Glasgow Frightfest 2022 – A Film Festival in Review

Outside of Ireland and the UK, Australia, France, Italy and the USA were also represented. The last film of Friday was the UK premiere of WYRMWOOD APOCALYPSE, a sequel to 2014’s WYRMWOOD. In this completely bonkers blend of MAD MAX and DAY OF THE DEAD, a temporary cure for zombie-ness (that’s a word, right?) proves a valuable resource that the last remaining authority insists upon acquiring. Rhys (Jay Gallagher) is a dutiful soldier who gathers subjects for medical experiments, while skilfully evading and also utilising the undead for fuel. When he encounters a different type of survivor, loyalties are tested and expectations challenged. This action-horror of gore, guns and grimaces is somewhat messy and predictable, but also manages to be propulsive and certainly committed to its ferocious premise.

Mainland Europe delivered two of the most acclaimed films of the festival, FREAKS OUT and SOME LIKE IT RARE. The former has been described as SCHINDLER’S LIST meets FANTASTIC FOUR, which might sound like it’s in poor taste but the joyous applause and rave responses suggest that there is much to enjoy in this tale of a circus ringmaster planning to use freaks to topple the Third Reich. The latter might just be the wittiest and goriest French farce of marital troubles, social satire and cannibalism you’re ever likely to see. When struggling butchers Vincent (Fabrice Eboué, who also directs) and Sophie (Marina Foïs) accidentally kill a vegan activist, and then accidentally sell the flesh, their business picks up dramatically. Desperate to maintain their success, they must resort to extreme measures to continue bringing in the business. Taking gleefully mean-spirited aim at pretty much everyone, from vegan terrorists to racist capitalists to true crime culture to slightly bumbling police, SOME LIKE IT RARE spares no mercy for decency or indeed our ribs, tickled as thoroughly as other ribs are grilled.

American films were a mixed bunch, as Friday provided the world premiere of A CLOUD SO HIGH, a slow burn, a deeply unsettled and unsettling blend of themes and styles. This film also dealt with troubled family relations, this time between former police officer Gene (John Savage) and his son Paul (Aaron Perilo). Returning to the town of Schooner, California after a military tour abroad, Paul takes up the less than salutary pursuits of stalking, home invasion and eventually serial murder. Writer-director Christopher Lee Parson provides a visually diverse palette, shifting between talking heads in a documentary format to claustrophobic interiors and many night sequences that suggest the twisted narcissism within Paul’s mind. This interiority contrasts with highly stylised time-lapse photography of the changing skies and the labyrinthine backyards and streets of Schooner. Conceptually, A CLOUD SO HIGH offers multiple ideas including toxic masculinity, white privilege, PTSD, familial abuse, community trauma and incel culture. That is a heady mix that does not always convince, and the various styles somewhat create a sense of trying too hard. A more focused approach might have made for a coherently chilling experience, and while there are some gut-clenching moments, these are often abandoned in favour of the other myriad aspects.

For this critic, one of the most eagerly anticipated films was THE LEDGE, because what could sound more gripping and terrifying than a survival horror of one woman trying to escape four men after a climbing trip goes wrong? Answers include trying to cross the road in light traffic, cooking pasta in a pan that overflows and wondering if you should tell the people beside you in the cinema to stop talking. While THE LEDGE offers a couple of visceral and indeed vertiginous moments, it is painfully weighed down by convolutions and excessive backstories. (Over)Written by Tom Boyle and directed by Howard J. Ford, THE LEDGE begins with friend Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) and Sophie (Anais Parello) who encounter some bro
dudes while on a mountain-climbing trip. When the toxic masculinity quite easily spills into violence, a desperate race for survival begins up a rock face, because reasons. The premise could work, but with the backstories of the men providing some sort of reason to the proceedings, the story is terribly weighed down. Even worse, we are treated to various painful flashbacks of Kelly’s past relationship, which suggest that for a woman to survive, a man’s help is needed, even from beyond the grave. Can someone pass the bucket, or shall we vomit off the ledge? Also, for someone scaling a rock face, our heroine Kelly looks distinctly made-up and shampooed throughout. If you are annoyed by the lack of sweatiness on a character’s face, clearly nothing is working right.

Thankfully, everything was up after THE LEDGE, as aside from YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER, the other great highlight was MONSTROUS. Chris Sivertson’s ingenious, creepy and deeply moving film delves into dreamlike imagery, paedophobia, critical nostalgia and the blurred lines between perception and reality. It’s 1950s set, with Christina Ricci as Laura, a mother fleeing what one assumes was an abusive relationship. She and her young son Cody (Santino Barnard) set up home in a remote farmhouse, and then get visits from a monster from the nearby lake. Perception and reality become blurred as Cody insists on one thing and Laura another, but what is especially brilliant here is the critical nostalgia. This conceit presents the 1950s in a similar way to MAD MEN and a whole subgenre of spy films worth close attention. The previous and often idealised era is presented in all its stylish glory, while also demonstrating that those times were just as f*cked up as nowadays.

All told, this was a wonderfully varied festival with all manner of horrors to delight, thrill and scare. Many of the films shown are getting released in cinemas and online. Strong recommendations for YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER and MONSTROUS, as well as SOME LIKE IT RARE and LET THE WRONG ONE IN. Plus, FREAKS OUT has to be seen just to get a sense of what it is.

VINCENT’S ARCHIVE – GLASGOW FRIGHTFEST 2022