FrightFest

Weird that the best British movie on display this year is the one that hasn't yet had a thread created in its name....

I liked this one; of the three featured in the Film4 New Blood promo, it's the one I was looking forward to the most, and the one I enjoyed the most. It's grim, creepy, utterly believable and manages to marry demonic horror with drab council estate settings. Very nicely done, and some interesting little twists. (I guessed about Amy long before it was revealed, though.)

Agreed on this (see elsewhere for evidence of my rating this as favourite) although the Q&A was rather dull

Excellent atmospherics (I went to that estate to take some photo references for friends last year, it's the quintessential London council tragedy). Classy performances from the lead and his dad.

Remeniscent of Dead Man's Shoes and The Vanishing.

Unlike Martyrs the switch from social commentary did not damage the end. I think the film'd have been even stronger if the ghosts were left as the only supernatural part though.

And a refreshing use of real people as something more than menacing caricatures ... was that the gang leader that helped Matt up when he escaped from the tunnel ?

Agree... this was an excellent surprise treat. Had a feeling I wasn't going to enjoy this but boy was I wrong.

Tense, moody, chilling and dark. A very impressive movie that handled demons and ghosts with a subtlety that's rarely seen in the era of easy CGI.

Well acted, superbly shot and utterly compelling... even more impressed that it showed a grimly realistic picture of inner city London without resorting to cheap and easy stereotypes.

Big surprise this one, wasn't really expecting anything but it turned out to be excellent.

To start with it just seemed a bit like another depressing British council estate story, but as it went on it became obvious it was much much more.

I thought this was a bit like a British version of The Orphanage, an unexpected highlight of the festival.

9/10

Really liked this one, I hope it does really well when it comes out

I wanted to like it, it was well made, quite atmospheric and the lead actor held it all together very well.

The grim, strangely quiet estate reminded me a bit of Candyman, or rather Clive Barker's original story. Also of some of Ramsey Campbell's short stories.

But ultimately I didn't think the horror/supernatural aspects gelled very well with the "troubled family" drama. It was too slow and lacked momentum - the "clues" Matt found all seemed to be isolated bits and pieces, rather than a real trail which led anywhere - until he suddenly realised who was responsible. And the burning inverted crosses, glowing red eyes and too-old photo of the bad guy were a bit silly. They should've stuck to the low-key Sixth Sense stuff - or gone OTT with a full-on Satanic cult/conspiracy (anyone remember Darklands?).

I hope it does well though. Always good to see British directors making genre movies.

I must admit I wasn’t expecting a lot from this film. I thought it would be a thriller that I probably wouldn’t enjoy that much…. But I was so wrong. This was the biggest surprise of the line up for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would probably add this to my collection. There was an excellent balance of creepyness and suspense and the ending was awesome.

Really liked this and I hope to catch it again for a second viewing when released

The Soapmaker wrote:They should've stuck to the low-key Sixth Sense stuff - or gone OTT with a full-on Satanic cult/conspiracy.

Agreed. Good stuff, though.

A strange one in that I thought it was very well made and supremely well acted by the lead actor but I didn't find it remotely creepy or scary.

It did keep my interest and I would say I enjoyed it, it just didn't tick all the boxes as none of the scares delivered for me.

Admitedly I was knackered by then as I saw all the films of the fest but last year The Orphanage was my 25th film and it blew me away.
Can't work out why the scares in The Orphanage really work and the ones in this just don't.

Look forward to what the director does next though.

Great acting, good film making. Personally would have liked more supernatural stuff but it was very good for what it was.

There was one bit of this that really bugged me.

The bit when the main kid is telling Draco Malfoy about the medium, and out of nowhere he says "she died in a fire years ago, her daughter was there and everything", it totally ripped me out of the experience.

True story.

This film had a great story line and the South East London council estate setting was a brilliant choice for a horror film. It was good, but for some reason I could imagine it as a 3 part TV series more than a movie. It didn't quite blow me away. I think the script was the weak link to be honest and some of the acting wasn't convincing.

I felt like the language of the young characters was a bit overly scripted and it seemed to me that these were stage school kids who didn't speak like that in real life, putting on the accent and saying words that they were scripted to say rather than genuine londoners just being themselves. The Cathy burkes and Ray Winstons of this world are brilliant actors who don't usually "do accents" and are just real and always believable and that is the approach you needed for this setting.

Then you had the posh next door neighbour which I didn't understand the point of. I understood the point of the character, that was fine, but it was just another stage school kid with a non street accent who seemed to have to be in the film, so they made up a little story about her dad losing his job and moving to the wrong side of town which was a bit lame. Not to say it can't happen, but it seemed that it had to be added in to justify the girls poshness. I know the genuine article as far as these kids are concerned and its a shame the casting was slightly off.

Still enjoyed watching this and the locations were very well chosen. The look of the film was great.

One of my favs of the whole weekend. Really got immersed in this. It was more like a traditional ghost story than a jump every minute run of the mill film. loved the feel of it and liked the fact the end villian's origins werent explained as now one knew who he was ... creepy.

I knew quite quickly who Amy was ... I thought that a cool little twist.

Great little film

Another promising British film... not one of my favourites but still a good debut and had a great central performance from Harry Treadaway I thought.