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Grimmfest · 2017

Grimmfest 2017

Features

Programme

22 films · 17 reviews

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68 Kill

Review preview for 68 Kill

On the one level, 68 Kill is pure pulp trash, harking back to director Trent Haaga's Troma roots. On the other, it's brilliantly done.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A sewage worker is sweet talked by his glamorous girlfriend into robbing her sugar daddy, but nothing goes to plan.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Trent Haaga; Writer: Trent Haaga, Bryan Smith; Stars: Matthew Gray Gubler, AnnaLynne McCord, Alisha Boe, Sheila Vand, Sam Eidson)

Full review See: Interview with Travis Stevens about 68 Kill

Attack Of The Adult Babies (Adult Babies)

Review preview for Attack Of The Adult Babies

There's a joyousness about this kind of filmmaking, unrestricted as it is by any concern for convention.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
A home invasion forces two teenagers to break into a remote country manor little realising it is a retreat for middle-aged men who like to dress in nappies... and who have a sinister plot.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Dominic Brunt; Writer: Joanne Mitchell, Paul Shrimpton; Stars: Joanne Mitchell, Kate Coogan, Sally Dexter, Andrew Dunn, Charlie Chuck)

Full review See: Interview with Joanne Mitchell about Attack Of The Adult Babies

Better Watch Out (Safe Neighborhood)

Review preview for Better Watch Out

Miller is outstanding.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
As a 12-year-old prepares to confess his romantic feelings for his babysitter one Christmas Eve, something starts trying to break into the house.

(Country: Australia, US; Year: 2016; Director: Chris Peckover; Writer: Zack Kahn, Chris Peckover; Stars: Levi Miller, Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic, Dacre Montgomery, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton)

Full review

Borley Rectory

An experimental exploration of the famous alleged hauntings that took place in the 1920s.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Ashley Thorpe; Stars: Reece Shearsmith, Jonathan Rigby, Julian Sands, Nicholas Vince, Annabel Bates, Steve Furst, Richard Strange)

The Bride

A young woman betrothed to an aristocrat gradually discovers the truth about his dead wife.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2017; Director: Svyatoslav Podgayevskiy; Stars: Victoria Agalakova, Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, Aleksandra Rebenok)

Dave Made A Maze

Review preview for Dave Made A Maze

A film full of dazzling visual invention.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
One afternoon, Dave builds a cardboard maze in his living room, gets lost in it, and discovers that it's full of traps and monsters which he doesn't remember creating.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Bill Watterson; Writer: Bill Watterson, Steven Sears; Stars: Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Adam Busch, Kirsten Vangsness)

Full review

Double Date

Review preview for Double Date

You'll laugh, and wince, and laugh again.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
An innocent out to prove his manhood meets a pair of femmes fatales.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Benjamin Barfoot; Writer: Danny Morgan; Stars: Danny Morgan, Georgia Groome, Michael Socha, Kelly Wenham, Dougie Poynter, Brooke Norbury, Lee Shone, Benny Bereal, Liz Kingsman, Elena Valdameri, Lewis Holloway, Kelly Wells, Sarah Carmen, Kerrieanne Booker, Charley Clark)

Full review

Fake Blood

A mockumentary in which the filmmakers investigate the effects of seeing violence onscreen.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Rob Grant; Stars: Mike Kovac, Rob Grant, Scott Wallis, Jacqueline Breakwell)

Freehold (Two Pigeons)

Review preview for Freehold

Director Dominic Bridges and co-writer Rae Brunton strike a delicate balance between the comedic and the sinister.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Hussein, a wide-boy estate agent, doesn't realise he's sharing his apartment with a forgotten stranger, a master of concealment - until his campaign of revenge starts to hit home.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Dominic Bridges; Writer: Dominic Bridges, Rae Brunton; Stars: Mim Shaikh, Javier Botet, Mandeep Dhillon, Kola Bokinni, Michael McKell)

Full review See: Interview with Dominic Bridges and Mim Shaikh about Freehold

Game Of Death

Review preview for Game Of Death

As with most of the best games, the concept is simple; the genius is in the execution.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Seven millenials discover an obscure electronic board game and decide to test their wits against it. When it tells them they need to kill 24 people in the next 24 hours, mayhem ensues.

(Country: Canada, US, France; Year: 2017; Director: Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace; Writer: Edouard H Bond, Philip Kalin-Hajdu, Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace; Stars: Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, Catherine Saindon, Nick Serino)

Full review

Habit

After witnessing a murder in a massage parlour, a Manchester man beings to have strange, violent dreams.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Simeon Halligan; Stars: Elliot James Langridge, Jessica Barden, Roxanne Pallett, William Ash, Louis Emerick, Sally Carman, Joanne Mitchell, Robert Beck)

Killing Ground

Review preview for Killing Ground

What Power does differently is to deny us the usual sources of comfort.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A young couple camping in the woods find an abandoned tent and then a lost toddler.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2016; Director: Damien Power; Writer: Damien Power; Stars: Harriet Dyer, Aaron Pedersen, Stephen Hunter, Tiarnie Coupland, Ian Meadows, Maya Stange, Mitzi Ruhlmann, Aaron Glenane, Julian Garner, Tara Jade Borg, Michael Knott, Mark Gadaleta, Jackie Dettmer, Matthew Dettmer, Liam Parkes)

Full review See: Interview with Damien Power about Killing Ground

Leatherface

Review preview for Leatherface

There is never much sense of hope in the film, only a brash defiance that sometimes, for all its ugliness, verges on the heroic.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Four teenage patients escape from a mental institution, kidnap a nurse and take her on a road trip to hell in this prequel to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Julien Maury Alexandre Bustillo; Writer: Seth M Sherwood; Stars: Stephen Dorff, Lili Taylor, Nicole Andrews, Sam Strike, Sam Coleman)

Full review See: Interview with Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo about Leatherface

M.F.A.

Review preview for M.F.A.

Noelle's transformation from mouse to maniac is also hard to swallow, even with Eastwood's hard sell.

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
A woman who is raped goes on a rampage of vengeance.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Natalia Leite; Writer: Leah McKendrick; Stars: Francesca Eastwood, Leah McKendrick, Clifton Collins Jr, Peter Vack)

Full review

Mohawk

Review preview for Mohawk

We are plunged straight into the emotional world of characters whose feelings for each other are as pertinent as their survival and combat skills.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Two members of the Mohawk people and their British lover are forced to flee into the woods when a group of vicious American renegades turns on them during the war of 1812.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Ted Geoghegan; Writer: Ted Geoghegan, Grady Hendrix; Stars: Kaniehtiio Horn, Ezra Buzzington, Eamon Farren, Justin Rain, Jon Huber, Robert Longstreet, Noah Segan, Ian Colletti, Sheri Foster, Jack Gwaltney, Guy Gane, David La Haye, Wayne W. Johnson, Kaniehtiio Horn, Ezra Buzzington)

Full review See: Interview with Ted Geoghegan about Mohawk , Interview with Ted Geoghegan about Mohawk

Poor Agnes

Review preview for Poor Agnes

Keenly observational and darkly erotic, Poor Agnes is a complex tale full of telling details.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A sadistic serial killer and the private detective she holds prisoner form an unlikely bond.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Navin Ramaswaran; Writer: James Gordon Ross; Stars: Lora Burke, Amy Marie Wallace, Robert Notman, Will Conlon, Rodney Dwira, Kate Alice Phillips, Stan Alto, Dennis Austin, Philip Contardo) , Trailer

Full review See: Interview with Lora Burke and Robert Notman about Poor Agnes , Interview with Lora Burke and Robert Notman about Poor Agnes

Rabbit

Following a mysterious, near-fatal collapse in Germany, medical student Maude Ashton is plagued by a series of vivid dreams about her twin sister, who has been missing for several years. She returns to her native Australia, certain she now knows where to find her

(Country: Australia; Year: 2017; Director: Luke Shanahan; Stars: Adelaide Clemens, Alex Russell, Veerle Baetens)

Replace

Review preview for Replace

Tim Peter Kuhn's cinematography and Franco Tortora and Tom Batoy’s dramatic score combine to create a sense of disorientation, of psychological disintegration.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Afflicted with a dermatological disease that causes her skin to crumble away, Kira discovers that she can replace that skin with the skin of other women.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Norbert Keil; Writer: Norbert Keil, Richard Stanley, Scarlett Amaris; Stars: Barbara Crampton, Rebecca Forsythe, Lucie Aron, Sean Knopp, Adnan Maral)

Full review See: Interview with Norbert Keil about Replace , Interview with Norbert Keil about Replace

Ruin Me

Review preview for Ruin Me

Moments of reflection are balanced by playful scenes structured around the clichés of horror filmmaking.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Welcome to Slasher Sleepout: The Ultimate Horror Movie Experience combining camping, haunted house, and an escape room into one extreme 36-hour event. Six strangers are hooded, dropped in the middle of the woods, and must survive a simulated horror movie. But then people start dying for real.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Preston DeFrancis; Writer: Trysta A Bissett, Preston DeFrancis; Stars: Marcienne Dwyer, Matt Dellapina, Eva Hamilton, John Odom, Chris Hill)

Full review

Still/Born

Review preview for Still/Born

Burke's performance would be riveting even on an empty sound stage.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
For Mary, the joy of her son Adam’s birth is overshadowed by the stillborn death of his twin brother. Now she can't shake the feeling that something is coming for Adam too.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Brandon Christensen; Writer: Brandon Christensen, Colin Minihan; Stars: Christie Burke, Jesse Moss, Rebecca Olson, Michael Ironside, Jenn Griffin)

Full review

Tag

Review preview for Tag

An adrenaline-fuelled adventure wrapped around an equally fierce political core.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A girl's life cascades into chaos as everyone around her suffers a gruesome fate while she herself becomes less and less certain of who she is and what kind of a world she lives in.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2015; Director: Sion Sono; Writer: Sion Sono, based on the story by Yûsuke Yamada; Stars: Reina Triendl, Mariko Shinoda, Erina Mano, Yuki Sakurai)

Full review

Trench 11

Review preview for Trench 11

When the film focuses on the living over the undead it is at its strongest.

Emilia Rolewicz · 3 out of 5
In the final days of WWI a shell-shocked soldier must lead a mission deep beneath the trenches of No Man’s Land to stop a German experiment that could turn the tide of the war. But the Germans have already lost control...

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Leo Scherman; Writer: Matt Booi, Leo Scherman; Stars: Rossif Sutherland, Charlie Carrick, Robert Stadlober, Shaun Benson, Karine Vanasse)

Full review