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Grimmfest · 2024

Grimmfest 2024

Features

Programme

21 films · 8 reviews

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Amsterdam Alert

When an NL Alert indicates that people have 30 minutes to seek shelter from a nuclear disaster, 16-year-old Leah tries to get home to rescue her younger sister, whom she was supposed to be babysitting.

(Year: 2024; Director: Loïs Dols de Jong; Writer: Suzan de Swaan; Stars: Lukas Bulteel, Aline Cornelissen, Evalinde Lammers)

Black Cab

A jovial cab driver diverts a couple to a remote, haunted road, revealing disturbing motives and his true intentions.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Bruce Goodison; Writer: Virginia Gilbert; Stars: Nick Frost, Synnove Karlsen, Luke Norris, George Bukhari)

Bleeding

In a world where vampire blood is harvested as a drug, two desperate teenagers on the run from a vicious dealer break into an empty house and find a sleeping girl locked inside.

(Year: 2024; Director: Andrew Bell; Stars: John R Howley, Jasper Jones, Tori Wong)

Blood Star

A young Latina petty thief driving cross country through New Mexico finds herself the target of a devious, psychopathic, small town sheriff , who views his badge as a licence to prey on vulnerable young women. She must use all of her street-smarts to survive.

(Year: 2024; Director: Lawrence Jacomelli; Stars: John Schwab, Britni Camacho)

Children Of The Wicker Man

Review preview for Children Of The Wicker Man

The popular concept of genius is thoroughly subverted here.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A documentary about The Wicker Man and its legacy.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Justin Hardy, Dominic Hardy, Chris Nunn)

Full review

Crumb Catcher

A newlywed couple is held captive in a remote lake house by a maniacally optimistic inventor and his sour wife who are desperate to finance his dream project with a half-baked blackmail plot.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Chris Skotchdopole; Writer: Chris Skotchdopole, Larry Fessenden, Rigo Garay; Stars: Rigo Garay, Ella Rae Peck, John Speredakos, Lorraine Farris, Rebecca Watson)

Dead Mail

Review preview for Dead Mail

Everything here looks grimy, as if the film itself had been lying around in poor conditions for years, and colours and patterns are artfully mismatched.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
An ominous, bloody help note finds its way to the desk of a seasoned 'dead letter' investigator at a 1980's Midwestern post office, leading him down a violent, unforeseen path to a kidnapped keyboard engineer and his demented business associate.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Kyle McConaghy, Joe DeBoer; Writer: Kyle McConaghy, Joe DeBoer; Stars: Sterling Macer, Jr, John Fleck, Susan Priver, Micki Jackson, Nick Heyman, Tomas Boykin)

Full review

Delivery Run

A food delivery driver with a gambling problem and serious debts falls foul of a sinister snowplow driver.

(Year: 2024; Director: Joey Palmroos; Stars: Alexander Arnold, Nadine Higgin, Liam James Collins)

Early Birds

In the bloody aftermath of a wild party, two desperate women form an uneasy alliance after they find themselves in possession of a mysterious package, on the run, and with violent criminals on their tail.

(Year: 2023; Director: Michael Steiner; Stars: Silvana Synovia, Nilam Farooq, Anatole Taubman)

From Darkness

Park ranger Angelica seeks the help of her dog-handler ex-boyfriend Viktor to search for a missing woman in a dangerous Swedish nature reserve, complicated by a disturbing myth about the Cave Banshee, a vengeful spirit from Nordic folklore that once lured miners to their deaths in the treacherous caves. As they delve deeper into the forest, Viktor starts to question his own sanity and whether the rumoured Banshee is more than just a myth.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2024; Director: Philip Da Silva; Stars: Oscar Skagerberg, Rakel Benér Gajdusek, Peter Mörlin, Lars Adsten)

Heresy (Witte Wieven)

In a medieval Dutch village, a young woman is caught between her faith, fanatic townsfolk and the dark forces lurking in the woods.

(Year: 2024; Director: Didier Konings; Stars: Anneke Sluiters, Len Leo Vincent, Reinout Bussemaker, Nola Elvis Kemper)

Killher

Mattie and her friends go on a weekend trip to the woods to plan Mattie’s wedding, settled near the camp of Mr. Rogers, and with no phone signal, their trip starts to turn into a bad idea when they start dying and a secret is revealed.

(Year: 2023; Director: Robyn August; Stars: MC Huff, Tom Kiesche, Emily Hall, Jenna Z Alvarez, Nicole Lovince)

M

The world has been ravaged by a pandemic. Alone and outside the safety of the forest, Marko faces a shattered world shrouded in silence and danger.

(Country: North Macedonia, Croatia, France, Kosovo, Luxembourg; Year: 2023; Director: Vardan Tozija; Writer: Darijan Pejovski, Vardan Tozija; Stars: Matej Sivakov, Sasko Kocev, Toni Mihajlovski, Kamka Tocinovski)

Peg O' My Heart

Choi San-keung is a sleep-deprived taxi driver plagued by nightmarish visions, and a danger to anyone who sets foot in his taxi. Following a particularly dangerous driving incident, he finds himself under the care of maverick psychiatrist, Dr. Man, who has some serious issues of his own.

(Year: 2024; Director: Nick Cheung; Stars: Fala Chen, Nick Cheung, Chun-Him Lau, Natalie Hsu)

Self Driver

Review preview for Self Driver

It’s well handled throughout and effectively shows off Pierro’s talent for creating tension.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Facing mounting expenses and the unrelenting pressure of modern living, a down-on-his-luck cab driver is lured onto a mysterious new app that promises fast, easy money.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Michael Pierro; Writer: Michael Pierro; Stars: Nathanael Chadwick, Reece Presley, Lauren Welchner, Harold Tausch, Christian Aldo)

Full review

Strange Harvest: Occult Murder In The Inland Empire

Review preview for Strange Harvest: Occult Murder In The Inland Empire

Ortiz, like many a filmmaker before him, acknowledges a debt to HP Lovecraft, but his work here is more in tune with that author’s style than most, in that it resists the temptation to reveal too much or to offer reasoned explanations.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A faux true-crime documentary about two detectives pursuit of an infamous serial killer named Mr. Shiny, who terrorised Southern California for almost two decades.

(Year: 2024; Director: Stuart Ortiz; Writer: Stuart Ortiz; Stars: Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple)

Full review See: Interview with Stuart Ortiz, Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple about Strange Harvest: Occult Murder In The Inland Empire

The Substance

Review preview for The Substance

Brutal, bloody and enriched with a specific dark humour.

Marija Lukarevska · 4 out of 5
A fading television star tries to restore her fame with the help of a suspicious drug.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2024; Director: Coralie Fargeat; Writer: Coralie Fargeat; Stars: Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Demi Moore, Hugo Diego Garcia, Joseph Balderrama, Oscar Lesage, Gore Abrams, Olivier Raynal, Vincent Colombe, Tiffany Hofstetter, Matthew Géczy, Tom Morton, Philip Schurer, Matthew Luret, Alexandra Papoulias Barton)

Full review

Succubus

A new father with a failing marriage joins a dating app and matches with a beautiful but mysterious woman, whose strange allure and manipulative powers of seduction entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.

(Year: 2024; Director: RJ Daniel Hanna; Stars: Brendan Bradley, Ron Perlman, Rosanna Arquette, Olivia Grace Applegate, Rachel Cook.)

Tim Travers And The Time Traveler's Paradox

Review preview for Tim Travers And The Time Traveler's Paradox

Successful films like this are few and far between, whilst the genre is littered with the bones of those that didn’t make it.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A scientist creates a time machine and kills his younger self to see what would happen. That self-obsessed, misanthrope, mad genius of a scientist is Tim Travers, and the universe was bad enough with only one of him.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Stimpson Snead; Writer: Stimpson Snead; Stars: Samuel Dunning, Felicia Day, Danny Trejo, JD McKee, Keith David, Nicole Murray)

Full review See: Interview with Felicia Day about Tim Travers And The Time Traveler's Paradox

Traumatika

Review preview for Traumatika

It is at its most effective when honing in on the psychological and the social, looking at how easy it is for children – and adults – to find themselves in trouble.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
Mikey’s night terrors become reality when his mother begins showing signs of demonic possession. What he’s about to experience will haunt him for the rest of his life and claim countless lives across generations.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Pierre Tsigaridis; Writer: Rebekah Kennedy, Ramen Navet, Emily Goss. Susan Gayle Watts; Stars: Rebekah Kennedy, Ramen Navet, Emily Goss. Susan Gayle Watts)

Full review

The Well

Review preview for The Well

The distilled essence of European Gothic.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A budding art restorer travels to a small Italian village to bring a medieval painting back to its former glory. Little does she know the sinister secret behind it - or what is going on down in the cellar.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2023; Director: Federico Zampaglione; Writer: Federico Zampaglione, Stefano Masi; Stars: Lauren LaVera, Claudio Nathan Brezzi, Yassine Fadel, Peppe Fonzo, Gianluigi Galvani, Melanie Gaydos, Claudia Gerini, Jonathan Dylan King, Elisabetta Klein, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Stefano Martinelli, Denise McNee, Maria Grazia Ortesani, Courage Osabohine, Tony Pandolfo)

Full review