Friday 25th August - Day One - The evening session
After having sated myself with classic
Hammer goodness, it was time for the festival proper to start. As much as I welcome the chance to see old favourites on the big screen, one of the main reasons I love
Frightfest so much is
Alan,
Paul and
Ian's devotion to seeking out the best NEW horror films from around the world for us to discover and enjoy.
[some spoilers]
Set near the end of the Spanish Civil War, with conflict between Franco's fascist government and the rebel communist forces still bubbling on, "
Pan's Labyrinth" gives us a child's eye view of a violent and oppressive adult world. Ofelia (
Ivana Baquero) travels with her heavily pregnant mother, Carmen (
Ariadne Gil) to the rural stronghold of her new stepfather Captain Vidal (
Sergi Lopez). Ofelia is seeking to escape her new life when she discovers a gateway to a fantasy world in the stronghold's crumbling maze, and a possible way out.
In the Q&A afterwards,
Guillermo del Toro talked about how intensely personal this film was for him and how many of the little touches in the film were lifted directly from his childhood. Watching "
Pan's Labyrinth" it is easy to see this. This a great work of craftsmanship and artistry, where you feel that everything you see and hear has been specifically designed to heighten and aid the telling of the story. Nothing in this film is here by accident. This is not to say that the film is cold and overly calculated - quite the opposite. This is passionate filmmaking from a director in his prime.
All of
Guillermo del Toro's favourite visual motifs are here: insects, watches/clockwork devices, the rich use of colour (plus
Doug Jones in elaborate prosthetic make-up). I much prefer
del Toro's Spanish language work ("
Cronos", "
The Devil's Backbone") to his Hollywood entertainments, fun as they often are. In the Q&A he described "
Pan's Labyrinth" as a sister film to "
The Devil's Backbone", and structurally they share many similarities. "
Pan's Labyrinth" is the superior sibling though and by far
del Toro's best film yet. As a dark fairy tale, comparisons will inevitably be made between this film and "
Edward Scissorhands" (as Alan Jones has already done) and, with its heady mix of reality and fantasy, the early work of
Terry Gilliam, particularly "
Time Bandits" and "
Brazil". However, "
Pan's Labyrinth" is its own beast, sitting comfortably in such illustrious company but occupying a unique place of its own.
The performances are uniformly excellent, but special mention must go to
Maribel Verdu as housekeeper (and rebel spy) Mercedes, for a performance very different to her sexy turn in "
Y Tu Mama Tambien", and to
Sergi Lopez.
Lopez manages to make the brutal captain a very human monster, and the scene where he stitches up his slashed face went down very well with the sold-out
Frightfest audience. The best tribute I can give to the film is that even though I was watching it for the second time (and with someone's head obscuring many of the subtitles) I still teared up at the ending (a rare occurrence I promise) - that's the power of great cinema.
Afterwards, the Q&A with the director and his producer friend
Alfonso Cuaron was very inspiring, and also very enlightening. I have to save it made me feel a bit better about my own filmmaking when I heard
Guillermo del Toro say he had needed to put his own money into nearly all of the films he had made - including "
Blade II" and "
Hellboy"- to get them finished the way he wanted. As an independent you tend to assume that the one big advantage of working for a Hollywood studio is that you won't have to do things like that.
Next is "
Hatchet", which was one of the more keenly awaited titles this
Frightfest and arrived with some very positive buzz surrounding it. Director
Adam Green introduced his film, and was clearly not faking his enthusiasm for gore and horror.
[some spoilers]
After I watched "
Hatchet", the first thought I had was: Wow! This guy
really likes "
Friday The 13th" and its many sequels. Having subsequently met
Adam Green and chatted to him at the filmmakers' networking lunch on Saturday, I can attest to the fact that my first impressions were correct.
Adam knows exactly the kind of films he wants to make and is unapologetic about his love for the 80's horror films he grew up with, and it is that love that shines through in this, his second film (after no-budget debut "
Coffee & Donuts").
In pre-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, broken-hearted Ben (Joel Moore) talks his reluctant buddy Marcus (Deon Richmond) into leaving the Mardi Gras for a spooky tour of the local swamplands. But when the tour boat breaks down far from civilisation, they soon find out that the local legend of axe-scarred Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) is more than just a spook-story. Soon, the tour party ranks start to thin out as the gory killings begin.
Adam Green doesn't mess around, right away he lets the audience know what kind of film they're going to be watching. If "Hatchet" isn't your cup of tea, you will know within the first five minutes. Kicking off with an enjoyable Robert Englund cameo, climaxing his prologue with some real gore, then seemingly trying to pack as many shots of topless women as possible into his introductory New Orleans montage - you get plenty of warning about what kind of horror this is. This isn't Val Lewton style chills, this is a gory old-school slasher film filled with gore and loud frat-boy humour. Subtle it ain't - fun it is.
Once he gets his victims running around the swamp being chased by a madman, the film seems to run out of ideas as to what to do with them. The business of having the Scooby Doo type group run away for a few yards then stop and look around, gets repetitive quickly. However, inventively gory deaths realised by John Carl Buechler and entertaining turns from Tony Todd and Jason Voorhees himself, Kane Hodder, keep things light and fun. Hodder has a duel role, playing both the Jason-like Victor Crowley, and in flashback, Crowley's father. It is in this second role that Hodder really surprises. Any gorehound knows that Kane Hodder swings a mean machete, but as Crowley's father he is genuinely touching. Also, perhaps because it is unlike anything else in the movie, the final shot of the father slowly fading away as the narration speaks of his death has stayed with me in a way none of the gore has.
"Hatchet" is a real midnight movie, and I would group it together with the likes of previous Frightfest entry "Monster Man", in that it's cheesy, gory and funny, but not scary. It is the ending, which gleefully plays with the famous final twist/sequel hook from that most famous of slasher films, which really confirms it: Adam Green loves "Friday The 13th" and he's proud of it!
Next: Zombies...and death by Gnome!
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