Film4 FrightFest 2010 Review - Sunday
We Are What We Are, The Loved Ones and the wonderful surprise replacement for A Serbian Film - Buried!
A late start for me on the Sunday. Having watched a DVD of The Loved Ones to prepare for an interview with star Robin McLeavy (coming soon) I knew how much of a treat FrightFesters were in for later that night. Tucked away in the 11.30pm slot, this blackly comical Australian slasher flick is perversely twisted and totally unconventional. A twinkling gem in modern horror, Sean Byrne combines cultural references from real-life serial killers and high school drama, and it's all in the safe hands of acclaimed stage actress McLeavy, holding Twilight: Eclipse star Xavier Samuel hostage as her reluctant prom date.
Back to the daytime, and I was hugely excited about We Are What We Are, initially twigged as the "Mexican Let The Right One In". A family of cannibals are left to get their next meal from the city's prostitutes and drifters after their father dies, but they are under threat from the oldest son's reluctance. Jorge Michel Grau has the best intentions, placing this unorthodox family in relative normality, but with threadbare characters his unrewarding movie is crying out for something more. There are inspired flashes of Dogtooth in regards to the manipulation of the grown-up children, and a neat conclusion, but the reason for the family's sick diet is not clear. The press release seems to think it's done out of poverty, but this is a family that run a car. I was left desperately wanting something more out of the slow-paced 99 minutes, which never picked up from its arresting opening scene.
The FrightFest organisers were left with a terrible dilemma on the opening day, when the BBFC announced A Serbian Film would require nearly four minutes of cuts to be screened in this country, despite it being shown uncut in other festivals around the world. Alan Jones came onstage at 9pm to explain their (correct) decision to pull the film entirely, but after I Spit On Your Grave was shown cut, I believe the choice was made mainly with practicality in mind, rather than integrity. I had begun the weekend raging, but as soon as rumours of the last-minute replacement began to circulate, I was grateful Srdjan Spasojevic's beyond horrific political statement disguised as literal torture porn was pulled.
Jones kept the actual announcement of the replacement secret until the very last minute, offering A Serbian Film individual ticket holders the chance to get a refund within the first 15 minutes if they didn't like what they were watching. It's staggering that about half a dozen people who were supposedly open-minded enough to endure the most sickening portrayal of sexual violence ever put on screen weren't willing to give the extraordinary cinematic feat that is Buried a fair shot.
After seeing director Rodrigo Cortez introduce the first eight minutes of the film at Empire Movie-Con, I was already chomping at the bit for Buried, and it did not disappoint. The most staggeringly audacious film of the year by a mile, Cortez films Ryan Reynolds in a box for 90 minutes and makes it one of the most pant-wettingly exciting things I've seen in ages. Visually impressive thanks to inspired uses of light sources and camera angles, it takes a bog standard hostage situation and turns it on its head in the most incredible way. A dazzling, true marvel of a movie. God bless the BBFC and their medieval ways.
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