Grimmfest Day 3

To start the day we had the brilliant short Asparagus Tips.  An ogh so pleasant dinner party is in progress, when the new guest - the eponymous Miss Tips arrives. The reason for her extraordinary name is quite literally the root of a brilliantly funny joke. More of a comedy sketch with a really dark heart than a horror film but a great great start to the day.

The first full length film was Tone Deaf - an absolutely brilliant film - Robert Patrick (who you may remember as the first shape shifting terminator) stars as a Trump inspired redneck renting his house out to an entitled,  vaccuous, and shallow millenial with the intent of killing her to make an example and Make America Great Again.

It's one of the most unpredictable films of the festival so far - never quite going in the direction you'd expect. I've never seen the fourth wall broken quite this well since Haneke's Funny Games (although this is altogether more comic than Funny games and nowhere near as disturbing)

To say much more would mean spoilers.  An easy 4.5 out of 5

Next up was this Russian film.  About as black a comedy as comedy can get before it becomes something else entirely. A girl asks her boyfriend to kill her father. He tries.  Things don't go particularly well for anyone. This was one of the most gruesome films of the weekend so far, more blood thrown at the set than I've seen for a very long time. Subtlety is not this film's strong point.

Not particularly witty but laugh out loud funny for 95% of it. The other 5% even made me squirm. 4.5/5








The Shorts programme -

Much better shorts today than yesterday. Despite a technical glitch on the last couple of films these were thoroughly enjoyable.
Stop - a well acted and alll too plausible tale of a police stop with two black guys and a white girl in the stopped car. Only fault was that the story just kind of stopped rather than ending.
Changeling - Surreal and disturbing imagery throughout this one and a weird story indeed when a struggling mother sees strange visions  and transformations.
Bedtime story - proof that "It was only a dream or was it?" can actually produce a damned good and scary film.
The Third Hand - weird and witty, an office based dream happening becomes a nightmare. Fabulous prosthetic work on show in this film.
The Glowing - a great looking monster in this, but disappointingly it doesn't really do anything particularly interesting and felt a bit pointless - fantastic effects work though
Feed me death - another good looking but ultimately a bit pointless feeling film.
Turn - A trio of women go to an osolated cabin where they receive some strange visitors.Really well made film from Iceland - once again though, the story doesn't finish - it just kind of stops at a random point.  Still a damned good little film though.
Limbo - A good example of circular stortelling. Lovely looking film too -

After the shorts, we had this.  Well acted, good looking interesting concept behind it.  However it felt like there was a reel missing from it somewhere. It started in the same vein as Frailty (Bill Paxton's directorial debut)  and moved off in its own direction, or would have done if the script wasn't quite as aimless. Some lovely touches in here but this one was the least successful of the festival so far for me 2/5

Next up was the best comedy at the festival since What We Do In The Shadows several years ago. This shares the same droll sense of humour, but this time from a talented group of Irish film makers.

Rose is a driving instructor in small town Ireland who can see ghosts.  These ghosts are somewhat more mundane than we are used to seeing which is the source of much of the humour.  The script is so laid back it's almost horizontal. A one hit wonder musician is trying to make a deal with the devil - this involves the sacrifice of a virgin - cue the daughter of a local man whose dead wife still tells him how to dress.

Can or will Rose be able to come to the rescue. Fantastically witty and understated film. Imagine the exorcist if father Callan was a shy woman in small town Ireland and the whole thing was scripted and directed by the makers of Father Ted. This deserves to be huge. An easy 5/5

A vampire trapped in a shed, a bullied boy, a fair amount of behind closed shed door bloodshed. Those are the key ingredients in this one. It's good to see vampires that don't sparkle, that don't fall in love with the lead actress and don't moralise endlessly about their unlives. The vamps in this just want to eat people. That alone makes for an entertaining 86 minutes.  It might not be quite as scary as it wants to be, but it's fun and never boring. 3.5/5

Another unruly teenager facing off against a vicious monster. This time it's a 1000 year old witch that wears the skins of its victims. It can also make people forget that their closest relatives exist.

The film has a 35 years ago prologue which was never referenced again.  before leaping to "today" where we see the unruly teen being held underwater, and then it leaps to 5 days ago where we see the build up to the drowning attempt. It's all pretty well done, well made, competently acted.

Certainly no classic, but worth watching.  another 3.5/5.






The strongest day of the festival so far despite having the weakest full length film.