It was with great optimism that myself and ex-Deranged Pictures boss Matt Rowan Maw took the train over to Leeds to sample the delights of DAY OF THE DEAD, the first daytime horror event that Leeds Film Fest have programmed.
Having attended several of the festival's NIGHT OF THE DEAD events at Hyde Park Picture House, where I had seen some great films (Versus, Wild Zero) and some not so great ones (Loft, Expiry Date) I knew the sort of thing to expect.
In the illustrious surroundings of City Varieties (an old music hall-style venue) the day kicked off at Midday in fine style with WAZ. The festival rep who did the introductions had a nasty habit of telling us too much about the films beforehand, so it was before a single frame had unspooled that we were told it was a dark serial killer film in the vein of Seven. He also revealed that the British production was set (and partially shot in) New York, with the majority being filmed in Belfast as a double for NYC.
WAZ does have shades of a low-budget version of David Fincher's film in tone and style, but comparisons in this case are pointless. Stellan Skarsgard stars as Eddie Argo, a cop who is investigating a series of brutal murders that appear to be linked by the concept of WAZ (or W DELTA Z) - the theory of the selfish gene. As the story progresses, Eddie and his idealistic partner Helen Westcott (Melissa George) discover that one of Argo's old investigations may be the key to cracking the case.
As low budget thrillers go, WAZ was ok. It seems to be fairly squarely-aimed at the post-Saw audience, but the unusual title and lack of sensationalist shocks might mean that the film would be a hard sell for the multiplex crowd.
Next up was ESPECTRO, a sometimes-supernatural horror from Columbia. The plot concerns Vega, a woman recovering from a traumatic event who moves into a spooky-spooky apartment block complete with peculiar neighbours. Vega's agoraphobia leads her to install a bunch of video cameras in her apartment, and surprisingly enough, weird things start appearing on the grainy video screens. With a promising premise, it was a shame to see Espectro devolve into a dull mess of a movie and one of the first disappointments of the day (but dear god, not as much of a stinker as the next one).
One of my pet-peeves with cinema of any kind is a plot-twist that simply doesn't fit. You could debate twist-endings ad nauseam, but the simple fact of the matter is that Espectro took practically every stylistic device of Japanese supernatural horror and used them as window-dressing for what turned out to be a throughly natural conclusion.
To say that I was disheartened by THE DEVIL'S CHAIR is something of an understatement. I can honestly say that this one of the most puerile and insulting films I have seen in recent memory, regardless of genre. Director Adam Mason has produced a hateful and incomprehensible tirade against.. well... everyone really. A mental patient returns to the scene of his girlfriend's violent death (caused by the titular chair) at a derelict asylum with a group of researchers. The first problem I have with the film is the incessant voiceover by lead actor Andrew Howard, a mouthpiece for Mason's dubious misogyny and blokeisms. Howard's godawful Jason Statham-like performance renders the film a tension-free experience. A ludicrous plot-twist about a hour in puts the final nail in what is already a bloated, shit-filled coffin. Plot details aside, the director's stamp of arrogance bleeds through the entire production via the aforementioned voiceover. If Mason set out to offend then he has certainly succeeded, but the incessant ranting at the audience (particularly the oh-so-current references to gorehounds and torture porn) was uncomfortable at best. 90 minutes of being shouted at by an angry man an inch from your face is what this felt like. Thank god for Neil Marshall.
After a quick bit to eat, we were back in for what turned out to be the first highlight of the day. Sion Sono's EXTE is a film that defies categorisation. A Japanese horror movie that playfully debunks your expectation and has some of the most peculiar scenes I think I've ever seen, EXTE is a unique beast. It stars Chiaki Kuriyama (Go-Go Yubari in Kill Bill Vol 1) as a trainee hair stylist who comes across some hair extensions that have a less than wholesome story attached to them. Said hair extensions belong to a dead girl who is found in a shipping container and thanks to a strange morgue assistant, the cursed accessories make their way into salons and wreak havoc. Now instead of blood or slime, this film's chosen effect is human hair and lots of it. It grows out of incisions, mouths and even eye sockets in some of the weirdest imagery you'll have seen since the last Sion Sono film. An out there wonder and destined for cult status.
The final film of the day was The Orphanage, produced by Guillermo Del Toro and Spain's entry for the foreign language category of the Oscars. Quite how Spain is able to get it so right is beyond me when so many other nations fail at scare tactics, but get it right they do. A woman returns to the orphanage where she grew up with her husband and son with a view to reopening it, but as time goes on it becomes clear that the place is still inhabited. The stage is set for a classic ghost story which recalls The Innocents and The Changeling in fine fashion. The thing I loved about the Orphanage was that it was steeped in the tradition of ghost films, but still managed to carve out a niche of its own. A fantastically creepy seance sequence (that to my mind recalled Poltergeist) is just one element of a film that could transcend its expectations.
So in conclusion, two very good films, one not bad and two bad films (one particularly so). Leeds Film Festival is over for another year and here's hoping we get a DAY OF THE DEAD II.
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