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Grimmfest · 2019

Grimmfest 2019

Features

Programme

20 films · 12 reviews

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1BR (Apartment 1BR)

Review preview for 1BR

Marmor resists the temptation to over-explain, yet every time you think you see a way out, some new confounding factor will emerge.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Terror in an apartment complex.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: David Marmor; Writer: David Marmor; Stars: Giles Matthey, Alan Blumenfeld, Taylor Nichols, Andrea Gabriel, Mark Krenik)

Full review See: Interview with David Marmor about 1BR, part two , Interview with David Marmor about 1BR

Artik

Review preview for Artik

A film that feels very immediate and real despite its extreme premise.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A comic book obsessed serial killer teaches his son how to get away with a series of brutal murders until the boy befriends a mysterious man who threatens to expose everything.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Tom Botchii Skowronski; Writer: Tom Botchii Skowronski; Stars: Chase Williamson, Jerry G Angelo, Lauren Ashley Carter, Matt Mercer)

Full review See: Interview with Lauren Ashley Carter about Artik, Imitation Girl and Eating Cars

Blood Vessel

Review preview for Blood Vessel

This is a B-movie, there's no denying that, but it's a B-movie made with love and no small measure of skill.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Somewhere in the North Atlantic, late 1945. A lift raft adrift at sea, and in it, the survivors of a torpedoed hospital ship: With no food, water, or shelter, all seems lost - until an abandoned German minesweeper drifts ominously towards them, giving them one last chance at survival.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2019; Director: Justin Dix; Writer: Justin Dix, Jordan Prosser; Stars: Robert Taylor, Alyssa Sutherland, Nathan Phillips)

Full review

Darlin'

Review preview for Darlin'

Lauryn Canny is stunning in the central role, easily adopting the same body language that Mcintosh has used continually to break away from conditioned patterns of movement and take up space.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A sequel to The Woman in which a feral teenage girl is taken into strict Catholic care and prepared for her First Holy Communion.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Pollyanna McIntosh; Writer: Pollyanna McIntosh, Jack Ketchum; Stars: Pollyanna McIntosh, Cooper Andrews, Nora-Jane Noone, Eugenie Bondurant, Brian Batt, Lauren Ashley Carter)

Full review See: Interview with Pollyanna McIntosh about Darlin

Dead Dicks

After Becca receives a distressing call from her suicidal brother Richie, she rushes over to his apartment and finds him alive and well - surrounded by copies of his own dead body.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer; Writer: Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer; Stars: Heston Horwin, Jillian Harris, Matt Keyes, Kristina Sandev)

Every Time I Die

After Sam is killed, his consciousness begins to travel through the bodies of his friends in an effort to protect them. This dark passage leads him on a greater journey – discovering his true identity.

(Year: 2019; Director: Robi Michael; Stars: Drew Fonteiro, Marc Menchaca, Melissa Macedo, Michelle Macedo, Tyler Dash White)

Extra Ordinary

Rose, a small-town driving instructor, must use her supernatural talent to save a local teenager from a washed-up rockstar who is using her in a Satanic pact which he hopes will reignite his fame.

(Country: Ireland, Belgium; Year: 2019; Director: Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman; Writer: Mike Ahern, Demian Fox; Stars: Maeve Higgins, Barry Ward, Will Forte)

Harpoon

Review preview for Harpoon

Held together by three impressive performances, with Tyra the standout, Harpoon deftly plays with audience assumptions and sympathies, exploiting our prejudices as each character gradually reveals hitherto unseen depths.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Rivalries, dark secrets, and sexual tension emerge when three best friends find themselves stranded on a yacht in the middle of the ocean under suspicious circumstances.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Rob Grant; Writer: Rob Grant, Mike Kovac; Stars: Munro Chambers, Emily Tyra, Christopher Gray)

Full review See: Interview with Rob Grant about Harpoon

I See You

Strange occurrences plague a small town detective and his family as he investigates the disappearance of a young boy.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Adam Randall; Writer: Devon Graye; Stars: Helen Hunt, Jon Tenney, Judah Lewis, Owen Teague, Libe Barer)

Little Monsters

A film dedicated to all the kindergarten teachers who motivate children to learn, instil them with confidence and stop them from being devoured by zombies.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2019; Director: Abe Forsythe; Writer: Abe Forsythe; Stars: Lupita Nyong'o, Josh Gad, Stephen Peacocke, Nadia Townsend, Alexander England, Henry Nixon, Jason Chong, Felix Williamson, Rahel Romahn, Sam Fraser, Ava Caryofyllis, Talayna Moana Nikora, Chris Bunton, Charlie Whitley, David Sinclair-Smith)

Quiet Comes The Dawn (Rassvet)

Troubled by vivid nightmares after her brother's mysterious death, a girl seeks help from the Institute of Somnology, only to wake into a very different world.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2019; Director: Paul Siderov; Writer: Evgeny Kolyadintsev; Stars: Alexandra Drozdova, Aleksandr Molochnikov, Anna Slyu)

Rabid

Review preview for Rabid

Rose has the qualities of an archetypal, folkloric figure, enduring the same events over and over again in different places, in different forms.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A remake of David Cronenberg's original, in which experimental plastic surgery leads to a sudden outbreak of disease.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska; Writer: John Serge, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska; Stars: Laura Vandervoort, Hanneke Talbot, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, MacKenzie Gray, Ted Atherton, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska)

Full review See: Interview with the Soska sisters about Rabid, part 2 , Interview with the Soska sisters about Rabid

Satanic Panic

Review preview for Satanic Panic

Satanic Panic is one of those films that's a lot smarter underneath than it looks on the surface.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A pizza delivery girl at the end of her financial rope has to fight for her life - and her tips - when her last order of the night turns out to be high society Satanists in need of a virgin sacrifice.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Chelsea Stardust; Writer: Ted Geoghegan, Grady Hendrix; Stars: Rebecca Romijn, Jerry O'Connell, Ruby Modine, Jordan Ladd, Arden Myrin)

Full review

A Serial Killer's Guide To Life

Review preview for A Serial Killer's Guide To Life

There's a good supply of bloody violence which will entertain horror fans and any number of people who have limited patience for those selling dubious remedies or telling them to smile more.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A frustrated thirtysomething woman stuck in a small seaside town meets a charismatic life coach who promises to transform her world with alternative therapy - and who is also a serial killer.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Staten Cousins-Roe; Stars: Katie Brayben, Poppy Roe, Sinead Matthews, Ben Lloyd-Hughes)

Full review

The Shed

Review preview for The Shed

Sabatella's film makes its central location surprisingly effective.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Stan lives with his abusive grandfather and tries to protect his best friend from high school bullies. When he discovers a murderous creature has taken refuge inside his tool shed, he tries to battle the demon alone until his bullied friend discovers it and develops a far more sinister plan.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Frank Sabatella; Writer: Frank Sabatella; Stars: Jay Jay Warren, Cody Kostro, Sofia Happonen)

Full review

She Never Died

Lacey, a socially detached loner is cursed with immortality and a never-ending tedium of existence. In her attempts to keep her compulsions in check, she seeks out the darkest souls humanity has to offer. Lacey must now face her own inner demons while simultaneously finding her next meal.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Audrey Cummings; Writer: Jason Krawczyk; Stars: Olunike Adeliyi, Peter MacNeill, Kiana Madeira, Michelle Nolden, Noah Dalton Danby, Edsson Morales)

Tales From The Lodge

Review preview for Tales From The Lodge

A solid little film which delivers well within the scope of its simple ambition.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
When a group of old friends spend the night telling stories of murders, ghosts, zombies and possessions they soon become aware of another tale unfolding around them. And this one is real.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Abigail Blackmore; Writer: Abigail Blackmore; Stars: Mackenzie Crook, Dustin Demri-Burns, Laura Fraser, Sophie Thompson, Johnny Vegas, Kelly Wenham)

Full review

Tone-Deaf

A woman goes to the countryside to spend a quiet weekend after losing her job and having her last complicated relationship implode. She rents a country house from an old-fashioned widower who struggles to hide his pyschopathic tendencies.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Richard Bates Jr; Writer: Richard Bates Jr; Stars: AnnaLynne McCord, Amanda Crew, Robert Patrick, Kim Delaney)

Why Don't You Just Die (Papa, sdokhni)

Review preview for Why Don't You Just Die

The characters are beautifully drawn and the performances finely balanced in a film with a lot more going on upstairs than its preoccupation with violence might suggest.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A dark action comedy about a group of people brought together in the apartment of police detective Andrei: his resentful daughter, an angry thug and a cheated cop. Each one of them have a reason to want revenge.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2018; Director: Kirill Sokolov; Writer: Kirill Sokolov; Stars: Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Vitaliy Khaev, Evgeniya Kregzhde, Michael Gor, Elena Shevchenko, Igor Grabuzov, Aleksandr Domogarov, Ilya Gavrilenkov, Vasiliy Kopeikin, Ilya Kostyukov, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Vitaliy Khaev, Evgeniya Kregzhde, Michael Gor, Elena Shevchenko)

Full review

The Wretched

Review preview for The Wretched

The tropes it uses are old ones but simplicity works in their favour, adding to the sense that there are uncanny powers at work and that nothing is quite what it seems.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parent's imminent divorce, faces off with a thousand year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Brett Pierce, Drew T Pierce; Writer: Brett Pierce, Drew T Pierce; Stars: Azie Tesfai, Piper Curda, Kevin Bigley, Tug Coker, John-Paul Howard, Gabriela Quezada Bloomgarden)

Full review