FrightFest 2005 - Day One

A new location. Extended running hours. And a genuine, honest-to-God living legend in attendance. Welcome to FrightFest 2005!

After five happy years at the Prince Charles Cinema, this year FrightFest relocated into Leicester Square itself giving it, as co-organiser Alan Jones pointed out, the feeling of a proper film festival. To be honest, I had some concerns about the move - the intimacy of the Prince Charles had added to the atmosphere in previous years and the move into a bigger, slicker venue seemed somehow wrong. Yet right from the off the move into the Odeon West End turned out to be a fantastic decision - excellent sound and picture quality, a huge stage for the guests [a bit of a pain for people in the front row though I should imagine] and a lot more space for the organisers, guests and fans to mingle in. If we could only do away with the incessant bag checking and get them to turn the lights on during the Q&As it would be perfect...

Day One of the 2005 event was turned over almost exclusively to George A. Romero to celebrate the arrival of his first zombie movie in two decades. On arrival, co-organiser Ian Rattray quickly urged me to get into the auditorium for a surprise - several Greg Nicotero made-up zombies roaming around looking suitably nasty!

The bulk of the first day was taken up with retrospective screenings of the first three of Romero's Dead films, all projected from DVD. Alan got the ball rolling with a quick introduction during which he was attacked by one of the zombies ["Just what I've always wanted!" he cried as the zombie closed in for the kill] and it was into a slightly fuzzy projection of the classic Night of the Living Dead [1968].

We all knew it off by heart of course, but that didn't stop it being greeted by thunderous applause and, even if the image was rather soft, it was wonderful to see what some of still hold to be the single most important genre film of the latter half of the 20th century on the big screen.

After far too short a break came Dawn of the Dead [1978] looking much sharper and inevitably greeted with near hysteria in some quarters. I still maintain that it's a vastly over-rated film [it's still too flabby and that mid-section is torturous...] but it was great to see it on the big screen for the first time since I last caught it on a one-week run at a local flea-pit on the Isle of Wight back in 1980 - supported by, of all things, The Great British Striptease [1980] starring Bernard Manning and some very ropey looking strippers...

Another way-too-short interval [thankfully we got better breaks later in the day] followed before a beautiful screening [apparently from the excellent Anchor Bay Region 1 disc] of Day of the Dead, still, for me, the best of the series. The gorgeous presentation made this even more of an experience and there seemed to be even more people in attendance for this one than for the previous two films - not bad for a film which had been so roundly slated twenty years ago!

The film was followed by the first highlight of the day - and indeed one of the best things I've ever seen at any FrightFest - a lengthy talk and presentation by legendary special effects make up wizard Gregory Nicotero. An affable and energised motormouth, Nicotero hit the stage running and kept the crowd suitably entertained for at least half an hour as he shot through virtually his entire career in make up, tossing out some brutally honest assessments along the way, especially when he rightly pronounced Cursed [2004] as the piece of shit it is ["Sorry..." he muttered at one point].

Part of the presentation comprised an 18 minute show reel that the newly founded UK wing of Nicotero's company, KNB, sends out to prospective clients showing off some of their work. Sadly, because the tape was in NTSC format, it projected in black and white but it was worth it nonetheless. There were the to-be-expected clips from Evil Dead 2 [1987] and Army of Darkness [1993] as well as some tantalisingly brief shots from behind the scenes on Sin City [2005] and the forthcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe [2005]. But the best bits were undoubtedly the many test shots of gags from Land of the Dead, many of which were shot for the final film but which won't even be making the unrated DVD cut. Particularly impressive was the gag Nicotero seemed [justifiably] the most proud of, a spectacular new technique that allowed him and his team to film multiple zombie bites in the same shot - hard to explain but incredible on screen and rightly greeted with rapturous applause for an appreciative crowd. Given that this reel will never be released on DVD, those in attendance at FrightFest would be the only members of the general public to ever see this unique and fascinating footage.

Nicotero ended his slot by pulling out three of the prosthetic zombie heads from Land of the Dead and very generously [and trustingly!] handing them round for the audience to play with! Already something of a legend in fan circles, Nicotero no doubt won some new fans and friends with his laid-back, enthusiastic manner and wealth of fantastic anecdotes.

We finally got that longer break we all so desperately needed and everyone wandered off, zombies in slow-motion pursuit, for food and drink before reconvening for the big film of the day. Alan introduced it as the start of FrightFest proper before bringing on stage what he hailed as a "living dead legend", the very wonderful George A. Romero. The reception was, predictably, ecstatic and Romero seemed genuinely moved by it. He was on stage for a only a few minutes to say a few words about the film, and then we were into Land of the Dead, the long awaited and much delayed fourth entry in the Dead sequence.

During the summer of 2005, the Internet seemed abuzz with negative word on Land and I really wasn't sure what I was going to make of it - he may have made The Crazies [1973], Martin [1977] and the Dead trilogy but his recent record hasn't been great. In fact, since 1993's so-so The Dark Half, he's only managed to direct one film, the frankly terrible Bruiser [2000].

It's particularly pleasing then to report that the Net has got it wrong again and that the grand old master is well and truly back on form. Land of the Dead may be louder, faster, shallower and more superficial than the previous Dead films but it's a damn fine effort in its own right. Forsaking the relentless bleakness of Day of the Dead - it feels more comfortable to imagine the events of Land taking place some time between Dawn and Day - Land imagines a post-zombie world where the surviving humans have sealed themselves into a heavily fortified city while the zombies, variously known as 'stenches' or 'walkers' are left to fend for themselves in the countryside. But all is not well in the human city as the wealthy elite barricade themselves into the luxury tower block Fiddler's Green and the poor forage for what they can in the streets below, constantly facing the threat of imminent zombie attack. Meanwhile, out in the surrounding countryside, the stenches are evolving and under the leadership of one particularly clever specimen, a zombie army is marching on the city...

Early drafts of the Land of the Dead script - then titled Dead Reckoning - didn't really strike me as being all that inspiring; the central conceit of a huge, zombie killing battletruck seemed too reminiscent of... well, the dreadful Battletruck / Warlords of the 21st Century [1982]. But Romero has done a fantastic job in transferring a rather suspect idea to the screen in some style - the emphasis is much more on action here than it ever was in the earlier Dead films and Romero proves himself as adept at the big set-pieces as he is at the more metaphorical aspects of the film.

The post-apocalyptic society is well realised and Romero finally got to use some of the ideas that he'd had for Day but which had to remain unfilmed until now when that film fell foul of budget restrictions. The cast is excellent, particularly Simon Baker, Robert Joy and Asia Argento, but their thunder is well and truly stolen by an under-used but utterly brilliant Dennis Hopper [looking curiously like Christopher Lee from some angles] as the ruthless leader of the exclusive Fiddler's Green community.

The film certainly doesn't skimp on the violence - a fact not evident from the film's 15 certificate from the now more relaxed and lenient British Board of Film Censors - and some of the gags got hearty rounds of applause, none more so than the hilarious bit with the apparently headless priest. It's not nearly as blood-drenched as Dawn or Day but it still delivers the goods and the promised unrated DVD release should be a joy to behold.

Romero returned to the stage after the screening to a hero's welcome and he was remarkably candid and really rather charming during a Q&A session with Nicotero and the film's producer Mark Canton. Although some of the audience questions meandered a bit [as they disappointingly tend to do at FrightFest - there were plans afoot on the FrightFest forum to try to sabotage these kind of meanderings but it didn't seem to come to anything!] but Romero, Nicotero and Canton were great value as they gave their opinions on everything from Land of the Dead to Resident Evil [2002] to the scourge of remakes.

Having just seen Ji-woon Kim's Dalkomhan insaeng / A Bittersweet Life [2005] the night before, I decided to bail out of this one and instead repaired to a nearby pub to gatecrash a leaving party for someone leaving my day job and to catch up with the newest member of the EOFFTV family [hi Laura!] instead. A Bittersweet Life is a super stylish revenge thriller of the sort that the Koreans do so well - gangland hitman Sun-woo falls in love with girlfriend of his crimelord boss after he's assigned to keep tabs on her and find out if she's having an affair. When Sun-woo decides to let the woman's lover live, he sets in motion a chain of events that leads to some quite astonishing mayhem and bloodshed.

Dark, atmospheric and relentless, A Bittersweet Life is further proof that the South Koreans have raised the bar on action cinema and that the rest of the world is struggling to catch up. The noir-influenced photography gives the film an elegant sheen, the acting is first-rate throughout and if the pace sometimes flags, the set-pieces more than compensate. The first of the weekend's Asian offerings was a good choice though it's hard to gauge the reaction of the audience as I wasn't there to watch it with them.

After a quick chat with a clearly very tired but happy co-organiser Paul McEvoy [justifiably very pleased with the way the move to the new venue had gone] it was time for the last film of a very long day, a midnight screening of Jake West's Evil Aliens. I wasn't sure how I was going to get through it to be honest - I'm not a fan of his previous offering, the disappointing Razor Blade Smile [1998] and, by now feeling the debilitating effects of alcohol and tiredness, things were looking dicey to say the least.

The fact that I managed to stay awake and reasonably entertained throughout probably says it all, though to be honest I'm at a loss to explain why. Evil Aliens is as daft as they come, brimming over with low-brow humour and low-rent gross-out effects but it's something of a mess - there's no plot to speak of, just lots of people wandering about looking for an invasion force of Predator-like aliens. Playing like a British remake of Peter Jackson's Bad Taste [1987], it manages to keep the gags coming thick and fast and the blood flowing nicely, mostly distracting you from the fact that nothing much is actually happening. And it stars Emily Booth, something of a goddess around these parts, so that certainly helped no end.

West was on hand with most of his cast - though sadly Booth was in Thailand and couldn't be there as we'd thought she would be - to introduce the film and answer questions afterwards and the film was generally well greeted by a tired crowd of die-hards. It was certainly fun, though it did outstay its welcome and whether you'd ever want to watch it a second time is debatable - unless you’re as obsessed with Emily Booth as some of us are...

And so the first day of FrightFest 2005 came to an end - aptly named Dead Day, it was an epic of a day that saw the worn-out punters shuffling off into the night like extras from a Romero film and I'm sure that most of them, like me, would be well pleased with what they'd seen. Day two is dawning as I type [the most I can hope for tonight is three hours sleep!] and is already looking good - the latest from Dario Argento, a documentary on the 'video nasties', more Asian horror, Scottish werewolves and the return of Herschell Gordon Lewis' murderous rednecks. Let's just hope we can all stay the course!
KEVIN LYONS