West tagged posts

August 23, 2013, Posted in  Reviews

Director: Adam Wingard

Cast: Sharni Vinson, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, Amy Siemetz, Lane Hughes

Cert: 18

Running time: 94mins

Year: 2011

The lowdown: After scoring recognition with 2010’s A Horrible Way to Die director and writer duo Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett here provide numerous horrible ways to die for a family who find themselves under siege from murderous assailants.  Tense, frightening, violent and blackly funny, it is bizarre this 2011 movie has taken so long to reach cinema screens.  No mind, it is one of 2013’s best horror releases – a slasher movie with brains and guts.

The full verdict: Indie horror (or “mumblegore”) alumni band together for Adam Wingard’s irresistible horrorshow, reworking tired slasher clic...

August 18, 2013, Posted in  Features

Preparing a FrightFest feature for the Sky Movies website last week got me thinking about the festival, now celebrating its fourteenth year.

It’s remarkable to think of the many memories I now have because of crazy days across the August bank holiday weekend.

I became a FrightFester at the first event in 2000, when I had more hair on my head and fewer inches around the waist. That year I only saw the documentaries Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre and Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror. Alan Jones introduced both and prior to An Eye for Horror revealed he’d seen the script for Mother of Tears and a frisson of excitement travelled through the room.

Time ultimately told a sorry tale of how dreadful the closing chapter of the Three Mothers trilogy was, but at that moment the potential of...