Ring Of Fire: NG Magazine Reviews Mayhem III

2007-10-31 23:37:52

Ok, so I didn’t go and see the Arcade Fire tonight: I passed the opportunity over to a different journalist. Why, you ask? Because it was Halloween, dammit! Let’s face it; you’re not really getting into the spirit of all things ghoulish by going to another gig, even if it is a gig by a world-class band. I can, and do, go to gigs whenever I want. But I wanted this Halloween to be different: which is exactly why I decided to go to the Mayhem horror film festival at the Broadway Cinema.
    
Founded by some of the cream of Nottingham’s film-makers (including Steven Sheil and Chris Cooke), the Mayhem horror festival is now in its third year and still going strong. In fact, the audience was told that it will return in May 2008 and run for an entire weekend! Promises, promises.
    
I spoke to Steven Sheil (click here to read NG Magazine’s interview with him earlier this year) in the foyer before the first screening of horror shorts and, among other things, he surprised me by admitting that he hadn’t yet seen tonight’s main feature, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane. He said he hoped it would be a good film. Me too Steve, otherwise someone might end up with egg on their face!
    
The horror shorts consisted of ten horror flicks, showcasing the best emerging local, national and international talent. It might seem a bit odd for someone who relishes the prospect of being terrified witless, but my personal favourite had to be Shane Kavanagh’s I Was A Teenage Satan. This was an excursion into the charmingly inane, as two young kids dressed up as an angel and a devil basically ran around a park; the latter with a cardboard chainsaw.
    
At the other end of the scale, Alyosha Saari’s Kasting was a short, punchy and highly effective piece that made you wonder exactly what lengths you might go to in order to get a part in a film. In short (fnar!), Mayhem horror festival really is a wonder; without it, I would never have known about the hideous torture of being chained to a monstrous clown, the nightmare ordeal of fighting a group of zombies or what sort of twisted evil lurks under the charming surface of a new boyfriend.
    
But it didn’t end there. After an hour of shorts, we were treated to a rare screening of Jonathan Levine’s first feature film; All The Boys Love Mandy Lane. It will hit UK cinema screens in February 2008 and it’s a truly exceptional indie-slasher flick. It totally distinguishes itself from the worst examples of the genre we’ve seen lately, mostly the rubbish that’s being churned out by big-budget US studios. The story centres around Mandy Lane; an attractive, wholesome and innocent girl that all men are inevitably drawn to. Is she really all that she's cracked up to be?
    
Most of the cast are relative unknowns and were allowed to improvise their dialogue; making the characters well-constructed and believable. Even when bodies start dropping, the film doesn’t degenerate into the usual well-worn, almost clichéd, methods of killing. There are stellar performances from Mandy (played by Amber Heard) and the shooting is brilliant, especially during Bird’s (played by Edwin Hodge) death scene. The Arcade Fire should be gutted: complete with a full-on after-party, the Mayhem organisers staged a veritable inferno in Nottingham this Halloween.
    
Burn Baby, Burn: Michelle Dhillon
    

Add To :

Post a Comment (0 Comments)

Please note all fields marked * are mandatory

Name *

Email Address

Your Comment *

Email Me With Regular Updates Yes No

I have read and understood the Terms And Conditions *Yes No

Please enter the CAPTCHA text from the above image :

All fields marked * are mandatory

<< Back

Ginger

Stealth 6th Birthday