I personally think Mulberry Street or Ian Stone, were the best of the 5 I've seen. Though I hear Borderlands was good. I'm not sure however, because that's kind of like saying that Donnie Wahlberg was the best member of the New Kids On The Block. This may be true, but the band still sucks!
Last year I bought into their marketing campaign, proclaiming that they were too scandalous for theaters. Guess what...they weren't. I have yet to see anything that blows my mind, and that's kind of what I wanted to see with Horrorfest. Although I'm watching Crazy Eights right now, and stylistically it's already better than Tooth and Nail. Pretty good cast at least!
So many of the films were just SO bleh! Like no design choices made at all, and the ACTING! YECH! Tooth and Nail's acting appeared alright at first, but eventually the heroine's acting just became one note detachment. Any moment where she was supposed to be tough or intense was ridiculously vacant.
Of the ones I've seen, here they are in order of enjoyment with a short review. Worst to Best...ish:
4. Nightmare Man, Lake Dead - It was a tough one trying to decide which one of these was worse, so I put them as a tie. These were such utter crap! The acting in Lake Dead, was slightly better than Nightmare Man, but not by much. Both had the production values of high grade porn, and I'm pretty sure that Nightmare Man was at one point a porn, but someone tried to re-edit it to market it. How these two ended up in a festival that had two or three high quality(at least production-wise) films, is BEYOND me! Too bad I watched them early on, which has still left a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the festival.
3. Tooth and Nail - This seemed promising, but it was just pretty darn lame and
boring. See above.
2. The Deaths of Ian Stone - This one looked great, as far as films could look good in this festival, like a high quality direct to video sequel. It certainly seemed like a film that could be released in theaters if it had better known actors in it(A sad commentary on our society). The graphics were vastly better in this one than in any of the other films. That might have something to do with the fact that at the end of the film I saw it was produced by Stan Winston. Cool. Unfortunately the last 20 minutes in the hospital were horribly slow, and before that the movie dragged in it's mid section. Still lots better than the others above.
1. Mulberry Street - One of things I loved about it was that it obviously had no budget (I checked, it was 60 grand, which is minuscule in movie terms) and that it took a ludicrous subject, man eating rat people, and made it work. I loved the homemade feel of this one, and the claustrophobia of the apartment complex. The acting was great too, and though I wasn't particularly ever scared, it really hung together. Also, one of the best things about the film was the score. Amazingly the film seems better as I write about it.
So all in all the two films were better than expected, two were AWFUL! and one was bleh...
And so far crazy eights is the best put together film I've seen so far. Production design, and acting wise. So why'd they include "Nightmare Man" and "Lake Dead?"
PS. Last years films so far seemed better than this years. In order:
1. Reincarnation - For me it had the most chilling imagery which is what I look for, and it was also the best technically. The story made me think.
2. The Hamiltons - The story was very interesting. Some of the acting...eh, but it was also told well.
3. The Gravedancers - For pure enjoyment...minus the last 10 minutes,(and I REALLY mean, minus the last 10 minutes) this one was good. Even though that Sid guy was the worst actor I've ever seen.
4.Wicked Little Things - Underrated! I didn't think Wicked Little Things was that bad. It was more watchable than I thought it would be, but maybe that's because I'd heard people ripping on it alot, and expected it to be worse.
5. Dark Ride - To me it was just kind of...eh. Seen it a million times before. But not horrible.
6. Unrest - Wow...there was so much in this that didn't make sense. Which is sad, because it had some good atmosphere. Also my friend is in it.
7. Penny Dreadful - Like I said haven't seen it so I can't exactly rate it. Not expecting great things though. I probably should have watched this in the middle.
8. Still haven't seen "The Abandoned", but I just bought it so I'll watch it soon. It's supposed to be the best one of last year's festival.
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