Film4 FrightFest 2010 Review - Saturday
Cherry Tree Lane and Monsters sandwich the controversial I Spit On Your Grave remake.
Two urban horrors in a row for me, with Cherry Tree Lane kicking off the Saturday at FrightFest.
Paul Andrew Williams aims to combine the social commentary in his debut London To Brighton with the brutal menace of his follow-up The Cottage. A stagey affair, it takes place in one house, with a typically frazzled middle-class couple having a tense dinner while waiting for their teenage son to return home. Before then, they have to endure the invasion of his "friends", three hoodie types out for revenge. The couple are taken hostage, and inbetween bouts of violence we see the banality of these three young men carrying out what they believe is honourable retribution. The examination of this moral high ground is what intrigued me, but it offers absolutely nothing bar its final scene. Williams only serves to remind Daily Mail readers that black people from London estates are a threat, and if he is attempting to hold a mirror to society, it's a dull, tarnished one.
Annoyingly, After.Life on the tiny Discovery Screen was long sold-out, and it beggars belief why the Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson and Justin Long psychological horror wasn't on the main screen. Elsewhere on the Discovery Screen was Burning Bright, which I caught a few weeks ago. You have to applaud Carlos Brooks for his film's synopsis: hot girl and little brother trapped in a boarded-up house during a hurricane, while an escaped tiger pursues them. With the best intentions, Briana Evigan convincingly portrays sweat-soaked terror and ingenuity working around some clever, low-budget camera trickery, but it's a remarkably dull film.
Saturday night was given over to two of the most talked-about films of the festival. I Spit On Your Grave had fallen foul of the BBFC's board of censors just days before, requiring 43 seconds of cuts to the infamous rape scene for UK audiences. Steven R. Monroe's unwanted remake was promoted as being "unrated", but it was presented as the cut version on the night. Not a fan of rape exploitation, so gave this one a miss.
I'm glad I did, as I would not have wanted the nastiness to have soured my mood for Monsters. Gareth Edwards sets his micro-budgeted alien parable in Mexico, with an American war photographer escorting his boss's daughter back to the safety of US soil through a quarantined infected zone. Adorable stars Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able are a real-life couple, and the film hangs on their chemistry and open performances. A stunning and gripping take on alien invasion that is like nothing you've seen before. It's being called this year's District 9, but feels more like Moon - philosophical, tender and moving. Its essence cannot be captured in the trailers - it has to be experienced. Unforgettable, and a contender for movie of the year, let alone the festival.
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