Frightfest 2018 Day Four - Sunday

The Man Who Killed Hitler & Then The Bigfoot

The title may suggest craziness but this is actually a moving and elegiac piece on the opportunities we take in life and the ones we miss, and the impact both sets of decisions make both on ourselves and how the world perceives us. In World War II Calvin Barr (Aidan Turner) kills Hitler but loses the love of his life. Many years later Calvin (now played by Sam Elliott) is called on to kill Bigfoot and finds himself hunting a mythic creature while coming to terms with America's mythic view of him. It's extremely rare for me to get a lump in my throat at a Frightfest film (the last time was with THESE FINAL HOURS) but I did with this.  

He's Out There

Psycho loony threatens hopeless mother and her hopeless children in their isolated forest retreat while hopeless husband turns up late and does something hopeless. Awful, badly thought through generic rubbish. My first (and hopefully only) walk out this year. Stop reading this and move straight on to something way more worthwhile.


Await Further Instructions

Now this was much more like it. A low budget British horror with a smart script that takes the Nigel Kneale route of doing satire through science fiction and does it well. Thought provoking and disturbing, the film kicks off with a family getting together at Christmas, only for everyone to wake up the next morning and find their house has been mysteriously sealed off. The only clue they have as to what has happened is their television screen displaying the film's title. I'm not saying any more because the less you know about this one the more you'll love it (and hopefully be blown away by what happens). Seriously good creative stuff. One of the best of Frightfest 2018.


Anna & the Apocalypse

Having been left reeling by the ending of AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS, this was the perfect come down movie, A Scottish zombie high school musical from a director who admitted in the introduction that the only movie with songs that he really liked was SOUTH PARK BIGGER LONGER AND UNCUT.  I was therefore immediately endeared to both him and his film before it even began. It's utterly charming for the first half. The songs are catchy, the actors are all likeable, and the humour is splendid. It all starts to lose its way after that, resulting in a finale that is nowhere near as affecting or satisfying as movies that try the same kind of thing such as SHAUN OF THE DEAD, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEB or COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES. It's still a pretty good time, though, and the songs sounded marvellous through the IMAX sound system.

To Day 5