Day 5, entering the second half of Fantastic Fest. 17 movies watched so far, and the same to go. My initial luck of getting 5/5 of my film picks during the 10 AM ticketing frenzy has faded and I’m getting maybe 3/5 now.
Before getting to the films, some other fest tidbits.
- The marketplace they did one day with book, comic, art, and movie vendors was cool, I always find something I can’t live without (got a piece of art for my son I know he’ll like)
- Plenty of fun swag, this Fangoria fan was very apropos since it was pushing 100 degrees F and there’s a lot of waiting outside involved
- The new Hellraiser:Revival game must have paid them a huge suitcase of money because they played this trailer for it before every single showing (nothing else got that treatment). And dang it’s gruesome beyond anything I’ve seen in a game.
- There were only two Secret Screenings this year which is the lowest I think it’s ever been. Weird, I don’t know why.
Anyway, on to another day of movies!
Victorian Psycho – A little tale of a delightfully deranged governess played by Malika Murphy who comes to a rural family mansion and wastes no time going completely nuts. Like an Edward Gorey tale in movie form. It asks the question, “is a psycho killer any more insane and harmful than the British aristocracy?” As always the answer is “No.” Not deep but an easy watch and Malika’s demented expressions never fail to entertain. Also has Agnes from Wednesday in a supporting role. 4/5
Janur Ireng: Sewa Dino The Prequel – An Indonesian horror film apparently based off some Twitter creepypasta thread called “Simpleman”, a newly orphaned brother and sister go live with their creepy aunt and uncle and then there’s rituals and penanggalans and possession and curses and banging of goat demons. Decent production values, not much else. Watchable…but not by a wide margin. 2.5/5
Flapjax – A camp gross-out comedy about a fast food restaurant named “Pigudders” and the hapless go-getter (think a human SpongeBob with mother issues) working there. Corporate is reviving a product, Flapjax, taken off the market a decade ago due to it causing “implosive diarrhea” in many consumers. This time the side effects are worse. Goofy and goopy. I’m not into gross-out for its own sake and this was that. But not terribly made, and had a bit of heart. 2/5
The second and final Secret Screening was Alpha Gang (big budget sci-fi comedy) but I couldn’t get in. I hear I got the better end of that deal from others later.
Into The Sky – An alien abduction rom-com where a guy keeps getting abducted for a month and dumped naked in a field in a random state, which is mildly distressing in and of itself but really screws with your ability to keep a job or wife or stuff. But then he meets a hot little event planner and things look up, but then he meets David Cross as a fellow abductee and things go wrong. Kinda like a Hallmark movie with more self-mutilation than usual. But the mom’s verbal assaults on her daughter-in-law to be were the most shocking violence in the film, it got gasps and exclamations from the audience. Was entertaining enough and went down smooth, though nothing to write home about. But if I were those darn chipmunks I’d stop f***ing with David Cross because he holds a grudge. 3/5
Ghost In The Cell – An Indonesian prison ghost movie. It started out promising – a ghost gruesomely murders a reporters boss so he gets sent to prison where the vicious gangs are somewhat held at bay by a good guy they respect. The promise of Indonesian jail martial arts fights and horrific ghost murders just kinda peters out as slapstick and the power of friendship take over and it gets really boring in the third act. 1.5/5
Well. Not the best slate of films today, but two decent ones and only one I regret seeing. I don’t pre-research the movies besides looking at the super minimal description in the fest program, I just choose on vibes, so sometimes you roll high sometimes you roll low.
