Faults

Director: Riley Stearns

 

Arguably a bit much to absorb first thing on a Sunday morning, Faults actually proved to be a bit of a dark horse in this year’s festival. Director Riley Stearns takes us on a slow burn journey through the eyes of cult expert Ansel (Leland Orser in his second appearance after opening film The Guest.)

 

On tour giving seminars about brainwashing, Ansel is approached by a concerned couple, played exceptionally by Beth Grant and Chris Ellis, who believe their daughter Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is under the influence of a mysterious new cult called ‘Faults’. After much persuasion Ansel finally agrees to help them and the de-programming process seems to go smoothly.

 

However it’s not before long that Ansel find himself getting closer to Claire and the closer he gets the more apparent it becomes that not everything is quite as it seems here.

This may not seem like a horror in any real sense yet there is something defiantly haunting about this film. Right away we can tell that Ansel is a vulnerable man about to get pulled into something out of his depth but we don’t quite know what. That is what is so effective about this film; we never quite know where it’s going to go and even after the credits appear we still aren’t sure what we have just seen. It makes us think and that is effective.

 

Leland Orser is terrific as frontman Ansel, able to inhibit his paranoia and suspicion but also his great naivety as a man just trying to help. He’s one of those actors you could watch all day and still be amazed. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also impressionable as Claire, unveiling more and more layers of her character as the film progresses and projecting a rather understated performance to great effect. The film may take a while to get to reach its point and perhaps wasn’t the best choice for this time slot, but stick with it and you’re sure to find yourself asking questions and realising that what you’ve just watched was really quite something else.

 

R4/5

 

 

Among The Living

Director: Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo

 

French directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo have been known for their visceral horror outings with previous films Inside and Livid. Their next film doesn’t quite operate on the same levels and unfortunately didn’t end up being anywhere near as good. The film follows three young friends Victor, Tom and Dan on their last day of school before the summer. They skip school early to venture into the countryside and cause petty trouble. However they soon regret this decision when they witness a masked figure dragging a kidnapped woman into his underground lair. Of course once the boys return home nobody believes their crazy story. However, it’s not long before the maniac comes after them and has plans to stop them from spreading what they’ve seen.

 

The film is far too short and tends to rush towards the end, that’s its main issue. Secondly, the film cuts away so much that when it finally gets interesting we don’t even have the satisfaction of seeing any of the deaths. So there just barely seems any point to it unfortunately. That’s not to say the acting from the young cast is promising and the film does have an eerie atmosphere to it but it doesn’t land anywhere near the level of Inside, which just goes to show some acts are just too hard to follow.

 

R2/5

 

 

Open Windows

Director: Nacho Vigalondo

 

Elijah Wood seems to be becoming a familiar face of horror, what with appearing in the remake of Maniac a couple of years ago and with features Grand Piano and Cooties set to come out this year. So with the bizarre yet rather fun trip Open Windows he once again gets to tap into the genre and have a little fun with it. Wood stars as Nick Chambers a webmaster of a site dedicated to actress Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey). He is in his hotel room waiting to receive his prize as the winner of an online competition in FantasticFest Austin. Unfortunately as it turns out, Nick has been played and the whole saga turns out to be a hoax set up by a mysterious super fan (Neil Maskell). From then on this unknown scammer uses Nick’s knowledge to go after Jill unless Nick can discover what exactly is going on and stop him before time runs out.

 

Nacho Vigalondo’s crazy film takes us on weird yet wonderful hour and forty minutes of technology terror and cyber chills through a series of split screens. The camerawork is just one of the unique elements of this film. Another is how at many points along the way we don’t quite know what is actually going on, but we somehow cannot help but enjoy the ride. Elijah Wood is good in the role as Nick, clueless as to just what he is becoming a part of, his innocent little face has barely changed since he stepped into the shoes as Frodo way back in 2000. He is rather perfect for this character.

 

Neil Maskell is also effective as the mysterious fan; having to act mostly with his voice as we never really see him, and this is no easy task. He has one of those charismatic voices and executes it well. Nacho’s direction is overwhelming and a little insane but we love him for it and although there are probably a host of things wrong with this film, by the end you may just find yourself smiling at how enjoyable it was as something very, very different.

 

R3/5

 

 

Stage Fright

Director: Jerome Sable

 

The next film of the day was unfortunately my least favourite of the festival but many others’ favourite. Call me the odd one out but I found Stage Fright to be rather awful. To be fair this probably has something to do with my avid hate of musicals in general but instead of walking out after ten minutes I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Phantom Of The Opera meets one of many slasher films in this insipid horror musical from director Jerome Sable.

 

Kylie Swanson (Minnie Driver) is brutally murdered after her ground-breaking performance in the musical The Haunting Of The Opera. Fast forward ten years and producer Roger McCall (seventies legend Meatloaf) is running a musical theatre camp where Kylie’s twins-Camilla and Buddy help out at. When Roger coincidentally decides to revive the infamous musical Kabuki style as their end of term feature, the masked ghost figure just so happens to return and wreak havoc among the theatre.

 

The film’s premise is simple and I’m sure fans of a good old-fashioned musical will undoubtedly love this but it does suffer from many problems. The songs are irritating and lame and just when you think you’ve got some actual dialogue on screen another ballad ushers in. To hand it to the director some of the deaths are actually quite inventive and for a second it looks like it could actually be quite entertaining but then the killer gets his own whacky scenes of utter craziness. We witness him dancing around with his murder weapon like a crazed lunatic which is all fine and good but then a dose of heavy metal comes in over the top and it all just gets a bit ridiculous and stupid. Again, my hatred of musicals is shining through here so please forgive me as I’m sure a lot will love this but I just wasn’t one of them.

 

R1/5

 

 

The House At The End Of Time

Director: Alejandro Hidalgo

 

It’s not every day that you get to be the first audience to see a country’s very first horror film. Well I was lucky enough to get tickets for the discovery screen showing of Alejandro Hidalgo’s The House At The End Of Time, Venezuela’s first horror film.

 

This beautiful film tells the story of Dulce (Ruddy Rodriguez, a former Miss Venezuela) who has just served thirty years in prison for murdering her family. She returns to the dark mansion house to try to understand the mysteries and tragedies that have tormented her for all of these years. As she delves deeper into her past and is faced with the demons of her present, Dulce tries to come to term with what really happened and try and move on.

 

Hidalgo’s direction is simply sublime and right from the first scene we are absorbed into this mesmerising tale. The acting is great all round and the whole film feels like an intriguing fantasy; almost like we are taken to another word when we enter this mansion.

 

It feels reminiscent of a lot of eighties mystical films featuring big mystery houses and fantastical beings; it sits as a completely different take on the genre. The cinematography is also sublime and the whole film just has this awe about it. If this is anything to go by then hopefully Venezuela has a lot more to offer where that came from!

 

R4/5

 

 

The Samurai

Director: Till Kleinert

 

And so we had already reached the final slot of the penultimate day. Sorrow was starting to set in and we knew the end was near. Unfortunately, once again I had become quite tired and it was now all starting to set in. So when I woke up in the middle of Till Kleinert’s The Samurai and saw a man dancing around a fire in a white dress I wondered what kind of mad dream I had just encountered! What I did see of the film was pretty darn good and I had caught enough of a gist to tell this would land in some people’s top ten.

 

The film begins with young police officer Jakob who receives a parcel addressed to Lone Wolf. Then the phone rings and a mysterious man asks if his package is there and that it be delivered straight away. Jakob finds himself intrigued and following his instincts, takes off into the woods to meet the man but instead discovers a man wearing a white dress waiting.

 

It turns out that there is an ancient Samurai sword in the package and he wants to use it to cut a bloody swathe through the village’s population. It’s pretty insane and there’s no real point to it but the film is entertaining and very unique. The colours are stunning and it looks visually sound.

 

The two leads are charismatic and carry the film well through its eighty minute running time. Although this may not be to everyone’s taste, there is something the film is whether you take to it or not, and that is memorable.

 

It certainly invites me to have another viewing (and that’s not just because I fell asleep!). Intriguing and infinitely cool this film deserves the critical acclaim I hope it receives.

 

R3.5/5