Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Took a few days off to celebrate our little milestone and get a few side projects done. Made the mistake of cracking open a new bottle of absinthe. It's been nearly 48 hours of wrestling with the little green devils now, and I can't guarantee how many of tonight's stories I'll be able to put together.
We've had a number of reports land in our inbox here at AICN regarding England's FrightFest 2001, and I thought I'd share a sampling of them with you, to give you a couple of perpectives on what went on. There's all sorts of tidbits in these reports, so dig in. First up is a whopper of a report from a guy who calls himself Horseflesh:
Frightfest 2001 at Prince Charles Theatre London
Includes reviews of Battle Royale, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Devil's Backbone, The Bunker, Revelation, and Jeepers Creepers
DAY ONE
Ticket screw up. We’re right on the back row. Almost in the projectors booth. I’m still sulking when I see THE BUNKER.
A creditable “Val Lewtenesque” take on THE KEEP, with a group of German soldiers in retreat in 1944 taking refuge in a haunted fortification. Unfortunately it needs a director with the skills of a Cameron, a Carpenter or Walter Hill to make you like the cast in the first place. This didn’t happen with me and combined with minimal menace and a confused ending I’d have to class THE BUNKER as a failure – though many others enjoyed it (and in comparison to some of British efforts seen later in the weekend it really isn’t that bad).
Next up was the world premier for REVELATION. This apparently big budget occult thriller is the first movie since 1974 from Romulus Films, the brit film company that brought you the AFRICAN QUEEN and OLIVER. This heritage might explain the string for bizarre cameos in the movie from the likes of Ron Moody, Terence Stamp and others but not a plot that tends to ramble and ultimately ends unfinished. The central mystery may make the movie for you if not guessed in the first ten minutes but a hilarious Udo Kier turn as the bad guy and some cluncky dialog may well have ruined it anyway by the end.
So – two duds so far and both homegrown. Oh well. Thankfully, and not for the last time this weekend, Johnny Foreigner was there with a great movie when we needed him and KISS OF THE DRAGON did not disappoint as a Luc Besson or Jet Li movie. Included rather desperately for its graphic climax this Paris set remake of LEON (aka THE PROFFESSIONAL) benefits as much by a great performance by Bridget Fonda as it does from any of the action scenes. She really reminded me of her mothers performance in KLUTE – an engaging mix of bravery, vulnerability and cool.
2.00am - KISS OF THE DRAGON was so good that when we missed the last train out of London and had to pay a huge amount for a taxi fare it didn’t seem so bad. Was slightly surprised Railtrack didn’t even provide a timetable outside their shut stations but then this is a company whose attitude to customers has led them be considered for prosecution for corporate manslaughter. Not the first reminder of real horror this weekend as we’ll see…..
DAY TWO
We’ve driven in. So much for public transport.
CUBBYHOUSE. Australian haunted house movie that begins in a light easy tone reminiscent of HOUSE but gets too serious by the end. Good characterization makes it watchable if juvenile. Should have been a soap ?
Next is the nicest surprise of the whole festival – SLEEPLESS is the best Dario Argento movie since OPERA. AS always it takes a while to adjust to the mad Italians plot eccentricities but the murder mystery here is genuinely intriguing and real hark back to his early more Hitchcock type thillers. Expected it to be awful and was very pleasantly surprised. Possibly helped by the short, SISTER LULU, before it which was my favorite five minutes of the weekend.
SCARY MOVIE 2. Not seen the first so can’t really compare but the Exorcist parody at the beginning with James Woods in the Von Sydow role definitely worth catching. Whole audience roared. Rest really relied too much on disabled humor for my PC sensibilities...
By now we’d made friends with the fan sitting to my left. Seemed like a nice bloke...
DEVILS BACKBONE. We were read a statement from Guillermo del Toro at the start to say that he was “pissed off” to be missing the festival (specifically BROTHERHOOD OF WOLVES as its director did the camerawork on MIMIC apparently) and that he hoped the melding of essentially Anglo-Saxon M.R. James type ghost stories with a Spanish Civil War setting would go down well with this crowd.
(So Guillermo’s a diplomat as well as a great movie director – but with the venue this close to London’s Chinatown and showing Jet Li movies, BATTTLE ROYALE and THE ISLE there were far more easterners here than he might have expected…..)
So DEVILS BACKBONE... I didn’t think the melding he described worked that well as a ghost story – you see too much of the ghost for one thing but it’s a great great movie anyway, an absolutely gripping supernatural tragedy painted in a doomed melancholic amber. Forget THE BUNKER this is a close to Val Lewtons ISLE OF THE DEAD as you’re likely to see in a modern movie.
Had to miss the first British cinema showing of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 as Europe’s largest city can’t run a competent train service. Just as well it’s earlier finishes for the movies from here on in……..
DAY 3
Wanna hear a real horror story ?
We get there early and chat about previous movies. Nice fan sitting to my left asks me where I live and then asks me if there are any blacks there?
Turns out he’s a member of the National Front (now unfashionable British racists). He sees my look of surprise.
“Is that a problem ?”
“Well I used to contribute to the Anti-Nazi League” (now unfashionable anti-fascists).
We laugh cheerily and as our stiff uppers cope with this, and the fact that we have another two days to sit next to each other, this heralds the start of by far the best British horror movie (I saw) all weekend – CRADLE OF FEAR.
CRADLE OF FEAR is promoted as, as in reality only should be, an extended video shot promo for the metal band Cradle of Filth. I could drag up excuses that BUNKER and REVELATION were trying to be too ambitious and in going for subtlety got boredom and pretension but the reality is CRADLE OF FEAR is directed, shot, acted and scripted better than either of them. If Alex Chandon and co can bear to take themselves seriously they will really be worth watching. A “tribute” to Amicus omnibus horror movies of the 60’s & 70s CRADLE OF FEAR actually looks a lot like a central short film concerning the dangers of the internet surrounded by a ghoulish back story and filled out with more graphic + silly tales starring Cradle of Filth’s lead singer. Competently done cheap sensationalism set in an familiar gothic setting. It was a Hammer movie by any other name and got a very enthusiastic round of applause as the credits flashed.
(Still disturbed by the National Front man next to me I relate the encounter to a barman downstairs who claims another punter really liked CUBBYHOUSE because lots of Australians get killed !)
A passable if confused episode from the new URBAN GOTHIC TV series followed. Since my region has never been able to get Channel 5 I wouldn’t want to comment either way.
Just to bring us back to earth - DUST. The team that brought you the amusing video shot 13TH SIGN from last year decide to remake STRAW DOGS a la Guy Richie. And actually create the horror version of Zappa’s 200 MOTELS. Profoundly irritating and incomprehensible rather than shocking. Those wanting a chuckle at the British film industry might find it amusing.
Some good 100 second shorts preceded BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF. Notably Kim (writer of Anno Dracula) Newmans MISSING GIRL and Ilabeka’s LAST TAXI.
And so onto BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF.. Ultimately more costume adventure than horror movie that still has good scares, epic scope, great plot & characters and stunning locations. For many the movie of the weekend it made me think of the Hammer movies like THE REPTILE AND PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES that dealt with the “sins of Empire”. BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF starts as just a simple monster hunt and goes onto manage political sophistication with great action and some wonderful eye candy courtesy of director Christophe (CRYING FREEMAN) Gans.
Amid fevered expectation in the suddenly packed cinema we finally get to BATTLE ROYALE. I had seen Takeshi Kitano’s BROTHER the week before to prepare myself for this but was surprised how quickly the awesome almost Paul Verhoeven opening, (containing an expression on the face of a 12 year old that is THE scariest image of the festival) becomes a sentimental, if gripping, teen movie. A hugely violent teen movie – but still teens and their anxieties very much on show. Hugely entertaining, I can see a US remake with De Niro as the teacher within two years…
So end of Day 3 and the score is:
REST OF THE WORLD (Italy, Spain, Francex2, Japan) :5
UK : 1 (Cradle of Filth The Movie)
DAY 4
We miss ALONE, another cheapo brit horror– on purpose. We were looking for Anthony (Stalingrad) Beevors history book on the Spanish Civil War. We find later that ALONE is really pretty good and for missing this I partly blame DEVILS BACKBONE but mostly DUST – which I will draw no further attention to beyond this point.
Compounding my sense of injustice my compadre has begun chatting to the cute blonde sitting on his right who is even more irritatingly from my part of the world. Still – I have NF guy who is still disturbingly friendly pleasant and normal.
Despite this, and horrible warnings, I like THE ISLE. This Korean entry is not so much horror as arty melodrama with some very nasty self mutilation. Quite watchable and funny though until the end – and beautifully shot. I still think they should have defected to the North. More real horror to ponder.
Another arty horror, TROUBLE EVERY DAY, is so arty that the director withdraws it from the festival at the last moment, leaving us with GINGER SNAPS instead.
I was disappointed. Moody atmospheric build-up in a suburban Toronto hell (you have them across the pond too !) bogs down when the firecracker female lead turns into a too-often glimpsed plastic werewolf and the rest of the great cast have little then t do but run around and scream. Pretty realistic take on Buffy up until then though.
The “20 minutes of footage from Resident Evil” looked more like out takes from a Making of documentary and hopefully don’t do the film justice. I know Paul Anderson has his detractors but I’m a believer that SHOPPING is a highly underrated movie caught in car crime hysteria on release and the news from his speech that he’s trying to get DEATH RACE 3000 off the ground (with Tom Cruise and a returning Sly Stallone ?? Is he kidding ?) fills me with expectation. A directors cut of EVENT HORIZON with an extra 20 mins of hell sounds good too.
So the last movie…
Having the country that brought you Hammer and Amicus embarrased by film makers from Canada, France, Spain, Japan, Italy and even Korea its left to the good old US to administer the coup de grace with JEEPERS CREEPERS. Again this tails off with too much of the bad guy on screen but the first half an hour has to be the scariest celluloid since CANDYMAN. No wonder Clive Barker likes it so much.
No wonder he moved abroad…
And so ended Frightfest. I said farewell to my new National Front pal with a “see you next year”, happy with the knowledge that we had kept our politics out of two days of film watching.
But should I?
Sammy Jenkis remembered to send us this report:
Harry
Went to the UK premiere of Jeepers Creepers last night as part of the London Fright Fest. I'm sorry, but it didn't strike a chord with me. I really wanted to love this, as I do most horror films, but this just bored me.........and as for the ending......excuse me? Where did that come from? How is that an ending? Has no one heard of dramatic tension? It had me at the start, and then I was left to pick at the Texas-sized plot holes. But, then again, everyone else seems to love it, so I'm probably just plain old wrong.
ANYWAY, that's not the reason for the message. Paul (the un-talented namesake) Anderson was there, with some behind the scenes footage from Resident Evil: Ground Zero. He seemed quite cool and funny. He also dissed Tomb Raider, The Mummy Returns and The Haunting Remake, so he's alright by me. He was moaning about CGI in films, and how it's not scary, so they're using minimal amounts in RE (although I seem to remember Simon 'Shoot me in the face' West saying the same thing about Tomb Raider). He also said that there's lots of blood and gore (as much as they can get away with for an 'R' rating). He also claimed that, even though it's only in its first cut currently, it's 'fucking scary'.
Can't think of anything else he had to say....oh no, I can: he said that next it looks like he's on to do the DeathRace 3000 remake, still with Tom Cruise, and he's trying to get Stallone to take exactly the same role as he had in the original. Not heard any news on this for an age, so thought you'd like an update.
Hope some of this is useful..
I can't remember my name, so you'd better write what's written here in front of me: 'Sammy Jenkis'. Apparently.
And Mallrat contributed this excellent report:
Hi there Harry,
Just recovering from the excellent Frightfest 2001 held in London over the weekend. I shall attempt to cover the event in some detail at a later hour, but for now here's a taster with all the lowdown on Resident Evil: Ground Zero...
Paul Anderson flew in from Munich to talk about his latest project and answer our questions. But first up we got to see a specially prepared promo reel, allegedly the first time that any footage has been screened to the public worldwide. The footage ran for about 5 minutes and was predominantly a sharply edited "behind the scenes" look at the movie, but it did give us plenty of time to see some of the characters involved, including those portrayed by Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, James Purefoy, Eric Mabius and Colin Salmon. The characters are all cloaked in black, seemingly all equipped with big guns, and the overall impression to me was that Paul Anderson has been heavily influenced by Jim Cameron's "Aliens" on this one. Lots of lurking around in dimly lit corridors... a couple of explosions... and a few brief flashes of The Undead. The train from the second game is one location used, a favourite of Paul's apparently. On one occasion we saw Michelle's character sporting a fetching bite mark on her neck. There was also a scene of a burning individual trying to crawl away from some advancing zombies. Its difficult to form much of an opinion at this early stage, but I think its fair to say that this movie could certainly have potential.
After the promo reel was shown the Q&A session was conducted by the incomparable Alan Jones, festival co-organiser. Paul Anderson was said to be nervous at facing his public, no doubt still smarting from the critical mauling of "Soldier", but he handled the audience confidently and in good humour. This was a guy who seemed happy with the film he was publicising. The 20 minutes or so of questioning revealed the following bits & pieces...
- Paul became involved with the project as he is a huge fan of the computer games. On finding that the movie was languishing in development hell after George Romero, George Sluzier and Jeffrey Wright had all failed to bring the movie to fruition, he submitted his own script about 18 months ago. Paul did not want to adapt the existing games, saying that it would make the movie completely devoid of suspense if you knew which characters were going to turn traitor or survive. Ground Zero takes place before the events of the first game.
- Paul has had free reign in developing the story and characters. Capcom have not been involved in any decision making, but have been kept in "the loop" and Paul assures us that the film will be faithful to the Resident Evil universe, utilising familiar character types from the games.
- Paul is aiming this movie directly at 17 year old American kids who have grown up with the Resident Evil games. He said that he wants to move on from the Romero zombie movies which he thinks have dated badly (a comment met with jeers from the balcony). Whilst he likes the Romero and Fulci movies, he said that most American teenagers are not going to be familiar with those movies, hence toning things down a little for this movie. He does however still promise plenty of gory scenes and lots of scares... we shall see. The movie should be R rated in the states and most likely an 18 certificate in the UK.
- Special FX are being handled by the same team who worked with Paul on "Event Horizon" and who handled the effects for Sam Neill's character. There will be some CGI shots and Paul went on the explain the need to use CGI on the heads of the dogs in the movie - not only to create horrific images (losing skin, eyeballs etc), but also it was impractical to use make-up effects as the dogs were so ferocious on set.
- Visual effects are being supervised by Richard Yuricich (also in the audience) who also worked on "Event Horizon" and lists "Bladerunner" and "2001" on his CV. Richard's first question to Paul when approached to create a visual effect for the movie was always "can we do this for real?" Hopefully this means we won't get too much of an effects laden movie.
- The people hired as zombies for the movie were sent to a special zombie boot camp for training on how to act correctly. Many performers from acts such as Circe de Soleil were hired as they were able to contort their bodies into unfeasible positions. There's also this one guy whose speciality is dislocating his own leg and shoulder!
- Paul is currently editing the movie, but there will be 3 days of reshoots next month. He joked that he will try and bring in Jason Isaacs for those few days so that he can kill him off in a nasty way as per all his previous films! No Sean Pertwee this time though.
- The budget on the movie is somewhere between $30 - $40 million.
- Resident Evil: Ground Zero will open stateside on April 5th, 2002.
- Paul said that he had been offered a glut of game adaptations and remakes after the success of "Mortal Kombat". Whilst he has no desire to remake a "classic" movie and "fuck it up" (his words), he did reveal that his next project will be a remake of Roger Corman's "Death Race 2000" entitled - no surprises - "Death Race 3000". This will supposedly star Tom Cruise and they are hoping to attract Sylvester Stallone in to reprise his role from the original movie.
- Paul also revealed plans for a special edition DVD of "Event Horizon". He plans to record a commentary track sometime next year and wants to restore deleted scenes into the film.
I'll be back with more news and views from the London Frightfest later, but for now this is Mallrat signing off.
Mallrat
Sounds like a great time was had by all, and we appreciate the reports.
"Moriarty" out.
