Mayhem Film Festival 2017 Part 1 (Day 1, 2 & 3)

This year's October calendar could not have been set up any better for 2017's Mayhem Film Festival. It not only gave us a Friday the 13th during the festival, but also Mayhem at Mayhem! But, unfortunately it's also fell on an October that has been and still is ridiculously busy for myself and my household. Getting ready to move house, a trip to the atmospheric and beautiful Whitby with my beautiful Angela, my 40th birthday, booking various things for our wedding next year and getting ready for Birmingham Horror Con at the end of the month, which sees us having our own stall to sell Black Box Figures & Props goodies. Plus the fact I couldn't get any time of work. Which all meant I could only get to a couple of films on the Thursday and Friday and completely miss Saturday. So for the films I didn't get to see I'll be sharing Dark Angel's Realm of Horror's blog.

Day 1 (Thursday 12th)

Double Date. Dir. Benjamin Barfoot. Wri. Danny Morgan.
Kicking off the festival is what turned out to be my favourite film. I have written a full review for this which you can read by CLICKING HERE.
I also have the Q&A session video up on YouTube which you can watch by CLICKING HERE.

M.F.A. Dir. Natalie Letie. Wri. Leah McKendrick.
One I missed as I had to leave to get into my bed to sleep for the impending work day! To find out about the film CLICK HERE.

Day 2 (Friday 13th)


Bitch. Dir. & Wri. Marianna Palka.
68 Kill. Dir. & Wri. Trent Haaga.
The first two movies I missed as they were shown at 3:00pm and 5:30pm.

Got a nice poster of Habit signed by Simeon Halligan & Elliot Langridge

 Habbit. Dir. & Wri. Simeon Halligan.
"Set within the neon drenched rain swept underbelly of Manchester, where the addicted prey on the lost and the lonely."
Another treat ensued with this British horror from "up north." This film was very different from Double Date though. This slow burn horror gave us a look into the seedy back streets of Manchester as it follows Michael's (Elliot Langridge) life year's after the death of his mother. Searching for something better than what his own little world can offer, he happens upon a fellow job seeker called Lee (Jessica Barden). This leads him to Cloud 9, a "massage parlour" where he finds more than just a happy ending. 

It's an interesting story, well written, well directed and well acted by a lot of local talent from around the north of England. This left me feeling cold and sombre, which is exactly how the film feels and looks throughout. It was a good thing in this film's case. It effects you both visually and psychologically and will stay with you for a few days after. Definitely recommend this one. 

From left to right: Me, Simeon Halligan, Simon (Realm of Horror)

Habit gets 4 out of 5 Stars

Friday the 13th Part III - 3D.

Mayhem's Steven & Chris getting some shit off Jason

As it was Friday 13th, Mayhem's late Friday classic matched the day, and in style too, shown in 3D. I missed this one, early start the next day and to be honest, I was never a fan of Jason Vorhees. I much preferred his mother's work.



To check out Friday's Bitch, 68 Kill and Friday the 13th Part 3 - 3D CLICK HERE. As I mentioned, I missed day 3 (Saturday), so check out its entirety by CLICKING HERE. For a full run down on Saturday's Scary Shorts CLICK HERE.

Double Date (2017) Review

Screening as part of Mayhem Film Festival 2017 (October 12th-15th), which was also a preview screening as it didn't hit cinemas till the day after, Benjamin Barfoot's Double Date opened the festival on Thursday night. It was one of the films I was most looking forward to even though I couldn't attend the festival everyday this year. As normal for Mayhem, it was a cracking start to the proceedings!

The film follows Jim, (played by the writer Danny Morgan) a 29 year old virgin and his attempt at loosing his virginity right before he turns 30. Helping with this is the best friend Alex (Michael Socha). The fun begins as Jim gains the attention of two seemingly lovely ladies, Kitty (Kelly Wenham) and Lulu (Georgia Groome), although at the very beginning of the film we, as the audience, get to see otherwise.

Kitty and Lulu are sisters and are after something far more sinister than a just a date. With a comedy of errors from Jim, a slew of brilliant one liners from Alex, their evening goes from promising to down right violent as the sister try to bring back something from the past. 

From left to right: Kitty, Lulu, Alex, Jim.

The main reason I was looking forward to this film is that at Mayhem, they always show quality British horror films. This was exactly what I wanted and I got it in spades. It's a very British comedy horror with all the typical humour, both dry and slapstick, we have come to expect.

Danny Morgan wrote an absolute gem of a script with the violence and bloodshed exquisitely complementing each other throughout. He did a pretty damn good job of acting too. In fact the whole cast are excellent and there wasn't any weak links at all. We're even treated to a cameo from Dexter Fletcher as Alex's dad. Michael Socha was hilarious and we were told in the Q&A session after the movie that he ad-libbed a lot of his lines. But it was Kelly Wenham that stole the show. Looking the part in every way, both bitchy and beautiful, going from lovable to psychotic in a split second, and as it turned out a pretty skilled fighter.

And that leads me perfectly to the fight scene between Kitty and Alex. Kelly Wenham trained her ass off for this role doing kickboxing and we were also told that Michael Socha has a background in Boxing. The fight they have is rather epic and can easily stand up on its own in any modern action film as it was that well choreographed and executed. I won't give away any spoilers, but I have to say that it wasn't some completely over the top unrealistic ass kicking like in the film Atomic Blonde where a 130lbs woman smashes blokes three times her size with poorly executed martial arts techniques. While Kitty's skills are well tuned, Alex uses his superior strength as a man... eventually. I commend both director Benjamin Barfoot and Danny Morgan for writing it, and pulling it off.

The film also had the added point of its score which was created by Swedish band, Goat. All in all, the direction, the writing, the acting was spot on along the some nice cinematography both outdoor and the inside club scenes.

 

From left to right: Danny Morgan, Georgia Groome, Me, Benjamin Barfoot, Matt Wilkinson.

As I mentioned, there was a Q&A session straight after the movie with the Director Benjamin Barfoot, Writer/Actor Danny Morgan, Actress Georgia Groome and Producer Matthew Wilkinson. You can watch that on my YouTube channel by clicking RIGHT HERE. While you're there, please subscribe to my channel. But I digress...

When thinking of British comedy horror, normally you'd probably think of Shaun of the Dead, but Double Date is at the other end of scale and would fit more with films like Severance (2006) and Dog Solders (2002) with it's use of humour, horror and gore FX. It's easily now in my favourite British horror film list. I highly recommend it!

Final thoughts...

DOUBLE DATE IS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST FROM START TO FINISH WITH A CLEVER SCRIPT & STAR QUALITY PERFORMANCES. ITS A PERFECT MIX OF HORROR & HUMOUR, DONE ONLY HOW THE BRITISH CAN DO IT!

Double Date gets a well earned 5 Star