We Are the Flesh. I didn’t think that I would see a film as bizarre as Swiss Army Man this year – no mind in the same month – but Mayhem gave it to me in my first film of the 2016 festival. For his debut feature, Mexican Emiliano Rocha Minter gives us a, quite literal, full frontal assault on the mind and the senses.
Two young siblings turn up at a creepy drummer guy’s crib, and things, well, they get, er...creepy. The setting seems to be apocalyptic, but the situation is never explained, which can be frustrating when trying to understand the characters’ strange strange actions. Despite it being hard work at times, it is actually a rather mesmerising and engrossing film. HW.
The Rezort. With the killer pitch of Westworld meets Jurassic Park, I was all in for this zombie film.
The premise is a cool one: we’re in a post-apocalyptic world, where the rich are able to visit an exclusive island with the sole purpose of relaxing, getting a tan and taking a zombie hunting trip. However there’s a problem, and now the guests of the resort might not be able to hide behind the high security systems for long.
There’s a political subtext to the movie that I really appreciated and some interesting ethical questions are raised about the treatment of zombies, but there’s nothing really new in The Rezort to drag it above a middle-of-the-road flick. If you want a solid, stylish zombie movie to watch on an evening, then The Rezort is definitely worth a whirl but you won’t find any surprises here. PR.
The Greasy Strangler. This Jim Hosking film, produced by Ben Wheatley, is certainly a strange one. A different kind of strange to We Are the Flesh, for sure, but strange nonetheless. It is also insanely quotable (“Bullshit artist!”, “Hootie Tootie Disco Cutie” etc), very enjoyably stylised, and hilarious. Ronnie runs a disco walking tour with his son, Brayden and when a woman takes the tour, it begins a competition between them for her love – all while a mysterious greasy serial killer roams the night. The heightened reality of the quirky characters and non-time specific setting makes for a very memorable film, though I do think it would have worked better as a half hour short – the repetitive nature of it is simultaneously its charm and its (very slight) downfall. But don’t get me wrong, this is a great film overall. HW.
Planet of the Vampires. The 11pm showing of Mayhem’s classic film came from the mind of Mario Bava. The 1965 movie has been restored and remastered under the supervision of Nicolas Winding Refn and it really does look nice – very stylish with beautiful sets.
Yes, it is a bit dated in its dialogue and gender politics, plus its apparent influence on Alien is pretty vague (a human crew respond to a distress signal on a foggy planet is where I see the comparison starting and ending), but it is so good to look at and so entertaining in it’s camp nature, you won’t even care that there aren't actually any vampires in it. HW.
Mayhem Film Festival took place at Broadway Cinema between Thursday 13 October and Sunday 16 October 2016.
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