The Disappearance Of Alice Creed

Would like to be a tense, claustrophobic thriller.
Is actually three actors trapped in a flat with a film student and his camera.

Matango [Attack Of The Mushroom People]

Begins with some heavy Lovecraft overtones that quickly give way to a version of Lost made in sixties Japan before finally melting down in a hallucinogenic shitstorm of giant rubbery mushroom people.
King.

Drive

Sleek neo-noir, loaded with style and topped with a light dusting of John Hughes' early eighties output to give it that bit more of an edge when shit inevitably goes wrong.
An excellent movie.

The Resident

Lackluster thriller about a wanking psychopath.

The House That Dripped Blood

For their second compendium piece Amicus brought in Robert Bloch to create some skillful inversions of familiar tropes giving old favourites Cushing, Lee, et al another opportunity to shine.

Bad Day

Laughably appalling crap. A masterclass in how to make the worst film possible.

Knife In The Water [Nóz w wodzie]

Some people arguing on a boat.

Colombiana

Contains enough echoes of Nikita to make it worthwhile. Just.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Finally watched a film this summer that delivered a genuine moment of slack-jawed awe and unexpectedly blew me away.
What? Summer's over?
Oh bollocks.

Super

What could have been an extremely brave and affecting tale of mental disability is hidden away under allusion and further confused by unnecessary cheap laughs.

Snow Buddies

There is absolutely no sensible reason why a film like this should exist and the fact that it does makes the world a lesser place to live in.

Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo

In which Herbie moons about like a randy teenager instead of doing the funny racing stuff that you want to see.
Marks the first time I've ever wanted to slap a car across its sulky face.

Never Let Me Go

The Island with doomed romance in place of the car chases and glum acceptance in place of adrenaline fuelled escape.
Much better than The Island.

Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors

The first of Amicus' quintessentially british portmanteau horrors.
The best of the five tales here has Christopher Lee playing a scathing art crtitc who is constantly drawn into battle with an indestructible disembodied hand.
King.

Frightfest 2011 Reflection

Some ruminations on the event that was Frightfest.
Watching 23 films across 5 days was nowhere near as brain boiling as I thought it would be, there wasn't too many real clunkers in there and some of it was just incredible. A vast majority of the films had directors and cast in attendance for Q&A's which were mostly interesting and occasionally enlightening. Although there were some daft questions, including this gem from the Kill List Q&A: "The violence in that scene was quite intense, did you mean to put it in?", Director (with massive sarcasm): "No. I was as surprised as you when I watched that".

Before the main evening films there were sometimes short presentations of forthcoming films, often introduced by the filmmakers, the most interesting being one called Cockneys Vs Zombies with Richard Briers and an Uzi. Seriously.
Sometimes there were short film tributes/homages to John Carpenter. The best of these was They Live where two friends violently disagree over 3D cinema culminating in a massive alleyway fight, one chap constantly brandishing a pair of 3D specs and demanding "Put on the glasses!".
There was also a selection of 'Grindhouse' trailers from a forthcoming compilation. They provided some of the weirdest moments of the whole event and featured a film titled "The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!", King.

We only missed 2 films (Chillerama & Detention), we got some quiz answers right but not enough to win so good thing we didn't actually enter, we missed the interview (Larry something?), we ate an absurd amount of pizza and saw Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet. Here's a couple of lists:

5 favourites:

1. Kill List
2. Troll Hunter
3. The Innkeepers
4. The Woman
5. The Glass Man

5 not favourites:

1. A Night In The Woods
2. Panic Button
3. The Holding
4. Deadheads
5. Vile

Thanks to Joe for being Hardcore To The Max. His words, not mine.