Shorts

[giles edwards]

For me, although it's an immense onslaught and I was perplexed at first, I did think The Chest has stayed with me more than a lot of other shorts. A pretty raw and difficult allegory for -- as I interpreted it -- something like abortion, or some similar crime of personal humanity within that family which this spectre of a child wishes to reprimand. Whatever you think of the content or the aesthetic chosen, it's undoubtedly made by someone who can shoot very well indeed. Kudos, sir.

So…a mixed bag this year it seems, for many. But there wasn't a single one (I'm not including Horrorshow in that assessment, for obvious reasons) which didn't bring something interesting to the party -- and most included some really terrific sequences. It bodes well for any future features from these guys. Colour me excited.

In conclusion, I still feel completely privileged to have had Horrorshow shown in front of the ever-growing Frightfest crowd, negative assesments and all. And to have done so with such a fine and eclectic bundle of shorts, both those of high cost gloss and -- certainly with my 400 quid budget for The Incursion -- very insular, lo-fi grit variety, is grand.

Feedback is feedback and I'm sure all the guys have got an immense amount from the experience. I know I have. Frightfest's a bit like a like a gory film school, you know.

[lupogirl]

Excellent line up of shorts He Dies At The End stood out for me. Simple premise and made me jump. The Chest had me head scratching. Did not understand the point of the boy gouging the baby which made the adults eye bleed. Mmmmmm

Good to see fellow Frightfesters coming up with some superb shorts. Well Done!!

[AndyJWS]

Thoroughly enjoyed this year's suggestion and appreciated the (good) comedy stuff - a good sense of humour goes a long way with shorts, with one of my favourite ever FF shorts still being P*ssboy...

Best pair were probably The Amazing Trousers and Total Fury...

[lamprey]

Hi Can -

I'm glad you enjoyed my film. I wasn't at FF this year - I was getting married instead!

But from what I can gather, it seems like you were the only other director doing a 'straight' horror, ie. a film with no comedy elements or obvious pastiche/homage, so I find it very odd that your film has been singled out as being 'out of place' by a lot of people on this forum.

As i said in an earlier post, FF is meant to be a HORROR festival, not a comedy one. Yet most people's favourite shorts were either 'The Amazing Trousers' (which I've watched on YouTube) and is not even trying to be scary, or 'Total Fury' which is apparently hilarious but again, in no way frightening or disturbing.

I'd love to see your film. Could you post me a copy?

cheers

- Ben

[can evrenol]

Hi Ben,
Exactly!
I would have love to see more horror films; as in films that challange you, disturb you - or at least entertain you with its passion to disturb (like Fulci, Argento, Lenzi films).

And yes that 'Amazing Trousers' is a straight out comedy (not that I disliked the film, it was definately great for what it was).

I quite enjoy it when people hate a horror film with comments like 'ridicolous attempt to shock with no story' or 'sick and nasty' or 'I can't understand a boy gouging a baby and the adults bleed' - but I was surprised to get these comments from some Frightfest fans. I love Frightfest for being the modern Grand Guignol.

You can watch 'The Chest' on my website www.canevrenol.com

enjoy your honeymoon!
Can

[bennozoid]

ben it's ben #2 here (NEON KILLER)....GET BACK 2 YOUR HONEYMOON!!!! i can't believe you're on this forum when you should be romancin' and sipping on fine wines!!!!!!!!

Send my love to helen!

[bennozoid]

and yeah, the more i think about it, especially following Giles' interpretation: there is a lot going on in THE CHEST!......

What's next 4u Can?........if you ever want to shoot in the UK, let us know....we'll help you out!........

[MaxRenn]

Hi guys, I am the director of The Chest.

Yes my film was an exercise in excess and bad taste but that's just what I enjoy sometimes (not always).
I wanted to bring a Fulci-passionate and Fulci-badtaste supernatural, apocalyptic shock to the streets of modern day Turkey (It is the street I grew up in Istanbul).

I see the film as a deliverance of a reasonless evil. It would be useless with a background story. I imagine a different background story every-time I watch the film. I liked how somebody after the film came up to me and interpreted the chest as a symbol for the womb, cradle and the coffin.

I was seeking to provoke people in some Turkish short film festivals. I could have never imagined to make into such a festival as Frightfest! I feel very lucky to be a part of this.

Hi there, I'd like to add my voice to positives on The Chest, I thought it brought some of the surrealistic gore of 70s euro horror and a nice sense of the apocalyptic.

[psychobilly]

I was suprised by the amount of comedy shorts this year, whats going on?

I'd really love to see someone create a really scary scene that you'd see in an asian horror or something serious, good looking. I kinda feel like shorts are a training ground to proper films, and really its probably harder to do serious than funny, makes me wonder if the organisers just picked funny ones as they are very sure they will go down well?

I wonder if there were serious ones out there that werent chosen and wouldnt even get the time of day off the crowd? I can see why they chose the ones they did, as even horror comedy features go down better with the crowd, personally I'm not keen on horror comedy shorts.

I thought the trousers one was best, and the one with the aliens and the cat was the worst, it was kinda animal cruelty it being chased and clawing at the walls like that. eugh, I liked the schwarzenegger one.
I thought the chest was pretty good, if only cos it wasnt trying to be funny or was it.

Good effort from all the short film makers tho, hope you all go on to make bigger and better horrors! please try to do something serious tho, maybe supernatural...suspense...creepy... not gore for a change, it gets kinda boring.

[Team Banzai]

by the way - the great short from germany IS ANYONE THERE is not a comedy!

no specifics as to the choices this year - it was just that these worked best for me (and the team) personally

there were a couple of good "running around the woods" ones also but too much of the same

but saying all that the shorts this year across the board played brilliantly

it was fantastic seeing the audience reaction from oh no... in TOTAL FURY (my favourite) to hilarity as they got the early horror/violent tone just right

anyway... the shout is out for next year - so stop whining and get MAKING!!!!!!!!

[Team Banzai]

oh and some figures ....

total shorts submissions amounted to around 300

i then chose my favourite 30

which were then screened to alan and ian

we then collectively chose the final package - there were some GREAT hard horror ones that i would have LOVED to include but either time constraints or the other guys just did not "get" them

will include a couple in the ICA event including an absolute corker!!!!!!

[bennozoid]

TEAM NEON KILLER is already prepping something for next year's Frightfest; either for Glasgow, or London; that is: if we get accepted!!!!??!..........nothing is taken for granted! Having my film projected in Leicester Square blew my mind!!! I highly recommend it........

[AdeBrown]

Maybe you three should choose a selection each, Paul ?

[Team Banzai]

not a bad idea.. but i could never in a gazillion years see the other 2 sitting through everything - and there were some fabulously awful failures - a few were so mind-numbingly terrible that i would LOVE to show you them - but i always look at each one carefully as i ALWAYS appreciate the time, effort and love that goes into each one

[AdeBrown]

How about an X(movie)Factor type screening next year before FFX?

Small cinema, audience of FF veterans, screening a selection of shorts to narrow down - Alan can be Simon Cowell, Ian can be Louis Walsh and you can be .... erm ... Pete Waterman.