At Home in The Dark
Today’s Picks
GFF14 might be in its closing days, but this year’s FrightFest line-up shows the thrills are far from over
Unforgiven
GFT, 6pm Quick, watch this before a barrage of uninspired reviewers make a play on the title to tell you how good it is. “If you miss this, you won’t be forgiven.” “A remake may sound like a bad idea, but after watching it, all is forgiven.” These things write themselves.
Interview: Chris Fyvie
Place of Work - Margaret Tait Revisited
Savaged
Proxy
CCA, 8.15pm Two Scotland based artists, Stina Wirfelt and Oliver Mezger, explore the work of the experimental director from Orkney through adapting her scripts and revisiting her documentary subjects, alongside a screening of one of Tait’s own films. Both Wirfelt and Mezger will be attending the screenings to discuss why her work is so enduring.
Requiem for Detroit?/Carl Craig Almost Human
The Scribbler
T
here’s an overriding air of the macabre to the festival’s final weekend this year, with Jonathan Glazer’s nightmarish vision of Glasgow, Under the Skin, closing the event on Sunday evening. Before we see an insatiable extra-terrestrial ScarJo guzzling jakeys on Sauchiehall Street, however, there’s the small matter of another FrightFest to get through. Kicking-off today, there’s a number of creepy treats awaiting those whose cinematic tastes lean towards the transgressive. A sink-or-swim opening double of Michael S. Ojeda’s Savaged and Zack Parker’s Proxy look to set an early tone; both sound particularly vicious, with their narratives hinging on women coping with the aftermath of horrific attacks. Ojeda, who cut his teeth on TV’s Deadliest Warrior before producing this feature debut, adds a mystical angle to the revenge fantasy by having his heroine possessed by an Apache spirit before stalking her assailants. Parker’s film appears the more cerebral, if no less violent effort; GFF’s programme states it to be ‘part De Palma, part Lars von Trier, part Martyrs’. If that doesn’t bloody terrify you, we don’t know what will… Later in the evening, John Jarret returns as everyone’s favourite murdering drongo in Greg Mclean’s second chapter of the Mick Taylor saga, Wolf Creek 2. It’ll be a bad day for backpackers as the knife-wielding, slack-jawed low-life runs amok in the stunning Aussie outback, but will this sequel have the same fraught atmosphere of the original, or be played more for laughs now that Taylor’s outrageous persona THESKINNY.CO.UK/CINESKINNY
is established? Time and torment-towisecrack ratio will tell. Master of slow-burn terror, Ti West, is then on-hand to introduce his eagerly anticipated The Sacrament. The second film of the day to feature the ubiquitous Joe Swanberg, who also appears in Proxy, The Sacrament sees a team of journalists head-off to visit one of their number’s sister (Upstream Colour’s Amy Seimetz) in a secluded, secretive commune in South America. Needless to say, things won’t go entirely to plan for the intrepid reporters. Found-footage schlocker Afflicted, where two chaps have their holibobs ruined by a mystery illness, brings the day to a close. A mere ten hours later, audiences are eased into Saturday’s programme with Jake West and Marc Morris’s second documentary on censorship in the UK, Video Nasties: Draconian Days, which covers The Video Recordings Act of 1984 up to the end of James Ferman’s controversial stewardship of the BBFC in 1999. It’s soon back on the hardcore trail, though, with the faintly Cronenbergian-sounding The Scribbler, Hicksville horror Torment, then Mark Strong-starring sci-fi, Mindscape. This head-melter from Jorge Dorado (making his feature directorial debut after heading-up second units for Pedro Almodóvar) sees detectives now poking-about in the psyche of criminals for clues and motive, rather than bother with more traditional, mundane methods of deduction. Take that, CSI. A trend towards the fantastical continues with Almost Human, an alien abduction flick said to echo early Raimi
Afflicted
and not exactly be shy on the gore front. Very mixed reviews suggest this might not be a masterpiece, but a little bit of splatter has never been known to turn-off a FrightFest crowd willing to forgive the most heinous of celluloid crimes should the body count be right. Filling the penultimate spot on the schedule, this could well be a riot. Rounding-off the programme, and arguably its biggest draw, is The Mo Brothers’ (Timo Tjahjanto & Kimo Stamboel) epic psychological shocker, Killers. Co-produced by The Raid’s Gareth Huw Evans (who collaborated with Tjahjanto on V/H/S 2’s strongest segment, Safe Haven), this ultra-violent tale of two serial murderers bonding via a snuff website as they go about their respective rampages will certainly give the crowd its money’s worth with its hefty 140 minute runtime. Going down very well at Sundance, Killers will be a tough, but hopefully contemplative, end to the weekend. Buckets of blood and elegant action sequences combining with comment on the pervasive crassness of internet click-bait, while not exactly original, seems more pertinent with every passing week. The perfect coda to an event built on rewarding those with strong stomachs and open – if slightly weird – minds.
The Arches, 8pm, £20 for party Detroit was a city that went bust, its once thriving industries laid low by worldwide financial collapse. The key to this documentary, however, is the question mark in the title, as hope emerges again. The free screening is then followed by a DJ set from Detroit techno producer Carl Craig; presumably at some point in the evening you will be required to raise your hands for the city in Michigan.
Requiem for Detroit?
The Punk Singer
GFT, 9pm, 11pm Tantalised by our glowing review for this doc? Gutted that tickets sold faster than a film critic runs towards free booze? The wonderful GFF14 team have put on another screening for your delectation at 11pm.
The Summer of Flying Fish
GFT, 6.45pm Could fish be the most popular animal for use in film titles? Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, A Fish Called Wanda, Big Fish, The Fisher King? Tweet @SkinnyFilm if you have a rival answer. But first go and watch this ace sociopolitical drama about land disputes in Chile.
FrightFest takes place at the GFT on 28 Feb and 1 Mar, with additional Best of the Fest screenings at Cineworld on 2 Mar Weekend passes and tickets are still available The Summer of Flying Fish
FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY THE CINESKINNY 3