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| 6th Horrorant International Film Festival, 2019, poster |
I am a
35-year-old film journalist madly in love with a 6-year-old festival (wait a
minute, what did your perverted mind thought?). Said film festival is none
other than Horrorant from Greece, which this year took place simultaneously in
both Athens and Thessaloniki, from the 9th to the 15th of
May 2019, kick-starting its festivities with a cosplay event.
In terms of
screenings, the opening ceremony featured Mon
Mon Mon Monsters (2017), i.e. last year’s winner of the best film prize.
The competition
panorama was compiled of several great features, including Freaks (2018), Anya
(2018), Long Lost (2018), Two Times You (2018), Albatroz (2019), Scopophilia (2018), Every
Time I Die (2019), The Tenants
(2018), Kill Ben Lyk (2018), The Spell (2018), Finale (2018), Carga
(2018), Go Home (2018), Werewolf (2018), Pledge (2018), Last Sunrise
(2019), Romina (2018), Alive (2018), The Soul Conductor (2018), I’ll
Take Your Dead (2018), After The Lethargy
(2018), The Last Serb In Croatia
(2019), Abrakadabra (2018), Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich
(2018), Dead End (2018), Dukun (2018), Long Lost (2018), and Blood
Fest (2018).
Famous for its
retrospectives, Horrorant this year also provided the aegis for the ‘3X3 Latin’
special, in which the talents of South American filmmakers were explored, and
included screenings of Sonno Profondo
(2013), Trauma (2017), Sendero (2015), Perfidia (2014), Luna De
Miel (2015), Perdidos (2014),
and Francesca (2015).
But Horrorant is
also known for featuring in its program some of the very best short films
currently on the festival circuit, and this year audiences had the opportunity
to catch up with Clickbait (2018), Stray (2018), Escalada (2018), Muffin
(2017), Met@slash (2018), It Follows (2018), Amme (2018), Mum I’m Scared
(2018), Piggy (2018), Apollyon (2019), A Doll Distorted (2018), Blackout
(2019), Lura (2018), Mask of Sanity (2018), The Last Well (2018), Anacronte (2018), Glitch (2018), My Brother
Juan (2019), Claudia (2018), My First Time (2018), Beyond Money (2018), Forgive Me (2019), Η Ερήμωση (2019), Antxoni
(2018), Sin Ti (2018), Do you Want me to Kiss you this Time?
(2018), and Brainrain (2018).
Once again Horrorant was packed with guest filmmakers from all over the
world that either provided master-classes or informative and entertaining
Q&A sessions.
The Reviews
Yours truly was
once again the Head of the Awards Jury, and watched all films in the
competition block, and here’s selected reviews.
After the Lethargy (2018)
After The Lethargy
Upon receiving a dodgy alien conspiracy DVD and during the writing of a
book on that particular subject, the female lead Sara Hamilton (Andrea Guasch)
travels to a U.F.O. hot spot, where she is introduced to the local weirdoes
(including a ranger and a repairman), until she will come face to face with a
well-made CGI creature. In the meanwhile, a police investigation is taking
place in the broader area, after the surfacing of some dead bodies, but things
may not be what they seem to be.
Writer/director Marc Carrete (ASMODEXIA
[2014]) takes his time to build up the tension, and that makes its third act
even more exciting, when all hell breaks loose, and a combination of CGI and
practical effects, as well as a few twists in the plot result in a very worthy
viewing. Although it is apparent that the film was made with limited means, the
filmmakers made the most of them.
The film premiered at South America’s prestigious Fantaspoa
International Fantastic Film Festival, and has played many more festivals
since, nominated for several awards and actually winning some of them.
2018, Spain
DIRECTOR: Marc Carrete
The Spell (2019) poster
The Spell
Director Amit Dubey’s second feature comes from Cambodia (it must be the
first film from that country that I get to see), and it is reminiscent of other
Asian ghost films. The plot revolves around a young couple which is moving to a
new secluded villa, where they will come face to face with supernatural terror,
in the form of a ghost. Instead of leaving, they decide to stay and fight evil.
Will they make it? You should watch the film yourself and find out, as loads of
scares ensue, both of the jump variety and otherwise.
Sure, the story is not the film’s strongest asset as we have seen all of
the above plenty of times already, but the visuals are impressive. The film
benefits from Jeremiah Overman’s stunning cinematography and the glorious
widescreen version is a work of art, really. I’m glad I caught up with it at
Horrorant Film Festival, where the world-wide premiere took place.
2019, Cambodia
DIRECTOR: Amit Dubey
Freaks (2018) poster
Freaks
Chloe (child TV actress Lexy Kolker) is a young peculiar girl, that upon
escaping her weird father’s (Emile Hirsch, who also started as a TV actor, but
has now graduated to features) custody, she finds solace at the hands of Mr.
Snowcone (Bruce Dern, no introduction needed), an ice-cream man that may or may
be not her grandfather and who helps her bring out her super powers.
Written and directed by the dynamic duo of Zach Lipovsky and Adam B.
Stein (a television specialist), this is thematically weird and visually
creepy, and you can’t really go wrong with aspects like those. Premiering at
the Toronto International Film Festival, Freaks
then went on to perform very well at several festivals all around the world,
nominated for several awards and even winning quite a few of them.
2018, Canada/USA
DIRECTORS: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Puppet Master: The Littlest...
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich
Imposing a twist on the Puppet
Master franchise’s (1989 – present) story, this kind of mainstream and
quite high profile reboot from directors Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund has a
decayed Andre Toulon (Udo Kier, no introduction needed) as a homophobic Nazi,
who created the famous puppets as the ultimate evil spy killing machines back
in the day of the Reich. Fast forward to the present day, and Carol Doreski
(Barbara Crampton, again no introduction needed), a guide at a tourist resort
at the infamous murders of Toulon’s puppets murders, loses control of the
situation, when said puppets are unleashed and start murdering gypsies, Jews,
etc. Panic ensues and many cast members face inevitable gory deaths.
Wildly entertaining, this is actually the franchise’s bloodiest entry
yet (and I imagine that it will be difficult for anyone to top this in the near
future, although a ‘To be continued…’ title card in the end is promising). It
is also featuring slick cinematography (the kind that the franchise never had
the luck to feature previously) and the best score the puppets ever had in
their background (it was composed by Lucio Fulci darling Fabio Frizzi). The
puppets are amazing as well (and it is quite the innovation seeing them here as
the bad guys, an idea so great it surprising it wasn’t developed earlier by
Charles Band, who is an executive producer here), but the real winner is the
stellar cast, and I am not talking only about the two mega-stars mentioned
above; it just seemed that every cast decision works in spades here.
I believe that this is the best Puppet
Master film we have seen so far, but even you don’t agree, fear not, as it
has been said that this reboot will run independently from Full Moon’s series
canon, so in the near future you will have two celluloid universes to choose
from. Why not indulge in both?
2018, UK/USA
DIRECTORS: Sonny Laguna, Tommy Wiklund
The Awards
Best ‘Competition’ Film: Pledge
Best ‘Panorama’ Film: Last
Sunrise
2nd Best ‘Panorama’ Film: Kill Ben Lyk
Best Director: Adrian Panek (Werewolf)
Best Screenplay: Luna Gualano & Emiliano Rubbi (Go Home)
Best Male Lead: Bruce Dern (Freaks)
Best Female Lead: Anne Bergfeld (Finale)
Best Cinematography: Yuri
Bekhterev (The Soul Conductor)
Best Special Effects: Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich
Special Mention: Nicolás Onetti for
his contribution in the giallo revival.
Best Foreign Short: BrainRain
Best Greek Short: BlackOut
Afterword
This event report was written almost three years ago, but somehow
managed to remain on shelf for far too long, now that Horrorant is about to
come back from the dead (or rather, the pandemic), I think that the timing is
perfect for its publication.
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