FrightFest 2013

FrightFest is an annual horror movie festival held in Leicester Square in London. On Sunday 25th August 2013, I got to attend the festival for the day and help out James from Tastic Film by conducting on camera interviews with the stars and directors in attendance. I also managed to sneak in a quick screening of a film called Dark Tourist but I was so knackered that I could barely stay awake for most of it I'm afraid.

First the stars and director of In Fear showed up. I'd heard a bit about this film and that it might be one of the best in the Fest so I read a bit about it before coming up with some questions for director Jeremy Lovering and stars Alice Englert and Allen Leech. Lovering has done all sorts of stuff in TV, most notably a recent episode of Sherlock and Alice Englert is from the recent Beautiful Creatures, while Leech is from Downton Abbey. Check out the video below this picture for the full interview:

Very poor pic of Alice Englert and Allen Leech

After that Anthony Di Blasi, the director of Missionary came and chatted for a while. Though I haven't seen his film, it sounds very interesting and Di Blasi was great fun to talk to.

Anthony Di Blasi (R) and his producer (L)

Next up I got to question Dark Tourist director Suri Krishnamma and lead actor Michael Cudlitz (from TV's Southland). This was the film I managed to sneak in to see and though it had a very intriguing premise about grief tourism and a guy who wants to visits locations where serial killers did their deeds, it didn't really grab me.

Suri Krishnamma and Michael Cudlitz

Finally it was time to interview the judges and winner of the 666 Short Cuts to Hell competition. Entrants were given a whole list of restrictions in which to make their own horror short film and I also managed to get to watch the six finalists on the big screen at Empire Leicester Square. All the finalists I saw were incredible; brilliantly crafted and often packing some hilarious punchlines. The judges included Tom Six, the director of the Human Centipede trilogy and Rosie Fletcher, the associate editor of Total Film magazine. Tom Six was too busy editing HC3 to be there so he sent star of HC2 Laurence R. Harvey. So the highlights of my day were asking Harvey about HC3 and also bugging Rosie Fletcher with loads of questions about how I get myself into Total Film one day!

Competition winner and judges

Here is a video I shot of Laurence R. Harvey talking about HC3 in front of the packed FrightFest audience. All the interviews will be up on Tastic Film soon and I will post links to them as soon as they are up.



Anyone else attend FrightFest 2013? What were your picks of the Fest?

More on past FrightFests from I Love That Film:

Tower Block Trailer Shoots to Kill

Where are the Dead?

Zombies Attack London! 

April Round-Up: Part 1

This month, despite the pouring rain that never stopped, I only managed 22 films.  Here is the bottom 11.  Please check back tomorrow for the top 11 featuring classics with strangely similar titles such as The Vanishing,Vanishing Point, A Night to Remember and Night of the Hunter.  And then there's the new films including 21 Jump Street, Tomboy and Cabin in the Woods.  But what will take the top spot?  Come back tomorrow to find out!

22. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Troy Nixey, 2011)

...or this movie.  Actually no do be afraid.  Be afraid that you have just lost a precious piece of your life sitting through it.  It’s ok really.  Just a bit dependent on little CGI monsters that aren’t scary.  And Katie Holmes.  No offence but how does she keep getting work?

21. Apollo 18 (Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, 2011)

Found footage from space.  Whenever a franchise or trend gets tired, they make the next instalment in space.  Jason X was ridiculous fun.  This is a bit too serious for its own good.  Not the worst ‘found footage’ horror ever made but still not that good.

20. Episode 50 (Joe Smalley, Tess Smalley, 2011)

Another found footage horror.  Not great but like most of them, it has a couple of pretty scary moments.  Looks like this and the recent Grave Encounters are very similar.  TV crews in an abandoned hospital full of spooks and the cameras keep rolling to capture all the fun.

19. Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence (Tom Six, 2011)

Sick Six Sucks.  But you might admire the director for taking horror to extremes.  If you want to watch sick stuff, this film really pushes the boundaries of taste.  If you know the idea, you’ll be pleased or disturbed to know that this time there are laxatives involved.  Lots of laxatives.  Truly and unbelievably sick stuff.  And this is the cut version fortunately.  Thank you BBFC.

18. Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)

Found this quote from IMDb: ‘Field of Dreams is one of the strangest films I've seen, and possibly one of the best. When it throws its subject matter at you, you wonder how a story so preposterous can ever work’ No I don’t.  It didn’t.  Preposterous, overly sentimental and weird.  Not quite sure what the fuss is about.

17. Semi-Pro (Kent Alterman, 2008)

The weakest of Will Ferrell’s sports movies.  Then again I haven’t seen Kicking and Screaming yet. Hoping to right an article about Ferrell's sports movies and their representation of masculinity.

16. Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2007)

Flawed but fun.  Timberlake lip syncing to The Killers is the stand out scene but The Rock also delivers a funny performance throughout.  Great music and some stunning visuals but neither can hide the films obvious messiness.

15. Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)

Great dancing but deeply disturbing raping.  Despite the still hugely impressive dance scenes and the social realist vibe, the scene where a girl gets raped but then totally forgotten about as the action moves to bridge stumbling antics reeks of misogyny.  Yes the film is about certain attitudes held by many members of society and does tackle this with the father telling the son washing up is ‘women’s work’ but then this rape scene comes along and is almost completely forgotten about moments later.  It felt ridiculous that the girl in question would stick with these guys after being mistreated so badly.  Left a bad taste in my mouth.

14. Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011)

Graphic gay romance.  I might be being a prude as I’ve not seen a lot of gay sex in films before but this film delved deep into two interesting characters before delving deep into their sexual activities.  It’s sweet and engaging but nothing too special.  A very real modern romance.

13. Martin (George A. Romero, 1976)

The magic of vampires takes a stake to the heart in Romero’s realist take on the monsters.  It is dated but still an original and interesting take on the vampire.

12. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Rob Marshall, 2011)

Killer mermaids, Captain Jack and the hunt for the Holy Grail.  BIG DUMB LOUD FUN.

That's it.  See you tomorrow with the top 11 films I watched in April.  What did you think of these movies?  Any surprises here?  Anything controversial?  Let me know below...

10 Blog posts I highly recommend

You have to start somewhere!  In honour of collecting my 30th follower, writing my 65th post and passing the 2100 page view mark, I want to share with you some very (and not so very) recent links from the wonderful film blogging community.  This is by no means everything I've been reading and there is a whole lot more great stuff out there but this is me sharing the love for ten posts I have really enjoyed and would like to recommend!


Join the Depp vs Pitt debate... Big Thoughts From a Small Mind


Check out a great essay on film piracy... Cinematic Paradox

One to relate to (about being a film buff)... A Life in Equinox

One to ponder about Human Centipede 2... A Lifetime in Dark Rooms

An amusing letter to the producers of the new Twilight mess... And So It Begins

Let Andy know what you think of this years Oscar short list for the documentary category... Andy Buckle's Film Emporium

This is why Andy Serkis should get an Oscar nomination... City Lights



A look at Apollo 18 and the found footage trend... Son of Celluloid



3 monster movies to look out for... To the Escape Hatch

Aziza bigs up Hard Candy... Aziza's Picks

Happy reading and please keep following, reading and commenting!  Special thanks to Big Thoughts from a Small  Mind who have twice put up links to my posts now and for giving me the idea to share the love in my own special way.

Centipede Unleashed

The BBFC have decided to reverse the ban on Human Centipede 2.  After making 2 minutes and 37 seconds of cuts, the film will be released in the UK.

Guess what?  Now the film has recieved countless words written on it in the press, all that free publicity will probably have doubled or tripled its potential audience.  The trailers have bigged up the fact it was banned and the next trailers will probably big up the fact its been cut.

So the damage has been done.   I'm probably the millionth person to comment on this and I'm sure I won't be the last.  Hardcore horror fans will no doubt still be scouring the web for an uncut version, but the rest will now be able to get a reasonable idea of what all the fuss is about when they see th edited version on DVD.

Reviews suggest it's a poor film that would have likely been seen by very few.  But after all this controversy, it's a film that so many like me will feel they have to see now if they want to consider themselves a credible horror connoiseur.

Well at least now it's got a release, perhaps we can all stop banging on about it!

Shit Storm!

Rape, torture, sadism? Sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll? What gets a film banned in this day and age? The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) has achieved the very difficult task and been rejected a certificate by the paternalistic Godfathers of British cinema, the BBFC.

Refusing to classify a film is the closest you can get to a ban. The film cannot be shown in public cinemas or sold on DVD etc without a certificate. Will this stop the sick little puppies so desperate to watch it getting their dirty paws on it?

With the internet making it easier to obtain anything you damn well want with a few clicks of a button, and Australia releasing the film, it won’t be long before the centipede crawls onto the web for curious eyes to devour.

So what is it that’s convinced the BBFC the rest of us can’t handle such a film? How about “the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, rape and murder of… naked victims”?

Throw in a “strong and sustained focus throughout the work on the link between sexual arousal and sexual violence and a clear association between non-consensual pain and sexual pleasure” and you’ve got a recipe for controversy.

Couldn’t they just have cut the film and released a shorter, sanitised version? Apparently not… “The BBFC considered whether cutting the work might address the issues but concluded that as the unacceptable material featured throughout, cutting was not a viable option and the work was therefore refused a classification.”

Three questions immediately spring to my mind:

1. Who wants to watch this shit?
2. Who comes up with this shit?
3. If the folks at the BBFC watched the film without becoming psychotic, raping, murdering human-centipede-making degenerates, then why can’t anyone else watch this shit?

Firstly, a surprising amount of people want to watch it. People who saw the first film and liked it; people who see anything that gets banned or causes controversy; many gorehounds, horror fans and sickos from all across the globe. Just look at the YouTube comments on the trailers or director Tom Six’s Facebook page for proof.

Secondly, Tom Six is the man responsible. See him here and see what he has to say in the teaser trailer:

Despite his claim of death threats on Facebook, go look at all the love he gets from fans on his wall! People love him and they love his movies. They argue if you don’t like it, don’t watch it!

Have they got a point? Should adults be allowed to watch whatever the hell they want (as long as no one was really harmed in its making)? It’s all make-believe after all. If the BBFC examiners managed to resist urges to harm people after watching the movie, couldn’t the rest of us?

But then there’s the argument that just sort of goes BUT WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYONE WANT TO WATCH OR MAKE THIS SHIT??????? Should people even be allowed to make a film like this? What drives a person to watch a film that features “degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, rape and murder"?

As a horror fan I’m slightly biased. I’ve seen some (for want of better words) f**ked up shit in films. For my dissertation I had to watch formerly banned nasties, such as I Spit on Your Grave and Last House on the Left. I’ve seen the awful 10 minute scene of brutality that caused a storm (but was passed uncut) in Irreversible. I’m afraid I’ve seen a fair few films with plenty of “degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, rape and murder". Please don’t think any worse of me.

For me horror is horror. The more horrific a horror film is, the more impact it has and the more satisfied you are when you leave the cinema. You go to watch horror films to feel horrified and disgusted. You go for a thrill ride; to be terrified, disturbed and to survive a grueling experience (from the safety of your seat). The films make you shake, sweat, grip the seats or the person next to you. They make you jump, scream, look away and thank the higher power that you’re not in the situation the characters are in.

The Human Centipede was horrific; the premise, the script and the film itself. It was also silly and not to be taken seriously. But the sequel sounds altogether nastier. More vicious, sick and twisted than its predecessor and containing a character so corrupted by watching the first film that he has decided to create his own human centipede.

So is this perhaps what’s got the BBFC in rejection mode; a film that features a character affected by a film? Or is it just that the film has reached new depths of depravity? The Australian trailer below even uses the controversy and banning as a unique selling point. So what do you think? ‘Has horror gone too far?’