As if October wasn't the best month anyway, my birthday and Halloween, it also marks the epic event that is Mayhem Film Festival which kicked off yesterday with the hypnotising live performance from The Duke St. Workshop.
Presented by Nottingham's own Kino Klubb, the live music performance was delivered by The Duke St. Workshop with Laurence R. Harvey (The Human Centipede 2, The Editor, Banjo) reading from HP Lovercraft over the top of the music.
Whilst the music was being presented, hypnotic, translucent, neon images were projected on the screen. Along with Harvey's eerie yet inviting voice and a very John Carpenter Esq / 80s horror movie score, the visuals made for a rather trippy and mesmerising show. Something of which I remember for a very long time.
A truly one off experience, but you can get hold of the recording on vinyl and CD. They sold pretty quick last night, but I managed to get my hands on a beautiful purple LP.
The first film of the evening was the French cannibal film, Raw.
If you've read the reports about this film then you'll have read that audience members in Cannes film festival and Toronto International Film Festival had fainted etc. during it's showing.
I can safely say, as a long time horror, the film actually made me hungry! OK, not for human flesh of course. But all that aside, it was a very refreshing take on the cannibal sub-genre from writer / director Julia Ducournau.
The coming of age tale follows Justine (Garance Marillier) during her "rookie" week of veterinary school and her growing need to consume human flesh even though she's vegetarian. Along with the flesh eating, there's a couple of shocking moments, but there's also a few laughs along the way. Great acting and brilliantly written, Raw is definitely worth watching.
The final film of the evening was the UK premier of Kimo Stamboel & Timo Tjahjanto's Indonesian action thriller Headshot.
Starring The Raid's Iko Uwaisyou know straight away you're in for some ass kickery goodness! This time though Uwais shows us a bit more of his acting skills. That's not to say there's less action. Far from it. With some absolutely brutal and bloody fight scenes and stunning camera work that puts you right in the middle of every fight comes a story redemption and revenge.
Definitely one for the serious martial arts film fan.
That's it for day 1 of Mayhem. Keep your eye out for day 2's post shortly.
Mayhem Film Festival was founded in 2005 by filmmakers Steven Sheil and Chris Cooke. They screen the best in contemporary horror, science-fiction and cult cinema and television from around the world. Featuring premieres, previews, masterclasses, international special guest filmmakers, and unique live cinema events, the festival has developed a reputation as one of the strongest and most innovative genre festivals in the country. They are based at Broadway in Nottingham, one of the UK's leading independent cinemas and creative hubs.
This year's trip to Film4 FrightFest, once again, revolved around one film for me. British Indie Horror Comedy BANJO, which made it's world premier today. I always try my best to support indie horror, especially if it's British. Having known the director, Liam Regan, for a while on Facbook now and then meeting him at HorrorConUK earlier this year, (where the trailer screened and a Q&A was held with the some of the cast and crew), I was a little nervous as to what the film was going to turn out like. As some of the regular readers know, I can be brutally honest when I want or need to be.
A couple of minutes into the film and those nerves disappeared and by the end of it, it exceeded my expectations.
Banjo follows the story of Peltzer Arbuckle (James Hamer-Morton). As a mild mannered and meek individual, Peltzer gets it in the neck from all sides of life.
A bitch of a girlfriend, Deetz (Dani Thompson), a complete arsehole of a boss, Mr. Sawyer (Vito Trigo), and everyone else he works with seem to do nothing more than take the piss out of him!
The only person that's nice to him is Clyde (Laurence R. Harvey) and his ex-girlfriend Melissa (Serena Chloe Gardner). Although, she now has a new boyfriend, company big shot Stiles Rembrandt (Clay von Carlowitz) who's pretty much as bad as Mr. Sawyer.
With constant belittlement and physical abuse from Deetz, which is more than enough for you to feel sorry for Peltzer's character, and verbal abuse from his boss, Peltzer's confidence spirals down and down. During sex one evening with the his girlfriend, things get a little too vigorous and Deetz more or less ends up raping Peltzer, which leads to his "banjo string" snapping (if you're unfamiliar with that term, then I suggest you google it)!!
As it happens, it's not the only thing to snap. His mind snaps too and sees a childhood imaginary friend make a reappearance. With all the abuse and stress in Peltzer's life, his mind has finally had enough and now it's time for his old pal Ronnie (Damian Morter) to mix things up a bit and give Peltzer a little push in the right direction. Bloody mayhem ensues!
There's no surprises after watching this film where Liam Regan's influences came from. I would describe Banjo as a love letter to Troma. With over the top characters and gore, the film is absolutely hilarious. This is testament to an excellent script (that Regan also wrote) and great comedy timing from the cast.
The film is also very dark in places. Hamer-Morton's Peltzer, goes through, which can only be described as, domestic violence at the hands of his girlfriend. You can't help but have empathy for Clyde as he's asulted in the workplace. And at certain points, Ronnie's face is one of pure terror.
Dani Thompson played the bitchy eye candycharacter Deetz well, despite the performance being a little weak compared to the rest of the main cast. Of course, Laurence R. Harvey is perfect in his role as the feeble mama's boy. The leading man, James Hamer-Morton, gives a solid performance, keeping the audience feeling sorry for him and at the same time rooting for him. Vito Trigo plays the perfect over the top bastard of a boss. Clay von Carlowitz' suave yet cuntish Stiles was on point and Serena Chloe Gardner played the nice girl to a tee. But the stand out performance for me was the imaginary friend Ronnie. Played by Damian Morter (who was also director of photography on the movie), he gave a fantastic performance being both dark and sadistic and as funny as a stand up comedian. It was also great to see Mr. Troma himself, Lloyd Kaufman, make an appearance. Regan's direction, baring in mind that this film is his feature length debut (based on his own short film), was exceptional. The timing of gore, brutality and laughs were so good that it looked like he'd been doing this years. This is what happens when a lover of horror makes a horror movie. You can see the passion practically jumping out of the screen. My only issue was the pacing at the beginning of the third act, but that was soon overcome with the sick hilarity that followed. That sick hilarity, throughout the film, is what made the movie so damn good and if the movie didn't have such big laughs throughout, I think it would've
been a very different film that just wouldn't have worked. The FX, all practical, suited the feel of the film being dirty and grimy and had me squirming a couple of times. Over the top of all the fun and blood was a very playful score which was in perfect unison with every scene.
The cast & crew of Banjo
Banjo is a "no budget" horror flick and goes to show, when done right, you don't need big budgets to make a clever and entertaining film. Banjo is Indie horror done right and there's a hell of a lot of film makers out there that can learn a lot from this movie. Overall... OK, it's not a perfect film, but that didn't stop me enjoying it any less than what I did nor did any issues I had with it. I'm giving Banjo the amount of stars I am, taking into account the first time effort in directing, the limited experience of the cast, and the budget of the flick. As I said before, it exceeded my expectations and I haven't laughed this hard for a long time, not even at an actual comedy! The more I think about, I absolutely fucking loved it! And I honestly can't put it any better than that. I can't wait for it to hit DVD.
BANJO WILL MAKE YOU SQUIRM, LAUGH AND MAYBE EVEN CRY! A BRITISH INDIE HORROR COMEDY AT ITS BEST
