Monday 27 August 2012

Fright Fest Day 3

So after another lengthy 4 and a half hours sleep, it was time to get up and start day 3.  But for me this day was going to be the most special day of the fest, or so I thought.

Picking my specially made Day of the Dead t-shirt (it has the newspaper from the beginning printed in full on it), packing my Day of the Dead Blu-Ray, I was ready to meet the master of special make up effects.  Greg Nicotero was going to be presented with a lifetime achievement award for his services to horror.  This is a man that, after being mentored by the legend that is Tom Savini, changed the landscape of make up effects.   Even if you are not a horror fan you will have undoubtedly seen the work of his effects house KNB as he has had his touch in films from the likes of Reservoir Dogs through to the Chronicles of Narnia.

Anyway, don't want to get ahead of myself just yet.  My day started in the queue for the discovery screen again as I wanted to grab tickets for Nightmare Factory, a documentary about Greg's work.  I also met someone I hadn't seen for the best part of 15 years who was at the festival supporting one of his friends that had made the day's opening film, Eurocrime.  This was a documentary about a genre I knew very little about but after having seen it it's a genre I want to know more of.  The films looked insane!!

A stretch of the legs and it was back in to see the hotly anticipated (I jest) sequel to Outpost, cleverly titled, Outpost 2 - Black Sun.  In the discovery screen was Kill Zombie! which went down a storm.  I wish I'd gone into that one as Outpost 2 was many things but good was not one of them.

Hunger pangs started kicking in so it was time to head to the noodle bar for some sweet and sour!!  Yum yum. As we walked out we saw a crowd had gathered around the entrance.  This was because Pinhead, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, a Sith Lord and some stormtroopers had unexpectedly decided to turn up.  Just another day in the life of Frightfest.  Anyway the hunger wasn't going away standing there watching them have their photo taken with joyous passers by.  And just as wel left the cover of cinema entrance the heavens opened.  Stealthily we made our way under the cover of the shop canopies.

Food bought we went back in.  Whilst waiting to go into the screen for Nightmare Factory I bumped into the Pierce brothers who directed one of my favourites from last yer, Deadheads.  They were back with a new short about one of the zombies from that feature.  And this time they'd brought their dad.  But their dad isn't like most dads, this day worked on the special effects for the original Evil Dead.  All three of them are so easy to talk with and accommodating as they are no different from us in terms of being complete horror fan boys.

They saw my noodles and after a good chat decided that was the perfect form of nourishment for them.  After the Pierce brothers headed off, this was slowly becoming a slightly surreal day as my wife decided to ask Michael Myers kill her so I could take a photo of it.  And he really put the effort in as he wrestled her to the ground.

In anticipation of the Greg Nicotero interview I went to watch the documentary about his effects company, Nightmare Factory.  Whilst the style of the film was a bit run of the mill and perhaps too slow, the content was perfect for me.  Lots of behind the scenes stuff from the films he worked on, interviews telling what influenced them and how they got into doing what they do. 

Then came the moment. The man himself. Greg Nicotero being presented his award and being interviewed by Damon Wise, from the likes of The Guardian and Empire Magazine.  It was funny and insightful and the audience asked some great questions.  And in a nice touch, fellow fanboy Simon Pegg did the actual presentation of the award.  And then, all too soon, it was over.  I could have listened to him talk for hours.  The man is a legend.

Like a complete geeky kid, I grabbed my Day of the Dead Blu-Ray and went out after he left the auditorium to try and get it signed.  Had to wait whilst him and Simon worked the press pit, meanwhile the next film Under The Bed was already playing.  After a 30 minute wait, they were done and the small group that was gathered started to perk up.  Now we get to meet a hero of ours.  And like that, the PR agent ushered Greg and Simon out of the press pit...... and straight out of the side door without a single hello to the fans that had patiently waited.  I was genuinely gutted.  A once in a lifetime opportunity had been taken away.  This sadly put a downer on the day for me.

Anyway, back into the screen for the remainder of Under The Bed from the director of the underwhelming The Aggression Scale.  Might have been better staying out, the film was rather pointless.

During the Glasgow Frightfest we had a 5 minute show of footage from a new film by Italian director Frederico Zampaglioni.  It was fantastic, making Tulpa a very anticipated film.  Sadly it did not live up to expectations.  Whilst it was entertaining enough, in trying to capture the schlocky elements of the 70's giallo films it went a bit too far and just became cheesy.  Oh well.  Hopefully Maniac can pick today back up on its feet.

And that it did!!  Elijah Wood in an incredibly brave role in a brilliantly brutal film.  Thank you for ending the day on a good night.

All in all, for me, day three was a let down.  I still enjoyed it but it was full of disappointments from not getting to meet Greg, Tulpa not living up to expectations and Outpost 2 just really annoying me with how poor it was.

And to cap it off, being a Saturday night, finding a cab wasn't quite as easy as previous nights.  But eventually we found one and it was back to the hotel for sleep and waking refreshed and ready for day 4.

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