Mayhem
Film Festival (2014)
As
plans are being made for a group of friends and I to attend the Mayhem Film
Festival 2015 I thought it was about time I reviewed last year’s event!
This
is going to be a long post anyway so to
cut it down a little I’m going to do two days at a time and take inspiration
from one of my favourite horror fiction inventions of all time and each review
will only be two sentences long, plus my usual ratings. I’m not doing ratings
for the shorts as it would take up a lot of room to do them individually and it’s
not fair to do them as a whole.
As
an additional note before I start, Mayhem advertises itself as a festival of
‘horror, science fiction and cult cinema’ so there are a couple of films here
which aren’t listed as horror on IMDb.
Day 1: 30th
October 2014
Astron 6: Shorts Showcase
(various)
This
was the perfect warm-up for The Editor as I was not familiar with Astron 6’s
work (although I had seen a couple of these shorts without knowing who made
them). There were obvious stand-outs, hello Bio-Cop, but all the films were bizarre,
sometimes gross, and very very funny.
The Editor (2014)
IMDb genre:
Comedy/Horror/Thriller
Director:
Adam Brooks & Matthew Kennedy
Writer:
Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy & Connor Sweeney
Starring:
Adam Brooks, Paz de la Huerta, Laurence R. Harvey
A
brief synopsis of this film makes it sound serious but it is definitely not;
it’s very surreal and funny. If you aren’t familiar with giallo films (I wasn’t
beforehand but did some research afterwards) it’s still entertaining but will
seem far sillier and might be a little confusing.
General
Opinion:
Scare
Factor:
Gore:
Clowns:
Let Us Prey (2014)
IMDb genre:
Horror
Director:
Brian O’Malley
Writer:
David Cairns & Fiona Watson
Starring:
Pollyanna McIntosh, Liam Cunningham, Bryan Larkin
There’s
more to this film than I first thought and that’s definitely a good thing. The
writing, acting & direction are basically perfect and this film is very
dark.
General
Opinion:
Scare
Factor:
Gore:
Clowns:
Day 2: 31st
October 2014
Coherence (2013)
IMDb genre:
Sci-Fi/Thriller
Director:
James Ward Byrkit
Writer:
James Ward Byrkit
Starring:
Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon
This
sci-fi is very confusing, I doubt your brain will keep up and any time you see
a glow stick after this film it might trigger a complete meltdown as you try
and piece it all together again. It’s still intriguing though and the acting is
excellent.
General
Opinion:
Scare
Factor:
Gore:
Clowns:
The Town That Dreaded
Sundown (2014)
IMDb genre:
Horror/Thriller
Director:
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Writer:
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Starring:
Addison Timlin, Veronica Cartwright, Anthony Anderson
I
haven’t seen the original so I can’t compare but this one is a high-quality
slasher. It’s very entertaining and unusually it’s hard to guess who the killer
is but the kills could have been far more inventive.
General
Opinion:
Scare
Factor:
Gore:
Clowns:
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(1974)
IMDb genre:
Horror/Thriller
Director:
Tobe Hooper
Writer: Kim
Henkal & Tobe Hooper
Starring:
Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Allen Danziger
The
original on the big screen was a great way to spend Halloween and it holds up
well. The soundtrack is even more unsettling when it’s this loud and the film
as a whole is still creepy.
General
Opinion:
Scare
Factor:
Gore:
Clowns:
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