Frightfest 2023 Day Three - Saturday

Monolith

A fine science fiction piece from Australia, set in a single location and with only a single actress (Lily Sullivan from EVIL DEAD RISE) onscreen. A disgraced reporter chances across a story regarding something people can only describe as a black brick. A few telephone calls and interviews later and it sounds as if various people across the world have received mysterious black bricks that have changed their lives. Then it's revealed that internal scans of the bricks' structures have revealed mysterious symbols folded in on themselves, each different for every brick / person. Combining a strong allegory for how we deal with guilt with a mounting sense of dread, cosmic horror & possible alien invasion, MONOLITH is a riveting and fascinating watch.

Cobweb

Two parts BBC Children's teatime serial and one part BEAST IN THE CELLAR (I'm not giving anything away that the poster up there isn't) COBWEB is really very good until it suddenly isn't. A little bullied boy lives with his mad parents (good performances from Antony Starr and especially Lizzy Caplan) in a creepy old house. One night he hears knocking behind a wall, followed by whispering. After a good atmospheric buildup, if you want to get the best effect out of this one leave / switch it off once the boy unlocks the tiny door and you get the first, subtle, terrifying glimpse of what's behind it. Then leave, because then it all goes a bit disappointingly generic US mainstream horror. 

To Fire You Come At Last

There aren't enough Sean Hogan films in the world and even if TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST is only 43 minutes long it's still better than us having nothing from him at all. There's a strong sense of both the BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas and other fine TV adaptations to this story of four men carrying the coffin of the local Squire's son to his final resting place. Shot in black in white, this one starts off with brooding shots of the landscape before funnelling down into increasingly claustrophobic terror. The monochrome photography also contributes immensely to a standout performance from James Swanton whose face would have perfectly suited the kind of 1940s Monogram Gothic the actor John Carradine was such a highlight of.

Herd

Couple-in-relationship-trouble Jamie and Alex go on a canoeing holiday to hopefully sort out their problems. While there Alex sustains an injury so minor that when she's revealed to have sustained a compound fracture of the tibia the main thing anyone should be wondering is if she has brittle bone disease. She also exhibits remarkable levels of pain tolerance and is able to hobble around on a completely fractured lower limb and engage in serious deep meaningful discussions with her partner as if all she has suffered is a small gnat bite. Meanwhile there's a zombie plague going on. HERD is a sloppy, awkward mixture of shouty relationship drama and low-budget zombie flick that obviously has aspirations to be thought of as more than 'just another zombie film'. Unfortunately there's just not the skill here to make any of this work, coupled with a lack of attention to detail that is initially distracting but swiftly becomes irritating. 

HERD will be released on Digital by High Fliers on Monday 23rd October 2023

Transmission

From Mike Hurst, the man who gave the world MANSQUITO and a host of other movies nobody owned up to having seen at this screening. "If you've been watching TV at 2am you've probably seen my work, for about fifteen minutes" said the cheerfully self-detracting director. His latest, and self-funded, effort is considerably more interesting and original than his usual sequel and direct to SyFy fodder. Taking the form of channel surfing late at night where all the different channels visit eventually form a single cohesive story, TRANSMISSION tells its tale well, especially considering the ambitious concept. What happened to occult-obsessed movie director Franklin T Roth (Vernon Wells)? And why has his final film never been seen? Why are there frequent news reports of suicides and a mysterious symbol drawn everywhere in Santa Mira? It all gets explained and it's all rather fun into the bargain.