One day FrightFest

The first of the day's five films was so very, very good, that it would be tempting to write that the day went downhill from there.  However this would be untrue since the nadir was the middle movie with the last two showing some improvement on that low point.  Anyhow, here's the report:

Death Trance (2005);  What a knock-out this Japanese film was although don't ask me to explain exactly what was going on.  It was more of a fantasy than a horror film which concerned stealing a sacred coffin which purportely would grant wishes, but which actually would unleash the end of the world if opened.  There were various characters in pursuit of the coffin and the non-stop action switched among them like a whirlwind.  Definitely one for the collection when it comes out on DVD.

The Wicker Man (1973):  A sparkling new print for this British cult classic which of course I've viewed serveral many times before.  However it is always worth seeing yet again, especially before Hollywood unleashes its remake (with Nic Cage in the lead -- God help us) later this year.

Mortuary (2005): A really crappy and derivative so-called horror movie by Tobe Hooper, the director of the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" who has made a lot of really awful films in the intervening years.  This one was trying ever so hard to follow the fate of a family who purchased a mortuary over a swamp of evil (or some such).  It was without frights, thrills. humour or logic.

Reeker (2005):  Yet another film following the inevitable fate of a bunch of young people sharing a ride en route to a pop concert in the desert and coming up against a figure of unstoppable mayhem.  When just about everyone had been killed off, we were presented with the so-called twist which was, granted, unexpected, but no different from that of at least one other film that I have seen recently.  I've seen worse (like the movie in front of it), but I've certainly seen scarier ones.  This one is being released here in July, but I don't know if it will get a theatrical release or whether it will go straight to disc which is probably what it deserves.

Hostel (2005):  And this one gets a theatrical release within the week.  It's the sophomore effort from writer-director Eli Roth whose first film, "Cabin Fever", showed a love of the horror genre, even if I thought it was badly made.  This one was a big hit at the US box office which will probably add to Roth's bigheadedness (Yes, I have heard him speak at length at the British premiere of his first picture).  The first half plays like a teenage road trip movie as college students travel in Europe looking for a lot of cheap lays with abundant female nudity on display.  It is suggested that they try a certain student hostel in Slovakia with hot, running females, and it is here that the horror eventually begins some 45 minutes into the movie.  It concerns torture and there is plenty of grue, but it is more horrible than scary.  The saving grace, I thought, was that the one surviving character is able to effect some satisfying and bloody revenge.  The audience cheered at this point and I could understand why.