For obvious pandemic-related reasons I've not been able to go to Fantastic fest for the last two years. So instead I've been substituting with MonsterFest - last year, I did a weekend in Sydney, this year I did the whole damn thing in Melbourne. It's sorta a bit Fantastic Fest's blokier brother - leaning very much on the horror/thriller side of things with a love of splatter, make-your-own-special-effects and backyard creation, but it comes with its own charms. In particular a lot of the films are small scale passion projects, often shot with friends and family, and rely on the virtues of script and performance over effects and flash to achieve their effects. Not all of them have spectacular scripts or performances, some just have eccentric ideas, but all of them have heart and soul to them.
Weirdly enough for me the highlights were the retro screenings - the other 80's BMX movie, "Rad", which combined on-bicycle-ballet, an underdog-against-big-business storyline, Ray Walston channeling Mr Hand from Fast Times and a lot of pre-Whispering-Jack-John-Farnham for an enjoyable romp; 1970s "Flesh For Frankenstein", a nutty combination of monster creation, necrophilia, incest and special effects organs by the guy who created ET, and "Man's Best Friend", a 90s killer-dog movie that gives us an Ally Sheedy performance that feels carried over from Short Circuit and a lot of goofy surprises.
Elsewhere, there were a lot of passion projects in there - some small scale and intelligent, like "Hellbinder" or "Apparitions", both simple horror stories told well (though both were somewhat subject to a little bit of logic that fell apart once you thought about the plot a little bit), some somewhat incomprehensible like Phil Tippet's long-brewing "Mad God". In general it was good to see the heart and soul that went into these pieces, most of which are unlikely to go on to multi-millions and success but which are likely to be remembered with affection and love.
No comments:
Post a Comment