The Girl With All The Gifts

Successful adaptation of a book that somehow manages to infuse a sense of awe and wonder into a fairly regular zombie outbreak.

Blair Witch

One day I'm going to write a book about Found Footage horror movies, I'll devote the first chapter to the genius that is the game changing, shit yourself terror of The Blair Witch Project and the final chapter will detail the myriad faults of this disappointing pile of piss. For now this paragraph will have to do.

Don't Breathe

Awful misjudged bollocks that gives the impression the director has never made a movie before which, given his previous film was the Evil Dead remake, is technically true.

Sausage Party

For fans of persistent swearing and extremely literal humour. HA HA HA THE DOUCHE IS A DOUCHE HA HA HA NO WAIT HE'S A FUCKING DOUCHE HA HA HA etc.

Mechanic: Resurrection

So. Much. Stupid.
In fact, too much for one film to comfortably contain.

Train To Busan [Busanhaeng]

(Frightfest Day 5)
Doesn't add anything new to zombie cinema, but does what most of the others do better.

Found Footage 3D

(Frightfest Day 5)
How to revitalise the wheezing, dying Found Footage sub-genre? Stick it in 3D then solidly rip the piss out of it. Easily makes it into the slim ranks of truly excellent Found Footage movies.

Director's Cut

(Frightfest Day 5)
Fantastic nest of contradiction. It has moments that are as funny as they are unsettling, the film looks as polished as it often looks amateur, it rips the piss at the same time as it expresses undying love for the movies and most impressively it fucks wholesale with form as it presents itself as a DVD extra at the same time as being the main feature.

Man Underground

(Frightfest Day 5)
Beautifully understated film that purports to be about aliens but really it's about humans. Excellent.

Under The Shadow

(Frightfest Day 5)
A haunting befalls a mother and daughter smack bang in the middle of the Iraq/Iran war. Real life and fictional horror battle with each other to see which can be more chilling. Absolutely fantastic.

31

(Frightfest Day 4)
It would appear that Rob Zombie put some time in to coming up with some scary clown names and a vague excuse for them to be killing folk, gave it to his production design team to run wild with and then did fuck all else.

Realive [Proyecto Lázaro]

(Frightfest Day 4)
Frankenstein set in the future, but equipped with a fully aware mind transplanted from the past, makes for an excellent slow burn meditation on all the big existential issues.

Broken

(Frightfest Day 4)
An assured debut that builds naturally to a nasty sting as it examines tetraplegia, damaged psyches and the put upon life of a carer.

Johnny Frank Garret's Last Word

(Frightfest Day 4)
Starts with a title card explaining that this is a fictionalised version of a documentary about a perceived curse. This coupled with its serious tone gives it the feel of a Channel 5 true story. Then when the curse kicks off and the seriousness gets juxtaposed with the usual stylised genre trappings (fast edits, loud noise, bleeding faces etc.) it just ends up feeling a little bit tasteless.

Downhill

(Frightfest Day 4)
Director Valladarres continues to be the Chilean tourist board's worst nightmare this time suggesting the local woods are completely overrun with insane cultists, messy prosthetics and a lack of decent story.