Movie reviews

SPLAT! FILM FEST 

The 2022 festival video was fun. The festival took place around Halloween: 26-30 October in Warsaw and Wrocław, 3-13 November online, on mojeekino.pl. The organizers want to stick to the Halloween dates in the future. Horrors, thrillers, dark comedies, fantasy, SF, dramas, documentaries. Mostly vivid, crossing lines, dripping with blood. 28 full-length, 1 medium-length, 24 short length, 52 films in total, 78 with the online ones. Each movie was screened only once, apart from "Terrifier 2" - about a murderous clown, truly brutal. The first part had been crowdfunded. Iranian directorial debut "زالاوا" ("Zalava") opened the festival. Other offerings included: Italian giallo "Occhiali neri" ("Dark Glasses") by Dario Argento, "Candy Land" - a slasher on young people's prostitution in the US, Senegalese "Saloum", "Gæsterne" ("Speak No Evil") was later in distribution, as was South Korean "늑대사냥" ("Project Wolf Hunting") which was one of the bloodiest ever - 2.5 tonnes of fake blood had been used in the production. "Coupez!" ("Final Cut") closed the festival, it had opened Cannes before - about shooting a film about zombies, it had provoked some walk-outs in Cannes. "All Jacked Up and Full of Worms" was the most disgusting. The director of "Le Daim" ("Deerskin") appeared in the WTF section. Also in WTF was "La Pietà" ("Piety") - all in pink, where a toxic mother-son relationship was compared to North Korea. Documentaries included: "A Life on the Farm" - on a farmer who e.g. shows around his dead mother, "The History of Metal and Horror" - Alice Cooper, Megadeath, John Carpenter et al. Polish input was "Obróbka skrawaniem" - gore, from 2001, 200 zł budget. Selected over a year from about 300 titles. But 2022 saw also 'The Best of the Worst' with "Birdemic". Audience vote took place online in 6 categories. The 24 short films were put in 4 blocks: 2 in Warsaw, 2 in Wrocław, 4 online. The online offer was different than at cinemas, including previous years' cinema offerings - this time online. "The Quarry" video game sponsored the festival. Short films creators, the director of medium-length "Obróbka skrawaniem" and the director of "Eating Miss Campbell" were guests.

 زالاوا (ZALAVA)

Watchable. It starts as a budget drama about superstitions, next turns into a thriller which keeps you guessing whether the demon is real or a figment of mass imagination. Sadly at some point it becomes a drowsy love tale. The finale brings back suspense but is largely predictable. 

NIE CUDZOLOZ I NIE KRADNIJ

Walked out. Constant deja vu was praying on my mind - it's so derivative. Filled with foul language, low-end attempts at humour, Biblical quotes and the most sacrilegious of all - Mozart's "Lacrimosa".