Interlude – Frightfest 2010

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe I have finally found my tribe. I need a break from crafting my reviews – a difficult task to juggle when you consider mortal concerns such as sleep, sustenance and sanity – but this has been an amazing experience, prompting the question as to why haven’t I tried this before? What was I thinking? I toyed with the idea of attending Frightfest last year but it clashed with my Paris expedition, that of course does not excuse my previous eight years of oversight. This festival is a wonderful experience, quite different from the London Film Festival given that that is stretched over the panorama of the capitals movie capacities, Frightfest is appropriately more focused on the two screens of the Empire Leicester Square, and it is all the more efficient and cosy in that design.

The infrastructure is amazing – the Empire’s Screen 1 is enormous – it’s much more impressive than the flagship Odeon across the square (where I saw Inception from the balcony which was not that impressive) – with a superb sound system and generous sight-lines from every seat, it is testament to the festivals approach that the organisers genuinely encourage patrons to select alternative seats for less compacted screenings and they are easily approachable and welcome discussion, the whole ethos is to have fun, meet people and enjoy yourself. Almost every screening I’ve seen has been punctuated with Q&A’s with the stars and directors of the particular film, not to mention some throughly amusing intermission episodes, short films, montages and teasers that really build a sense of occasion. Earlier today yesterday the director of The Human Centipede turned up unexpectedly with some stills from his compounded sounding sequel, the day before Tobe Hooper materialised for the first time in the UK for eighteen years, before that Tony Todd and Kane Hodder were stalking autograph hunters and genre aficionados – suffice to say there is a real sense of community and there are unexpected surprises at every turn. Oh, and free DVD’s – nice.

I did want to address the removal of A Serbian Film controversy so here is my two cents, I confess I’m in a quandary. On the one hand, from reading more about the film, about its events and sequences I’m partially glad I don’t have to endure this experience as it sounds reprehensible – that’s my choice. It may – and I stress the may – be one of those loathsome films that confuses artistic intent with simple obscenity, to generate a media buzz on the back of its empty cacophony. On the other hand I am in binary opposition to a process that allows adults – and again I stress the word adults – to confiscate, to censor and prevent what other adults can see, what other adults can read, what other adults can listen to and absorb, never forgot that this is Westminster Council who similarly banned Cronenberg’s Crash a decade ago on the grounds of similarity minded, pathetic puritanicalism. It may be a horrendous piece of work with no value but I and other adults would like the opportunity to make that judgement rather than some vague arbiter of cultural acceptability. There is a principle here and it is very scary when one sliver, when one portion of society can make this judgement without oversight or accountability. Several million points of kudos to the Frightfest crew to aligning with the artistic judgement call and pulling it rather than screening it in an uncut form, not to mention Westminster Council overlooking and insulting the thousands of pounds that is spent by people coming from all over Europe and the US to such a well established event, that is in diametric opposition to a local council’s objectives and concerns.

Personally speaking, after easing myself into the carnage with a mere two screenings (plus events) over the first two days I went lunatic yesterday with a back to back five film extravaganza, fuck knows when I’ll find the time to cover all this activity, suffice to say some screenings will be abbreviated – the two UK films and the Tobe Hooper double bill plus Q&A can be compressed, we shall see how this all develops. I’d like to catch some of the Asian, Australian and French material that is still on offer but some of the other remaining essentials may prevent this task. I’m back in the saddle later on but I have to give an enormous endorsement to Monsters – trailer above – which I suspect will be the best film of the festival and one of the best films of the year. It’s terrific. Seriously. Finally, another shameless plug, some of my reviews are getting streamed over here, please give them some traffic. Tomorrows todays big attraction? A world premiere of the first 15 minutes or so of The Walking Dead…..