Frightfest 2023 Day Four - Sunday

The Piper

MUTE WITNESS director Anthony Waller (who also gave us AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS) delivers up a prime slice of modern EuroTrash with this highly entertaining take on the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. After Something Bad Happens That Will Be Revealed Later, English-accented Elizabeth Hurley has to relocate to the German town of Hamelin (aha!) with her American-accented daughter only to be plagued with visions of rats while her daughter is bitten by imaginary insects and falls in love with a Scottish-accented Romanian gypsy who May Not Be All He Seems. 

Like many of the EuroHorrors of old the acting in THE PIPER is variable (although Tara Fitzgerald does a fantastic Maria Ouspenskaya - you keep expecting her to bang on about werewolves and have a son named Bela) and the dubbing is dodgy, but the locations are fantastic, as is the architecture, and every now and then Waller offers us some nuggets of visual compositions that will be all EuroHorror fiends will need to keep them going until the end of this one. Jess Franco could have done some bits better but the mere fact a modern horror film had me thinking of him gives this one points. 

THE PIPER is out on digital from 101 Films on Monday 16th October 2023

Rec: Terror Sin Pausa

An excellent documentary on a 21st century classic of the genre, here we get a series of excellent interviews detailing the conception, execution and reception of the film [REC]. Directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza are filmed in conversation with each other about the movie, while we also get interviews with producer Julio Fernandez and cast and crew. 15 years after it was made it's clear everyone involved had a wonderful time making it and still harbour very fond memories. Highlights for this reviewer included all the things Balaguero and Plaza made up in interviews when they got bored, the original review in Variety that trashed it, and, over the end credits, the videotape record of Paco Plaza pitching the plot of REC: GENESIS to Fernandez while Balaguero chips in with some scenes that didn't make it into the film but would have been fantastic if they could have managed them.

Cold Meat

If you're a serial killer with your latest potential victim trussed up in your boot you probably don't think things could get any worse than your car getting stuck in a snowstorm. But what if there's some kind of creature stalking outside? And what if your victim manages to get out of the trunk and into the car? COLD MEAT stretches its premise of 'two people trapped in a car in the freezing cold' such that it feels the story would have been better suited to a short subject, but the acting is fine and the only real disappointment is how little the promised 'creature' features in the actual story. 

COLD MEAT will be released by Signature Entertainment on Digital platforms in 2024

Enter The Clones of Bruce

This excellent documentary from Severin Films kicks off with behind the scenes footage from Hammer's LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES (not that it's identified as such but fans will spot it straight away), before giving us a pre-credits potted history of the short life and career of Bruce Lee before his untimely death. "The world markets wanted more Bruce Lee films," says one film-maker. "We told them he was dead and they said they didn't care, they wanted more Bruce Lee films." And so the 'clones' of Bruce were born, or rather discovered at Hong Kong martial arts schools, Korea, and anywhere else someone who could impersonate the king of Kung Fu could be found. A good set of interviews with some of the surviving directors and actors who worked at Golden Harvest (including "Bruce Li" and "Dragon Lee") means this is the usual excellent work from Severin on a topic that you're unlikely to know that much about unless you're a martial arts obsessive. And I never realised Bruce Lee himself was the one who set the trend of making 'Kung Fu noises' when he was about to fight.

The Blue Rose

A bold and bravura first feature effort from its 18 year old writer, director, co-composer and star? Or a load of pretentious old twaddle that disappears up its own nether regions about halfway through, never to return? I have to confess I find myself veering towards the latter opinion with THE BLUE ROSE, a film that very much feels like someone who has seen THE LOVE WITCH and a lot of David Lynch and wanted to make something similarly stylish and impenetrable but fascinating. Well they managed the impenetrable part. In a DayGlo-noir version of Hollywood a murder is committed and this film's version of Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence are despatched to investigate. After that I honestly had no idea what was happening and more importantly I found I could not summon the energy to care very much. There's a style and vigour to the proceedings that suggests George Baron, the young auteur behind this, may well make a great film one day, but he's not quite there yet.

Mancunian Man

The latest documentary from Jake West and Severin Films is all about Cliff Twemlow, a name few will be familiar with and the work he produced perhaps even less so, because Mr Twemlow, along with being a body builder, nightclub bouncer, author and composer was a low budget movie maker. The problem is that he was based in Manchester in the 1980s and (from what one takes away from this two hour plus film of him and his life) most of the films he made were either never released or received limited distribution.

There's a resurgence of interest in fearless independent British movie mavericks at the moment, though, with Indicator's massive boxset of the movies of Michael J Murphy leading the way, such that one wonders if Severin is preparing a similar package of Twemlow movies (perhaps with a couple of CDs of the DeWolfe library music he composed by humming tunes into a tape recorder and getting other people to arrange them). Maybe such unsung shot on video 'classics' such as GBH (1983), TARGET EVE ISLAND (1983), IBIZA CONNECTION (1984) and PREDATOR: THE QUIETUS (1988) will finally get to be seen by a wider audience. If not then there's still this very comprehensive documentary that, like so many of its type, details the ups and downs and frequently ramshackle and chaotic approach to independent moviemaking. It's very well put together, and filled with interviews and clips from the films themselves, which will give you a good idea of if you'd like to seek them out or steer well clear.

Sympathy for the Devil

Expectant father Joel Kinnaman is on the way to the hospital where his wife has gone into labour when, out of the shadows of the hospital car park appears Nicolas Cage, wielding a gun and resplendent in red jacket and hair. Cage orders Kinnaman to drive. How far and whether or not they get to the intended destination is just a small part of this tense, well shot, well acted piece of neon noir. It's pretty much a two hander between the leads but the movie wisely opens up the scenario so it's not just two men shouting at each other in a car. Kinnaman is nicely restrained and provides an excellent counterpart to his co-star who goes Full Cage in this one. Don't let that put you off, though. SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL is a taut, suspenseful, decent little thriller and definitely a Frightfest highlight. 

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL will be released on Digital platforms by Signature Entertainment on Monday 8th September 2023