A macabre marathon of horror.
That is the only way to describe Grimmfest’s annual Saturday showdown in which viewers could put themselves through no less than a 15-hour cult film frenzy.
Having already brought grisly movie morsels by the bucket load in this fifth season (most notably the UK’s first screening of the remastered The Wicker Man complete with a Q&A with director Robin Hardy), Grimmfest’s gruelling Saturday promised a deliciously varied but dark bag of treats.
Following a number of shorts in the festival’s fringe event from 11:00am, the marathon Saturday kicked off a proper at 14:00pm with a most appropriate flick given the day’s schedule… The Human Race.
As pointed out in Grimmfest’s handy programme, the term ‘marathon’ actually originates from bloody battle, and The Human Race takes it back to these dark roots.
Plucking 80 random people from an American street and plonking them in a race they have no choice but to run, The Human Race is survival horror in the vein of Battle Royale but actually inspired by the old Stephen King novella The Long Walk.
Regardless of age, gender, ability or background, all must follow the path, ‘stay off the grass’ and not get lapped twice… or die. And by die, they mean explode in a splattering of blood and guts.
For the most parts this low-budget effort is frivolous fun that delivers in both excitement and surprises – before taking the latter too far. The ending is so far-fetched that no matter what budget it had, this could never have been made believable. Pray that your disc is scratched five minutes from the end and you’ll be much happier for it.
Next up Nick Gilliespie’s short Samuel and Emily vs The World. While well shot and starkly realistic in its bleak, grey tones, this 15-minute short barely has chance to get going before it’s over. The zombie apocalypse has been done to death (pardon the pun) and these 15 minutes add nothing to the genre that hasn’t been done a thousand times over.
Which is not the case with Scott Schirmer’s daring venture into a most morbid and dark story of coming of age in Found.
Marty is only 12 and still idolises his brother, despite him not always being the most caring of older siblings. When he discovers that his brother has a penchant for murder – finding severed heads in a bowling bag in the closet – rather than shock and upset Marty, he finds himself drawn to them like an adolescent finding some adult magazines.
The whole thing makes for some uncomfortable viewing at times and has been likened to the Catcher in the Rye of horror movies, which can only be a good thing. Young Gavin Brown’s acting is solid – which is even more impressive given his age and some of the shoddy performances given by the rest of the cast.
Before beginning Kiss of the Damned, the cinema was noticeably emptier than at other times during the day. Perhaps fears that this was just going to be a sexy Twilight prompted people to take break at this juncture. And given the story – vampire falls in love with human and can’t resist turning him into a vampire – you could be forgiven for thinking such.
Their fears were unfounded though. Kiss of the Damned was far too art-house and kitsch gothic horror harking back to Jean Rollin’s Fascination than any Stephanie Meyer novel could ever be. And there wasn’t a moody adolescent wearing eyeliner in sight.
From the look of the audience’s faces by the end of the film, it seems most had forgotten how fun vampires can be when done well.
The Conspiracy follows the found footage documentary path, this time taking on crazy conspiracy theories and fears of secret societies plotting some kind of new world order.
The film plays out reasonably well but was considerably marred by often leaving us to wonder who was actually doing the camerawork if both the documentary duo are in the shot.
Managing to keep one foot ever so slightly in reality so as not to stray too far into the unbelievable, the film was made even more effective by some clever online work by the team around its release earlier in the year.
Fake Wikipedia pages and so on led what appeared to be a trail of truth to follow for fans of the film – yet these have since been taken down (ironically further prompting some internet users to believe they were taken down by this secret society to hide the truth… the ‘conspiracy’ deepens… Hmm).
Highlight of the day however was the Israeli black-comedy-cum-torture-thriller Big Bad Wolves. Somehow managing to pepper grisly scenes of torture and a story of child abduction with traditional Jewish humour about overbearing mothers and their relationship with the Arabs, Big Bad Wolves does just about everything right.
A heart-broken father and a wayward cop kidnap the suspected murderer of young girls in order to discover where he buried their missing heads. What ensues is an at times sinister, at times farcical attempt to extract the information from him via torture that toys with the audience’s assumptions about morality, revenge and justice. Not to be missed.
For more information on upcoming Grimm Up North screenings visit here.
Image courtesy of Magnet Releasing via YouTube, with thanks.
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