The movie’s large cast of characters are all finely drawn and just as meticulously snuffed out. Subverting convention, Rabies takes place in a brightly lit forest, and the killer spends most of the film in a tranquilizer-induced nap while mostly imagined fears lead the rest of the char- acters to off one another in increasingly ludi- crous ways. AM
RETREAT – UK Carl Tibbetts
Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) and Thandie Newton (Crash) play a troubled couple that re- treats to a remote island to start anew. All goes wobbly when a soldier turns up with dubious claims that an airborne virus has decimated the world’s population. In order to survive, they must barricade themselves inside their cottage. It’s an intriguing premise that gives rise to a paranoid, pressure-cooker situation that even- tually boils over with much bloodletting; how- ever, the proceedings are undermined by absurd lapses in logic and a decidedly plankish performance from Newton. SFA
SAINT (SINT) – The Netherlands Dick Maas
steep cliffs, a hearty dose of panic, some bone- crunching trauma, a child buried in the middle of nowhere in a pine box ventilated with a pipe, and sharp-shooting thugs picking off the char- acters one by one, and you’ve got a unique film that’ll get your heart pounding clear through your ribs. MG
MIDNIGHT SON – USA Scott Leberecht
Jacob is a young man with a sensitivity to sun- light that keeps him cooped up in his basement apartment painting sunsets and longing for love. He self-medicates with plasma obtained from a shady hospital orderly but, like all ad- dicts, eventually hits rock bottom, taking those he loves with him. While the material has been covered before and better by other naturalistic vampire films such as Martin and Habit, at least Midnight Son’s lovelorn misfit vamps don’t sparkle. AM
MONSTER BRAWL – Canada Jesse T. Cook
Whatcha gonna do when classic horror crea- tures run wild on you, brother? Jesse T. Cook’s infectious, if slightly overlong, feature pits the Mummy, Wolfman, Cyclops, Frankenstein and more against each other in the squared circle, hearkening back to classic WWF matchups and the 1940s big-screen monster battles. Wrestling stars Robert Maillet, Kevin Nash and Jimmy Hart are here, but it’s Dave Foley and Art Hindle as hilarious ringside announcers that steal the sometimes gory show. PC
MORITURIS – Italy Raffaele Picchio
Morituris is about two things: hardcore misog- ynistic violence and bloodthirsty gladiator ghosts. It’s the kind of thing a teen rapist who still plays with He-Man figures would conceive. Some have compared the film to Fulci’s work,
Global Terror: (clockwise from top left) Rabies; The Last Norwegian Troll; Mon- ster Brawl; Burke and Hare; posters for Phase 7, Little Deaths, Saint (Sint); The Innkeepers; and (opposite) the true eye of the needle in The Theatre Bizarre.
and while the synth score and juxtaposition of the modern and arcane is rem- iniscent, absent is the creativity and dread of the maestro’s movies. Ineptly dark cinematography obscures Sergio Stivaletti’s makeup effects, so with little to keep them in their seats, Morituris had audience members leaving in droves. AM
PHASE 7 – Argentina Nicolás Goldbart
Like [REC], Phase 7 takes place in an apartment complex that’s been quar- antined, but unlike that film, offers sporadic moments of black comedy. The TV instructs: “Do not touch anyone. Do not kiss. Just wave.” As society un- ravels, the characters don gas masks to keep out the contagion, guard their food with heavy ammo and choose sides when things get desperate. Would you rather hang with the paranoid and unhinged or the dogmatic survivalist with a cough? An interesting portrayal of post-apocalypse life that’s well worth seeing. MG
RABIES – Israel Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales
“Ten little Israelis went out to die...” could be the tagline for this, the Holy Land’s first slasher film, and a hilariously grim take on the body-count genre.
The Small Gauge Trauma (SGT) shorts
programme at FanTasia has a history of showcasing some of the most transgres- sive genre films. Too often, shorts are made as “calling-card” films that feel like a twelve-minute scene plucked out of a
TV show. But programmer Mitch Davis is not afraid of show- ing films that go beyond this prosaic framework. This year’s programme featured ten films from five countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, Spain and the USA. The highlights included Picnic (Gerardo Herrero, Spain),
an evocative meditation on the lasting effects of war in a post-war context. A young couple take their son and a baby for a picnic, but find themselves ensnared in a field of land mines. After the first detonation, the remaining family mem- bers find themselves face to face with very limited possibil-
As featured in RM#107, Saint (a.k.a. Sint) rewrites the legend of Saint Nicholas to sup- pose the holiday gift-giver was actually a mur- derous bishop in the 1500s, whose ghost returns to terrorize Holland every December 5 that coincides with a full moon. Appearing on horseback, the blood-hungry beardo is joined by an army of “Black Petes” as he impales or decapitates misbehavers with his curved staff. Wry, occasionally sexually charged humour and impressive action sequences make this gory slasher the anti-holiday yang to Rare Export’s fantastical yin. TT
THE THEATRE BIZARRE – Canada/USA/France
David Gregory, Douglas Buck, Karim Hussain, Tom Savini, et al.
This six-part anthology film – bookended by creeptastic segments starring Udo Kier – is funny, revolting, delicious, dreadful and, at times, challenging to the notion of horror. In Mother of Toads, Catriona MacColl (The Be- yond) grants one man a hot one-night-stand and hilariously regrettable morning; Tom Savini takes Debbie Rochon (Slime City Massacre) down a path of wedded hell in Wet Dreams;
ities for escape. Set in Bosnia, the film allegorizes the on- going effects of the 1990 wars in a haunting way. Less allegorical, but well-directed and powerfully affec-
tive, is Incubator (Jimmy Weber, USA). A young man wakes up in a bathtub covered in ice, a huge scar on his side, and a note on the bathroom mirror that says “Thanks.” A brilliant set-up leading to an intense denouement that moves in a Cronenberg-like direction. The most fascinating short of the programme was Good
Morning, Beautiful (Todd Cobery, USA). A dark surreal satire on the nature of grief, the film follows the emotional turmoil of a couple in their late-30s who have lost their newborn daughter. With shades of David Lynch, the filmmaker jour- neys into the nightmarish world of the husband, whose grip on reality is slipping. Thematically and formally challenging filmmaking. MDB
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