Bruce Campbell's Horror Film Festival is back in Chicago
this weekend (8/20-23) and, with no offense to fans of "Wolfcop," the line-up
is notably improved from year one. The fest has gone from an interesting
curiosity in its debut year to a major event for horror fans in the Midwest,
complete with impressive special guests and premieres of films that horror fans
will be talking about over the next year. With films that played Sundance,
Toronto, Fantasia Fest, and more, Bruce Campbell's Horror Film Festival brings
the Midnight programming from some of the most notable film festivals around the
world to Rosemont, IL. If you're a genre fan and you're not interested in
attending, something is wrong with you.
Festival Director Josh Goldbloom and the team behind the
fest really landed a big film for their Opening Night premiere (at 7:30pm this
Thursday), the multi-director anthology "Tales
of Halloween," the best film of its kind since the cult hit "Trick ‘r Treat"
(sorry fans of the less-consistent "V/H/S" and "The ABCs of Death").
Producer/director Axelle Carolyn has assembled a diverse array of filmmakers,
including Darren Lynn Bousman ("Saw II"), Neil Marshall ("The Descent"), Adam
Gierasch ("Toolbox Murders"), and Lucky McKee ("May"), and merged their short
films into a clever, quirky ode to the holiday of ghosts and ghouls. All ten
tales take place on Halloween, and while each has its own narrative, Carolyn
and her team have deftly made all ten feel like they're part of one piece. It's
not unlike a series of ghost stories told around a campfire in that one seems
to inspire another, ending in a great piece (from Marshall) that ties them all
together. Horror fans will adore the many cameos, including legends like Joe
Dante and John Landis, and the fact that the pieces actually get stronger as
the film goes along. A bit about competing Halloween decorations called "This
Means War" followed by Mike Mendez's future-cult-classic "Friday the 31st"
are just two of the second-half highlights. By the end, the lunacy of "Tales of
Halloween" has reached its peak and horror nuts will be sent out the door ready
for a dozen more films from their favorite genre. ("Tales of Halloween" is followed by
the inferior "Hellions" Thursday night, fresh off its Sundance premiere and
before it plays in Toronto next month. Some people really dig it. I'm not one
of those people.)
Friday night marks the world premiere of "June" (which was
not screened for press), along with an awesome event in which writer/director
Tom Holland will present a screening of "Fright Night." That hot ticket is
followed by the North American premiere of "The Pack" and a perfect choice for
the midnight slot in the ‘80s horror parody "Dude Bro Party Massacre 3." If you're
wondering how you missed the first two "Dude Bro Party Massacre" movies, you're
missing the joke.
Saturday offers a mixed bag of quality, but the centerpiece
is the real draw—a Q&A screening with Bruce Campbell after "Bubba Ho-Tep"
at 7pm. Two hours before that, you might be drawn to the semi-successful "Some Kind of Hate," a slasher movie
meets ghost story meets cautionary bullying tale. When a kid finally fights
back against his bully, he gets sent away to a youth reform camp for violence.
In other words, the kid getting bullied gets sent to a facility filled with
bullies. This can't end well. Adam Egypt Mortimer's tale starts like a drama
but shifts at the end of the first act when the ghost of a girl who was bullied
to the grave decides to help out our woeful protagonist by eliminating his
enemies for him. Some of the performances here are way too thin for the dramatic
material, but there's enough style and confidence in the filmmaking to make me
curious about what Mortimer does next. And what else are you going to do on a
Saturday at 3pm? Go outside? You must not be a real horror fan.
"Some Kind of Hate" leads into the superior (but still
flawed) "Body" at 5pm on Saturday.
This Slamdance audience fave stars Helen Rogers, Alexandra Turshen and Lauren
Molina as three girls who break into a mansion on Christmas Eve only to be
interrupted by a stranger (the legendry Larry Fessenden), which leads to
tragedy. How the girls respond—or rather the series of very poor decisions they
make—is the crux on which "Body" spins. I like the room given in the first act
for Rogers and Turshen to develop characters, and I've always been
kind of a fan of one-setting thrillers like "Body." There's something cathartic
about watching people faced with nothing but bad outcomes somehow make their
situations even worse. We tell ourselves that we'd make smarter choices, even
though we probably wouldn't. "Body" is a bit slight (it needed another twist or
two) but it's a solid choice mid-fest. (And a better film than Saturday's post-"Bubba"
closers, the awful "Contracted: Phase 2" and the simply ridiculous "Bunny the
Killer Thing," a Troma-esque gorefest in which a man in a bunny suit with a
giant penis rips off people's body parts while shouting little more than "Pussy!" Perfect for a midnight movie
slot in a fest like this one, but more exhausting than excellent.)
Sunday is the best day yet in the two-year history of Bruce
Campbell's Horror Film Festival, which should leave fans happy and ready for
next year. It starts at noon with a screening of the classic "Cannibal
Holocaust," introduced by Eli Roth and accompanied by "mountains of breakfast
meats." Eat bacon while they eat people! Following that, catch up with the Sundance hit "Turbo Kid," a fun
Amblin-esque ‘80s throwback that has been getting buzz on the fest circuit all
year long. It's a major get for this fest.
The two best new films of the festival play Sunday afternoon
in the two-fer of "Sun Choke" and "He Never Died." Given their indie
cinema styles, both will have their detractors, but I found both films to be
engaging, visually confident works, carried by strong central performances. "Sun
Choke," at 2:30pm, stars Sarah Hagan in a fearless performance as Janie, a
young woman trying to get over an undefined trauma through the help of an
abusive life coach/counselor/kidnapper played by the legendary Barbara
Crampton. When Janie breaks out of her rehab/prison, she spots a beautiful
young woman named Savannah (Sara Malakul Lane), with whom she becomes obsessed.
What is buried in Janie's past? What violence is in her future? "Sun Choke" is
an odd film—more "Mulholland Dr." than traditional horror—but that's what I
like about it. Writer/director Ben Cresciman works with Matthew Rudenberg's
excellent cinematography to produce a dream-like film with more questions than
answers. "Sun Choke" is incredibly violent, disturbing and truly strange. Even
if you don't think it entirely works, it stands out.
Someone who has always stood out from the crowd is Henry
Rollins, a man who should have been a movie star years ago but finally gets a
breakthrough starring role and totally nails it in the very-good "He Never
Died," playing at 7pm on Sunday night. Rollins plays a loner with a trunk full
of cash and no friends. The first act of "He Never Died" plays like a noir—low light,
deadpan responses from Rollins, threats of violence. And then we learn the
importance of the title. Rollins is immortal. He can't be killed. And yet he is
not a love-lorn vampire a la "Twilight," he is someone who has lived WAY too
long, seen way too much death, and found little reason to care about life any
more. Even just the way Rollins says "Don't"
after getting punched in the face conveys so much weariness of an existence
that has seen every war in the history of man. When his daughter shows up and
gets in trouble—combined with the waitress at the diner he attends every day
showing interest in him—our sullen hero has to give a damn about something
again. Maybe for the last time. This is a genre film that I can virtually
guarantee you will find a faithful audience later this year when it's released.
Get on the bandwagon now. And that's what great fests are often about—introducing
you to films that your friends will be talking about 3 months from now. Horror
fans love the new discovery, the new cult hit, the new creative voice—come see
the new this weekend. Get your tickets
here.
