Film4’s Frightfest 2015 kicked off in style yesterday bringing with it a whole host of horror shockers to entertain. The festival’s main screen played host to the events opening movie ‘Cherry Tree’ from director David Keating and was swiftly followed up with post-apocalyptic homage ‘Turbo Kid’ and modern creature feature ‘Stung’. Of course this was all just mere horror hors d’oeuvres before today’s big opening as all the screens come to life with plenty of genre goodness. Here’s a quick summary of the trio of Thursday screenings to whet your appetite.
Cherry Tree 2/5
Cherry Tree is about a young woman coping with her father dying of cancer. She’s given hope of his cure by one of her teachers who also happens to be a powerful witch with a coven that performs its rites beneath the roots of a large Cherry Tree. The film is solidly acted but structurally is a mess with characters vanishing for most of the story only to turn up at the end making no sense. The production design is littered with red, which was a nice touch. I think the thing that killed it for me was the over use of its musical score. It really felt naff and killed off a lot of the atmosphere. Its final shot is a cheesy jump scare that had most of us laughing and felt completely out of place. Fellow Frightfesters seemed pretty unkeen on this one.
Turbo Kid 3.5/5
Turbo Kid is a homage to all the Post-Apocalyptic roads movies that came in Mad Max’s wake. It’s based on the T is for Turbo section of 2012’s ABCs of Death. It’s a great fun romp of a movie with great performances particularly by Laurence Leboef who plays Apple. She’s a real talent and steals a lot of the scenes she’s in with her charming and goofy performance. My only quibble would be that it’s a bit too long and could have done being nearer to 75mins as the pace flags in a few scenes. It got a great audience reaction and is a real crowd pleaser. If you liked ‘Hobo with a shotgun’ you’ll love Turbo Kid.
Stung 2/5
Giant killer wasps! Not a lot else to say really. A posh garden party is interrupted by a swarm of deadly oversized wasps. Once they sting, things get really gross as giant wasps burst out of the posh party goers. Not really my cup of tea but the gore and VFX was great and if you like monster movies you could probably get a kick out of Stung.
Report by Richard Mansfield (@mansfielddark)
Please visit: www.MansfieldDark.com
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