Sunday 16 November 2014

MAYHEM Festival - Day 3.Super Saturday!


And so it was onto Saturday, A fully packed programme with the 1st film starting at 12pm and the last film starting at 11:30pm. The day started with Dead Snow 2 which I had already seen plus the fact that I had a leak at home and had to wait in for a new toilet and sink to be delivered! I Really wanted to see Starry Eyes at 2pm but no signs of delivery but my good lady Emma bless her who had brought a pass for the weekend said "Go see it, I'm bound to be there for 4pm showing of Housebound" which we both really wanted to see and she made it! So i got my coat on and legged it to the bus stop and i was on my way to Day 3 and Starry Eyes. I arrived on my own and couldn't see any signs of our folks so just waited on the stairs. You could tell that there were considerably more people there than the previous nights and that remained the case all day and indeed for Sunday. I picked a seat for myself then looked down the cinema to see myself being waved at by Natalie and the group who had saved me and Emma some seats, I explained why she wasn't here and she had literally just texted me saying stuff had been delivered  so she'll be there  for 4! On to Starry Eyes.


My 1st film of the day was Starry Eyes and what a film it was! The short introduction by Chris Cooke he mentioned the leading lady Alex Essoe was an actress to watch, what a great performance she puts in and definitely a talent to watch and she was 100%  mesmerising. It tells the tale of her character Sarah trying to make it big in Hollywood and she is pretty much willing to do anything to get the roles she wants but in an innocent sad way, Fully trusting in human nature, Unaware of how depraved and cunty people can be. But the thing about Sarah is that she's not your usual brash Hollywood starlet far from it, If anything she is more like the classic character Carrie. Her friends are all party animals and she tries her hardest to fit in but never quite does. She uploads her profile online and gets a call from some folks making a new horror movie. She attends the 1st audition which is a little strange but she feels she doesn't quite make it and has a fit in the toilet that results in her starting to pull out her own hair, Unknown to her at the time the lady from the audition panel was standing outside the cubicle and asks her to come back and perform her fit in front of them, Odd to say the very least. They say they will be in touch and indeed they do. She gets a call for a second audition where if you think the 1st one was weird wait until you see the 2nd one. I shan't really say much more as it will probably spoil it which i don't want to as you need to see this. The violence is ramped up incredibly towards the end with some real wow gore moments. A very high recommend indeed and as Mr Cooke said Keep your eyes out for Alex Essoe, Definitely a star in the making but hopefully she hasn't gone through what she did in this!!



So up next was Housebound a horror comedy from New Zeland, The film opens up with an hilarious failed attempt at trying to rob a cash machine. The man and woman get arrested and the girl gets put on a tag and is sentenced to spend 9 months under house arrest at her mother's. Not too bad you would think except for the fact that her mother lives way out of any town with no cable TV and dial up internet which when she tries to use it blows up the PC! Her mother is convinced there is a ghost in the house. Her daughter who is quite an obnoxious character just thinks her mum is a loon. Until the girl herself starts hearing things......
I loved housebound. The humour was the dry  NZ style as seen in the Pete Jackson classic Braindead.You could tell from the reaction from the audience it was a huge hit. It drops a little in the middle but don't let that put you off as the ending has a cracking pay off!

Next up was Scary Shorts. A selection of horror shorts selected exclusively by the folks that run mayhem. This is always a great hit and also breaks up very well having to watch a full length movie. My favourite was One featuring the always brilliant Michael Berrymen as a demented ice cream man who swaps ice cream for fingers provided by children and weirdly donated by children. Opens up showing an apparently perfect all American family with mum prepping dinner with a constant sound of "Chop chop chop" and the mum just grinning very similar to the sound garden video black hole sun. I'll try and find out a bit more info on these shorts and post a future blog hopefully referring to all of them as they were brilliant!


Next up was The Canal at 9pm, From what I had read synopsis wise it sounded very similar to Sinister from a couple of years back, Guy moves into new house, Guy finds old movie, Shit happens. But it's darker than that, a hell of a lot darker. He is a film archivist that is asked to go through some old films and realises that the murders took place in his home , Shocked by this revelation he tells his wife and delves deeper whilst she seems soooo much in love with him things are not what they seem, He see things, Things become really fucked up, Sinister? No it's not, It pisses all over Sinister!!
In attendance were director Ivan Kavanagh and producer Anne Marie Naughton. Now, Like I say I can't really tell you too much about The Canal without spoiling it but I can say that the performances and direction were great, It proudly wears it's horror influences on it's sleeve. I noticed a few J-Horror influences and the talk after was great, Especially director Ivan Kavanagh revealing the fact that the toilet scene is actually a real location and not a stage set, see it and you know what I mean. A great movie.

And that was to be for me "Good night Vienna" Stagefright was the end movie, At 11:30 and to be honest it had been a long day with all the house hold plumbing chaos but I heard from folks the day after that the showing was great. I've it on a couple of occasions and it is great but by that time and TCM on Halloween an old fart like me needed to crash out and be fresh and ready for Sunday!

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