We’re All Going To The World’s Fair UK première at Grimmfest 2021 We’re All Going To The World’s Fair begins with an initiatory ritual of sorts. After nervously rehearsing her introduction a couple of times, Casey (extraordinary newcomer Anna Cobb) sits alone at the desk in her neon-lit attic bedroom with her stuffed monkey Poe…
The Righteous had its UK première at Grimmfest 2021 “I have done wrong within my eyes and yours,” says Frederic Mason (Henry Czerny), praying on his knees in a triangle of light at the beginning of writer/director Mark O’Brien’s feature debut The Righteous. “In your ultimate jurisdiction, as always, I am at your mercy. My…
The Deep House screened at Grimmfest 2021 “Everything’s weird underwater,” says Ben (James, son of Mick, Jagger) some way into The Deep House. He is a historian turned YouTuber who likes to film himself and his girlfriend Tina (Camille Rowe) visiting supposedly haunted ruins – but as his videos fail to get enough hits to…
The Pizzagate Massacre (aka Duncan) had its international première at Grimmfest 2021 In the opening sequence of writer/director/editor/producer/composer John Valley’s feature, a reporter (Derek Babb) addresses the camera about recent incidents of mass murder in Texas linked to a debunked conspiracy theory, and about footage shot by an eyewitness which would “introduce the world to…
Faceless had its European première at Grimmfest 2021 George (Cullen Mosk) sits waiting in a parked car, the engine idling. Ignoring a call from his mother, he counts out a pile of dollar bills (adding one from his own pocket), and heads off to a dogfight where he gambles and loses everything and, pursued by…
On The 3rd Day (Al Tercer Día) at Grimmfest 2021 (note that this film was based on the English dubbed version; a subtitled version of the film is also available) Daniel de la Vega‘s previous White Coffin (Ataúd Blanco: El Juego Diabólico, 2016) began with a mother in a car with her young daughter, fleeing…
“I thought you quit,” says Machiavellian kingpin Ray Barren (Robert Miano) to his smoking minion Bobby (Pete Porteous) near the beginning of Josh Tessier’s Overrun. “I thought you quit,” replies Bobby, as Ray takes his cigarette and has a puff. “I did,” says Ray, before heading in to torture Yuri Dubkova (Nick Benseman) for the…
Baphomet Mountain opens with two paths crossing, whether by arbitrary accident or providential design. In his cowboy hat, Country Boy (Austin Burnette Mitchell) sits on a dusty roadside, playing guitar and singing a country song – with a blues lilt – whose lyrics (“Mama, daddy ain’t coming home tonight”) mark him as a man on…
Grimmfest is back! Manchester’s International Festival of Fantastic Films is celebrating its 13th Edition – a number normally associated with ill luck and bad omens, except in the inverted world of genre, where everything is seen through a glass darkly, the ominous, the unfortunate and the suspicious are desirable qualities. This year, Grimmmfest 2021 will…
The title Finding Ophelia might suggest something along the lines of Al Pacino’s Looking For Richard (1996), in which the Academy/Tony-award-winning actor seeks the relevance and resonance of his latest Shakespearean rôle. Yet while Stephen Rutterford’s film is also a feature debut, and certainly evokes Shakespeare (among other things), Finding Ophelia is no documentary, but…
The first word in the title of Ruth Platt’s Martyrs Lane might suggest that the film is going for something extreme like Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (2008) – but in fact the lane in question is a leafy country road leading from the village church where Thomas (Steven Cree) is the local priest, to the big…