Grimmfest 2016 Highlights

Grimmfest is one event I look forward to every year and before you know it it's been and gone. This was my fifth year attending the genre film festival and it makes me proud to have witnessed how it's evolved into what it's become today.

Kicking of on Thursday evening and finishing on Sunday night they screened 20 feature films and 10 shorts. Returning to Odeon Printworks, Manchester they had a new sponsor with The Horror Channel who brought along a wall for you to graffiti with your favourite quotes from horror movies. There wasn't as many stalls as the previous year but Arrow Video had their usual stall and they never have a problem with parting me from my money. 

Here are my highlights from the festival. Unfortunately I was unable to attend on the Saturday so missed a few of the screenings but there was one film everyone I spoke to gave high praise for which I must see when I next get the opportunity is Trash Fire. A few honorable mentions for the films that didn't make my highlights but are worth a watch goes to Directors Cut, Darling and Beyond The Gates.

What We Become
A neighbourhood becomes a quarantine zone when virus epidemic breaks out.
What makes What We Become different from other zombie movies is you see how the breakout slowly unfolds with characters you care about this is a must see for any zombie movie fan.

My Father Die
A brutal revenge southern gothic movie where a deaf and mute man seeks revenge on his dad for murdering his brother.
There is never a dull moment in this movie beautifully filmed with a shit load of action and you never know which way it's going to go.

Train To Busan
A father and daughter catch a train when a zombie epidemic breaks out.
Yes this is Zombies On A Train but it's so much better than that. Easily my favourite movie of the festival. It's an emotionally charged adrenaline rush that is so well made I can't see any zombie movie fan not liking it.

Tonight She Comes
This is a great movie that starts of as a typical slasher movie then spirals into something much more.
Inspired by the slasher films of the 70s and 80s to the point where they lovingly rip of a certain kill scene this movie has a lot going for it. It will make you laugh and it will turn your stomach but it won't disappoint.

The Rezort
Think Jurassic Park but with zombies. The Rezort is a holiday island that has been set up after a zombie pandemic almost wiped out the planet for wealthy guest to go hunting zombies.
Another well made zombie film from this years Grimmfest. It good to see some new ideas being used for the zombie sub-genre when I was starting think everything has already been done.

Thank you for reading and be sure to check out these movies when they become available for you. Unfortunately I don't have release dates but when I get some information I will be sure to let you know.

Highlights From Past Grimmfest 2012 - 2015

Grimmfest, Manchester's annual horror film festival kicks off on the 6th October and this year will be the fifth time I've attended the event. For the first three years I attended the event took place at the Dancehouse Theatre before moving to it's current home at the Odeon Printworks last year. Due to this event I have seen some great movies that I know would have passed me by if I didn't attend. I also enjoy watching the shorts from some promising film makers. I have also seen some godawful shit that I wish I did miss but that's part of the risk of attending movies you don't research beforehand. Although I know I can't attend all the days and screenings I've always bought the full festival pass as I still feel I get the value for my money.

Here I want to share with you some of my highlights from the past festivals

2012

Comedown

You always remember your first! Comedown was the first movie I saw at Grimmfest so forgive me if I remember this with rose-tinted glasses but I really enjoyed this slasher set in an derelict tower block in London.

Grabbers

What can I say about Grabbers? If you haven't already seen Grabbers then you are missing out. Very funny creature feature set in Ireland with really good practical special FX.

Devoured

In 2012 Grimmfest had two screens playing different films simultaneously, they had the main screen and a smaller screen in a studio. I arrived too late on the Friday for the start of Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut in the main screen but Devoured was about to start in the studio screen so why not give something new a try. I was presently surprised with it. A slow burn haunting, psychological thriller with a fantastic lead actress who gradually descents into madness.

Stitches

What could go wrong? The final film of the festival with the star in attendance. So you probably wouldn't want a technical glitch like the sound dropping out with fifteen minutes to go to happen? So bless the organisers as that's exactly what happened. Stitches is an enjoyable killer clown movie staring Ross Noble. What makes this film even more special is that Pollyanne McIntosh came and sat next to me to watch it.

2013

I've only picked three films that stood out for me at the 2013 Grimmfest. This year marked the launch of the Grimmfest fringe which replaced the second screen at the Dancehouse. Unfortunately I completely missed all these screenings at the fringe due to work commitments. I did see a good number of the films screened at the Dancehouse but these are the only three I went out of my way to buy and watch again.

The Borderlands

Up there as one of my best found footage movies. An investigation team go into a church where a priest claims miracles have taken place. Great use of head cameras throughout to answer the question "why would you keep filming?". I do wish this gets a release on Netflix or something in order to get more people to see it as I'm sure it could have a much larger fan base.

Jug Face
(Also known as The Pit) is a very creepy movie where a backwoods community have to offer blood sacrifices to a pit. Not giving the pit who it wants will cause it to wreck havoc.

The Machine
Beautifully shot with an amazing score The Machine is a fantastic science fiction movie where the MOD steal a self-aware artificial intelligence creation.

2014

In my opinion Grimmfest came back in 2014 with a much stronger lineup than the previous year. Still housed at the Dancehouse theatre with the fringe held this year at Gorilla here are my top five favourites from this year. I must point out I missed all the fringe screenings again this year but that didn't take away from my overall experience.

Suspiria

Grimmfest always screen at least one classic movie at their festivals. This is a perfect opportunity for you to see your favourite movie on the big screen. What made Suspiria different from any other screening was that Goblin was in house to play the score live. If you ever get a chance to watch a film with the score played live then take it.

What We Do In The Shadows
I have watched this movie so many times since the festival and it doesn't get old. Created by the brilliant minds behind Flight Of The Concords this hilarious mockumentry follows the struggles of a group of vampires that flat share in New Zealand as they prepare for the annual masquerade ball for the undead.

Choerence
Can't really say much about Choerence without giving away the plot but it's a very clever, mind bending movie that stays in your head long after watching.

Starry Eyes
I do love a slow build movie and Starry Eyes doesn't disappoint. A dark tale about Hollywood ambition where a waitress is offered a dream role but not everything is as it seems.

Wolfcop
Grimmfest had a fair amount of horror comedies on offer in 2014 and Wolfcop is another example of how a horror comedy should be done. It never takes itself serious and offers a great amount of gore for you to enjoy.

2015

In 2015 Grimmfest returned bigger and better than all the previous years I attended. At it's new home at the Odeon Printworks the team created a fantastic festival. They had more stalls, a gamers section, a new host to conduct the Q & As, more guests and most of all a brilliant selection of movies. Here are my favourite movies from the festival...

Blood Sucking Bastards

Another very good horror comedy where the new office manager is a vampire that attempts to turn all the employees.

He Never Died
Henry Rollins plays an eternal being who just wants to be left alone and play bingo. A very enjoyable slow build.

Turbo Kid
A homage to 80's post apocalypse movies. This was one of my highlights from 2015 and I don't mean just from the festival. Great 80's style score, fantastic 80's style effects and an enjoyable story.

The Hive
It was late in the day when I watched this and was very tired so probably didn't appreciate it as much as it deserves but The Hive is a visual stunning, very well made zombie movie.

Excess Flesh
Not one to watch while eating or feeling hungry. A girl with body image issues is obsessed with her model roommate and soon the obsession becomes violent. Another example how to do a slow build movie.

Howl
A good creature feature where a night train to London breaks down in a forest home to werewolf type creatures. As if being trapped on a train isn't bad enough.

Deathgasm
If you love zombies, heavy metal and a good laugh then this is one from you. You can count on New Zealand to produce a good horror comedy.

A Christmas Horror Story
Four Christmas based horror movies blended together, one of which features Santa fighting zombie elves what more do I have to say.

I think it's safe to say I'm looking forward to this year's event unfortunately I can't make it there Saturday but I'll be there all the other days. Thanks for reading and please check back for a review of this year's festival.

Blair Witch 2016 Spoiler Free Movie Review

Set 20 years after the events of the first film, Lisa; a film maker, is making a documentary on ambiguous loss where one of her subjects is James whos older sister Heather went missing along with two of her friends while camping in the woods. James comes across some footage on YouTube that has been recently found in the woods which he believes shows his sister. Lisa and James along with two other friends go into the woods hoping to find more clues related to what happened to Heather...

The announcement of Blair Witch came as a shock to many horror fans, especially the ones who had been following the developments of Adam Wingard's new film The Woods which was revealed as Blair Witch at it's first screening at Comic Con. This is a direct sequel to the first movie and rightfully ignores The Book of Shadows.
I got to see this as a mystery movie at the cinema. I was so happy when I saw the title as you may know I loved the first film and been looking forward to seeing this since it's announcement. I have to say I wasn't disappointed with this sequel however I wasn't blown away either.

The movie has some faults and the biggest problem I had was with the acting at the beginning of the movie. It felt like the actors was acting and not giving a natural improvised performance which was done so well in the first movie. I will point out that the acting got better as the film went on but I would have liked the characters to be believable from the start.
My other problem was that there was also a large amount of unnecessary jump scares. I'm a sucker for jump scares, they get me every time and I don't mind them but this movie had many of times when it was just the main characters coming out of a bush or just standing there when a swinging camera locks on to them.

There are many positives about the film which I won't go into to keep it spoiler free but I will say where this film succeeds and will be remembered for is the final 30 minutes. You will witness one of the most intense sequences that lasts for half an hour without a break for a breather. You will be begging for the movie to end just to get your heart rate down to an acceptable rhythm again.

If you are a fan of the first movie then you should enjoy this. It goes over territory which you will be familiar with from the first film and expands on the myths. If you didn't like the first film and I appreciate The Blair Witch Project is the Marmite of horror movies then there is nothing here for you.

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The Blair Witch Project 1999 Revisited

It’s been 17 years since The Blair Witch Project graced our screens and with the upcoming sequel I thought now's a good time to revisit the granddaddy of found footage movies.

Sure there were found footage movies before The Blair Witch Project but none of them kick started the sub-genre the way The Blair Witch Project did. Cannibal Holocaust incorporated found footage in the movie and was very and still is very controversial but it never opened the floodgates for the influx of found footage movies that followed The Blair Witch Project.

The main reason there are so many found footage movies now is down to the success of The Blair Witch Project. Made with a budget of only $60,000 Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick managed to make a whopping £248.6 million worldwide.

Now I can’t talk about The Blair Witch Project and not mention the brilliant and never duplicated marketing campaign. The movie was advertised as the actual found footage of three film student Heather, Joshua and Michael who went missing while filming a documentary on the Blair Witch. They created a whole folklore surrounding the Blair Witch which was turned into a TV documentary which broadcasted just before the film’s release. The TV documentary had interviews with relatives of the missing students, local residents, investigators and even historians. So I don’t mind saying I went into that movie as a 14 year old thinking it was actual found footage and that the Blair Witch had a real place in history.

What also contributed to my naivety was the book by D. A. Stern called The Blair Witch Project A Dossier. The book includes The legends, myths and facts surrounding the Blair Witch, links to Rustin Parr, interviews with the victims' friends and families and Heather's journals which was supposedly found with the footage.

Having absorbed all the background information I could find on the Blair Witch (and missing the crucial fact it was all made up) I was ready for the movie and I remeber loving it. It scared the shit out of me. It was different to anything I had ever seen and any horror that was released at the time. The way it told the story being part documentary part first person horror without any music score was a work of genius.

It was a bout a week later when I found out the whole story was made up and I was still impressed. Even though I had been had big time I was still able to part take in the whole Blair Witch experience the way the makers wanted it to be experienced and I can't see a movie giving me that overall experience again.

The question now is does it stand the test of time? With only having it on DVD I gave it a recent watch and even though I've seen the movie many times over the years I am still impressed with it. The picture quality makes it a product of its time, I haven't seen a Blu-Ray version so don't know if the picture has had an upgrade but it looks like it was made in the 90's by film students which is exactly the way it should look. They didn't have IPhones with HD cameras back then so I would be disappointed if they enhance the footage. The acting and script can't be faulted apart from the whole kicking the map in the lake situation but I did enjoy the fallout that followed. There's also little moments I have only just picked up on that impressed me like the part Heather is discussing editing suggestions on footage they shot that day.

The scares still have the same impact, who isn't going to shit themselves if while camping in the middle of nowhere you hear children playing during the middle of the night? I still love the end scene in the house with the handprints on the wall and the cameras just being knocked out of their hands and not showing the witch just adds to the mystery.

I can easily say that The Blair Witch Project is one of my best horror movies, not for the film itself but the whole experience it created at that moment in time. I look forward to when my children are old enough to watch it and I'll try and sell it to them as a true story, I'll dig out the book and watch the documentary to try and create the same experience I went through before they watch the actual movie.

Review: Marvelry's Curiosity Shop

Marvelry's Curiosity Shop by John Brhel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What a great age we live in when you can be contacted on Twitter and asked to review a book by someone on the other side of the planet, which is then sent directly to your Kindle ready for you to read.

You can argue all day regarding the pros and cons of e-readers but you can't deny that it has given aspiring writers a platform to have their work published and access to a worldwide audience.

Marvelry's Curiosity Shop by Brhel and Sullivan is a collection of 12 short stories all based on cursed items sold by Marvelry; a retired magician who now owns an antique shop.

The stories are all varied in the way the items haunt their new owners, some work out ok for the customer and others don't have such a happy ending.

The stories seem to lack any tension for them to be classed as scary and are over to quickly which is a shame as there are some great ideas in these stories and I love the central connection with Marvelry who you get to know more with each story. I also love the artwork on the cover, I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but you should give credit when it's due.

I'm confident Brhel and Sullivan will only get better with their craft and I look forward to future releases.

3/5

View all my reviews

The Conjuring 2 Movie Review

How many times have you gone into the sequel fearing it won't be as good as the first? Well you have nothing to fear here... that's not totally true; you do have something to fear here you have a lot to fear with The Conjuring 2 which I believe is far better than the first one.

James Wan really pulls out the scares in the follow up to his 2013 The Conjuring. The story focuses on the Enfield haunting. Set in 1977 London, England; Peggy Hodgson is a single mum of five children who asks for help after she believes her youngest daughter Janet maybe possessed. Ed and Lorraine Warren are sent to investigate.

Not only am I impressed with the scares in the film which come in the form of jump scares and slow burn tension building I am really impressed with the way James Wan recreates England in the 70's. For someone that isn't even from the country I have to give credit for the amount of research that must have gone into this project to get the feeling right.

The movie has a great cast with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprising their roles as Lorraine and Ed Warren; they are joined with great performances by Frances O'Connor who plays Peggy Hodgson, Lauren Esposito who plays Margaret Hodgson and the stand out performance from Madison Wolfe as Janet Hodgson.

When it comes to real life hauntings like the story this film is based on I am somewhat of a sceptic, I don't believe in ghost so in order for me to enjoy a film that is advertised as the true story from the case files of the Warrens I have to try really hard to turn the sceptic side of my brain off and enjoy it for what it is... Which is one of the most scariest films I've seen in a long time.

5/5

Excited For The New Ghostbusters Movie

As we are only weeks away from the release of the new Ghostbusters movie I want to put it out there how excited I am for it.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s; Ghostbusters was a big part of my life. I collected all the toys (which I wish I kept in the original packaging now), watched all the cartoons and can't count how many times I've seen the movies.

I remember the second movie coming out and was so excited with the build up; all the promotional gifts that you got with kid meals at Burger King, the comic series where the second movie was told with the characters from the Real Ghostbusters and all the other promotions I tried to squeeze my mum and dad for. I remeber loving the 2nd film and although it doesn't stand the test of time I loved it as a kid and still do now.

I've been waiting and waiting for a third Ghostbuster movie and after a lot of false starts with certain actors not wanting to take part we finally got a computer game which most of the cast took part in and it now stands in for me as the third movie. The cut scenes and music really make it special and I truly enjoyed it.

When the reboot was announced I was sad that the third film was never going to happen but I managed to get over it. When I saw the trailer I can see why they had to reboot and got excited for it.

Ghostbusters is a family film and although I would have loved to see the original cast taking their original roles on the big screen that movie would be aimed at me and people aged 30 plus. I'm not sure my children (boy 8 and girl 4) would take to four men older than their grandparents being chased by ghosts. Even if the original cast only had a bit part where they introduced new recruits you still have a huge gap to explain what the ghostbusters have been doing since the last movie. Where do you go from having a giant Marshmallow Man attacking New York and then taking the Statue Of Liberty for a walk? I think if a third movie was ever going to work and be a big money success it should had been made at least 15 to 20 years ago.

I'm going to go into the reboot with an open mind and if I love it I will write a review about it. If I hate it then you won't hear another word about it from me as I like to give recommendations not shit all over someone's work.

One thing the new movie will never be able to do is change any of the memories and love I felt and still feel for the original movies. I just hope it creates the same joy for my children as the original did for me.