BIFFF - Blood Deep, Subject Two and The Uncertain Guest

Day four here in Brussels started of promisingly with some of the cast of ‘Blood Deep’ taking to the stage one of whom was wearing what is really too small a piece of cloth to be accurately described as a dress. Of course this met with the approval of the assembled horror geeks, I just wish the same could be said of the film.

Blood Deep is a terrible film and not even in a good way. The ‘plot’ and I use the word in the loosest possible sense is some nonsense about a group of childhood friends getting back together years after somebody or other has died and of course one of them is a killer. The story would make no sense at all even if you were interested enough to try and follow it. There is no sense of characterisation so the friends are all just these ciphers that you know nothing about and frankly don’t really want to anyway. None of this is helped by some horrendous dialogue and very, very bad acting by just about everybody on the cast. There were moments where it looked like an episode of a cheap soap opera on the big screen thanks to the combination of the above and some very uninspired direction. You would like to think that the saving grace of a slasher film would be the kills but most of these take place of screen and there is not even a small moment of even accidental tension in the entire film. Luckily the audience can be fairly vocal so that during a waste of time such as this, at least the comments from the other people suffering through are fairly amusing.

So, a truly terrible film that is not even worth going straight to DVD. Did I mention that it was awful?

Next up was ‘Subject Two’ a small film from the US set in the mountains around Aspen. While the film may be small, it’s basically a two hander and apparently there were nine people involved in the filming including cast and crew, the ideas are larger than that. The director, Philip Chidel, is quite open about the fact that he was inspired by Frankenstein but his film is not just a modern retelling of the story. The story starts with a medical student agreeing to meet an online correspondent who says that he needs an assistant to help with his research. The mysterious doctor lives in the middle of the woods out in the mountains and avoids all contact with the outside world. It would be a shame to spoil what happens next as this is well made little tale that raises questions about medical ethics and how far should we go to keep people alive.

The script is a little talky at times and the film could probably do with a little tightening up but in general it’s a very good effort. Chidel makes the most of the stunning scenery and the sense of isolation and his script raises some interesting questions without ever being preachy. He is also helped by two fine performances by his main actors, had they been anything less that great the whole thing would have collapsed. However Dean Stapleton as the Doctor (who seems a little Nicholsonesque at times) and Christian Olivier as his assistant are more than up to the task.

An interesting little film that is worth checking out if you like something a little psychological.

Finally there was the Spanish film, The Uncertain Guest by Guillem Morales. Another psychological thriller, this has an interesting premise and is generally well executed.

Felix is a somewhat uptight architect whose girlfriend Vera has recently left him, leaving him alone in the huge house he designed.One night a stranger rings the doorbell and asks to use the phone. Felix leaves him to make the call but when he come back to check up on his guest, he has disappeared. Felix starts to hear more and more noises in the house at night, leading him to believe that the stranger is sharing the house with him in secret. To tell you anymore would be to spoil some of the lovely little twists and turns in Morales’ script which starts of as a fairly creepy paranoid thriller then changes and becomes somewhat lighter with moments of almost French farce. I had a slight problem with the ending as the change in tone is somewhat abrupt but in general this is a good little film.

Morales has obviously been watching his Hitchcock and there are couple of truly great steadycam shots. He is good at building atmosphere and the film has some excellent sound design which adds to the general air of paranoia. As with the previous film he is helped by some excellent actors including Andoni Gracia as Felix. He is almost every single scene of the film and is required to go through quite an emotional transformation which he does very well.

So a mixed bag for the fourth day but the good still outweighs the bad so far.