GRIMMFEST 15 – Sunday 7th October (day 3)

I couldn’t make day two of Grimmfest, which meant I missed out on watching the shorts programme two, called “Where The Heart…Isn’t” which featured premieres of eight short films. The Spirit Became Flesh, Tradition, Family Night, No Caller ID, Mantra, Janelle’s Baby, The Heritage and Fck’n Nuts. I’m hoping I can catch these somewhere along the line as they all look great.

The Feature films on Saturday were equally awesome, with the UK Premiere of Miguel Azurmeni’s KERATYNA along with a Q&A. The UK premiere of Caya Casas’ THE COFFEE TABLE.

The UK premiere of Anthology horror GIVE ME AN A with a panel with Monstrous Flesh.

The regional premiere of Nicholas Tomnay’s WHAT YOU WISH FOR with a Q&A and finally to round of the day the UK premiere of Mikhall Red’s DELETER with a Q&A.

Just foes to show if you miss a day of Grimmfest, you miss a whole lot of good stuff!

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll catch all of those films at some point, so on to Sunday!

With it being Sunday I drove into Manchester and got parked up, walked up to Sainsbury’s and got my food for the day (meal deals again, obvs) and headed over to the venue. Sainsbury’s* being on the same road is a real bonus for these types of things.

*other supermarkets are available.

A quick look around the market stalls of artists and artisans selling all manner of items befitting a festival of horror then up to the screen.

The day started with the third part of the Shorts Programme, this time titles “Here Be Monsters…”

I was looking forward to seeing STARR, the cover picture above intrigued me and that mask looks awesome.

TRAPPED by Semyon Voinov was a comedy horror doing some apocalyptic infected/zombie movie genre twisting which featured a doctor, working on the cure with the help of some Rat based experimentation. I loved this short, reminded me of Mousehunt but with added horror, and any film that has a rat wink at the camera is ok with me.

The world premiere of SCRATCH by Michael Trainotti. You need to watch this film. It was one of my favourites of the entire festival. Great acting from everyone in it, and was actually as believable as it could be, with no ridiculous decisions made by the characters that often plague the genre. Put me right off buying a camper van I can tell you! Catch this when you can.

The world premiere of STARR by Riccardo Grippo was a timely reminder of what people are willing to do for online fame, or at least notoriety. It’s extreme, but when you look on Tiktok and there’s people making money repeating the same phrases over and over again for hours on live streams then I’m actually concerned it may be a vision of things to come! Superb performances from the cast with a real comedic turn from the two guards who add a real touch of silent clowning that wouldn’t be out of place on Le plus grand cabaret du monde. The costume worn could easily become a cosplay standard at future horror conventions. That mask is *chefs kiss.

The European premiere of THE PERFECT PLACE TO CRY by Shane Bannon was an out of left field cracker. It was the Schrödinger’s cat of horror shorts. What was happening outside that car, was there a larger event happening? Was he dead? The answer, clearly, was yes…and no. Loved this one.

The UK premiere of BOOKWORM by Javier Yanez Sanz was one of the few films over the weekend that made me jump. This library ghost makes the one in Ghostbusters look like Mary Poppins. Brilliantly made film with fantastic performances and some delightful make up effects.

The Manchester premiere of ODDITIES by Tyler Savage. A pair of would be criminals go into a bric a brac store to steal a valuable object. They didn’t notice the shop was run by Adrienne Barbeau, they should have known better! Very Stephen King feeling to this one, which is no bad thing. Really great performances, felt a lot like it would have fitted nicely on an episode of Creepshow.

Another great selection of short films, with some of the film makers and stars in attendance getting to enjoy their films on the big screen for the first time with an audience. What an honour.

The first of the features was Mexican Mal De Ojo . A young girl has to go to live in the back of beyond with their rather odd grandmother. This one was all about the folk horror, and tales of witches and demonic deals. This film is beautifully shot, with an overall decayed fairytale feel to it akin to A Company of Wolves. The acting is superb throughout and it largely keeps you invested (it did telegraph the ending a little for me) and the special effects are superbly done. Was great to see this on the big screen.

This was followed by the UK premiere of AUXILIO by Tamae Garateguy

From folklore witches to Nuns, I don’t know which is scarier. Set in the 1930’s a rebellious girl is sent to a convent. All kinds of paranormal activity begins, with some of the mentally ill women begin to see her as someone else. I didn’t really feel a whole lot for this movie. It was beautifully made and had fantastic performances throughout but I felt like it dragged and it was fairly obvious what was going to be the overall ending. There wasn’t any real scares and while I can appreciate it, I won’t be in a rush to seek it out again.

Next up was absolute bat shit craziness from Japan. The UK Premiere of DOOR by Banmei Takahashu

This is a film from 1988 which was thought lost, but recently rediscovered. The blurb says After several strangely threatening calls from a local salesman, a homemaker becomes increasingly afraid to answer her apartment door.

To be honest, she seems oddly afraid of the damn door anyway. Something has definitely happened to her before but I guess we’ll never know. It is genuinely bizarre, with odd lingering close ups of Keiko Takahashi face with a score more suited to a romantic drama. A bin bag that has far too much screen time. An odd neighbour with an eye patch and audio choices that will baffle and bemuse. The kid in it Takuto Yonezu is comedy gold, and I did spend a lot of his screen time wondering if he had rickets. This is one of those films that needs to be seen to be believed and even then you’ll probably not believe you’ve seen it. There is a moment of violence in it that actually got a massive reaction from the audience as it just comes out of nowhere and sets the film on a spiral of mad violence until its soggy end. Just. Weird.

The last film I got to see was one I’d been looking forward to, the UK premiere of 8 FOUND DEAD by Travis Greene. A Pulp Fiction like timeline meddler. Four “friends” go to an air B&B only to find it already occupied by an older couple. I feel this film may have actually benefitted from a more linear approach as you knew everything before the end anyway, who was alive, who was dead etc and so it took away some of the care you might have built for the characters. I mean, they were all pretty unlikeable anyway like but… I enjoyed the film, especially the performances by Tim Simek and Roseanne Limeres as the older couple (and they’re a real life couple, hopefully not as murderous though). The other noteable perfomance was Nancy Linehan Charles as Patty. Legend! Hope she’s in the prequel!

So that brought my Grimmfest to an end. What a fantastic festival of film it was.

Kudos to the entire team who put it together. Here’s to next year!