29 March - 1 April 2012

29 March - 1 April 2012
DEAD BY DAWN
29 March - 1 April 2012
All screenings in Cinema One
Thursday
THE FIELDS2330 – 0115
Friday
RED TEARS1200 – 1335
What You Make It short film programme
1415 – 1515
THE OMEN1600 – 1800
Long Shorts short film programme1900 – 2035
BELOW ZERO + Q&A with Signe Olynyk and Bob Schultz
2115 – 2315
THE PUPPET MONSTER MASSACRE0015 – 0130
Saturday
DELIVERANCE1245 – 1445
Cutting Edge short film programme
1530 – 1715
NIGHTMARE FACTORY1815 – 1950
LOBOS DE ARGA + Q&A with Juan Martinez Moreno
2045 – 2250
0000 – 0155
Late Night Triple Bill
Bear + JUAN DE LOS MUERTOS
Infernal Nuns + DEMONS0230 – 0405
MACABRE0425 – 0600
Sunday
CREEPSHOW1345 – 1550
2D & Deranged short animation programme
1630 – 1740
RED NIGHTS1830 – 2015
HAUNTERS2100 – 2245
Freebies, Blethering, Shit Film Amnesty2330 – 2350
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
Some times may be subject to slight change.
2350 – 0140
Welcome to Dead by Dawn!
It’s sound advice to be more afraid of the living than the dead. Sure, the dead can kill you, but at least they’re easy to spot.
In this year’s programme too many of the monsters will smile when they meet you, and will still be smiling when they lock
you in a meat freezer. Or encourage you onto a ledge. Or offer to share their martini.
You could try politely declining their kind offer, see how that works out...
Dead by Dawn is a discovery festival which exists to showcase potential and vibrant emerging talent, but also aims to screen
the widest possible range of what can be described as horror both in feature and short form.
Dead by Dawn celebrates the film-makers who make the familiar feel fresh, reinvigorated and profoundly unsettling.
I hope you have a great festival!
Adèle
Adèle Hartley
Festival Director
We’d like to thank these organisations for their support:
HAUNTERS
Cho-in wasn’t the healthiest or happiest
child, with a sickly build, a prosthetic leg
and, worst of all, a fearful and abusive
family. He has one strength, though, albeit
a carefully hidden one – he has instant
control over the mind and actions of anyone
who falls under his gaze, be it his violent
father (who Cho-in deals with one overcast
day in a quick but shocking manner) or
complete strangers.
Today, Cho-in is quite comfortable
financially — mind control has its obvious
advantages — but is still a gaunt, brooding
loner. Kyu-nam, on the other hand, is the
polar opposite. He’s boyishly handsome,
outgoing, cheerful and a good buddy to
his two best friends, a pair of immigrant
workers from Turkey and Ghana with
whom Kyu-nam kids around and whiles
away the hours at the scrapyard where they
work. He also seems surprisingly resilient,
bouncing back quickly from accidents that
might leave others in pieces. It’s by pure
chance that Cho-in and Kyu-nam cross
paths, and while Cho-in’s powers, and
the extent of his malice, are already quite
apparent, it is then that Kyu-nam’s abilities
truly surface. Not only is he resistant to
physical damage, he is also the only person
who Cho-in can’t dominate with his mind.
And as Cho-in soon discovers, Kyu-nam is
the type of guy who’ll stop at nothing to
right a wrong and protect those he cares for.
(no stranger to inspired genre-blending, he
wrote the awesome “kimchi Western” The
Good The Bad The Weird), the occasional
narrative quirk and oddball joke (watch for
a subtle poke at da Vinci’s Last Supper in
the junkyard), and the underlying thread
of solid friendship as life’s true treasure,
never distract from but in fact only
enhance the impact of this distinctive
and intelligent film.
Rupert Bottenberg
No capes, masks, leotards or other fancy
apparel here. HAUNTERS is a superhero
film that never explicitly announces itself
as such, despite its perfectly counterbalanced champion and villain. In fact,
at first blush, it seems to owe more to the
Asian horror wave, not only in its grim and
washed-out aesthetic but in its absolutely
heart-stopping moments of supernatural
violence. Moreover, thanks to a clever
script and astute direction by Kim Min-suk
South Korea / 2010 / 100 mins
Director: Min-suk Kim
Producer: Yu-jin Lee
Writer: Min-suk Kim
DoP: Kyung-Pyo Hong
Cast: Choi Deok-Moon, Jeong Eun-Chae,
Soo Go, Dong-won Kang, Da-kyeong Yoon
For the benefit of those living under a
rock these last 30 years, the story is as
follows: Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is
a hotshot politician on the rise who has it
all. Well, almost all. What he wants dearly
is an heir to his proverbial throne. His
prayers are both answered and pissed on
the night that his wife goes into labour.
Upon arriving at the hospital, he finds out
that their child, a son, was stillborn. Before
grief has even a moment to set in, Robert’s
given an interesting option. As *ahem*
luck would have it, that very night, in
that same hospital, a mother died during
labour and left her son without a parent.
He’s then informed by a rather dark priest
that nobody would ever have to know.
Desperate to have a child of his own and
not wanting to see his wife (Lee Remick)
have to go through the agony of the night’s
true dealings, Robert accepts the child into
his family as their son.
Things go pretty well for the trio after
that. There’s the usual bringing up baby
stuff. You know, first steps, first teeth, first
words, but it’s not long before the truth
about their son’s identity is revealed. It’s
then up to Robert to make yet another
tough decision – whether or not to dispose
of his little bundle of demonic infamy. The
answer to that is evident from Damien’s
return in two sequels, but even if you
know the ending, The Omen is still one
hell of a ride.
Top-notch acting, great camera work, an
unforgettable score, and even a nice bit of
gore thrown in for good measure. Without
question I could spend the next ten
minutes writing about why this film is a
classic, but I’m sure you already are aware.
Honestly, it doesn’t get much better than
this. The Omen has it all!
From a review by Uncle Creepy for
dreadcentral.com
UK/USA / 1976 / 111 mins
Director: Richard Donner
Producer: Harvey Bernhard
Writer: David Seltzer
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
DoP: Gilbert Taylor
Editor: Stuart Baird
F/X: John Richardson, George Gibbs,
Roy Field
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David
Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Harvey Stephens,
Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson,
Robert Rietty, Tommy Duggan, John Stride,
Anthony Nicholls, Holly Palance,
Roy Boyd, Freda Dowie, Sheila Raynor,
Robert MacLeod, Bruce Boa, Don Fellows,
Patrick McAlinney, Dawn Perllman
Deliverance
“Chromium… paper tissues… It’s nice,”
Jon Voight tells some hospital attendants
near the end of 1972’s Deliverance.
He’s rambling, but there’s sense beneath
the incoherence. Coming out of a backto-nature weekend gone horribly awry,
he must find any signs of human society
comforting, even though getting away from
all that comfort was the whole idea.
Voight is one of four men who set out on
the weekend, and one of the three who
make it home. They’re all the product of
white-collar Atlanta, but in spite of their
common background, they have widely
different dispositions. Ned Beatty has
a softness that befits his girth. Ronny
Cox’s gentle, bespectacled guitar-playing
character wants only to pick and grin. The
most forceful personality belongs to Burt
Reynolds, a man whose confidence and
machismo are shored up by expensive
hunting equipment and a lot of tough talk.
But talk, they all discover, only goes so far.
Adapted from a novel by James Dickey,
Deliverance is a film about finding
the place where ideas mean less than
instinct. In the least violent of the film’s
iconic scenes, Cox launches into a spirited
guitar-vs-banjo duet with a malformed
teenage boy. Both appear delighted with
the musical connection they make, but that
connection ends with the last note. Cox
is a tourist who only thinks he’s found a
new home. Such moments only intensify
as their journey progresses, the river grows
more challenging, and the locals become
less hospitable.
Working from a screenplay by Dickey,
Boorman and cinematographer Vilmos
Zsigmond play the parts of patient
observers as Voight and his friends are
forced to adapt, or maybe devolve, to fit
their new surroundings. Their adversaries
are human, but they seem more like
extensions of the mud and foliage than
anything resembling civilization. It’s a
tale of humanity vs nature in which one
side can only win by surrendering to
the other. The construction of a dam
destined to strip this piece of wilderness
away forever spurs the trip on and leads
Reynolds to exclaim, “They’re drowning
the river.” But nothing, the film keeps
suggesting, can stay submerged forever.
Review by Keith Phipps for The Onion AV
Club / avclub.com
USA / 1972 / 110 mins
Director: John Boorman
Producer: John Boorman
Writer: James Dickey
Music: Michael Addiss
DoP: Vilmos Zsigmond
Editor: Tom Priestley
F/X: Marcel Vercoutere
Cast: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty,
Ronny Cox, Ed Ramey, Billy Redden,
Seamon Glass, Randall Deal, Bill McKinney,
Herbert ‘Cowboy’ Coward, Lewis Crone,
Ken Keener, Johnny Popwell, John Fowler,
Kathy Rickman
Jack the Hack is a screenwriter with a
writer’s block to end all writer’s blocks. He
has a concept for a film, and that’s about
it. His agent has the idea to lock him in a
freezer (the plot of his concept), and not
let him out until he has a script. As the five
days pass, the line begins to blur between
what’s reality and what’s in his head. The
movie says it best in the opening sequence:
There’s nothing scarier than a blank page.
Below Zero does a great job setting
up its simple premise. The idea of a guy
locked in a freezer forced to come up
with an idea isn’t a particularly complex
one – and it’s because of this that the
audience is completely unprepared for
the suspenseful, emotional roller coaster
that writer Signe Olynyk sends us on. The
seemingly simple story twists and weaves in
and out of multiple time lines and scenarios
that unfold in rapid succession, leaving you
constantly wondering which reality
is reality.
minimum and instead scares the audience
with “What Ifs.” But what I loved the most
about the movie is how self aware it is,
almost to an indulgent sense. The writer
isn’t shy about her influences, or her love
of the horror genre in general, and calls
out clichés and loopholes by name. It’s the
most in-your-face homage I think I’ve ever
seen, but it’s also the most clever.
A great movie filled with great
performances and witty, biting dialogue,
Below Zero sets out to redefine
the horror genre – putting emphasis on
character development and a well crafted
story, instead of just seeing how many nude
and busty women they can slaughter in
an hour and a half. It’s truly a remarkable
film that will stick with you well after the
credits have rolled. If there is a screening
near you, I urge you to see it as many times
as you can.
Canada / 2010 / 98 mins
Director: Justin Thomas Ostensen
Producers: Bob Schultz, Judy Fox,
Chad Kowalchuk, Signe Olynyk,
Justin Thomas Ostensen, Laura Pursley
Writer: Signe Olynyk
Music: Jeff Tymoschuk
DoP: Norm Li
Editor: Justin Thomas Ostensen
Cast: Edward Furlong, Michael Berryman,
Kristin Booth, Dee Hanna, Michael Eisner,
Sadie Maduv
Dead by Dawn is delighted to welcome Signe
Olynyk and Bob Schultz to the festival
Review by Philip Kirsner for
theyayornay.com
Not one for cheap thrills and shock tactics,
Below Zero keeps the gore to a
Below Zero
CUTTING EDGE SHORTS
THE PACT
As a woman struggles to come to grips with her past in the wake of her
mother’s death, an unsettling presence emerges in her childhood home. Not
everything has been laid to rest.
USA / 2011 / 11 mins
Director: Nicholas McCarthy
A FUNCTION
A girl sits in a classroom, solving a math quiz. If she cannot solve it in time, a
horrible thing is likely to happen. The clock is ticking, and her pencil is broken.
South Korea / 2011 / 9 mins
Director: Hyunsoo Lee
ELLA
Mother lies dead in the kitchen, her husband has blood on his hands. He takes
the shotgun, loads it, carries spare ammunition and heads into the woods
calling for his daughter.
UK / 2010 / 9 mins
Director: Dan Gitsham
ESTOMAGO
It might be the end of the world. A man has barricaded himself in a large
abandoned hotel, the only survivor of an unnamed disaster. It isn’t long,
however, before his small world starts to collapse.
France / 2011 / 15 mins
Directors: Camille Achour, Jean Thomas Seité
THE COLDEST CALLER
Mrs Evans has got something wrong with her plumbing, and the prognosis is
just about as bad as it can be. Still, she’s a resourceful old girl and not one to
take things lying down.
UK / 2011 / 4 mins
Director: Joe Tucker
LAST CHRISTMAS
A ten year old boy struggles to care for his bewildered grandmother when he
is left alone with her on Christmas Eve. Constantly distracting her is his only
hope of keeping a terrible secret.
Canada / 2011 / 12 mins
Director: Geoff Redknap
PLAY DEAD
A zombie apocalypse unites a ragtag pack of dogs in the ruined streets of
Miami. Immune to the epidemic, they must survive both the ferocious undead
and human survivors. Sit. Stay. Play dead.
USA / 2011 / 18 mins
Directors: Andres Meza-Valdes, Diego Meza-Valdes
Quedate ConmigO
It’s another fight – she’s hysterical, convinced of a betrayal. He defends
himself, verbally and physically, only retaliating when things get really
out of hand. In the aftermath, though, there’s tenderness.
Spain / 2010 / 20 mins
Director: Zoe Berriatúa
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This gorgeous werewolf comedy from Juan
Martínez Moreno is that rare thing - a
funny film that doesn’t stint on either the
horror or the laughs.
L
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Opening with an exquisite animation, the
background to this story goes that in the
small Galician village of Arga in 1910, the
Marchioness of Mariño so enraged a
gypsy that she and her son fell victim to
an evil curse.
A hundred years later, Thomas Mariño, the
last male descendent of the Marchioness’s
line, is invited to Arga to receive an honour.
So he’s only written one book and it wasn’t
that good and no-one really read it, but
what the hell – his ego isn’t remotely
deterred and it’s an excuse to go back,
see some old friends and be told how
wonderful he is.
Arriving in town, all eyes are on him,
though not necessarily for his puny literary
accomplishments. He seems to be getting
the most attention from one of his uncles
who has appointed himself both mayor and
priest without much of a murmur from the
other villagers. Still, Thomas has decided
that the break is an ideal opportunity to get
that tricky second novel underway, and is
not to be put off, no matter how weird the
place is getting.
Arga hasn’t changed for 100 years, but
there’s a reason for that, and Thomas is
about to discover some unpleasant truths
about his family.
We are delighted to welcome director Juan
Martinez Moreno to Dead by Dawn.
Juan will introduce his film and host a Q&A after
the screening.
Spain / 2011 / 103 mins
Director: Juan Martínez Moreno
Producers: Tomás Cimadevilla,
Beatriz Delgado, Emma Lustres,
Borja Pena
Writer: Juan Martínez Moreno
Music: Sergio Moure
DoP: Carlos Ferro
Editor: Nacho Ruiz Capillas
F/X: Viviana Sánchez, Arturo Balceiro,
Federico Cueva, Juan Ramón Molina,
Romasanta, Dharma Studio:
Rodolfo Dellibarda, Raquel Guirro,
Juan Serrano
Cast: Carlos Areces, Luis Zahera,
Mabel Rivera, Secun de la Rosa,
Gorka Otxoa, Manuel Manquiña
Back in the 1980’s, in the days before
internet, the only source of horror movie
information was from various small press
fanzines and from trailers of incoming
releases on VHS rental tapes. One such
trailer that appeared (on several releases by
Avatar Video) was for a new Italian shocker
called DEMONS. Directed by Lamberto
Bava and produced by Dario Argento, the
trailer screamed ‘must see’ for any splatterloving genre fan.
Sadly, like most Italian horror films,
DEMONS never made it onto the cinema
screen and was released direct to the VHS
rental market. So on the day of release
I made my way to the Video Exchange
shop near the infamous Paddy’s Market
in Glasgow and handed over £30 for a new
big box rental copy of DEMONS fresh off
the shelf. Once home I slotted in the tape
and pressed play, then after three back to
back viewings I knew I had just watched
something special.
Not technically a ‘zombie’ film as such but
very much so in spirit, it’s frenetic horror
entertainment at its best. DEMONS is a
fast-paced gory romp that demands you
leave your sense of disbelief outside the
door and delivers in spades when it comes
to eye-popping splatter fun.
DEMONS has the very simple premise
where a screening of an untitled movie
is taking place at the newly re-opened
Metropole cinema in the heart of Berlin.
The patrons attending discover that they’re
there to see a trashy horror flick (a gory
Italian Scooby Doo style romp) but bloody
mayhem ensues as the plot is swiftly
thrown out the window and all hell literally
breaks loose in a visual and aural feast that
has made DEMONS a firm favourite with
horror fans around the world.
With this rare festival screening, DEMONS
at long last makes its way onto the big
screen where it belongs. Switch your brain
off and strap yourself in for one hell of a
horror ride!
Review by Alan Simpson - Sex Gore Mutant
(and Demons fanatic)
Italy / 1985 / 88 mins
Director: Lamberto Bava
Producer: Dario Argento
Story: Dardano Sacchetti
Screenplay: Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava,
Dardano Sacchetti, Franco Ferrini
Music: Claudio Simonetti
DoP: Gianlorenzo Battaglia
Editor: Piero Bozza, Franco Fraticelli
F/X: Rosario Prestopino, Sergio Stivaletti
Cast: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey,
Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento, Paola Cozzo,
Fabiola Toledo, Nicoletta Elmi,
Stelio Candelli, Nicole Tessier,
Geretta Giancarlo, Bobby Rhodes,
Guido Baldi, Bettina Ciampolini,
Giuseppe Cruciano, Sally Day
RED NIGHTS
Red Nights marks two significant
events: a debut and an overdue return.
The film is directors’ Julien Carbon and
Laurent Courtiaud’s first feature, having
built their careers as screenwriters, most
notably for Johnnie To’s thriller Running
Out of Time. The long awaited return is
that of Hong Kong starlet Carrie Ng, who
is famous for her sexy and deadly presence
in such films as Naked Killer and Sex and
Zen. These occasions blend as the perfect
ingredients for an erotic thriller evocative
of Dario Argento’s bloody escapades into
sex and death.
A box containing a white jade seal
rumoured to have belonged to China’s first
Emperor falls into the hands of Catherine
(Frédérique Bel), a mistress who takes the
valuable artefact to Hong Kong in the hopes
of selling it.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Carrie (Ng),
a wealthy patron of the arts, mounts
a production of the opera The Jade
Emperor – the tale of the first Emperor’s
executioner, who used a deadly poison to
paralyze his victims while simultaneously
enhancing their sensations. Carrie is
single-mindedly obsessed with finding this
ancient poison.
When it becomes apparent that the white
jade seal contains a vial of the elixir,
Catherine finds herself caught in Carrie’s
sadistic web, where bliss and pain are
blurred into a twisted, forbidden ecstasy.
The kill sequences are some of the most
unique, sexualized and sadistic ever put on
screen. As the jade-clawed Dragon Lady,
Ng shows she is equal parts seductress
and psycho-sexual killer. She lures and
traps her victims in a variety of inescapable
“pleasure” devices. The first apparatus is
difficult at first to understand but it ends
up being a very effective snare. Later on,
the harness contraption is not as unusual
a piece of equipment, but it is here that
the act of freeing a butterfly for luck is
given a new, unforgettable context. In
addition, a pause for the perfect martini is
an interesting but chilling one.
The music in the film is quite notable.
The score is provided by French composers
Seppuku Paradigm, who are also responsible
for the music in Martyrs and Eden Log.
It absolutely complements the graceful
murder scenes in the film. In addition, the
lyrical music is very captivating, particularly
the Elysian Fields track “Climbing My Dark
Hair.” The opera, which mirrors Carrie’s
own fetish and obsession, is an original
piece written by Carbon and Courtiaud,
who also wrote the screenplay.
Combining the styles of Italian giallo and
espionage thrillers, Red Nights is an
intriguing journey into the exotic Far East
not yet seen.
From a review by Sarah Gopaul for
Toronto Film Scene
Hong Kong/France/Belgium / 2009 / 98 mins
Directors: Julien Carbon, Laurent Courtiaud
Producers: Philippe Carcassonne,
Alexis Dantec, Patrick Quinet, Rita Wu
Writers: Julien Carbon, Laurent Courtiaud
Music: Alex Cortés, Willie Cortés
DoP: Man-Ching Ng
Editor: Sébastien Prangère
F/X: Bertrand Levallois, Jam Abelanet
Cast: Frédérique Bel, Carrie Ng,
Carole Brana, Stephen Wong Cheung-Hing,
Kotone Amamiya, Maria Chen, Jack Kao
There is certainly an argument to be made
that the horror comedy has played itself
out, but every few years something fresh
pokes its head out of the mire, and we
all rejoice.
Cuban cinema is nearly as mysterious as
everything else on the island. Very few
Cuban films make it out, and the ones
that do typically don’t make much of a
splash. Ostensibly this is because any state
funded film (and most are) that leaves the
island must be seen by the powers that
be in the still communist government. It
is miraculous, then, that Juan of the
Dead has made it this far.
In Juan of the Dead, the title
character is a shiftless petty thief who has
made bad decisions in his life that have led
to the severing of many potentially very
rewarding relationships, specifically one
with his now grown daughter. He does,
however, have a heart, and as he approaches
middle age, he attempts to reconnect
with her and turn his life around. Juan is
nothing if not determined, and his resolve
to make himself whole again is noble.
There’s just one problem: the zombies.
Brugues takes the time to set the scene
early on, introducing us to his Havana; a
city populated by myriad different types,
mostly working class, who bring a depth to
the film that is necessary to make Juan
of the Dead work. The director clearly
takes great pride in Cuba as his home, but
does not condone its past, and does fear
for its future. He pictures its residents
as scraping for every peso, and he stands
firmly against the current regime. The
zombie as metaphor for the downtrodden is
not subtle, but it is effective, and if there
is any complaint to be made it is that the
politics are perhaps alienating to nonCuban audiences. The film doesn’t suffer
from these digressions for long, though, and
clearly has more than a political statement
in mind.
Filled with clever dialogue, plenty of solid
gore and the blackest of black humour, the
film doesn’t shy away from blood, guts, sex,
bad attitudes, foul language, also managing
to fit in some very inventive zombie
kills. The effects are all exceptional, the
cinematography is inventive and beautiful,
and the script is wonderful – wry and funny.
Perhaps the greatest surprise that Juan
of the Dead has to offer is heart. This
is where the politics come in, but really this
film is about people, normal people, who
just happen to be fighting zombies to save
their own lives. In that regard it is very
similar to Shaun of the Dead, and in fact
it cribs a couple of scenes almost directly
from that film, however I would argue that
Juan of the Dead makes a deeper
emotional connection with the viewer.
The fact that it takes the time to build
characters with real emotions in the midst
of the explosions, gut-munching and other
insane action is encouraging and really
works to its benefit.
Polished and heartfelt, Juan of the
Dead brings a new voice in genre
filmmaking from a land hamstrung by
politics for decades. Maybe if we’re lucky,
this film will usher in a new renaissance of
Cuban filmmakers making genre films.
From a review by Josh Hurtado for twitch.com
Spain/Cuba / 2011 / 100 mins
Director: Alejandro Brugués
Producers: Claudia Calviño, Inti Herrera,
Gervasio Iglesias
Writer: Alejandro Brugués
DoP: Carles Gusi
Editor: Mercedes Cantero
F/X: David Arguelles, Marco Antonio
Hernández, Cristian Perez Jauregui,
Karina Espinoza Monroy,
Gerardo Munoz Lopez
Cast: Blanca Rosa Blanco, Elsa Camp,
Alexis Díaz de Villegas, Andrea Duro, Luis
Alberto García, Jorge Molina,
Andros Perugorría, Susana Pous,
Eliecer Ramírez, Jazz Vilá
JUAN DE LOS MUERTOS
Red Tears
There are movies so good that by the time
the credits roll, you’ve already whipped out
your phone and texted everyone you know
that they absolutely have to watch it. And
then there are movies so bad, they border
on the hilarious and become cult classics.
Red Tears is not quite cult classic
material, but it’s not too far off either.
Directed by Takanori Tsujimoto and
produced by veteran Asian action star
Yasuaki Kurata, Red Tears is a campy
horror-influenced action film. The film
follows two detectives – one a cynical
veteran hell-bent on revenge, and the other
a young, idealistic straight shooter – as they
try to catch a serial killer whose calling card
is the decapitated heads of his victims. As
the detectives follow the killer’s trail, they
find that what they’re dealing with involves
the supernatural and is somehow tied to a
young woman and her invalid mother.
Fast-paced and bloody, Red Tears is your
typical B-horror movie fare. The acting
is overdone, and the characters are stock
types from various crime procedurals. The
first third of the movie seems to zigzag
from B-movie camp to serious attempts
at a suspense thriller – tonal whiplash, if
you will. Around the halfway-mark, the
movie throws all semblance of ‘seriousness’
out the window and it’s here that the
film begins to build up a nice rhythm of
bloody, over-the-top action sequences.
While the fight scenes in Red Tears
aren’t particularly jaw dropping, they
are entertaining with a couple of bonepoppingly memorable scenes.
From the cheesy midi-music to the copious
amounts of squirting blood, Red Tears
is one of those films where you turn off
your brain and just have fun. The film’s
plot is basically there to give context to
the action sequences – think too hard and
you’re setting yourself up for a miserable
time. For its faults, it’d be easy to write
off Red Tears as one of the hordes
of terrible horror films that seem to be
flooding theatres these days but for some
reason, there’s a definite charm to Red
Tears; the actors – Kurata in particular –
seem to be having fun and their enthusiasm
translates onto the screen. All in all, if
you’ve got some spare time and enjoy
B-films, you could do so much worse than
Red Tears.
From a review by Victoria Song at
japancinema.net
Japan / 2011 / 88 mins
Director: Takanori Tsujimoto
Producers: Yasuaki Kurata, Masashi Horiuchi
Writers: Takanori Tsujimoto, Eiichi Yonekawa
Music: Hikaru Yoshida
DoPs: Takanori Tsujimoto, Hiroaki Yuasa
F/X: Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tomoya Ôhata,
Nishimura Motion Picture Model Makers Group
Cast: Yûma Ishigaki, Natsuki Katô,
Yasuaki Kurata, Ayaka Morita,
Masahiro Nagai, Kôji Nakamura,
Yôju Takashima, Karin Yamaguchi
WHAT YOU MAKE IT
KIDZ
A walk in the park should be a walk in the park, really. It’s just a shame
when basic things get overly complicated. Happily, here’s a very helpful
person to show how it should be done.
Ireland / 2010 / 2 mins
Director: Brian Folan
ALL FLOWERS IN TIME
I am not from this place, declares a French cowboy. An old toothless man
asks, Do you know why you’re here? Children are infected with an evil
signal from a Dutch TV show.
USA/Canada / 2010 / 14 mins
Director: Jonathan Caouette
hope
A General lies dying and his mind, accustomed to a life on the battlefield,
surrenders to a stream of consciousness mixing death, brutality and
finally, one last gesture of hope.
Canada / 2011 / 11 mins
Director: Pedro Pires
La Migala
A brokenhearted man desperately wants to bring feeling back to his numb
existence. So he buys a pet (of sorts) which he lets roam free around his
apartment. Now every day is a life or death struggle.
Spain / 2011 / 14 mins
Director: Jaime Dezcallar
CANTATA IN C MAJOR
Even with the animated ‘chalkboard’ introduction to explain the entire
process, it’s hard to take your eyes off the visual component with that data
and noise. Still, it’s therapeutic!
USA / 2007 / 8 mins
Director: Ronnie Cramer
The
cabin
woods
in
the
Five friends go to a remote cabin in the
woods. Bad things happen.
If you think you know this story, think
again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and
Drew Goddard comes The Cabin In
The Woods, a mind-blowing horror film
that turns the genre inside out.
Director Drew Goddard and co-writer and
producer Joss Whedon have crafted a love
letter to the horror genre that pays homage
to fright classics ranging from Sam Raimi’s
Evil Dead to Dario Argento’s Suspiria. But
while it clearly respects its predecessors,
The Cabin In The Woods also
questions the very tropes it’s re-enacting.
“I love horror,” explains Whedon, “but
the plots are becoming more and more
predictable. The killings are more and
more disgusting. The kids are becoming
more and more expendable. And more love
is put into the instruments of torture and
no love at all is put into the dialogue polish.
The ritual of it is getting cheapened.”
“I think the danger with horror films is that
they often treat the audience as idiots,”
suggests star Chris Hemsworth. “This film
respects the audience by questioning our
desire for horror films to begin with.”
Whedon admits he’s fascinated by this
question. “There’s some part of us, some
deep, dark, primitive part of us that wants
to sacrifice these people onscreen. I wanted
to make a movie that explained why. And
so it’s been a strange experience because
on the one hand, we do straight up horror.
We definitely love the genre and the tropes
of the genre but at the same time we have
a lot of questions about why and where it’s
going.”
“Drew is a true horror aficionado,” adds
Whedon. “He was ready to commit to it,
ready to buy the most amount of blood you
can purchase in Canada. He’s the kind of
horror director who’ll spend a day watching
different blood splatters to find the right one.”
To do justice to all that blood, Goddard
set his sights on Peter Deming to be his
Director of Photography, who had the
“perfect resume” for The Cabin In The
Woods with films like Scream, Evil Dead
2, and Mulholland Drive to his credit.
“The Cabin In The Woods really
is what Drew and I set out to write,” says
Whedon. “Our intention was to create a
two-hour experience that felt familiar to
horror fans like us, but then flips it on its
head, sending everyone into a fun tailspin.”
And what should horror fans, or Joss
Whedon fans, expect from the film? “You’re
gonna see some things that you’ve never
seen before in your life,” he says. “And you
won’t believe some of the places we take
you. But it’ll be fun. Also bloody and angry
and horrific. That too. But mostly fun.”
USA / 2011 / 105 mins
Director: Drew Goddard
Producers: Jason Clark, Lucas D. Hill,
Joss Whedon
Writers: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard
Music: David Julyan
DoP: Peter Deming
Editor: Lisa Lassek
F/X: AFX Studio
Cast: Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford,
Jesse Williams, Chris Hemsworth,
Fran Kranz, Kristen Connolly,
Anna Hutchison, Brian White, Amy Acker
2D & DERANGED
BOBBY YEAH
Bobby Yeah is a petty thug who lightens his miserable existence by
brawling and stealing stuff until he steals the favourite pet of some very
dangerous individuals and finds himself in deep trouble.
UK / 2011 / 23 mins
Director: Robert Morgan
ESCAPE FROM HELLVIEW
A little boy waits until his mother has tucked him in and then draws a
door on the wall. Soon he’s transported to the circus where all the fun of
the fair awaits him. And clowns.
Israel / 2011 / 7 mins
Director: Hadas Brandes
PORK ‘N Bones
Everyone’s time must come, and for this super-cute pig, it’s game over.
At least, that’s Death’s plan. The pig is on his list, it should all be fairly
routine. This little piggy, however, has other plans.
USA / 2010 / 2 mins
Director: Michael Tyler Heckman
WISDOM TEETH
Maybe it’s the effects of the sedatives, maybe it’s just relief that it’s all
over, but when you leave the dentist with stitches in your mouth, it’s
probably best to go straight home.
USA / 2010 / 6 mins
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
THE EXTERNAL WORLD
A mind-melting array of animation styles and references; layered,
fractured and ever so slightly demented, this short is impossible to
describe! Oddly poignant at times, gross at others, it just has to be seen…
Germany/Ireland / 2010 / 17 mins
Director: David O’Reilly
Ethereal Chrysalis
A nightmare where the inter-dimensional cosmic order is consumed by
dementia. Leave your mind in the ethereal labyrinth of madness where
the doors of perception become the annihilation of all rational thought.
Canada / 2011 / 10 mins
Director: Syl Disjonk
We are delighted to welcome director Syl Disjonk to the festival.
Macabre
Macabre is a film that knows exactly
what it is doing. It unpretentiously offers
up a stock-standard genre set-up in order
to give the audience what they want. And
what they want is buckets of blood.
So, a group of friends in the middle of a
long drive back to the city stop to offer a
stranded woman a lift home. Upon arriving
at her isolated property she invites the
group in for a quick bite to eat.
After about 20 minutes the film gets down
to business and for the next 75 minutes
offers some of the bloodiest cinema I have
seen in quite a while. The Mo Brothers,
obviously raised on a diet of American
splatter movies, know exactly what their
target market wants and they choreograph
their kills with great relish. Dropping in
references to Hitchcock and Scorsese
among others, The Mo Brothers escalate
their set-pieces with panache as each
sequence tops the previous.
Head ‘crazy’ is played by a woman with the
name Shareefa Daanish and her classically
OTT brand of loony is a joy to watch. While
there is nothing subtle about her overly
made up and arch performance, aficionados
of movie psychos will have a ball with her
character. From her stilted delivery to her
poise with a chainsaw this is top grade loon.
Unlike a film such as Braindead for
example, Macabre is remarkably stoic
and serious in tone. There are short bursts
of humourous relief but for the most part it
is very straight-faced. For some audiences
this may make Macabre a little too
sadistic for their tastes but I felt the Mo
Brothers kept the whole film on the side of
being entertainingly extreme. Macabre
is an engaging, bloody horror film to be
enjoyed with friends and drinks!
From a review by Richard Haridy /
www.richonfilm.com
Singapore/Indonesia / 2009 / 95 mins
Directors: The Mo Brothers
Producera: Greg Chew, Tan Fong
Cheng, Gary Goh, James Toh,
Freddie Yeo
Writers: The Mo Brothers
Music: Yudhi Arfani, Zeke Khaseli
DoP: Roni Arnold
Editor: Herman Panca
Cast: Ario Bayu, Shareefa Daanish,
Julie Estelle, Ruly Lubis,
Daniel Mananta, Mike Muliadro,
Arifin Putra, Dendy Subangil,
Imelda Therinne, Sigi Wimala
The Puppet Monster Massacre
Written and directed by Dustin Mills, this
puppet extravaganza is about a group of
teenagers who are challenged to spend
a night in the mansion of Dr Wagner
(Steve Rimpici), on the edge of town. Our
unsuspecting teenagers don’t realize that
Wagner has concocted a monstrosity in the
mansion’s basement and plans to make our
teenage risk-takers the monster’s first
big meal.
Reminiscent of the campy 80’s monster
flicks, The Puppet Monster
Massacre is likely to either completely
repulse you or leave you bent over laughing
and horrified with it all. If Team America
had gone way more psychotic and chosen
to be a much darker film, it might’ve
looked like The Puppet Monster
Massacre.
Charlie (Ethan Holey) lives at home
with his grandpa (Bart Flynn). He has a
crush on Gwen (Jessica Daniels), but has
never worked up the nerve to do anything
about it. Raimi (Dustin Mills), one of our
teenagers, is obviously meant as a loving
tribute to Sam Raimi and is probably the
film’s most delightful character.
final product. The story (by Mills) is well
written, the puppet work is exceptional
and the film’s visual effects are surprisingly
spot-on perfect. The majority of jokes
land perfectly and the voice ensemble is
uniformly strong.
The Puppet Monster Massacre is
the best kind of B-movie - wild, delirious,
psychotic, funny, graphic, gory and just
plain nuts.
In other words, you gotta see it!
While The Puppet Monster
Massacre is obviously a low-budget film,
it’s a low-budget film that has been crafted
by a talented team that cares about its
From a review by Richard Propes /
www.theindependentcritic.com
USA / 2010 / 70 mins
Director: Dustin Mills
Producers: Dustin Mills, Amanda Smith
Writer: Dustin Mills
Music: Jared Kaelber
Puppet Builder: Kim Mills
Editor: Dustin Mills
Cast: Steve Rimpici, Jessica Daniels,
Bart Flynn, Ethan Holey, Erica
Kisseberth, Dustin Mills, Brandon Salkil
Creepshow
Creepshow opens with a boy caught
reading a comic by his dad, who promptly
tears the comic from the kid’s hands and
turfs it outside in the garbage. A strong
wind blows, the pages flip over, and we
come to the intro to our first segment…
Ed Harris stars in Father’s Day where a
man returns to exact revenge on the family
that mistreated him. Stephen King stars
in The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill
as a country hick who finds a meteor on
his property. In Something To Tide You
Over, Leslie Nielsen is driven to invent
a gruesome demise for his wife and her
lover. The Fog’s Adrian Barbeau and Hal
Holbrook should know better than to look
in The Crate and then finally, germophobic
EG Marshall loses his battle with nature in
They’re Creeping Up On You.
Gory, unpleasant, icky, sticky, bizarre, cruel
and hilarious, Creepshow is an absolute
treat of an anthology movie.
USA / 1982 / 120 mins
Director: George A Romero
Producers: Salah M Hassanein, Richard
P Rubinstein, David E Vogel
Writer: Stephen King
Music: John Harrison
DoP: Michael Gornick
Editors: Pasquale Buba, Paul Hirsch,
George A Romero, Michael Spolan
F/X: Tom Savini
Cast: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau,
Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye,
E G Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Harris,
Ted Danson, Stephen King, Warner
Shook, Robert Harper, Elizabeth Regan,
Gaylen Ross, Jon Lormer, Don Keefer,
Bingo O’Malley, John Amplas, David
Early, Nann Mogg, Iva Jean Saraceni,
Joe King, Christine Forrest, Chuck Aber,
Cletus Anderson, Katie Karlovitz, Peter
Messer, Marty Schiff, Tom Savini
Nightmare
Factory
KNB FX is a name that every genre geek
should know.
The documentary takes you into the lives
of Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger and
Robert Kurtzman to show how they created
what is now one of the most respected and
recognized effects companies.
Think of this one as a gorehound’s fantasy.
Interviews are cut in with shot after shot
of behind the scenes work at KNB. The
documentary probably has more gore than
some of the films these guys work on. Most
of this footage is taken by Greg Nicotero,
who has been documenting his work since
he was on Evil Dead 2.
Not only do you get a behind the scenes
look at how KNB works, but also many
behind the scenes moments on films like
Evil Dead 2, Ghosts of Mars, From Dusk
Till Dawn, and Kill Bill. There does seem
to be a large focus on The Walking Dead,
as I’m sure the film was being made while
KNB was hard at work on their impressive
effects for that series. Nightmare
Factory doesn’t forget to show where
they all came from, and how they got to be
such an important part of the industry.
Nicotero, Berger, and Kurtzman come from
a time when kids got their monsters from
the pages of magazines, something that
they talk about quite a lot in the film. It’s
also a point that provides a bit of sadness
as well. They wonder where the next
generation of monster kids will come from,
and discuss how they don’t think there
is the same sort of love for creatures that
there used to be. I’m not so sure that it’s
the kids that have changed, I think it’s the
monsters that are different. Villains are
much more human than they used to be.
We’re not treated to radioactive ants or the
mummy anymore. Hannibal Lecter is a
great villain, but not the same way that The
Creature was.
USA / 2011 / 90 mins
Director: Donna Davies
Producers: Donna Davies, Kimberlee
McTaggart, Dan Stewart
Writer: Donna Davies
Music: Asif Illyas, Shehab Illyas
DoP: Robert Zimmerman
Editor: Dennis Bradley
Cast: Gabriel Bartalos, Howard Berger,
Steve Biodrowski, Everett Burrell,
John Carpenter, Gino Crognale, Frank
Darabont, Jake Garber, Laurie Holden,
Chela Johnson, Robert Kirkman, John
Landis, Mike McCarty, Gregory Nicotero,
Norman Reedus, George A Romero,
Tom Savini, Andy Schoneberg, Quentin
Tarantino, Cerina Vincent, Jesse Wente,
Elijah Wood
out of business, it has certainly changed
their work in other ways. Many times,
practical effects have to work with digital
effects. Examples show how KNB has
embraced the use of CGI, enhancing the
work that they’ve created. As everyone
involved in the film remembers the
brotherhood that existed in days gone by, I
couldn’t help but wonder what the future
holds. Everything always seems better
when you look back on it. Almost everyone
in the film agrees that the industry doesn’t
feel the same way, but will that change in
30 years when we’re looking back again?
No matter what happens in the future,
Nightmare Factory shows us how
great the present is. KNB has created some
of the greatest creatures history has ever
known and it’s obvious from the doc that
they’ve got plenty more to come.
Review by Will Brownridge / www.the-filmreel.com
The documentary also explores changes in
the industry. Many movies rely on digital
effects now, and while it won’t put KNB
MAIN SHORTS
infernal nuns
Pope Innocentius VIII is dying and Marie Claire, an innocent nun, is
ready to sacrifice everything. But her devoted love will be her downfall.
Abused and left for dead, she decides to take REVENGE!
Germany / 2011 / 3 mins
Directors: Roland Petrizza, Alex Eslam
BEAR
This is the sequel to Nash’s film Spider, which we screened in 2008.
Jack is a guy who means well, but he doesn’t always think things through.
Sometimes the best intentions have the worst consequences.
Australia / 2011 / 11 mins
Director: Nash Edgerton
LONG SHORTS
Murderabilia
A truly grim, atmospheric film that plunges into the seedy underbelly of
a profoundly macabre market – the buying and selling of murder-related
collectibles – following a compulsive collector as he tracks down a specific
artefact.
USA / 2010 / 30 mins
Director: David Matthews
the unliving
In the wake of the apocalypse, a zombie virus has spread over Sweden.
Survivors live in gated communities. Politicians have approved the use
of experimental drugs to control the undead for menial work. It’s a brave
new world.
Sweden / 2010 / 28 mins
Director: Hugo Lilja
An Evening with My Comatose Mother
Dorothy Pritchard seems to have it pretty easy, house-sitting for a wealthy
couple on All Hallows Eve. There’s a cool paycheck in it, too. Then she’s
introduced to Mrs Poe’s mother.
USA / 2011 / 33 mins
Director: Jonathan Martin
The Fields
It’s 1973 and Bonnie and Barry are a couple
in trouble. He’s got the temper of a maniac
and doesn’t like her friends, she likes
to stay out drinking when she could be
home taking care of their young son. It all
implodes when Barry puts a gun to Bonnie’s
head as a way of trying to win an argument.
She bundles Steven (the seriously
impressive Joshua Ormond) into the car
and – after making it clear to her own
parents that they’re even less fit to care for
him than she is – takes him out to Barry’s
parents farm. Lucky Steven is now in the
care of Gladys (Cloris Leachman, swearing
like a trooper) and Hiney (Bev Appleton)
while mom and dad get back to the serious
business of knackering their marriage from
the inside out.
The farm is bordered by corn fields and
as all horror fans know, nothing good has
ever happened in a corn field. Grandma
Gladys explains to the child that he should
stay out of the fields otherwise they’ll
never find him and “you’ll be all dead and
black and swollen and smelly and it’ll be
just terrible.”
Already troubled by ongoing news of the
capture of Charles Manson and some of
his ‘family’, Steven is even more
unsettled by the occasional run-in with a
van load of hippies who are upsetting
pretty much everyone in the vicinity by
squatting on nearby land and stealing
food from the locals.
When his curiosity gets the better of him,
Steven ignores his grandmother’s advice
and repeatedly ventures into the corn
fields – which are only made creepier by
the fact they border an abandoned funfair
– but with each trip he seems to encourage
something unpleasant to follow him home.
Despite the budgetary limitations, The
Fields is a beautiful film, both to see
and hear and it presents an interesting
experience for horror fans. While we’re
used to children being conduits for evil or
outright victims, here Ormond reminds us
what it is to be knee-high to a world we
don’t yet fully understand, and to be at the
mercy of a comment or random encounter
or bad taste joke all of which may be
meaningless, but which can seem predatory
and threatening.
Based on writer B Harrison Smith’s
personal recollections of summers of
intimidating and inexplicable events at his
own grandparents’s Pennsylvania farm, this
is a story full of unsettling escalation and
the absolute terror of helplessness.
USA / 2011 / 99 mins
Directors: Tom Mattera, David Mazzoni
Producers: Faust Checho, George
Englund Jr, Tom Mattera, David Mazzoni,
Harrison Smith
Writer: Harrison Smith
Music: John Avarese
DoP: Daniel Watchulonis
Editors: Tom Mattera, David Mazzoni
Cast: Tara Reid, Cloris Leachman,
Brian Anthony Wilson, Karen Ludwig,
Miles Williams, Max Antisell, Joshua
Ormond, Faust Checho, Justin Cade
Accardi, Jane Tarica, Tom McCarthy, Bev
Appleton, Louis Morabito
Shit Film Amnesty
Every year, Dead by Dawn
provides a golden opportunity
to offload the very worst dreck
from your DVD shelves. All you
have to do is own up to how this
atrocity ever got house-room in
the first place (you can do this anonymously, if you like) and
we’ll ask the audience to decide just which film is the very
worst of the worst. Should you be lucky enough to...”win”...
then your prize is not just your own movie back again, but
all the other entries too. Woohoo!! We strongly advise
winners to walk home past a skip!
Not sure if your rubbish is maybe too good for the Amnesty?
Here’s a reminder of some of the shameful cack that has
been offered up over the years...
In The Woods / Elektra / House of Wax (with Paris Hilton) /
The Private Gladiator / Monsturd / The Incredible Melting
Man / Shooting Stars (with William Shatner & Harry
Hamlin) / Open Water / The Wicker Man (with Nicolas
Cage) / Erotic Nights of the Living Dead / Dumpster
Baby / The Erotic Witch Project / Murder on Flight 502
(with Farrah Fawcett) / Antropophagus / Aquanoids /
When a Stranger Calls / Blonde Emmanuelle (complete
with 3D glasses) / Dark Devil / Hard Rock Zombies /
Plughead Rewuired: Circuitry Man II / Zombie Chronicles
/ Curfew / There is a Secret in my Soup (Hong Kong
literal translation: Human Head Tofu Soup) / Frankenstein
Reborn & The Werewolf / Porn of the Dead / Embalmed
(VHS) / The Slime (VHS) / Weihnachten mit den Peanuts
(VHS) / Hexed (VHS, with Claudia Christian) and Night of
the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return
of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil,
Mutant, Hellbound, Flesh-Eating Subhumanoid Zombified
Living Dead, Part 3 in shocking 2D (Fake submitted on an
old Betamax head cleaner)
Promoting Horror online since 1999
Reviews, Interviews and more!
WWW.SEXGOREMUTANTS.CO.UK
Proud to Support
My thanks to all those without whom…
Estrella Araiza, Maria Arroyo, Lydia Beilby, Zoe Berriatua, Kaleigh Black, Ali Blaikie, David Boyd, Hadas Brandes, Alfredo Calvino, Grace
Chan, Rose Chang, Ali Clark, Justin Cook, Ronnie Cramer, Donna Davies, Mitch Davis, Marjolein Denbakker, Jaime Dezcallar, Syl Disjonk,
Craig Docherty, Donna du Carme, James Dudelson, David Duncan, Nash Edgerton, Lauren Edwards, Andreas Fock, Brian Folan, Jayne
Fortescue, Dan Gitsham, Dominko Gudelj, Marie Guegan, Lauren Hawkins, Diane Henderson, Guillaume Heulard, Robert Howie, Kier-la
Janisse, Rachel Joo, Sonya Kim, Rachael Koczan, Nana Kurata, Jenny Leask, Frazer Lee, Hyunsoo Lee, Danny Lennon, Gorka Leon, Jessica
Levick, Andy Lobban, Seth McAnespie, Nicholas McCarthy, Ally McCrum, James MacFarlane, James McKenzie, Allan MacRaild, Jonathan
Martin, Lara Matthews, Andres & Diego Meza-Valdes, Dustin Mills, Juan Martinez Moreno, Dustin Mills, Richard Moore, Robert Morgan,
David O’Reilly, Signe Olynyk, Emily Perowne, Josep Prim, Richard Propes, John Ramchandani, Irene Ramon, James Rice, Rosaura Romero,
Ryan Roy, Richard Rubinstein, Erin Schroeder, Sarah Schuerhoff, Bob Schultz, Francesco Simeoni, Alan Simpson, Bruce Harrison Smith,
Matt Smith, Beth Studer, Evi Tsiligaridou, Michael Usry, Hal Weaver, Jonathan Webb, Katie Weekley, Rod White, Edith Young and the SB,
of course.
Thanks also to all the Front of House and Bar staff at Filmhouse cos they are just magic. And thanks to you for making the effort to be here.
To anyone I’ve missed out – your help and support does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.