FrightFest

9/10 - Excellent mainstream horror with comic touches.

Did anyone else struggle, whenever Daniel (the brother) came on screen, not to yell out ?

Hands down the film of the festival for me. Too much po-faced, misery horror this year and not enough crowd pleasers that we can unite and have a laugh with.

Funnily enough I thought there were lots of comedic films this year, but little of the way of spine chillers or dread inducing movies! Anyway, onto my brief review of this film:

Riotous fun with plenty of laughs and gore. Yes, the premise is absurd and there are some niggling continuity issues where a point is established and then moments later is completely ignored or broken. Nevertheless, a very entertaining rollercoaster ride that despite some big names isn't afraid to be bloody, violent and even 8.5 / 10

terrifically entertaining stuff. Nice to see a studio film that isn't a franchise or rip-off or retread

Another film driven by a great central performance from the lead actress. There were several of those this weekend.
A bit of Get Out, a lot of You're Next... I was wanting Samara Weaving's character to do a bit more ass-kicking in the middle part of the film (after the hints that she was a fairly tough kid brought up in foster homes, etc) but it all played out satisfactorily if fairly predictably.
But the main point is that it's all done extremely well and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Up there with the best of the weekend.

The most entertaining and complete film of the festival which I expect to be the most popular despite others probably willing and lying to themselves that an indie film was better.

If dicks and daddy issues started the themes of the festival then that quickly went into "rich are only rich because the worship Satan" themes, including the short films. Still, whatever makes jealous liberal films makers happy, eh.

Anyway, very well acted, the right length, good to keep the guessing with which way her husband might go at the end and a fine lead performance, which was far more convincing than here 5-second taped intro to the film.

Top 3 easily.

Possibly the best film of the festival, even though You're Next was similar in tone and content but was grittier and more impactful. This film plays up the comedy angle and has a lot of last-second escapes, which are all entertaining but take away from the tension. It's all solid and looks polished, and has some interesting twists and turns.