One of the top horror film festivals in the world, London's FrightFest runs each year over the August bank holiday weekend. This 26th festival kicked off on Thursday with the UK premiere of James DeMonaco's The Home, and the scary fun continues through Monday night at the grand Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square. Here are four highlights from the first two days...
The Home
dir James DeMonaco; with Pete Davidson, John Glover 25/US **
In a rare serious role for comic Pete Davidson, he plays an aimless slacker caught up in a mind-spinningly nasty situation. Director-cowriter James DeMonaco (The Purge) tightly maintains his perspective, which pulls the audience into the nutty story before things cut loose into Get Out-style horror. Indeed, the imagery, sound mix and narrative include so many elements from genre classics that nothing feels original. Or particularly scary.
dir Illya Konstantin; with Kit Lang, Russ Russo 25/US **
Mixing dark violence with a broad Big Pharma satire, this offbeat low-budget horror has some fun with its depiction of office workers before things turn nasty. Director Illya Konstantin creates a home-made vibe that plays up the awkwardness between colleagues before sending them into a blood-soaked nightmare. Tonal shifts are uneven, pacing is somewhat underpowered, and the plot closely follows the bare bones of the brutal invasion genre.
dir Tim Cruz; with Anthony Del Negro, Cerina Vincent 25/US **.
Atmospheric and extremely tactile, this freak-out thriller traces a night that spirals into bizarre nastiness. Director Tim Cruz, who wrote the script with actor-producer Anthony Del Negro, cranks up the tension from the start, keeping the audience as disoriented as the lead character because everything feels so random and inexplicable. So while none of this makes much sense, there are enjoyably yucky moments scattered through the narrative.
The Life and Films of Andy Milligan
dir Josh Johnson, Grayson Tyler Johnson; with Gerald Jacuzzo, Jimmy McDonough 25/US ***.
Tracing the career of a notorious filmmaker who mixed experimental sensibilities with excessive schlock, this documentary tells the story of Andy Milligan, whose ethos was to just get out there and make a movie. As a scrappy artist, his work was inventive and influential, with distinctive themes and camera tricks, yet modern audiences have seen very little of it. So it's time for cinema scholars to rediscover him.
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