Twisted Celluloid Film Festival (Day Two)

For the second day, I managed to watch everything bar one film, which exceeded my expectations as I was going to skip the last film, just so I can venture around the city centre. But by the end, I was pretty cosy where I was, and it was bloody cold. Plus I realised that I didn't have the energy to go out, not to mention I was pretty tired after a drunken Thursday night. So I went back to the hostel afterwards and got myself a good night's sleep.

So what did I end up watching and missing? The films on Friday were as follows:

Bay Of Blood

During the festival there is a Mario Bava retrospective, where three of his films are being shown throughout the weekend. I have never heard of the man to begin with, and judging by this film, I would be hard pushed to check out the other two. The English dubbing track distracted me from an already confusing storyline, not to mention some of the effects and lack of music may have been revolutionary at the time, but now just look dated. Plus it didn't help that two of the male leads look nearly the same. I found myself almost falling asleep throughout the film, with the only notable scenes being some woman swimming in the nude (naturally), and an admittedly unexpected ending.

Blood For Irina

If I was finding myself dozing off during the last film, this one was a constant struggle to keep myself awake. I'm sure this type of movie would be appreciated by arty types, as you would need to acquire a level of pretentiousness to sit through this movie. A film with nearly zero dialogue, it almost feels like it's going for the arthouse route to hide the fact that it's a cheaply made film with little going on in the first place. I got the impression that you had to fill in the gaps yourself, but with no strong narrative, it's just a plain bore. However I was impressed by the soundtrack, just a shame it was wasted on this film.

Instead of posting the trailer for this film (click here if you want to check it out), I'm just gonna post a teaser for the short film that preceded it; "Wireboy". While I kinda dug the visuals with its VHS style and the accompanying score, I'll be damned if I knew what was going on in the first place.

The Hidden Face

After two boring films, I needed to wake myself up, so I just went out on the town for food, drink, and stretching of the legs. So instead of posting the trailer for this one, here's the poster for the next film:

Bela Kiss: Prologue

At time of writing, I haven't checked to see what "true story" this was based on. The film had an interesting start, where I was surprised by some directions it went, and a setting that was very similar to "The Shining" in terms of the surreal nature of the hotel. While it did fall into cliches towards the second half, not to mention that this feels like a teaser for either a sequel or an aspiring franchise, I found it to be decent enough.

There was also a short film preceding this, which was directed by one of the actresses in "Bela Kiss: Prologue". Titled "As Human As Animal", it stars former wrestler Diamond Dallas Page and.....well, in its five minute runtime, there's not much to go on, other than the fact it stars DDP.

The Tall Man

Compared to the previous film, this one actually starts off as a typical, cliched American style horror film (it's actually a Canadian/French production), but then it goes in a direction that I didn't expect, which was a welcome surprise. While it kinda falls flat in the end, I was impressed with its originality, even though I don't think Jessica Biel should have been cast, which gives the film the substandard horror feel of today's films.

And on a final note.....

Been listening to this album a lot this weekend, especially when I go to sleep. Really good, one of Anathema's best albums in my opinion.