Review Category: Movie

The British winner at this year’s FrightFest was Double Date, a hybrid of Fatal Attraction-meets-classic Hammer House Of Horror.

A young and attractive cast acquit themselves memorably in this darkly humorous tale of a ne’er-do-well romantic, Jim (Danny Morgan), whose best mate Alex (Michael Socha) is doing his level best to try and help Jim overcome those fears and inhibitions with the opposite sex (which some people probably still have regardless).

One night, their latest soiree in a bar brings them in contact with Kitty (Kelly Wenham) and Lulu (Georgia Groome), attractive as they come and naturally, the hapless males are smitten, particularly in light of Jim’s predicament. Kitty has taken a more than passing interest in Jim, but this is part of a secret agenda, established from the outset to the soundtrack of Yazoo’s “Only You” when they cold-bloodedly kill somebody. Kitty is determined that Lulu gets rid of Alex, but not without a fair amount of difficulty that leads them both to take on a journey into the unknown….

Double Date is one of the most enjoyable and energetic horror-comedies of recent years, certainly one of the best to come out of the UK. Unlike a lot of horror films that reveal a secret later on in the film to try and lure the audience into a sense of dread, this one establishes its intent from the opening murder sequence, playing off audience expectation at times and allowing the story and script to play its part, so that you have to see where the story and script are going.

Rather than create some kind of outlandish through idea (like the other British FrightFest entry, Attack Of The Adult Babies did) it takes a simple idea with long-established motifs and genre expectations and transcends it into its own trademark moments. The performances of the four leads are excellent, particularly Socha, who personifies any number of Northern lads with a hint of the Gallagher in them and provides the perfect foil to Morgan, who captures that awkwardness of a youth who is simply after what most guys want any Friday of the month.

There have been numerous low-budget British horror offerings in the history of the FrightFest that establish their low-to-micro budget credentials without any hint of imagination, aspiring to be what the best of Hollywood and American independent horror cinema can offer. Director Benjamin Barfoot, working from Morgan’s excellent script, certainly will be a name to watch in the future and indeed, Morgan won the Screen International / FrightFest Rising Star Award this year, signalling the arrival of a major talent for the future.

It is certainly great to applaud a brand-new British entry in the horror genre and one that combines the spirit of Brit-cinema with an age-old appreciation of what FrightFest can offer.

DOUBLE DATE / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: BENJAMIN BARFOOT / SCREENPLAY: DANNY MORGAN / STARRING: DANNY MORGAN, MICHAEL SOCHA, KELLY WENHAM, GEORGIA GROOME / RELEASE DATE: OFFICIAL UK RELEASE DATE 13TH OCTOBER

Like Ms. 45, Nikita, Haywire, and, more recently, Atomic Blonde, Byung-gil Jung’s The Villainess, positions itself as a badass film about a vengeful female assassin/agent. Praise at Cannes and FrightFest had hopes high for a martial arts equivalent to those bombastic femsploitation flicks. It follows the story of Sook-Hee (Ok-bin Kim) a vengeful young woman taken in by a secret organisation only to be repurposed as a deadly spy.

First up, it’s a great looking film full of superb locations. Those sets slide between lurid decaying environments and slick opulent locales drenched in John Wick-inspired neon colours. There’s some images in here that feel instantly iconic and – understandably – make the poster, cinematographer Jung-hun Park imbibes The Villainess with a comic book style, fetishising action poses and power angles. But the film seems torn between a pulpy story about a femcentric spy organisation, a gritty revenge trip, and a dull melodrama.

It’s the melodrama aspect that strains patience, deriding that high-octane energy in the second act with a dull compulsory romance. By the halfway mark it feels like we are miles from the disorientating world of an indoctrinating agency and the theatrical training compound they run. It even feels a far cry from the brutally unrelenting opening slaughter sequence.

Which explains why the film keeps dodging around in time, slipping bits and bobs in when it knows the pace is collapsing and the character work is becoming increasingly dry. The characters that are most interesting, Seo-hyeong Kim’s Chief Kwon (the M of the agency) for instance, don’t get as much attention as they should. The femsploitation angle is lost and becomes a kind of dull gangster love triangle affair. Albeit with some superb fights peppered throughout.

The camera work and editing are the film’s worst enemies though. At first, that manic camera work serves first person action pretty well, especially in the opening Hardcore Henry-esque massacre. As the film goes on this becomes increasingly irritating. Not to mention just a little headache inducing. Again, the issue is not the action itself; it’s the invasive, muddled presentation. Which is a real shame because the action itself is often balls-to-the-wall adrenaline-fuelled catharsis. Ok-bin Kim makes a badass heroine and the film is never more resplendent than when she’s rolling out hyper-violence in speedy sword fights or break-neck gun-fu. All that with a consummate sense of style and a no-shit blood-drenched attitude from both director and cast, an attitude that drifts for a while but thankfully returns for the finale. In the end, The Villainess feels like a crammed origin story for something as opposed to a stand-alone. If that’s the case, there’s room for improvement on the foundation of something cool.

Whilst the facts of the plots are hard to follow and the fights over-shot, there’s still fun to be had in the bombast and candour of it all. Not to mention those fights which survive the camerawork and reveal some brutally pristine choreography. Byung-gil Jung has ambition and talent, but over-working seems to at times obscure an otherwise enthralling caper.

THE VILLAINESS / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JUNG BYUNG-GIL / SCREENPLAY: JUNG BYUNG-GIL, JUNG BYEONG-SIK / STARRING: KIM OK-BIN, SHIN HA-KYUN, SUNG JOON / RELEASE DATE: 15TH SEPTEMBER

Expected Rating: 8/10

 

Incontrol director Kurtis David Harder lent his producing talents to Still/Born, a psychological drama that opened the final day of FrightFest 2017.

There were a number of entries in the weekend that set their stall out nicely, but never quite hit the resolution that was expected. Still/Born, alongside the likes of Killing Ground and Alone amongst others, was one that had a lot of sufficient atmosphere and style, particularly for the budget that it was made for, but the audience was certainly left wanting at the end.

The film is admirable up to a point and ticks all the boxes for this type of film, but is a little too reliant on visuals prevalent in past successes, notably the Paranormal Activity series (in-house camera editing is part of the pallet here) and one critic has described it in some ways like Rosemary’s Baby, which no film can really hold a candle or cross to, given that it was the first of the modern day ‘Devil’ films which continued with the likes of The Exorcist and The Omen.

Young couple Mary (Christie Burke) and Jack (Jesse Moss) relocate to a new suburban town after the traumatic death in birth of one of her twin boys. Mary is understandably trying to cope with being a new mother as well as the overshadowing post-natal depression that has combined the sadness of loss.

Mary makes friends with a local mother, Rachel (Rebecca Olson), but visions and hurt start to rear their ugly head, coupled with the possibility that an evil spirit might well be out to claim the life of her living son….

Still/Born goes as far as it does thanks to the excellent lead performance of Burke, who is faultless in the portrayal of a young, emotional mother simply trying to come to terms with her grief. Moss and Olson hold the screen very well too and director Brandon Cristensen, who is also co-writer with Colin Minihan on the film, demonstrates some flair with key sequences during the first half of the film.

It’s a shame the film doesn’t quite hit the mark at the end and there are moments where you wonder what the intention and overall twist might well be. Perhaps this was the filmmaker’s intentions, leaving an air of mystery about what is going on throughout, but even in films like The Omen, visual motifs and references are relative to the result and structure – and the audience does not want to feel short-changed when the end credits roll.

We liked some aspects of the film, but like most viewers at the festival and in subsequent screenings from now on, it falls short of the (birth) mark.

STILL/BORN / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: BRANDON CRISTENSEN / SCREENPLAY: COLIN MINIHAN, BRANDON CRISTENSEN / STARRING: CHRISTIE BURKE, JESSE MOSS, REBECCA OLSON / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE DATE TBA

George A. Romero’s legacy remains vibrant, even if the inhabitants of his Zombie movies remain as dead as ever.

When Land Of The Dead premiered some years ago when Romero was guest of honour, the opening afternoon showed the first three Dead films in chronological order and in London’s Leicester Square (on the Sunday morning of the weekend, we seem to recall) there was a ‘Zombie Walk’ in which made-up fans played soccer with a dead rubber head and scared the living hell out of the people by convening in slo-mo in a bookie and a bar near the cinema. This writer has fond memories of Romero’s presence and we were invited to ask questions after the film.

The latest offering to challenge for the late legend’s crown (which was produced by the same team that brought the 3D horror film Paura to an earlier event) is Daniele Misischia’s Italian zombie offering, The End? (Which co-organiser Alan Jones claimed into the pre-screening introduction was the title he gave the filmmakers, as the Italian title would not be something the audience would understand), is a fusion of the likes of Buried and Zombie Flesh-Eaters.

The comparisons with Buried, the Ryan Reynolds film that featured in a FrightFest at the earlier site of the Empire, are clear. Both Buried and this film deal with individuals in a single location, trapped through circumstance with limited communication means, though the hero of The End? Is above ground.

Things kick off quite quickly in downtown Rome when the hero, Claudio Verona, en route to a very important meeting, gets trapped in an elevator, unaware that the world has gone south forever. Before long, he is fighting a losing battle with the people on the other end of the intercom, before suddenly being struck with the dark and delirious revelation that the lunatics have taken over the asylum in dead zombie form.

With only a mobile phone and a limited view from a half-open elevator door, it is clear that he is going to improvise and adapt (as Eastwood told his recruits in Heartbreak Ridge) to survive the day and beyond….

The End? Is compact and claustrophobic enough at times and the performance of the lead actor Alessandro Roja captures the desperation of a man at odds with the increasingly apocalyptic circumstances. The camerawork and editing is slick enough and the gore effects would please aficionados of Giannetti Di Rossi and Tom Savini.

There is, however, a visual plot point that may confound observant viewers throughout the second half of the film– not to mention make the film fall apart in their minds (won’t reveal it here!).

Still, it’s nice to welcome back a proper Italian zombie movie after years of watching Fulci re-issues via the Arrow Video label and Misischia’s got the potential to become the new Argento as well.

THE END? / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DANIELE MISISCHIA / SCREENPLAY: GIACOMO GABRIELLI, DANIELE MISISCHIA / STARRING: ALESSANDRO ROJA, EURIDICE AXEN, CLAUDIO CAMILLI, BENEDETTA CIMATTI / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE DATE TBA

From Agatha Christie whodunits to taut Hitchcock classics or Conan Doyle sleuthing to Victorian cobbled street investigations, if you love yourself a good murder mystery, then you have likely seen it all. As a result it is rather easy to be one step ahead of the game in these kinds of films and consequently it becomes difficult to be truly surprised. And while Juan Carlos Medina’s The Limehouse Golem may not shock genre veterans with its central investigation, it just might with its style and contemporary themes.

Based on the 1994 novel by Peter Ackroyd, this movie sees a ruthless killer stalk the streets of Victorian London. Veteran police inspector John Kildare (Bill Nighy) is assigned the case but as the mystery impends, the city is also busy with news of the trial of stage star Elizabeth Cree (Olivia Cooke), who stands accused of poisoning her husband. However the two stories start to interlink as Kildare becomes obsessed with uncovering the identity of the Golem and saving an innocent woman from the hangman’s noose too.

Jane Goldman’s adapting of Ackroyd’s story can’t have been easy and there are times that you think the story may have befitted a TV screen more than a cinema screen (though in an old fashioned cinema this will be right at home) but she has done a tremendous job. The film evokes The Hughes Brothers’ From Hell by way of Penny Dreadful, with passing moments akin to giallo. The shadow smothered alleys of Victorian London being massively stylised to gothically chilling effect and the – rather strong – violence also following suit. Despite this taking place slightly earlier, the Ripper’s silhouette looms large over this impressively assembled film, which has much substance to back this striking style.

Goldman’s screenplay is stuffed with plot and theatrical grandiosity, which may well prove a tad OTT for some tastes (as will the viscera) but the film is not afraid to rake its fingernails in the muck of its era. Be it the scuffed, fraught, exterior fog-drenched streets or the (West Yorkshire shot and immaculately assembled) interior playhouse sets, this is an investigation that grips and reflects an era of immorality. However, in doing so, Goldman instils some very intriguing issues that hold a looking glass up to our time, with themes of suppressed sexuality, feminism and the nature of abuse on the mind. True, the final twist (with this in mind) may not come as too much of a shock to people who know these kinds of movies in and out but it doesn’t hinder what is a gripping little watch.

Previously intended to star the late great Alan Rickman (who the film is dedicated to), Bill Nighy is excellent as the afflicted and flawed yet human Kildare. While Olivia Cooke walks away with the film as Cree, in what comes to be such a richly layered and generously developed character and Cooke gives it her all. There are also a host of good supporting turns from the likes of Douglas Booth (who really throws himself into it as the flamboyant stage star/comic Dan Leno), Daniel Mays as Kildare’s right hand officer and a creepy Eddie Marsan.

The Limehouse Golem is an odd little Gothic Victorian murder mystery and a stirring cocktail of period chills, modern anxieties and gruesome cruelty. 

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JUAN CARLOS MEDINA / SCREENPLAY: JANE GOLDMAN / STARRING: BILL NIGHY, OLIVIA COOKE, DOUGLAS BOOTH, DANIEL MAYS, EDDIE MARSAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW 

Expected Rating: 7/10

Actual Rating:

Joe Lynch was back with a vengeance at this year’s FrightFest, not only in terms of the content of his latest film, but generally because his presence at the Festival alongside fellow Douche Brother Adam Green is always a welcome one.

There was only one ‘Road To FrightFest’ Short this year, compared to five in previous festivals on one occasion, partly due to time constraints, but also because Lynch’s latest film, Mayhem was getting it’s European Premiere.

From the outset, when ‘The Thieving Magpie’ starts playing during the opening sequences, the film does mirror an earlier offering which featured that music, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Mayhem is not as dangerous or as controversial as that film, but it still provides a satirically bloodthirsty punch that could rival the early 1970s classic.

Set in the world of corporate consultancy, Mayhem tells of employee Derek Cho (Steven Yuen), a driven lawyer who has worked his way up, only to be stabbed in the back by another employee and brought up on gross misconduct charges. It’s not the only thing that is worrying for him. A virus is causing employees to lose their inhibitions and to go doo-lally in the upper floors of power, coupled with the military locking down the building in an emergency. Derek is now faced with a struggle to clear his name, as well as his immune system….

Mayhem provides Joe Lynch with the perfect opportunity to try and escape his horror roots, as he does demonstrate a great eye and director’s instinct for getting good performances out of his cast. Although the blood flows as freely as it does in Wrong Turn 2, there is a purpose for it here, as well as the sort of style and substance that personified the likes of The Wolf Of Wall Street and American Psycho. Steven Yuen is excellent in the lead role of Derek and there is good support from the likes of Shallow Grave’s Kerry Fox as one of the corporate board members he has to battle to clear his name and conscience.

Even without the excess of blood, Mayhem would work very well enough along the lines of a film like Margin Call, which paralleled the Lehman Brothers collapse and there are sufficient moments of dark humour throughout heightening the satire.

We really do hope Lynch gets the chance to do more down-to-earth and varied work in other kinds of genres. Like Green, he is a talented filmmaker and astute mind who can certainly evolve and grow beyond the horror genre. On balance, though, we do hope that he remains within his roots to give us more of the same type of gore and excess in his earlier work and continue to thrill us as he has always done at future FrightFests.

MAYHEM / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JOE LYNCH / SCREENPLAY: MATIAS CARUSO / STARRING: STEVEN YUEN, KERRY FOX, SAMARA WEAVING / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA

Has anyone experienced the birth of a horror icon via a film festival?

Adam Green has stated that the legend of Hatchet started at FrightFest a decade ago.

Other favourite horror legends like Michael, Jason, Leatherface and Freddy were nurtured and grown through word-of-mouth and limited independent release during their early years, but Victor Crowley, immortalised by the legendary Kane Hodder (who featured in the documentary To Hell And Back and an on-stage interview during this year’s event) got its first proper horror audience during an earlier festival.

Essentially a reaction to a lot of the ‘PG-13’ horror films like The Fog and When A Stranger Calls remakes by Green, Crowley was a freakish, uncompromising swamp assassin who terrorised the likes of Danielle Harris and Caroline Williams in the sequels, but delighted horror fans with some excellent kills that would have done the likes of the Voorhees family proud.

Announced as a 10th Anniversary Special Event in the programme ahead of screening, it wasn’t until we were in the midst of the weekend that we found out that it wasn’t a brand-new Director’s Cut of Hatchet, but a fourth film, titled Victor Crowley. Green did well to keep it under wraps and it certainly was a great moment to see. Even more touching was his pre-screening chat about how George A. Romero had pointed out the appreciation of the fans at a recent event before his sad passing this year and how important it was to continue to bring the character out.

Victor Crowley tells of one of the survivors, who has now become a best selling author, who is talked into going back to the site of his ordeal by a couple of aspiring filmmakers who want to shoot a trailer for a proposed horror film based on the book. Along with his PR, they charter a plane which then crashes into the area, where Crowley awaits to do his business….

You can guess how south this is going to go and Victor Crowley will not disappoint if you enjoy all those Halloween and Friday The 13th sequels in the same spirit as this film. Hatchet films and FrightFest are bound at the hip (or is that gut?) and Kane Hodder makes a welcome return as our villain, out to cause as much damage to his victims as possible.

Robert Pendergraft’s make-up effects are excellently done and the plane crash simulation is too (Green stated in a post screening Q and A that he wanted to see the plane crash from an interior point of view and it is up there with the likes of United 93 and Final Destination in terms of energy and effect).

Whilst some studios try and get some more mileage out of the classic horror icons, Crowley is a welcome original and we certainly will look forward to Hatchet 5 with bated breath.

VICTOR CROWLEY / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ADAM GREEN / STARRING: KANE HODDER, DAVE SHERIDAN, BRIAN QUINN / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA

Psychopaths, which closed the first day of this year’s FrightFest, is an audacious and ambitious idea a la V/H/S. Several plot threads and mini-movies involving the tale of how one dead serial killer infects the minds of seven and in the process, we get a chance to see how they cope in one night in Los Angeles.

However, the big problem with a film like this is although it is a daring concept that you can maybe pull off like Tarantino did with Pulp Fiction, the very thing that you are trying to achieve can also alienate the audience because of the constant to-ing and fro-ing between tales. It certainly was something that suffered on the original V/H/S film where this writer certainly was struggling to keep abreast of which story was being told at what point.

Given that it was late at night after watching Cult Of Chucky and Death Note and this writer was sort of beginning to flag as the witching hour approached, Psychopaths may well be one of those films this writer will have to catch when it appears in a future screening slot on the Horror Channel or on DVD.

One tale for example tells of Alice, who thinks she is a glamour model in the 1950s, unaware of her despicable acts whilst trying to proclaim the audience’s love for her. It was atmospheric and passable on its own terms and indeed; each of the stories would stand on their own if they were expanded to a ninety-minute running time.

We are trying to recall vividly what the other tales were as this review is being written and herein lies part of the problem the film will have in reaching the suitable audience. Some will find it a challenge to find any real empathy or consideration for the individuals or the world they inhabited in Psychopaths. People like Michael Rooker’s Henry or Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter do have such a depth to their characters that, even though you know that they are capable of evil acts, you do get a sense of what they are all about in the course of their lives and stories.

Structurally, the film would have worked better if the seven individuals were involved in a sick sort of one-upmanship to outdo each other in terms of death and mayhem.

Director Mickey Keating should be applauded for trying an ambitious idea, but perhaps he should focus on one particular story and build his characters within that. Psychopaths may well find an audience later on, given the right platform. All things considered, it was well suited to the FrightFest event and it at least got a screening on the excellent Arrow Screen.

PSYCHOPATHS / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: MICKEY KEATING / STARRING: ASHLEY BELL, ANGELA TRIMBUR, MARK KASSEN / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE DATE TBA

Ok, prepare yourselves for another weird movie experience that mirrors this writer’s morning watching The Greasy Strangler last year.

It probably went down at times like a lead balloon with fans and wasn’t one of the picks, but we are willing to be considerate towards Attack Of The Adult Babies, based on a reasonably humorous second half that defies everything the first half does with gutsy vigour

Given that Larry Cohen’s documentary showed us bits of It’s Alive, the poster beamed on screen before the screening did suggest that perhaps we were going to get a UK version of that film. However, the babies in this film aren’t mutants, but traumatised businessman in nappies (yep!)

On balance, the film comes across like a combination of Carry On Emmanuelle (without doubt the low-point of that landmark series) and Kevin Conway’s Motel Hell. If it had been more effectively developed, then perhaps there would have been a more rewarding film.

The set up is this: A mother and her two children are blackmailed by a couple of hitmen into retrieving some important documentation from a country manor, just as a group of men arrive for conditioning to become babies, run by a woman looking like an extra out of SS Experiment Camp (!) The trio then discover some dark secrets amidst the evening feeds….

Dominic Brunt is to be applauded for at least trying to combine an old-style British movie with some contemporary horror and to be honest with you; we aren’t getting many of these styles of films at present.

In hindsight, there are all kinds of combinations that could be seen in its place. In the hands of David Cronenberg, for example, the film could have been a Brood-esque concept about progressive regression, with babies fully formed as adults out of the womb. In the hands of Edgar Wright, you could picture Simon Pegg as a malicious son who, in trying to deal with the trauma of his ageing father’s developing dementia, places him in this clinic with disastrous results.

The performances are passable and there is a very funny gag surrounding predictive text that sets up the film early on, but the focus of the film should have been primarily on the clinic and the men in nappies, as there is more than enough meat on the bone (or chainsaw later on) to create a One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest single location drama.

If you are prepared to stick out the meandering and confusing set up and can suspend your disbelief through to the second half, then you will be rewarded with a gung-ho climax that compensates.

ATTACK OF THE ADULT BABIES / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DOMINIC BRUNT / SCREENPLAY: PAUL SHRIMPTON / STARRING: JOANNE MITCHELL, KATE COOGAN, SALLY DEXTER, ANDREW DUNN, CHARLIE CHUCK / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE DATE TBA

Along with Better Watch Out, this writer’s other favourite film of Frightfest 2017 was Steve Mitchell’s hugely funny, informative and stimulating documentary on maverick film legend Larry Cohen, a talent who has been responsible for some of the most memorable films and TV shows over more than five decades of work.

Starting with an anecdote from J.J. Abrams about an encounter he had in Los Angeles, the film keeps the attention with a variety of tributes and reflections (from the likes of John Landis, Fred Williamson, Martin Scorsese, Laurene Landon, Tracy Lords and Robert Forster amongst others) as the film chronicles his life from humble beginnings, through shows like the sci-fi classic The Invaders (being screened regularly on the Horror Channel on Freeview in the UK, as well as being a childhood post-Sunday lunch favourite of this writer’s family), to the likes of his cult classics Q –The Winged Serpent and The Stuff (this writer’s own personal favourite from his 1980s output).

Charles Band Cohen strongly believes, even today, that you could do anything and achieve anything with limited resources. Although he has lent his hand to studio successes like Phone Booth, he belongs to the old tradition of true independent filmmakers who have defined their visions and imagination with very creative means.

Pooled from hundreds of hours of filmed interviews (revealed by the director in his introduction to the screening), which have been cut down to fit into a riveting and compact 110 minute running time, somebody interested in filmmaking of all kinds will find something to learn and be excited by when watching King Cohen.

The real fun of the film comes with the juxtaposition of interviews, particularly with Fred Williamson, who recalls a reckless and risky stunt involving falling out of the back of a car whilst filming and the contradiction of thoughts between him and Cohen. The refreshing honesty that is prevalent during this film – and the immense respect and tributes that the likes of Landis and Scorsese bring to the table – are insightful and effective in their revelation.

Other standout moments include the experiences of some location work during the filming of Q – The Winged Serpent and Cohen’s innovative use of local law enforcement (see the film to know more – it is well worth your time!!)

This writer interviewed Cohen by phone earlier in the year and it was a shame that he wasn’t in attendance for the festival, although director Mitchell was. The audience certainly showed their appreciation with heartfelt laughter and prolonged applause at the end of the screening, which took place in the bigger Prince Charles downstairs screen on Day Two of the Festival.

King Cohen is a master class in documentary filmmaking. It sticks to the path and delivers its intentions concisely and clearly. The biggest compliment that we can pay this film is that you don’t even need to know anything about Larry Cohen or have seen any of his films. It’s brisk and smart, with repeat viewings assured.

KING COHEN / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: STEVE MITCHELL / STARRING: J.J. ABRAMS, MARTIN SCORSESE, RICK BAKER, JOHN LANDIS / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE DATE TBA