BIFFF 2010

I was lucky enough to attend this year's Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, and I thought I'd post a bunch of one-line reviews for all the films I saw. Some of these will be getting the full review treatment soon too!

A Serbian Film (Serbia, 2009, dir. Srdjan Spasojevic): FANTASTIC! Music, direction, acting, structure, metaphor, extremity – superb. Won’t ever see the light of day in the UK in its current form!

The Human Centipede: First Sequence (USA, 2009 dir. Tom Six): great fun, something a little bit different, not that sick!

The Killer Inside Me (USA, 2010, dir. Michael Winterbottom): great! Twisted, enjoyable, brutal, wonderful central performance

Valhalla Rising (Denmark/UK, 2009, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn): awesome, but needs a second viewing; very metaphorical and arty

Heartless (UK, 2009, dir. Phillip Ridley): really enjoyable and well-made, although again incoherent in parts

Ondine (Ireland/USA, 2010, dir. Neil Jordan): lovely fairytale, cheesy, yes, but very pretty and sweet

Vampires (Belgium, 2009, dir. Vincent Lannoo): Hysterically funny and witty, a very likeable film

Detour (Norway, 2009, dir. Severin Eskeland): utterly clichéd but massively entertaining slasher throwback

Zombies of Mass Destruction (USA, 2009, dir. Kevin Hamedani): surprisingly good fun, despite crap acting and hit-and-miss jokes, great make up effects

Slice (Thailand, 2010, dir. Kongkiat Khomsiri): an interesting, twisty thriller, but the humour/drama does not meld as well as it could

Possessed (South Korea, 2009, dir. Lee Yong Joo-I): decent creeper, but too long and too similar to Dark Water

5150 Rue des Ormes (Canada, 2009, dir. Eric Tessier): solid thriller/horror, a little incoherent but enjoyable and a bit different

The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (Serbia, 2009, dir. Mladen Djordjevic): explicit comedy/drama, which completely loses its way after the first 40 minutes or so, with the political rhetoric being less effective when all the humour is lost

Glenn 3948 (Belgium, 2010, dir. Marc Goldstein): cute but bizarre concept terribly executed; awful music, direction, acting, script

Duress (USA, 2009, dir. Jordan Barker): a solid thriller let down by an uncharismatic lead and a twist that’s too twisty

Evil in the Time of Heroes (Greece, 2009, dir. Yorgos Noussias): utter shit!

Hidden (Norway, 2009, dir. Pal Oie): boring, looked nice though

Ingrid (Spain, 2009, dir. Eduard Cortes): enjoyable, if pretentious, film about arty young people

Reykjavik Whale-Watching Massacre (Iceland, 2009, dir. Julius Kemp): boring, nothing special

Giallo (Italy, 2009, dir. Dario Argento): a cheap Argento knock off…directed by Argento himself...no sign of a career resurgance here!

Survival of the Dead (USA, 2009, dir. George A. Romero): just…what?!