Friday 25th August - Day One - Night
After a relaxed "Hatchet" Q&A, with much talk about gore FX and "Friday The 13th", it's on to the final two offerings of the night: short film "Gasoline Blood" and Swedish vampire flick "Frostbite". I briefly consider missing these two in order to avoid having to get the nightbus, but seeing as I'll be missing at least one of the films tomorrow, I steel myself for the nightshift.
Director David Pope comes on to introduce his short film and clearly has a lot of supporters in the audience. I'm mentally taking notes here as I know I'll be doing the same thing on Sunday morning.
"Gasoline Blood" (2006) dir. David Pope
[some spoilers]
[some spoilers]
Done in a mock 1970's style, this a fan's take on the Romeroesque zombie film. When scouting out a possible film location, three outsiders stumble across some angry undead locals. Although, light on plot (and backstory), the atmosphere and disagreeable male lead did remind me of Jorge Grau's "The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue". Horror audiences' over familiarity with this type of story (we've been flooded with zombie flicks over the past couple of years) works against the film, but if you follow the George A. Romero rules, you can't go too far wrong with zombies. David Pope's biggest achievement here is the final extended take of the undead horde swarming over the final interloper - very effective.
There's nobody here to introduce the midnight movie, "Frostbite", so it's straight into Sweden's first vampire film.
Stealing the thunder of the forthcoming movie adaption of Steve Niles' much lauded horror comic "30 Days of Night", "Frostbite" too presents us with a town near the arctic circle where vampires take advantage of nights that go on for weeks at a time. Although I can't imagine "30 Days of Night" will be anywhere near as odd a film as this.
"Frostbite" starts promisingly with a creepy "The Bunker" style WWII opening prologue which introduces the main threat: vampires. Then we flashforward to present day Sweden and the story of doctor Annika (Petra Nielsen) relocating to Norrbotten with her teenage daughter Saga (Grete Havneskold). Saga gets invited to a party by self appointed 'new best friend' Vega (Emma Aberg), but someone's brought along some very dodgy pills. Soon the teenagers are sprouting fangs and biting necks as the pills turn them into vampires.
Before the finale, where it takes a predictable turn into sub-"The Lost Boys" territory, this has moments when it does actually manage to add something new to the vampire subgenre. However, it is a strangely disjointed film which doesn't always manage its shifts of tone very well. The teen comedy element is so-so, with only the horror and drug comedy moments working well. The best section of the film is when the story leaves the dull, sulky heroine and gives us the story of a young man who's formal "Meet the Parents" dinner is complicated by the fact that domestic pets are talking to him; oh, and he's turning into a vampire too.
The attempt to tie the seemingly unconnected WWII prologue into the main story isn't very convincing and the film as whole doesn't really hang together. That said, any film with the wit to stage a vampire-staking by garden gnome death deserves at least one viewing.
Next: Mutant cows attack! Plus, I hobnob with my fellow filmmakers...
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