FrightFest Glasgow 2020 (Glasgow Film Festival)

[Alex J]

Anderson Falls

Sadly in the late night slot due to technical difficulties, as I feel it would've played better earlier in the day due to its mystery element. The opening scene is very strong and I enjoyed parts of the twisting storyline, although I kept expecting a big twist as well as a different rationale for the events than what I got.

It's also a bit corny at times, but given it had the near-impossible act to follow of VFW beforehand I'll be generous with the rating.

7 / 10

[Alex J]

My top 5 of the fest:

1. VFW
2. Saint Maud
3= Synchronic
3= The Mortuary Collection
5. Death of a Vlogger

[TheDukeAbides]

Thanks to all those involved in bring us Frightfest Glasgow 2020, the Big Four, the volunteers, the organisers of the festival in general and all those backstage.

A good time was had by all, though it will be interesting to see how many succumb to corona virus in the next fortnight, a lot of hand washing was done in that frustratingly small toilet, with a lot of fumbling for the hand driers "under the mirror"

Shame we could self isolate in there for two weeks, having food and films dropped off as requested.

So I'll now spam post my reviews of the films I saw on this thread, though I didn't make the Thursday films...

Thanks to all once again.

[TheDukeAbides]

CUBICLE

A nice vivid, single location short with some genuine tension.

LIVE FOREVER

A rather funny ode to horror films via the means of a bit of an ear worm song.


THE CLEANSING HOUR

I enjoyed most of this film. It did drag and felt over long, as if the budget was trying to be used up and as much stuff as possible was being thrown on to the screen.
The acting was good, as were the visuals and it was pretty well constructed, it was a better film when it was trying (and succeeding in the main) to be funny rather than the more serious and horror parts of it.

Better than average.

[TheDukeAbides]

BLACK MASS

A bleak look at death and suicide which, if it weren't for some rather ropey acting/delivery and odd visuals may have had more of an impact.


IN THE QUARRY

What is non-toxic masculinity?
Is there toxic femininity?

A main cast of 4, where only one of them is portrayed as a decent human being and the other 3 have loathsome traits of one type or another. Not in any stretch like Harpoon and I did node off at one point.
Well acted but forgettable.

[TheDukeAbides]

SEA FEVER

The one thing that stuck with me were what exact accents some of them were putting on, having not spent any time around fishing communities maybe they all have strange hybrid Scots/Irish/Scandi twangs.

An interesting and well put together story that was well told and acted but also could have done with being trimmed quite a bit. Nice visuals and some good humour, dark or otherwise.

Better than average.

[TheDukeAbides]

A GHOST WAITS

Tied as my film of the festival, and of recent Frightfests in general.

It was a tad too long and as discussed with others; perhaps the ending could have some rather dodgy interpretations of what its trying to say.

But all in all a fantastically emotional, touchingly comic look at loneliness, love and companionship. Great acting and dialogue.

[TheDukeAbides]

THE MORTUARY COLLECTION

I did not watch this. I'm not a fan of anthologies and try to avoid them, which I thought I had until Friday's technical difficulties.

[Donut]

Top three

Saint Maud
VFW
Butt Boy

Worst- Anderson Falls, which occasionally teetered into so bad it's hilarious territory.

[TheDukeAbides]

ANDERSON FALLS / A NIGHT OF HORROR: NIGHTMARE RADIO

Anderson Falls wouldn't play and after about a 30 minute delay they stuck on Nightmare radio, which as I said above I was hoping to avoid.

Well, I was up and in the cinema so why not watch it. It was OK. The DJs voice really irritated me but not as much as the ear-splittingly loud volume at the start of the film.
Fairly forgettable, the only story I remember is the photography one and even that is mobbed by the subtitles/no subtitles Spanish part of the film, which by that time I'd decided to leave and did so.

So cue, Anderson Falls in the late night slot and what a load of dross that was. It seemed only Gary Cole had any intention of trying not to be a plank of wood and in that instance he did seem to have a hammy gleam in his eye all the way through.

Crap dialogue. Fuck tonne of exposition and characters and situations I didn't really care for. Very, very meh.

However.

If I'd been more drunk then the crap dialogue and acting would have been even more funny than it unintentionally was.

[TheDukeAbides]

ZOMBIE FOR SALE

If ever a film had more endings than The Return of the King then this was it. Though to its credit, each extra bit did have a good idea to it so I can't really find that much fault.

Well structured and acted, if padded and a bit too slow paced at times, it was full of an inventiveness that in the zombie genre still surprises me.

A few steps below One Cut of the Dead but good fun and entertaining.

[TheDukeAbides]

SAINT MAUD

A fine ensemble piece, from acting and writing, to production, design and direction.

A quality scare in it too that in an age of predictable jump-scare films is refreshing to witness.

Very good.

[TheDukeAbides]

FATALE COLLECTIVE: BLEED

6 short films, that were all rather short and pointless and said nothing other than women could make films. Who knew?

BUTT BOY

Don't quite know where to begin or end with this. I'd simply say, much like Cleansing Hour was better trying to be funny rather than horror, this too was better when it was being darkly, fucking darkly funny, rather than police drama/sinister.

I felt it pulled away from being too sinister in the final act, which is what a film like this needed but otherwise, completely unclassifiable and incomparable to much else.

Well acted, written and paced, could do with a few trims but good, good fun.

[TheDukeAbides]

VFW

I was expecting schlock and exploitation-lite but got a great buddies in a siege movie instead.

A stellar cast with great performances all round, characters that are well defined and you care about makes a simple story very effective.

My only gripe is the fast cutting and slightly dark lighting made the time spent of effects a bit pointless.

Very, very good.

[TheDukeAbides]

Top 3:

1 = Ghost Waits/VFW
3= Zombie for Sale

With a few others definitely up there and a few others definitely down there.