Film4 FrightFest 2011: A definitive guide

As I worked my way through a slew of horror titles, in order to write this Film4FrightFest preview, I faced a choice between vile, atrocious and a horrible way to die. Not literally, you understand: ‘Vile’, ‘Atrocious’ and ‘A Horrible Way to Die’ are three of the movies to be screened over the August bank holiday weekend. I put it to Alan Jones, one of the festival’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, that this trio of titles – a nasty ‘Saw’ rip-off, a shaky-cam shocker from Spain and yet another serial killer variant – encapsulated the sceptical outsider’s worst fears about the event. Jones laughingly acknowledged this, adding that last year’s often grim and depressing line-up had provoked complaints from even the most hardened FrightFest fans. Taking these comments to heart, Jones and his three co-organisers – Paul McEvoy, Ian Rattray and Greg Day – have this year tried to introduce ‘a little more light and shade, a little more fun’.

Which isn’t to say that there won’t be some disturbing material. Lucky McKee’s ‘The Woman’, the controversial story of the torture of a feral female (Pollyanna McIntosh) by a ‘respectable’ American family, provoked hostile reactions at Sundance. But while dissenters fiercely questioned its would-be feminist critique of ‘civilising’ misogyny, others embraced its painful, uncompromising attempt to explore the complexities of male-female power relations within a suburban nuclear family.

Alongside such unsettling material, however, FrightFest fans will be treated to lighter, more mainstream fare, such as a 3D remake of the ’80s teen horror movie ‘Fright Night’. It stars Colin Farrell as the seductive vampire-next-door and ex-Doctor Who David Tennant as a flamboyant Las Vegas magician whose macabre act suggests a knowledge of the occult. In keeping with the 1985 original, which pits three wholesome teenagers and an ageing horror actor against the blood-sucking creatures of the night, the frights are leavened with in-jokey references and ironic humour. There’s more horror comedy in the hilariously gory ‘Tucker & Dale vs Evil’, in which a bunch of college kids get lost in the backwoods and fall foul of a pair of hillbilly chuckleheads (Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine), and the oddly affecting RomZomCom ‘DeadHeads’, as Mike (Michael McKiddy), a lovestruck, surprisingly compos mentis zombie, teams up with fast-talking flesh-eater Brent (Ross Kidder) and hulking ‘Cheese’ (Markus Taylor) for a road trip into the arms of his old girlfriend.

Co-written and ‘presented by’ Guillermo del Toro, the opening night film is ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’, with Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce as a couple whose lovingly restored dream home slowly turns into a supernatural nightmare for his young daughter. Sandwiched between this and the closing film, British director Julian Gilbey’s taut, twisty survivalist thriller ‘A Lonely Place to Die’ is a pleasingly diverse selection of ten homegrown films, the best of which emphasise intelligent writing and intense acting over flashy direction. Chief among these are Ben Wheatley’s ‘Kill List’, which conjures gut-wrenching tension out of contemporary settings, naturalistic performances and almost Pinteresque dialogue; and actor Cristian Solimeno’s directing debut ‘The Glass Man’, in which Andy Nyman’s bankrupt, self-deluding City-type, Martin, signs a Faustian pact with James Cosmo’s debt collector, as his mind slowly fractures.

This strong British contribution notwithstanding, FrightFest maintains its well-earned international credentials with three terrific titles from Israel, the United States and Norway – Aharon Keshales’ ‘Rabies’ (‘Kalevet’) is a brilliantly inventive and slyly political slasher which delivers wince-inducing violence and off-kilter laughs, often at the same time. Writer-director Scott Leberecht’s ‘Midnight Son’ is that rarest of things, especially in this age of ‘Twilight’-style teen romance masquerading as fanged entertainment, a genuinely original vampire movie. Finally, shaky-cam mockumentary ‘Troll Hunter’ delivers a scarily funny tale of wide-eyed film students and a gruff, inscrutable bear hunter on the trail of mythical beasts. Go ahead, laugh till you die.