A Fistful Of Reviews From SCREAMFEST LA!

Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. I wish I’d been able to make it to some of Screamfest LA this year. Rachel Belofsky and all the fine folks over there do great work, and it sounds like a heck of a line-up. Unfortunately, like any other writer in LA right now, I’m scrambling to meet some pre-strike deadlines so I can sock away some money for what may be a really ugly holiday season ahead. So I’m pleased to see this wrap-up featuring reviews of many of the titles that were screened. Gives me a chance to see what I missed:

Harry, I saw you sent a shout out to all horror fans that ScreamFest was happening in LA, but I haven't seen any feedback on the films that played there. I had the opportunity to catch a few and thought I'd throw out my 2 cents. Dead in 3 Days: This flick out of Austria didn't play like an independent film, nor did it feel anything like what ScreamFest boasts is part of "The New Breed of Horror." It played by the rules and felt like, as someone on IMDB put it, 'The I know what you did last austrian summer.' That being said, the flick did look great, had a nice score and sound design, and did have a few pay-off moments. It's not a bad film, just nothing interesting enough to talk about. The girl who played Nina did have a very odd charm about her, and the guys where successful in that I was rooting for them to die, and happy when they did. Some major plot holes and very convenient happenings, but beautiful shots of the surroundings sufficed. Overall, a satisfying rental if you want something you've seen before, only this time with subtitles. A'l'Interieur (INSIDE): There's a certain element that attends horror films or horror conventions, or in this case horror film festivals. A certain group I'm convinced is one chromosome away from being a serial killer. They shout "I want blood" while opening credits roll and scream when they get it, demanding "I want more..." No matter how extreme their blood lust is, no one will ever shout "I want more" in this film. It is, unequivocally, the bloodiest film I've ever seen. Brutal. Totally and Utterly Brutal. See, even now some of you are reading this and despite mentioning anything about the plot or the caliber of acting or storytelling, you already want to see it. Sick Fucks! To sum it up, a pregnant woman who lost her hubby in a car accident is in a state of distant mourning with everyone around her and just wants to go home and spend christmas eve on her own. She's to be induced to labor the next morning and has a friend picking her up. Then there's a knock at the door, and they don't waste time establishing this woman at the door knows who she is, what she's got in her belly, and wants Inside (both the house, and the belly). What starts with a bad melodramatic piano score and slow moving plot finally kicks in with the drag of a pair of giant scissors across a naked pregnant belly, only to drop with a 'plunk' on the belly button, and S-L-I-D-E inside. Dear god. And that's probably from that point on the tamest thing you're gonna see. It is straight shock value horror. The plot becomes as thin as the placenta, which will eventually drop to the floor, and it kind of played like a french 'Home Alone' but Macully Culkin's pregnant and covered in blood. I still can't decide if this is a good film. Was it effective in its imagery? Yes. Did it satisfy the blood lust of the crowd? Yes, and more... Did you leave feeling like you've been told a great story? No, and I don't even think there was one because stories usually have a beginning, middle, and end, and this film has no end. There's just no one left to kill, so they gotta roll the credits. The score is out of control, after that cheesy piano music it becomes this endless techno thump that I think was intended to play like a heart beat (both the characters, and yours). Overall I'd say if you're into torture porn, this is the holy grail of those films -- what it’s been building to since that sub-genre started. Let's torture a pregnant woman... But as far as story and character, which I still like in a horror film, this had little to nothing to offer. The lead is oddly adorable and plays it very convincingly. There is one moment where the film TOTALLY dropped the ball and I hope that sequence is cut out before whatever release it gets happens. It takes this very real, very brutal situation and hams it up with this incredibly lame unrealistic sequence that tried to play like something out of Twin Peaks. Other than that, incredibly well done in its unrelenting brutality... These directors knew what they wanted and did an incredible job of getting it, it's just a matter of whether or not you want that too. The only place to go from here I think is to start really torturing people on screen. Sympathy: Probably my favorite film of the fest. This is the complete other side of the spectrum from a film like INSIDE. It is a very very independent film, what you really hope to see at a film festival in that a film like this won't ever really show up at the multi-plex (which is a shame). As I mentioned ScreamFest boasts that they showcase 'The New Breed of Horror.' While a film like INSIDE is the top of the current breed (blood-soaked endurance tests of endless exploitation imagery), SYMPATHY is the new direction I hope the genre heads to. It's not even really a horror film, it's an incredibly smart thriller, with definite shades of horror. Don't get me wrong, there's a great deal of blood in the film, but the violence is never exploitative and is never for any reason other than to service the plot forward. The story is about a bankrobber and his hostage who hole-up for the night in a bad motel. Some shit goes down with the mouthy hostage and she manages to seal her fate in the first ten minutes getting herself handcuffed to the bed for the night and shot (they don't waste time here). Then it gets strange as the bankrobber leaves the room (unlike us, we never leave the room) and when he comes back an escaped convict has broken in and takes the two of them hostage. I know that may sound absurd, but somehow when you're watching it you never roll your eyes as it sets up one of the great cat & mouse games you'll ever see. The film becomes all writing and great directing, serviced by some incredible performances from the three leads. No one is really what they seem and someone's in cahoots with someone else, but there's just so many shifting advancements that you're never sure. The score is classic and the sound design impeccable as the whole pic sometimes rolls like a Hitchcock film and sometimes like a chaotic 70's horror. The shots are fantastic and there's an endless amount of them as it cuts all over the room, but never falls into tricks like speeding up the film. No MTV or Joel Silver bullshit here, Thank God. Then the last 20 minutes or so fly with a barrage of blood, words, and revelations that leave you glued to your seat. The last shot is haunting and unforgettable (like many in the film) and you're left with a moody credit song that has you going, 'wow, the time just past and I've been completely fucking entertained.' It is not just stimulus of the eyes and ears, but the mind. These are indelible characters, each on beautifully fleshed out and realized, and the story is truly a full circle. This film proves that a smart, independent films can be made for this audience. The gore shots were spot on, never showing too much or too little. As much crazy shit happens, nothing seems gratuitous, which is something very rare these days in cinema. To Note: There was major projection issues with this screening that delayed it, and the director spoke before the film about how what we were seeing visually is at about half quality. But he handled it well and honestly I forgot about it ten minutes in, which is a true testament to the story that you could take away image quality, and still be glued to the screen. That and the film all takes place in one-room, which was a very Hitchcockian move that took a lot of balls on their behalf, to trust an audience with that kind of set-up. But it works. It creates a beautiful sense of claustrophobia that has you fixated on the characters and where they're headed. Then at the end the director made a great joke about how much better the film will look on your iPod Nano, and in a very classy move gave everyone in the audience a DVD to go home and watch (he must have went home and grabbed them while the film was playing). The cast and crew were there and it didn't look like more than ten people -- a truly indie effort. I did watch the film the next night on my flat-screen and it looks fantastic. It's not a multi-million dollar hollywood effort, it truly is what I hope "the new breed of horror" to be. This is one to watch for, as is the director and three leads... Paranormal Activity: The other seemingly true indie of the fest was this ghost story of the blair witch flavor. Reminding me of Open Water, it is such a great premise that at times was incredibly successful, and at times fell flat. The premise is a boyfriend and girlfriend living together think they hear things bumping in the night, so the boyfriend buys a camera and starts filming their lives -- leaving it on a tripod at night to film them sleeping. As far as when the boyfriend has the camera, it at times gets very tedious to watch, truly like watching someone's home videos. But where the film shines is every time that bad boy cuts the bed and the couple has fallen asleep, some really creepy and cool shit goes down. The thing I'll award the filmmakers on is their restraint. It never gets Poltergeist over-the-top and the more subtle and simple things are the more they send tingles up your spine, like what we all imagine to happen when we’re sleeping. The two lead actors were true amateurs, which for a film like this is essential. At times they are just plain bad, but they grow on you and do become seemingly a realistic couple. My one major complaint is that when shit really gets crazy I didn’t ever buy their reactions. It gets to the point where any normal human being would be running for the hills to get out of that house, and they’re going, “man, that’s weird. Ok, let’s go to bed again!” In the end though this film was very unique and at times I was saying to myself, this could be the film everyone's talking about next Halloween. But it needs some things taken out and the ending dragged on too long past the moment when it was really effective (remember the pan to the corner in Blair Witch). There’s a moment here they should have slammed to black and left all of us totally creeped out. I like the film a lot and it's a strong effort, I guess my only problem is I just can't buy this sub-genre of "the footage you're about to see is real..." anymore. With that big monster movie coming out from JJ Abrams that will all be shot on home video cameras by the stars, it seems we're gonna start seeing a lot of these very soon. I think the new George Romero film, which also played ScreamFest but I didn't see, incorporates the same premise, and there’s the Poughkeepsie Tapes as well. I give this film props though, smart premise and well done. Whether or not this survives the barrage of films like this coming soon, we’ll see. Under the right guise though, a really effective night at the movies. I did see a few more of the films but you've read enough and these are the one's worth mentioning. I didn't catch The Signal, which I know this site really likes, and I did see 30 Days of Night, which made me want to run back upstairs for more indie films. I think the most compelling stuff is coming from these truly indie efforts these days, and I hope some of these films can see the light of day and take the genre to a new place. It's time... SCREAMAN