The normal bounce I'd been getting out of bed with was slowly beginning to fade. The 4 - 5 hours of sleep a night along with a diet fit only for the dead are slowly starting to take their toll. But let that not stop me. After all, today is a new day and my excitement levels have creeped back up after yesterday's disappointments.
No needing to queue for discovery screen tickets today, it's main screen all the way baby!! After a very average breakfast at Cafe Rouge it back to Leicester Square and straight into the screen. After a hello and quick chat with some of the people we knew (everyone here is incredibly friendly) we took our seats, the lights went down and the cast and crew of the first film, The Thompsons, were introduced to us. The film itself was an entertaining vampire flick. Slightly shoddy dialogue but an enjoyable watch none the less.
Met a bunch of the cast and crew in the foyer afterwards, the make up effects guy was excellent to chat to, and got a picture with all of the English cast of vampires (pics will be coming up in a separate blog once). Bumped into the director of the excellent Seasoning House again and I was incredibly chuffed that he remembered me and took the effort to say hi to me rather than the other way around. It's moments like this that make this festival so special.
Next it was a slight change of pace with Andy Nyman's Quiz From Hell (he's been cast in Kick Ass don't you know). An incredibly hard quiz but lots of fun. I did okay. Then we had the Horror Channel's short film showcase. A very diverse bunch of films from Axelle Carolyn's The Halloween Kid (which I put a bit of money into and got the pleasure of seeing my name up on the Frightfest screen!!) to Un Jour Sang, a French offering that without showing anything was probably the most brutal of the shorts. Overall a good selection and some talent to look out for in the future.
Got my picture with Andy Nyman afterwards - cool!!
After a short break we were back in for the UK Premier of Rec director, Jaume Balaguero's Sleep Tight. This was an excellent, disturbing look into the psyche of one man's unhappiness and the things it makes him do. So far today was a complete turnaround of Saturday. And it was going to continue in that vain, well for me at least.
Berberian Sound Studio was up next, one I had really been looking forward to. This was certainly not to everyone's taste but was a supremely well crafted love letter to Italian horror and the way in which it is put together. Anyone looking for a film with a normal, or even any, narrative will need to go elsewhere. I enjoyed it and after speaking with the director, who was only too keen to discuss his film (I just wish we had longer) it helped gain, not necessarily sense of the film, an understanding of where the director was coming from.
There was a sudden change of pace with the next film, the UK premiere of the very American Sinister. Early buzz surrounding this film was that it was not your usual Hollywood horror film in terms of quality. The early buzz was right, Sinister lived up to its name and was unsettling and very scary. This had one of the best scares I've seen in a long time - I won't be saying what as I wouldn't want to spoil it. The writer did a Q&A and was brilliant to listen to and also very gracious to meet. he loved that people loved it and just wanted to chat about movies with everyone. He was a cool dude.
I skipped the last film, Dead Sushi, as the premise just didn't appeal to me. The response from it seemed to be good and that it was very funny but very mental. Instead we headed to The Phoenix Artists Club for a few drinks to wind down. There were a few people from the films in there such as the director of Cockneys vs Zombies but it was relatively quiet and a good way to end the night. No taxi back to the hotel tonight, saved our money and went for the walking option.
Today was a good day.
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