FrightFest Saturday

I've decided that the only way I'll find the time to get through the remaining FrightFest reviews and to get back to the films I've viewed subsequently is to do a blow-by-blow precis for each day.  Saturday is probably the easiest to summarise, since I skipped three of the six on offer.  (Couldn't bring myself to watch a doc on the development of the Klingon language or "Adrift" -- known to the rest of the world as Open Water 2 and now on general release -- or a black compilation film of horror from the 'hood which would have made me miss the last train.)

Isolation (2005):  After last year's Irish mad-cow horror I didn't hold out much hope for another cow movie from the Emerald Isle, but this one was more ambitious and frightening -- even if it was at times hard to follow.  Farmer John Lynch allows some experimental genetic work to be carried out on his herd and the result is a mutant calf born pregnant with nasty creepy crawly embryos, kind of  bovine "Aliens", which must be destroyed before they destroy the world.  Not too many survivors nor the expected ones in this gory glory.

The Marsh (2006):  I can't say that I thought this one was much cop.  Writer Gabrielle Anwar rents an isolated house to find new inspiration and everything begins to seem frightfully familiar to her, as repressed images from her past reappear.  She hires friendly local psychic Forest Whitaker to help her unravel the pretty obvious clues.  I quite like this actor, but it did look to me that he was biting his tongue half the time to avoid bursting into fits of giggles.

See No Evil (2006):  Yet another mad slasher movie where you can start to guess who will survive, but an oddly enjoyable and inventive one.  Directed by Gregory Dark whose main outout previously has been soft-porn erotica, he shows a good eye for unusual horror.  We are given a group of petty criminals, boys and gals, who are told they can get their sentences reduced if they help to clean up a derelict hotel.  Also on hand are a handicapped cop, a female detention worker, the old biddy in charge of the restoration and an eyeball-collecting maniac, played by a wrestling superstar (not an area where I have much expertise).  The film is only 80-odd minutes, so the murders pile up rapidly, without allowing the viewer to get too bored in the process.  And for once part of the killer's pyschological past is revealed which does in fact add to the plot.  Best bits: watch out for the wild dogs!