draconacticus
05-11-09, 14:43
Hi everyone,
I thought I'd write a little note about the Grimm Up North horror film festival that I was lucky enough to get the tickets for in the recent Cubee competition. I kinda won them by default being the only person interested in going who lived in Manchester, but there you go, a win's a win!! Big thanks to Tenebra for being so kind and generous :D
The festival opened on Thursday night (29th Oct) with the gala opening of The Descent 2 which was a great sequel to it's predecessor. The film ran on pretty much seemlessly from the first which was quite an achievement given the change in director. Overall it was great, it was more focused on being about the creatures in the caves rather than the character development we saw in the first but it was still nicely dark and atmospheric with plenty of moments to make you jump :eek: whilst giving you the overwhelming sense of claustrophobia as the stars crawled their way through cave after cave.
Afterwards myself and Mrs Draconacticus got to meet the director Jon Harris and two of the actresses, Myanna Buring and Anna Skellern who were both gorgeous (evidence below... regard if you will the "i'm rather pleased with myself" expression on my mush in the photo with Myanna Buring):
http://i36.tinypic.com/2ppd1zr.jpg
We were also lucky enough to get a signed movie poster from them at the after party (where we pretended to be important industry types as we rubbed shoulders with actresses and quaffed our booze).
I then settled into another three days of film watching as the festival got underway taking in Credo - a nice little psychological horror also starring Myanna Buring (which was slightly awkward when she was sat in the cinema infront of me whilst taking a shower on the big screen and being kissed by another actress - I mean, where's a bloke supposed to look? I did what any morally upstanding gentleman would have done and ogled the screen with extreme vigour :giggle:), the premiere of Splintered (actually filmed in Manchester and the surrounding areas), Strigoi (a Romanian vampire film which was not your normal vampire horror) but the real stand out films of the festival for me were two absolute gems called "Tony" and "Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl"
Tony is a really dark humoured look at the week in the life of a serial killer. It's kind of a cockney version of American Psycho but done so much better. The script was hilarious, black humour at its finest, and the lead actor was amazing in turning a creepy pathetic man who's response to not being able to handle difficult situation was gruesome and bloody murder, into an anti-hero you couldn't help hoping got away scott-free in the end. I can't wait to see this film again.
Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl really was as awesome as the title would suggest. As soon as I saw this on the program I knew I had to watch it. The film is Japanese bizarre horror/comedy at its finest. Buckets of blood, belly laughs galore. At first my jaw hit the floor at what seemed like blatant and gratuitious racism turned into comedy, but as the film progressed you began to realise this was actually a parodying of various sub cultures in Japanese schools. If a film where the bad guy/girl turns herself into a helicopter by screwing an arm clutching a cutting blade to her head and spinning it is your thing then this film is for you. Superb.
I managed to fit in sometime between the films and popcorn and ice cream to have many goes on the most excellent upcoming Capcom release of Resident Evil The Darkside Chronicles. Definatley on my shopping list when it comes out. The controls will also be compatible for use with my House of the Dead Overkill hand cannons, and for that i am chuffed :)
I'd just like to say a big thank you to Tenebra and all the Capcom staff for generously passing the tickets my way, I had a ball!
I thought I'd write a little note about the Grimm Up North horror film festival that I was lucky enough to get the tickets for in the recent Cubee competition. I kinda won them by default being the only person interested in going who lived in Manchester, but there you go, a win's a win!! Big thanks to Tenebra for being so kind and generous :D
The festival opened on Thursday night (29th Oct) with the gala opening of The Descent 2 which was a great sequel to it's predecessor. The film ran on pretty much seemlessly from the first which was quite an achievement given the change in director. Overall it was great, it was more focused on being about the creatures in the caves rather than the character development we saw in the first but it was still nicely dark and atmospheric with plenty of moments to make you jump :eek: whilst giving you the overwhelming sense of claustrophobia as the stars crawled their way through cave after cave.
Afterwards myself and Mrs Draconacticus got to meet the director Jon Harris and two of the actresses, Myanna Buring and Anna Skellern who were both gorgeous (evidence below... regard if you will the "i'm rather pleased with myself" expression on my mush in the photo with Myanna Buring):
http://i36.tinypic.com/2ppd1zr.jpg
We were also lucky enough to get a signed movie poster from them at the after party (where we pretended to be important industry types as we rubbed shoulders with actresses and quaffed our booze).
I then settled into another three days of film watching as the festival got underway taking in Credo - a nice little psychological horror also starring Myanna Buring (which was slightly awkward when she was sat in the cinema infront of me whilst taking a shower on the big screen and being kissed by another actress - I mean, where's a bloke supposed to look? I did what any morally upstanding gentleman would have done and ogled the screen with extreme vigour :giggle:), the premiere of Splintered (actually filmed in Manchester and the surrounding areas), Strigoi (a Romanian vampire film which was not your normal vampire horror) but the real stand out films of the festival for me were two absolute gems called "Tony" and "Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl"
Tony is a really dark humoured look at the week in the life of a serial killer. It's kind of a cockney version of American Psycho but done so much better. The script was hilarious, black humour at its finest, and the lead actor was amazing in turning a creepy pathetic man who's response to not being able to handle difficult situation was gruesome and bloody murder, into an anti-hero you couldn't help hoping got away scott-free in the end. I can't wait to see this film again.
Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl really was as awesome as the title would suggest. As soon as I saw this on the program I knew I had to watch it. The film is Japanese bizarre horror/comedy at its finest. Buckets of blood, belly laughs galore. At first my jaw hit the floor at what seemed like blatant and gratuitious racism turned into comedy, but as the film progressed you began to realise this was actually a parodying of various sub cultures in Japanese schools. If a film where the bad guy/girl turns herself into a helicopter by screwing an arm clutching a cutting blade to her head and spinning it is your thing then this film is for you. Superb.
I managed to fit in sometime between the films and popcorn and ice cream to have many goes on the most excellent upcoming Capcom release of Resident Evil The Darkside Chronicles. Definatley on my shopping list when it comes out. The controls will also be compatible for use with my House of the Dead Overkill hand cannons, and for that i am chuffed :)
I'd just like to say a big thank you to Tenebra and all the Capcom staff for generously passing the tickets my way, I had a ball!