CTRL

The place to discuss FrightFest 2018 - Dates this year are 23 - 27th August.
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Seat@theBack
Twitching Corpse
Twitching Corpse
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 8:43 am

CTRL

Post by Seat@theBack »

CTRL
//// Really big *SPOILERS* all the way through! ///

I stood in the queue with CTRL's director. He waited patiently to be let through. Someone asked him why he was queuing up to see his own movie and he replied that he'd bought a ticket - respect!

CTRL is a youthful, smart, well-plotted techno horror. It's also pretty sassy, sinister - and decidedly sexy. A love triangle between brother, sister and sister's boyfriend (and a computer virus called Daisy with dreams of new world corruption to make that triangle a chain) is queasy and kinky in equal measure. Nah, who am I kidding? Its 1000 zettabytes of pure kink!

Trapped in a creepy apartment by the virus mutating monstrosity the three humans fight to stay alive. Special effects and make up are outstanding - decaying bodies and black flesh-eating moths rising out of blue bath gloop are a triumph (the intricate veined detail on the wings is impressive; you have to pause this sequence on the trailer to see it though - which for some unknown reason prior to seeing the movie, I did!).

Scalextric shots of minature car stunts never seemed so James Bond a thing than it does in close up here. Recurring future-predicting imagery taunting the beliguered boyfriend betters a duller sequence seen in the most recent Star Wars. A computer human hybrid zombie called Tinkerbell appears briefly but steals the show - give this girl her own movie!

Of the ace small cast of just 3 (or 4 if you include ol' Tink) Saabeah Theos as Lex is especially terrific as a power firebrand of repressed desires, panic and snippets of peace and love: mostly just pretty tough cookie - a definite new face to watch. The director - Harry Lindley - adds flair and urgency to claustrophobic and potentially (but nicely calmed) histrionic scenarios. This is a director who knows when to chill and when to really let loose - a swirling sequence careering to a dead stop as one character gets attacked by those mutant black moths is just plain cool as f/ck!

Crowdfunded (many of those involved are here on the night) and shot on a shoestring budget, CTRL is a fast, quick-clipped, browser gone crazy nightmare scenario of a movie with a smart and convincing script and brilliant final payoff that puts films with bigger profiles and budgets to shame.

Lindley (best known for a short: Ode To A Fuckboi) tells us in his intro that his next movie will be a futuristic version of Romeo and Juliet set in South London - bring that on!

Definitely not for the set-in-their-ways brigade, CTRL is fresh, vibrant, modern youthful horror cinema all grown up and a sign of things - both in plot and execution - to come. The almost hysterical prolonged applause at the end of this screening pretty much tells you all you need to know: I'll be following this man's future movies with interest but for now - bring back Tinkerbell, all right Harry!
Last edited by Seat@theBack on Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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