Grimmfest 2017: Not Long Now

As you may know already I have attended Grimmfest for the last five years and I intend to see as much as I can this year too!

If you are not familiar with Grimmfest I'll give you a quick update; it is Manchester's biggest horror festival and takes place on the first weekend in October. If you want to know the calibre of movies that have played at previous festivals then please read my past posts on the festival.

This year the festival is showing many films I am excited to see. You can find the full lineup here along with trailers but I just want to say which films I am most excited to see.

Thursday is the opening night and this year has the world premier of Habit which is set in Manchester and is directed by Simeon Halligan who also happens to be the Co-Director of the festival so no pressure Simeon! Following Habit is Ruin Me set at an extreme horror themed camping site where the events turn from fun to deadly.

Due to work I will be unable to attend the majority of screenings on Friday but I do hope to get there for Better Watch Out as everyone loves a Christmas themed horror movie. Also the trailer for Tag has my attention.

On Saturday the movies I'm most excited about is Double Date due to the humour that I love in a British horror movie, Leatherface which is a remake of Texas Chainsaw The Beginning. I know it's not a remake but if you think about it it kinda is. I'm also looking forward to Fake Blood.

Sunday showings I'm looking forward to are Dave Made A Maze, Borley Rectory which is the movie I'm looking forward to the most at this years festival and Attack Of The Adult Babies which sounds fucking crazy!

These are just a few of the movies that are playing at this years festival there are plenty more to see over the four days which I'm sure will be great. I'm really looking forward to this year, if you don't have plans over the these four days you should definitely try and pop in and catch a film or two. Hopefully see you there!

   

Review: The Three

The Three by Sarah Lotz
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Three by Sarah Lotz had a great premise that I really wanted to enjoy but for some reason it just didn’t grip me the way I like books to grab me.

It might have been the format of the book that let it down for me. After the promising opening chapter the format changes to a documentary style where it’s a collection of transcripts from Skype conservations, Twitter feeds, emails, message board chats and documents that tell the story of the world going crazy after four plans crash in one day and on each plane apart from one (or all four?) a creepy child survive.

Although the story does has a few horror elements I wouldn’t classify it as horror. I was over halfway through the book before the story started getting interesting for me. The story did pick up pace and I am happy I finished it. I just wonder what the book would be like if Sarah would have wrote the book in the same format as the opening and closing chapters.

I give the book 2.5/5


View all my reviews

Death Note Movie Review

The latest offering from Adam Wingard has been released on Netflix and it’s safe to say he’s done it again. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen so far from Adam Wingard and just like You’re Next, The Guest and last year’s sequel to The Blair Witch Project, Death Note is a fun movie to watch.

It’s probably worth noting that I’m not familiar with the Japanese Magna that the film is based on but that puts me in a better position to judge the film on its own without any emotional connection to the source material.

The movie follows a high school student named Light who discovers a mysterious notebook called Death Note. He is then visited by a Death God named Ryuk who goes over the rules of the notebook and tells him that he can cause the death of anyone he writes in the pages. All he needs is the name, be able to picture their face in his mind and the way he wants them to die. Along with his girlfriend he then proceeds to rid the world of criminals under the guise of Kira. This starts a cat and mouse chase between Light and a super detective known as L who tries to track down Kira.

It’s not the best movie in the world but it serves its purpose of entertaining you. The story is good, all the effects are spot on and the cast all play good roles. Adam Wingard was a perfect choice to direct this as he is very capable of killing of his characters in imaginative ways and I look forward to more movies from him.

I would have been happy to watch this in the cinema but Netflix are cutting out the middle men and are making some really good content and delivering it right to you wherever you are and however you want to watch it.

3.5 / 5

IT: Chapter 1 Movie Review

IT has finally been unleashed upon us all and it is one of the best horror films in such a long time!

After spending years in development and having numerous writers and directors attached to the project we finally have a movie that the book deserves. I will go as far and say it is my best adaption of a Stephen King story. My other favourites are Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption and The Mist.

  

I'm going to assume you are familiar with the story of IT either from reading the book or watching the TV movie from the 90's so I'm not going to go over the details of the story. This is the first of a two part movie and focuses solely on the Loser Club members when they are children. The movie is set in the 80's as appose to the 50's when the book is set and the next movie will be set in the present day moving it from the 80's when the Losers face IT again as adults.

They really have turned the horror up on this one, from the opening scene you realise that this is going to hold no punches, if it wasn't from the comedy relieve that comes mainly from Richie and Eddie this would have been one hell of a dark movie.

The whole cast are brilliant, some characters outshine others but I can't find fault with any of the performances. Now this can be seen as a double edged sword for the next chapter as the adults that have to play the same characters have a very hard act to follow.

IT Chapter 1 is going to be very successful at the box office and deservedly so. This is a great movie and the marketing campaign has been excellent. I know it must help to be promoting a character such as Pennywise who is already a household name, up there with Freddy, Jason and Michael but there wasn't any big name actors attached. I do hope this success leads to more big budget horror movies in the future or studios putting some good marketing behind some of the great indy movies that are made year after year.

IT: Chapter 1 proves you no longer have to be terrified of remakes apart from the fact that it's scary as fuck. I admit there has been many unnecessary remakes recently but when the movie is adapted from a book I always look forward to see how someone else can bring the pages to screen especially when it's a book I love. You will always have the saying that the movie isn't as good as the book and the same can be said about this version of IT but it's a much better adaptation then the previous outing.

I give IT: Chapter 1 5/5