Report: Bram Stoker International Film Festival (Part 2)
by Keri O’Shea
For Part 1 of Keri’s report, click here.
SATURDAY
The busiest day of the fest in terms of non-film events saw stalls and signings in the main hall, as well as a ball with live music in the evening. The films ran continuously through the day though, starting with DEADFALL TRAIL, a 
technically good but otherwise stilted survival horror where, even allowing for the fact that people do stupid things under pressure, the sheer size of the catalogue of bizarre actions overshadows all of the decent stylistic elements. Three guys – newbie Paul (Cavin Gray Schneider) and old hands John (Slade Hall) and Julian (Shane Dean) are heading out into the woods for a spot of male bonding, hunting and communing with nature. John communes rather too much though – getting badly wounded by a boar trap – and the remaining men have to try and get him to safety. All of this looks superb: the film is well shot and lit in an attractive location. However, after the initial realism of the set-up (such as devoting on-screen time to discussions of genuine survivalist strategies) the film departs into just too many discrepancies to ignore. Even if diehard nature buffs really did decide to jettison their maps, heading off without appropriate clothing, food or first aid supplies for the ‘genuine experience’, why would the most experienced member of the party prioritise getting whacked out of his gourd on peyote the moment his friend became mortally wounded, for instance? The character of Julian – at first coldly competent, but thereafter clothes-sheddingly mad without the lynchpin of friend John’s rationalism – felt rather disparate and uncomfortable to me, neither truly menacing nor believable. There were also some pacing issues by which I never quite got the sense of distance and isolation from civilisation, despite the nice long shots; the group seemed to stop and make a fire every 50 yards, and this stop-start-stop-start to the action precluded a solid build-up of tension which was absolutely needed for the finale. Editor’s Note: You can read an alternate take on this film from Marc Patterson HERE.
If realism in cinema is both a blessing and a curse, then you can understand how the approach of so many Japanese genre filmmakers circumvents the issue. Stylistically and thematically, it’s almost impossible to judge these films by normal criteria – all you can do is go with the flow and enjoy the culture shock, as in the next feature of the festival, the truly bizarre DEATH 
KAPPA. Failed pop star Kanako (Misato Hirata) returns to her small town home just in time to see her grandmother being run over by Bad Youths. Before she dies, her grandmother asks her to take over the care of the local kappa (a mythical creature resembling a giant terrapin). This Kanako duly does, but the kappa is kidnapped! By mad scientists! Who just happen to want to create hybrid amphibian soldiers! And they don’t stop there. They also detonate a bomb which releases a (gaudy Godzilla-type) monster which sets about destroying Japan. The story of Kanako is put on a back-burner as a long, long monster battle sequence takes over, although the story of the kappa (and Kanako’s god-awful pop music) is rekindled at the end. DEATH KAPPA is incomprehensible, but absolutely bad enough to be good, as many of these international Japanese movies are.
From the director of SAW IV – SAW 3D, short film THE COLLECTOR shows us a psychopathic killer who has rigged up the Chase family home quite literally into a death trap, keeping the inmates inside as ‘trophies’. When Arkin (Josh Stewart) arrives at the house to conduct a heist in order to help his own family pay off their debts, he has to try to outwit the Collector to escape – and to save the family. After all, he only wanted to rob them… Here we have excruciating, though competently-shot torture sequences with some innovative kills, although the central premise does feel a little like an excuse to launch into the now over-familiar SAW routines.
DEMON RESURRECTION concluded the Saturday night – and was unfortunately scheduled to run during the Vampire’s Ball, meaning that most of the festival-goers were elsewhere. That’s a shame, as this is an entertaining film which pays open homage to some horror classics, most notably Andrea Bianchi’s BURIAL GROUND and Jacques Tourneur’s NIGHT OF THE DEMON. When a young woman called Grace (Alexis Golightly) seems to be slipping under the influence of drugs – probably because of her strange new boyfriend John (Damian Ladd) – her friends decide something has to be done to help her. However, it isn’t drugs that Grace has a problem with: she’s in fact just escaped from a satanic cult after becoming pregnant, and when cult leader Toth (Will McDonald) fails to reclaim her and the child, he attacks the house with his army of hessian-clad zombies. One by one, the still fairly clueless housemates are picked off in a number of gruesome ways. Obviously derivative but well-acted and entertaining, DEMON RESURRECTION makes the best of its low budget in a competent horror.
SUNDAY
Sunday saw the last wave of short films at the festival, kicking off with SUCKATHUMB, a piece of grotesquery which uses animation and puppetry to retell The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb from Hoffman’s Der Struwwelpeter – this is an interesting idea for a short, although the breezy style in which this is done detracts from the Gothic horror of the original source material. This was followed by one of the most moving short films I have seen – the clever and understated THIRD LETTER, set in the most effective of dystopias – a plausible one. A nameless man living in an anodyne tower block struggles to keep himself together after the breakdown of his marriage and losing his job. He’s evidently used to receiving numerous warning letters in the post about his overdue rent – but then a letter arrives which concerns an insurance policy for his pacemaker. Without a renewal, his pacemaker battery will expire. So he phones up, and gets put on hold, and gets told his old number is incorrect and, as he reaches the point of utter desperation, knows he could make the decision to use someone else’s renewal letter, which has been delivered to him by accident. This is a simple film which communicates a great deal very effectively, and has a real pathos to it.
Another dystopian film followed in the form of NICKEL CHILDREN: here, Wild West-meets-steampunk. A little boy is kidnapped from his home and made to perform as a boxer as entertainment in a bar, but he plans an escape. Aesthetically pleasing, but the clothes are the focal point in this film. Lastly came DEVIL’S CREEK – ah, ordeal horror. A cleverly-structured film which plays with a retelling of the story of Job, it follows one Preacher Matthews (Benjamin Mathes) who has renounced his faith. However, he soon needs assistance, holy or otherwise, when he awakes injured, amnesic and alone in an isolated area of parkland. A ranger (Adrian Alita) takes him home and patches him up, but it soon seems that Adam is a prisoner, not a patient – and his friendly ranger has planned a course of tortures for him. As his memory starts to return to him though, Adam begins to understand why. Although the final message of the film may irritate some, this film is well put together and at least an interesting turn for the tied-to-chair horror genre.
The final feature of the festival was THE COMMUNE, a promising first film from director Elisabeth Fies and a return to the secret-society scares which formed the bedrock of films like THE WICKER MAN and ROSEMARY’S BABY. Jenny Cross (Chauntal Lewis) is packed off to spend some time with her absentee father, ostensibly to get to know him better, but also to help her mother form a final custody case against him. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be too difficult – her dad, or Dr. Polieos (Stuart G. Bennett) as he’s better known, now heads up a non-denominational hippy commune. In fact, his taste for love and light has been the reason for his non-presence in his daughter’s life, so it’s little surprise that Jenny is by turns disparaging and angry about how she’s being forced to spend her summer. Meeting a local boy named Puck (David Lago) helps a little, but her father’s behaviour is growing more and more erratic. Gradually, a palpable sense of unease begins to pervade the film, helped no end by a strong lead performance from the decidedly creepy Bennett. What starts out as a satire at the expense of new age beliefs gives way to fear on Jenny’s part that her father has far more sinister plans for her. But for a minor quibble that the actress playing Jenny is just too old to be a convincing teenager – and I understand the reasons for this and why Chauntal was cast, as she is otherwise good here – this is an effective and well-scripted film with a dark sense of humour as well as a good feel for atmosphere.
As a young festival, the Bram Stoker International Film Festival has heaps of enthusiasm and the desire to offer much more than films alone. The selection this year was generally good, with some genuine finds and a very strong selection of shorts, and an ambitious package in terms of live music, merchandise, guests and even an awards ceremony. Considering the sheer amount of things going on, the festival ran pretty smoothly. My only issue with this is that at times the films felt a little incidental. Part of this is due to the geography of the venue: the screening room is on the other side of the building to the main room along a long corridor, and so is not immediately apparent when you arrive. However, a member of staff should have been on hand, both to introduce all the films and to sort out the few projection issues, like altering the aspect ratio to encompass subtitles (as, with a film like ANGUSTIA the subtitles weren’t visible until an audience member went and found one of the staff). I’d strongly advise the organisers to channel 
some of their enthusiasm into going along to another horror film festival – even if only for a day – to take a look at how things run elsewhere, and hopefully also to see how tightening things up in the screening room and introducing the films can really easily lend an identity to a festival.
It seems like the festival has two ways forward from here on in – either to focus absolutely on film with some additional events going on – or, if it is elects to fill the Whitby Goth Festival’s sizeable boots, to focus on events and music, but retaining a backbone of films. I would hope actually that it remains the former, as over the past two years the festival has landed some great cinema and has a trump card in terms of its historical location which, I think, will definitely result in a growing reputation. I look forward to seeing what happens next for BSIFF – and I’m sure that enthusiasm will maintain an interesting festival over the coming years.
