Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Frightfest Report #6


Saturday 26th August - Day Two - Afternoon

Back to the Odeon West End and it's time to meet up with a friend, fellow writer Frances Lynn (whose novel "Frantic" is out in paperback now). After saying our hellos, Frances collects her ticket and we move quickly into the cinema. Steve is very keen not to miss anything as apart from the "Snatching Time"/"Broken" screening tomorrow this will be the only Frightfest film he can make this year. Also, now we've both met "The Marsh" director Jordan Barker we're curious as to what his film will be like.

The only bad thing about the Frightfest filmmakers' networking lunch was that it necessitated missing both Nicholas Rucka's short "Out Of The Darkness" and the brilliantly titled "Earthings: Ugly Bags Of Mostly Water". Alexandre O. Philippe's documentary about the Klingon sub-set of Star Trek fans was certainly an interesting programming choice. It is probably the Frightfest 2006 film that's furthest away from the festival's core horror content.

It seems my neighbours share this opinion, as when I canvass their thoughts on "Earthings..." I find they all chose to give it a miss. Given that the Frightfest Forum gang were apparently off celebrating the birthday of one of their number it must have been a pretty de-populated screening. However, as "Earthlings..." is getting a UK cinema release and has already generated a fair amount of press, one underattended preview screening shouldn't damage its prospects.

Before "The Marsh", there is a screening of the ten finalists of the 2006 Zone Horror Cut! short film competition. I've already seen the top three films (which screened before "Severance"), but now's a chance to watch the others. Also, when the winner got his cheque on Thursday, the Zone Horror guy neglected to actually read out the name of the winning film, so I was left wondering which of the three won. Turns out it was "Kasting" - a deserving winner.

2006 Zone Horror Cut! short film competition finalists

10) "Hammer Falls", dir. Andrew Brady

9) "Torn Flesh" dir. Martin Bennett

8) "The Silent Scream" dir. Neil Thornton

7) "Natural Birthing" dir. Lawrence Axe and Slade Lamey

6) "A Very Grimm Fairytale" dir. Jahari

5) "The Collector" dir. Steve Simmons

4) "Plastic Reality (Curta Versao)" dir. Doctor Versluis

3) "The Fall Down" dir. Jake Kennedy

2) "Dead Wood" dir. David Bryant, Sebastian Smith and Richard Stiles

1) "Kasting" dir. Alyosha Saari

Apart from "Kasting" (which again demonstrated that often it's the simplest ideas that work the best) I enjoyed "Natural Birthing", "A Very Grimm Fairy Tale", "The Fall Down" and "Dead Wood" the most .

"Natural Birthing" had a nice voyeuristic creepiness to it, "A Very Grimm Fairy Tale" was blackly comic (although I did wonder about the possible psychological damage to its child star) and "The Fall Down" played like an extended movie trailer (maybe that's what it is - I don't know) and was very slickly done. "Dead Wood" wins the Sick Puppy prize for best end punchline, which elevated it above its clearly very low budget production values. I understand the "Dead Wood" creators are planning to expand it to a feature, so I wish them the best of luck.

I'm left feeling thankful that my short film "Snatching Time" won't be lost in a crowd of nine other films. After waiting patiently, Jordan Barker finally gets to introduce "The Marsh" and his background as a performer is very apparent. He's very relaxed and assured, especially given that his star Gabrielle Anwar (who was due to appear with him) wasn't able to make it. I hope I'm even one-tenth as relaxed when I introduce "Snatching Time" tomorrow".

"The Marsh" (2006) dir. Jordan Barker

[some spoilers]

Successful but mentally frail children's author Claire Holloway (Gabrielle Anwar) is plagued by nightmares involving a dead girl. She decides to go somewhere quiet where she can rest and work on her next book in peace. The small Canadian town of Marshville seems ideal, but once she's moved into her house on the edge of the marsh she starts getting deja vu - this is the house from her nightmares. Soon she's experiencing a full blown haunting. Rather than run away, she turns to local psychic Geoffrey Hunt (Forest Whitaker) for help in solving the supernatural mystery.

This is a real old school haunted house flick of the sort that the Hollywood studios still crank out every two or three years. It's a sub-genre which has stayed pretty much the same since the 1980s. When it's done well and with a good writer to twist the formula, you can get excellent results eg. David Koepp & Richard Matheson's work on "Stir Of Echoes". However, there is a danger of producing pedestrian or turgid retreads (see "The Haunting" remake (1999) - or rather don't, it's terrible) that make it seem like a very tired old chestnut indeed.

Sadly, "The Marsh" doesn't have any new toys to bring to the party. It is very slickly directed by Jordan Barker, but his style is somewhat anonymous. The CGI effects are well done and the actors (Forest Whitaker in particular) acquit themselves well enough. However, I watched this well crafted film with an increasing sense of having seen this all before. There is very little in here to surprise or shock, it is too smooth a ride for that. The only attempt at adding something new is the "Ju-On: The Grudge" style rules for the ghosts which means they can roam the marsh and the town at will rather than being restricted to the house. But the seemingly endless series of "Ju-On: The Grudge" sequels, remakes and remakes of sequels (or is it sequels of remakes?) have rather sucked the novelty out of these rules.

Now these would be minor quibbles if the traditional story of "The Marsh" worked. Unfortunately, it is hamstrung by one major problem - at no point in the story did I believe that Gabrielle Anwar's character was in danger of dying. Without that threat of death, there is no suspense and crucially no fear - this film is not scary. The story works well enough on a mystery level, but without that threat of death it's all so much puzzle-solving. Intellectually satisfying perhaps, but there's no emotional charge and no visceral thrills. This is horror on it's best behaviour: hair carefully parted and with a nice apple for teacher.

It may seem churlish to complain about an adequate chiller when we are subjected to so many dire remakes and sequels every year, but "The Marsh" just didn't do it for me. I didn't hate it, it was just disappointingly average. In the interest of balance though, it should be noted that Steve really enjoyed "The Marsh". So much so that he insisted on having his picture taken with Jordan (which you can see here).

After the screening I pick up my goodie bag and catch up with Frances in the bar to discuss the television series "Candy" she's writing with Stephen Lavers. Soon it's time for Steve and Frances to go and it's back to the cinema grindstone for me.

Next: WWE wrestler Kane shows off his 'acting chops' and don't call it "Open Water 2"...

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