FRIGHTFEST 2001 FESTIVAL REPORT
DAY FOUR

The final day of the FrightFest dawns and there's certainly no let up in the quality of films on show - indeed if anything, the final nine hours of the festival promises to be among the strongest yet and look likely to make up for the disappointments of yesterday afternoon. When I arrived at the Prince Charles cinema, I was greeted by organiser Paul McEvoy who had something to add to some of my comments I made yesterday. It seems that the version of Cradle of Fear we saw was considerably longer than that seen by Paul when it was added to the programme, which explains why the timing of yesterday's events went to pieces early on. Paul also noted that on the basis of its screening at FrightFest, the film has been picked up for screenings at other festivals around the world.

More interestingly, the version of Dust that was shown here was also rather different to that seen by Paul in advance of the festival - apparently director Adam Mason spent the few days prior to the festival reworking the film and Paul seemed as surprised by what was eventually screened as everyone else. The bottom line is that I was a little harsh in criticizing the festivals alleged lack of quality control and I'm grateful to Paul for setting the record straight. It's still a dreadful film, but it's inclusion in the FrightFest programme seems somewhat more justified now and it would be interesting to see the film in the form that Paul saw it originally.

Thankfully, the foul taste left by Dust was washed away by the opening film of Day Four, Phil Claydon's excellent Alone - at last, a British film that measures up to the festival's opening film, The Bunker. Despite a few very vocal nay sayers in the balcony, the audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy this excellent, fast paced and beautifully shot thriller that boasts a cracking twist ending - anyone who says they saw that coming more than five minutes before it happened is lying! The film follows the unbalanced Alex who's obsessive-compulsive disorder leads to multiple murder and humiliation [including a wonderfully gross forced-feeding scene] that leaves viewers guessing until the very last second. The fact that the killer's identity is disguised by having all of Alex's scenes shot POV helps make the final scene all the more shocking and unexpected.

Claydon's debut marks him as a promising new talent [he mentioned a second horror film in development and I for one can't wait] and he won over a large section of the crowd by bravely offering to do a questions and answers session after the screening. Although he seemed a little nervous at first, he perked up quickly and even managed to deal with the dimwit who wanted to know what the point of the film was. In fact, I thought he was rather more diplomatic than this idiot deserved - come on, you've got a brain, use it, work it out for yourself! Obviously someone who was more used to being spoon-fed easily digestible Hollywood pap than provocative and challenging work like Alone.

The Isle arrived in the UK trailing much controversy behind it. Reports of festival goers around the world fainting, walking out and vomiting during screenings had raised expectations and Alan Jones' warning that the film was not for the squeamish had the crowd salivating! And certainly it's a shocking piece of work - what these people do to each other with fish-hooks beggars belief! Whether I actually enjoyed it or not I still can't work out, but it's certainly an interesting film and it's inclusion in the FrightFest programme was a brave and welcome decision.

Set in and around a remote lake, it follows a mysterious mute woman who tends the strange floating fisherman's cabins and who offers sexual services to the men who retreat there. She becomes involved with a tortured man who has murdered his unfaithful girlfriend and her new lover and fled to the lake to hide. Their relationship takes unhealthy turns when he tries to commit suicide by swallowing fish-hooks - in one of the most disturbing scenes of the weekend - and she makes love with him as he lies traumatised after she's saved his life.

The shocking, confrontational sexual violence [what the girl does to herself with those same fish-hooks had everyone, male and female alike, groaning in sympathetic agony!] seems all the more galvanising for being set against one of the most beautiful and idyllic settings ever seen on film. The ending - which strangely put me in mind of Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris - is obscure, enigmatic but haunting and although it didn't quite live up to the hype that preceded it, The Isle remains a powerful must-see experience. Not that any other British viewers will be seeing it [legally] for some time yet - Alan challenged us at the start of the film to work out which four scenes had been marked for removal by the BBFC, a decision that has prompted the film's distributors to change their minds about releasing the film in the UK.

The next film should have been Trouble Every Day, the controversial French shocker from Claire Denis but we'd already been told that for "legal reasons," the film had been withdrawn. Just prior to a screening of its replacement, the Canadian teen werewolf movie Ginger Snaps, Alan Jones again took to the stage and spilled the beans - apparently Denis had asked for the film to be withdrawn from the programme when she found out that it was a horror festival. Apparently, she took offense to her "serious" work being shown alongside genre movies [she was presumably unaware that it was being screened alongside The Isle, Battle Royal, Devil's Backbone, Brotherhood of the Wolf and other internationally acclaimed movies...] and refused to release a print to the festival organisers. The audience's disappointment quickly turned to bafflement and simmering resentment. How to win friends and influence people the Claire Denis way...

Luckily, we didn't need Ms. Denis' high-minded arrogance as we had Ginger Snaps to look forward to. I'd already seen this stunning movie [described by Alan Jones as the "second best horror film of the year"] and was looking forward to seeing it again. If anything, it was even better the second time round thanks to a stunning print and the Prince Charles' excellent sound system. The dreadful title and the inescapable fact that it seems - initially at least - to be a teen horror movie had turned some people off seeing it when it had its shamefully restricted theatrical release here in the UK earlier in the year and this was a rare opportunity for fans to catch up with this gem on the big screen. Having banged on about the film for months now, I was extremely gratified to see it going down so well with an appreciative audience.

Writer / director Paul Anderson, creator of some right old tat [Mortal Kombat, Soldier] but also the genuinely impressive and spooky Sky One TV movie The Sight, was on hand to present a showreel from his work in progress, the much anticipated Resident Evil: Ground Zero. The short promo - made specially for FrightFest - featured just enough mouth-watering footage to have most of the audience gagging for more and the news that we still had at least eight months to wait to see the finished product had us writhing in frustration! Anderson took to the stage after the reel - he'd flown in from the set in Munich just to attend the festival - and quickly won over the crowd by answering all questions with lots of good humour.

Jeepers Creepers was chosen as the festival closer and was Alan Jones' pick of the best horror of the year. And he's not far wrong. Although some of the shocks are a little predictable and mechanical, they undeniably work - I haven't jumped this many times during a film for years - and the clever plot never gives too much away and constantly surprises. Starting like a remake of Duel, it pits a young brother and sister against a hideous demon that steals and absorbs body parts from hapless passers-by. The meaning of the title becomes clear halfway through with the introduction of a psychic with dire warnings for our beleaguered heroes, and the ending, though predictable, still packs a considerable punch.

Quite unlike any other of this year's teen oriented horror films, Jeepers Creepers is by a surprisingly disturbing film [the scenes in the House of Pain are among the strongest in an American horror film for years] and apart from one aside about this being the moment in a horror film where characters do something stupid and everyone hates them, is refreshingly free of the now tired knowing attitude of the post-Scream slashers. Jeepers Creepers was the perfect closing film, a crowd-pleasing number that had everyone jumping and gasping right from the off and it sent the battle weary FrightFesters out into the muggy London night with satisfied smiles on their faces.

And that was that - another year done for the FrightFest crew who even at this late stage were outside busily working the crowd [thanks for the poster Ian!]. Overall, it has to be judged a huge success - the selection of films was eclectic and interesting enough to keep the weekend pass holders there for just about the whole programme [I missed just one film but spoke to several extremely happy punters who bravely managed the whole lot!]. There were more hits than misses as a quick summing up proves:

The Good: The Bunker [which seemed to get better as the weekend went on and I'm itching to see it again]; Kiss of the Dragon; Nonhosonno; The Devil's Backbone [easily the best film of the weekend - an instant classic if ever there was one!]; Brotherhood of the Wolf [giving The Devil's Backbone a good run for its money]; Battle Royale; Alone; The Isle; Ginger Snaps; Jeepers Creepers

The Bad: Revelation; Cradle of Fear; Dust [all British, sadly]

The Indifferent: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; Scary Movie 2 [surprisingly, it had a few good laughs at the beginning; unsurprisingly, it couldn't sustain it]

Not a bad batting average there I think! By the time it was all over, organisers Paul McEvoy, Alan Jones and Ian Rattray looked suitably exhausted but they can rest easy tonight knowing that their hard work had paid off in spades. They all knocked themselves out over the weekend and were always waiting outside the cinema as audiences trooped out, eager to hear what we'd all thought of the films, a nice personal touch that's been missing in a lot of festivals I've been to. Now they've got a year to recover before starting the whole thing all over again - well done guys and Paul, I'm sorry I kept spelling your name wrong!

One last thing - especially for Michael, here's that FrightFest brochure signed by Guillermo del Toro. The one that I won. And you didn't. Ha! [But you did get that Resident Evil baseball cap and I think I held my jealous rage nicely in check... until now...] [NOTE: there was a scan of the brochure here until images were removed due to other sites leeching our bandwidth!]

A big thanks to Steve, Pete, Kasia, Michael, Jon and Macer for their company throughout the weekend - see you all at Frightfest 2002!
KEVIN LYONS