilarious, one of the funniest things we've seen all weekend and all the talk outside afterwards was of this truly inspired moment of madness. There were some Frightfesters who compared Calvaire to the appalling Dust [2001], the film that prompted the mass walkouts at the 2001 event [come on guys, nothing's that bad!] which seems a little harsh!

Day three came to a close with the third and latest in the Ginger Snaps series, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, an interesting and very enjoyable take on the franchise that takes the story back in time to a remote fortress outpost in 19th century Canada besieged by werewolves. As their numbers dwindle and racial tensions run high, the troops inside find themselves sheltering sisters Ginger and Brigitte [Katherine Isabelle and Emily Perkins] who have been orphaned and stranded in the snowy wilderness.

Although it's little more than a minor variation on the first film, Ginger Snaps Back still has much to offer - the unusual setting is well realised, the acting is excellent and the werewolf attacks are well staged. If there are faults, they are that the film isn't really as creepy as it could have been and that the script insists on giving the two lead actresses dialogue and attitudes that doesn't seem terribly 19th century. It dispenses too with much of the black humour that informed the first film, but the gloomy, oppressive atmosphere adds a darker edge to the proceedings that works very well.

The film was introduced by director Grant Harvey, producer Paula Devonshire and original film director John Fawcett who spilt a few beans about his new film, currently shooting in Wales. He didn't give too much away but did seem very proud of his sheep actors and plugged the mysterious promotional website, the intriguingly named whatisannwyn.com. He also revealed that next year the UK would get an exclusive, limited edition Ginger Snaps DVD box set containing all three of the films along with plnty of extras.

So there it was, another excellent day in what was shaping up to be the best Frightfest so far. The day again emphasised the variety of films on offer and although not everything on show was to everyone's tastes, there was guaranteed to be something for just about everyone. Will the fourth and final day live up to this? We'll see...
KEVIN LYONS