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Grimmfest · 2022

Grimmfest 2022

Features

Programme

21 films · 9 reviews

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Candy Land

Review preview for Candy Land

The characters are wonderfully drawn, each with their own complexities which go beyond their reasons for doing this job, and the acting is strong all round.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A seemingly naïve and devout young woman finds her way in the underground world of truck stop sex workers a.k.a. 'lot lizards'.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: John Swab; Writer: John Swab; Stars: Eden Brolin, William Baldwin, Owen Campbell, Olivia Luccardi, Brad Carter, Guinevere Turner)

Full review See: Interview with John Swab and Sam Quartin about Candy Land

Cult Hero

Review preview for Cult Hero

There are a lot of cute ideas here which don’t all successfully come to fruition but which entertain nonetheless.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Manager-summoning control freak Kallie Jones attempts to rescue her husband from a 'wellness center' with the help of a washed-up expert cult buster.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Jesse Thomas Cook; Writer: Tony Burgess, Liv Collins, Jesse Thomas Cook; Stars: Liv Collins, Ry Barrett, Justin Bott, Tony Burgess, Jessica Vano)

Full review

Dark Nature

Review preview for Dark Nature

Brady knows the landscape well and makes effective use of it.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Members of a therapy group are forced to confront the monsters of their past when an isolated weekend retreat tests their emotional resilience and ability to survive.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Berkley Brady; Writer: Berkley Brady, Tim Cairo; Stars: Hannah Emily Anderson, Roseanne Supernault, Kyra Harper, Griffin Cork, Madison Walsh)

Full review See: Interview with Berkley Brady about Dark Nature

Do Not Disturb

hloe and Jack travel to Miami for their honeymoon. Amidst the flashy neon and sunny beaches, they decide a peyote experience will strengthen their marriage. Unbeknownst to them, they've been given a rare and powerful strand of the drug that awakens a desire to eat human flesh.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: John Ainslie; Stars: Kimberley Laferriere, Rogan Christopher, Janet Porter, Christian McKenna)

Feed Me

Following the death of his wife, a broken man spirals into an abyss of night tremors and depression and finds himself in the home of a deranged cannibal who convinces him to take his own life.

(Year: 2022; Director: Adam Leader, Richard Oakes; Writer: Adam Leader, Richard Oakes; Stars: Christopher Mulvin, Neal Ward, Hannah Al Rashid, Samantha Loxley)

Final Cut (Coupez!)

Review preview for Final Cut

An homage to truly bad film-making - but it sails perilously close to self-parody

Richard Mowe · 2 out of 5
Things go badly for a small film crew shooting a low-budget zombie movie when they are attacked by real zombies.

(Year: 2022; Director: Michel Hazanavicius; Writer: Michel Hazanavicius; Stars: Bérénice Bejo, Grégory Gadebois, Finnegan Oldfield, Matilda Lutz, Raphaël Quenard)

Full review See: Cannes Final Cut press conference with Bérénice Bejo, Michel Hazanavicius, Roman Duris

The Goldsmith

A trio of desperate criminals break into the isolated country house of an elderly goldsmith and his wife. But their chosen targets turn out to be far less defenceless than they seem.

(Year: 2022; Director: Vincenzo Ricchiuto; Writer: Germano Tarricone, Vincenzo Ricchiuto; Stars: Stefania Casini, Giuseppe Pambieri, Gianluca Vannucci, Tania Bambaci, Mike Cimini, Andrea Porti, Matteo Silvestri, Antonio Cortese)

The Harbinger

Review preview for The Harbinger

Skilfully crafted, The Harbinger is a rightly distressing, melancholy take on the events of the recent past and the troubles we still live with today.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A woman leaves her family quarantine to help a friend who's suffering from terrible nightmares - but she learns too late that the bad dreams are contagious, along with the demon behind them.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Andy Mitton; Writer: Andy Mitton; Stars: Raymond Anthony Thomas, Gabby Beans, Stephanie Roth Haberle, Emily Davis, Laura Heisler, Cody Braverman)

Full review See: Interview with Andy Mitton about The Harbinger

Holy Shit! (Ach Du Scheisse!)

A man wakes up from a drunken stupor to find himself trapped in a portaloo, and realises that if he can't escape within an hour, it will explode.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2022; Director: Lukas Rinker; Writer: Lukas Rinker; Stars: Gedeon Burkhard, Friederike Kempter, Micaela Schäfer, Uke Bosse, Rodney Charles)

House Of Darkness

A manipulative player accompanies his latest potential hook-up to her enormous Gothic mansion and experiences a rather different kind of evening from the one he had expected.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Neil LaBute; Stars: Kate Bosworth, Gia Crovatin, Justin Long, Lucy Walters)

The Lake

After a young girl finds a mysterious giant egg in the shallows of the Mekong River and takes it back to her fishing village home, it’s only a matter of time before the creature that laid the egg rises from the waters in search of revenge.

(Country: Thailand; Year: 2022; Director: Lee Thongkham; Writer: Lee Thongkham; Stars: Wanmai Chatburirak, Palita Chueasawathee, Su Jack, Zang Jinsheng)

The Loneliest Boy In The World

Told that he'll be placed in state care if he can't find a new family, a boy resorts to digging up and reanimating residents of the local graveyard in order to make one.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Martin Owen; Writer: Piers Ashworth; Stars: Max Harwood, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Ashley Benson, Evan Ross, Ben Miller, Susan Wokoma)

Malibu Horror Story

A team of paranormal investigators searches a sacred Native American cave for clues following the unsolved disappearance of four Malibu teenagers.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Scott Slone; Writer: Scott Slone; Stars: Tommy Cramer, Dylan Sprayberry, Jacob Hughes)

Megalomaniac

Review preview for Megalomaniac

It’s a film shot mostly in shadow, in the long-neglected house or in the narrow confines of locker rooms and toilet blocks at the factory.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A film about the weight of patriarchy and the illusion of Manichaeism.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2022; Director: Karim Ouelhaj; Writer: Karim Ouelhaj; Stars: Eline Schumacher, Wim Willaert, Benjamin Ramon, Pierre Nisse, Raphaëlle Lubansu, Olivier Picard)

Full review

Moon Garden

Review preview for Moon Garden

Ryan Stevens Harris’ Moon Garden invites viewers to explore not only another world but a very different perspective.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A comatose five-year-old girl journeys through a dark industrial dreamscape, following her mother’s voice on a transistor radio to find her way back to consciousness.

(Year: 2022; Director: Ryan Stevens Harris; Writer: Ryan Stevens Harris)

Full review

Night Sky

A trek across the American southwest with a ne'er do well petty thief trying to escape his mysterious past, a celestial vagabond trying to rediscover hers, and the ruthless killer who is following them.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Jacob Gentry; Writer: AJ Bowen, Jacob Gentry; Stars: Brea Grant, AJ Bowen, Scott Poythress, Sandra Benton, Adam Voss)

The Passenger

When their van hits a lone woman late one night, four friends bundle her into the back, only to discover that she's not what she seemed.

(Year: 2022; Director: Fernando González Gómez, Raúl Cerezo; Writer: Javier Echániz, Asier Guerricaechevarría, Luis Sánchez-Polack; Stars: Ramiro Blas, Cecilia Suárez, Paula Gallego)

Piggy (Cerdita)

Review preview for Piggy

Galán is extraordinary as the traumatised girl in a performance which requires a considerable amount of courage.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Sara deals with constant teasing from girls in her small town. But it comes to an end when a stranger kidnaps her tormentors. Sara knows more than she's saying and must decide between speaking up and saving the girls or saying nothing to protect the strange man who spared her.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2022; Director: Carlota Pereda; Writer: Carlota Pereda; Stars: Pilar Castro, Claudia Salas, Camille Aguilar, Carmen Machi, Julián Valcárcel, Mabel del Pozo, Chema del Barco, Stéphanie Magnin Vella, Irene Ferreiro, Laura Galán, Fred Tatien, José Pastor, Richard Holmes, Fernando Delgado-Hierro, Amets Otxoa)

Full review See: Interview with Carlota Pereda about Piggy

The Price We Pay

After a pawn shop robbery goes awry, two criminals take refuge at a remote farmhouse to try to let the heat die down, but find something much more menacing.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Ryûhei Kitamura; Writer: Christopher Jolley; Stars: Tyler Sanders, Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, Vernon Wells, Erika Ervin)

PussyCake

An all-female rock band schedules a new gig. When they arrive at the place, the city looks like a desert. There are only horrors that appear to be from another dimension.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2021; Director: Pablo Parés; Stars: Macarena Suárez Dagliano, Aldana Ruberto, Anahí Politi, Florencia Moreno, Sofia Rossi)

Vesper

Review preview for Vesper

A story which is, ultimately, about learning to think differently, to change the way that we direct our attention and resources in order to open up the possibility of renewal.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
At some point in the future the Earth’s ecosystem collapses. A tough 13-year-old called Vesper, whose father is paralysed, tries to get food for them wherever she can. When she finds a mysterious woman in the forest one day she starts to hope that things will change.

(Country: Lithuania, France, Belgium; Year: 2022; Director: Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper; Writer: Kristina Buozyte, Brian Clark, Bruno Samper; Stars: Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, Richard Brake, Melanie Gaydos, Edmund Dehn, Titas Rukas, Markas Eimontas, Markas Sagaitis, Marijus Demiskis, Matvej Buravkov)

Full review See: Interview with Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper about Vesper