FrightFest

7/10 - Pretty good, nicely paced, but showed its budget at times. Opening was trying a bit too hard. Good work from the lead. Another one for the 'traps don't do that' hall of fame, though...

I really wanted to see this film but couldn't make that day.. It looked like it had a definite kick ass horror film spit and safety pin swagger, as do those involved in its making! I'll have to catch up...)

A reasonable opener for the festival, a mix of punk, gore and humour, although the latter of which didn't always come off or devalued some of the more horrific scenes. I wondered whether it would play better without some of the "cheap" one-liners? Nevertheless, I did enjoy the film overall and the ending did leave me wondering what happens next. I did wonder about the time setting, because if it was meant to be in the 1980's I wasn't sure whether some of the references were technically time appropriate? 7 / 10

4/10. Shades of Green Room, but with less brutal ingenuity, The Ranger doesn't seem sure whether it's going for slasher or comedy and ends up in some awkward place between the two that didn't really work for me. The kills come too late on and aren't inventive enough to be satisfying; most of the humour is derived from the eponymous ranger reciting pedantic bylaws before dispatching his victims, which gets old fast. On the plus side, populating your film full of obnoxious teenage pricks affords plenty of opportunity for catharsis when they meet their thoroughly deserved demise, but the downside is that you have to spend over 2/3 of the film in their company.

A middle-of-the-road slasher. The Ranger himself was quite a fun slasher villain. Him quoting park regulations before killing people was a fun slasher quirk. Other than that it's standard stuff, with a typical final girl, some decent gory kills and doomed teenagers. The teenagers were absolutely revolting in this one and I couldn't wait for them to die. Unfortunately, the set-up takes much longer than it should so far too much time is spent enduring the company of these people before the movie gets to the slasher action. The 80s setting is fine, but doesn't entirely convince, especially when held up against the much better recreation in Summer of 84 that followed this. Somehow, all the teenagers seem like modern-day people in 80s costume.

Below average for the festival as a whole, but fine for an opener. The privilege of opening the festival often goes to some fresh talent that the organisers wish to highlight, and Jenn Wexler does seem like she has potential to be a future talent.

This would have irritated me more if it had been shown at any other time other than the first film. Oddly the middle part of the film was OK, the rest was just annoying.

It seems FF2018 was book ended by two films with glaring soundtracks and hateful characters.

Having said that I did like the way the gay couple was handled, in so much as it was just a regular relationship and didn't need a some big flashing rainbow to virtue signal the fact. The best bit was the it was mercifully short and over very quickly (insert your own Carry On gags).

All in all, a bit pointless.