FrightFest

4/10 - Emotionally flat. Didn't engage with this one at all... which seemed a shame as some of the ingredients seemed OK. Music was poor. Perked up a bit in the final act, but too little and too late.

Complete rubbish, but sometimes enjoyably so. It opened with unnecessary text that gives away most of the plot; witches from the town of Orchard wanting a woman to bear the child of Satan, and proceeds as a weird version of Rosemary's Baby, filled with lots of imagery of cherries and centipedes, and a nonsenical script which rides roughshod over logic to allow its story to proceed. I wasn't too impressed by Wake Wood by the same writer/director team, but it was well-made, so it surprises me that this was so poor - there's dodgy editing, absurd atttempts at scares, and the director seems to have no control over performances, resulting in actors who are mostly wooden, apart from the more experienced Anna Walton, who chews the scenery without hindrance. At first it's boring, but as it goes on the risible dialogue and illogical twists add entertainment, especially a crazy ending that goes all over the place.

4/10

I couldn't get over the terrible sound, ridiculous editing and painfully slow characters. The weakest of the festival for me.

I tried hard to like this but quibbles with the plot and how characters behaved, along with underpowered sequences and some absurdities meant this one fell some way short of a classic cult horror. One of the weakest of the festival for me 6.5 / 10

Complete and utter shite.

But in some ways it brought back happy memories of early Frightfest opening nights.... terrible British/Irish films introduced by uncomfortable-looking directors accompanied by a couple of girls who you eventually realised had bit-parts in the film. It was a tradition which possibly only existed in my mind... but it was part of the fun.

FF often seems to start with a real turkey

...and when you realise that the centipedes are stealing the show, you know you're in trouble...

Complete garbage and a really poor choice for the film to open the festival.

Have to confess that I did enjoy watching it, but not for it being good... It did look very nice though!

Had high hopes for this after enjoying Wake Wood but as everyone else has described, it was a big letdown. Dodgy script, dodgy acting and lacking in horror and suspense. Great centipedes though, I hope this doesn't spell the end of their burgeoning careers.

I thought the use of the colour red was OK...

A very, very bad choice for the opening movie. The first scenes made it look quite promising but it quickly descended into an incoherent mess.
Should have been buried in one of the Discovery screens late at night. 4 / 10

Woeful, although I did think some of the close ups of the centipedes were pretty good.

I used to work in Cork, so I quite enjoyed picking out the locations. It's also bought me a two hour break at Grimmfest to go and have a big dinner and a pint, so I can thank it for that. Otherwise just dumb as fuck, and not in a good way.

I found myself wondering what this movie was even doing at Frightfest, let alone opening the festival....

So many hilarious bits in this:

The devil-child scare at the end.
"You fucking bitch" after being impaled through the chest, delivered in a tone more appropriate to finding out that someone had been saying mean things about her behind her back.
The petrol station attack that the special effects aren't up to, so they just jump-cut to a dummy's face on fire.
The witches trying to burn Faith in the car and then they've all gone off somewhere by the time she escapes.