{"id":115119,"date":"2020-09-01T08:05:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T07:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=115119"},"modified":"2021-03-02T08:12:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T08:12:49","slug":"the-columnist-frightfest-2020-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/the-columnist-frightfest-2020-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Columnist: FrightFest 2020 review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Set against the backdrop of a quintessential Dutch urban lifestyle (all bicycles and electric cars) director Ivo van Aart\u2019s The Columnist<\/strong><\/em> is about a woman who is as obsessed by social media as she is repelled by it. But instead of taking her frustrations out via any of the usual methods (yoga is mentioned at one point), she decides to kill her demons by actually\u2026 killing her demons (by which we mean her internet trolls).<\/p>\n

Femke Boot (Katja Herbers) is the titular character; an opinionated local celebrity who is being targeted by hate on social media platforms. Though she steadfastly states that everyone should be nice to each other, no matter their opinions, she only finds solace from her online tormentors by actually killing them. Only after is she able to be a better parent, partner and, in fact, writer \u2013 as she feverishly writes chapter after chapter of her new novel in her murderous afterglow.<\/p>\n

A devilishly funny horror comedy, The Columnist<\/strong><\/em> is just as wonderfully contradictory as Femke herself \u2013 portraying brutal murders against a setting of beautiful, humdrum modern life. Femke murders with a disregard to the consequences, calmly chopping off the middle fingers of her victims, then overtly placing them neatly amongst the frozen peas in her kitchen. She and us are completely detached from the enormity of the actions that are taking place. Just as the online trolls are detached from their actions by being behind the safety of a computer screen\u2026 until Femke shows up at their kitchen table while they\u2019re cooking sausages that is (\u201chello!\u201d she cheerily says before brutally bludgeoning someone with their still-hot frying pan).<\/p>\n

Femke can only be played by someone who is as obliviously charming as she is disarmingly cold. Femke could come across as annoying as she tumbles down a crazed path of self-righteousness, but in Herbers\u2019 capable hands, you can\u2019t help but root for her. The film doesn\u2019t even allow the comfortability of hating the trolls themselves \u2013 at times they\u2019re begging for their lives while Femke viciously murders them with glee and we\u2019re right along there with her, chuckling at the normalcy of it all.<\/p>\n

What could be a fairly standard revenge film is elevated far and beyond what is standard with Daan Windhorst\u2019s script, which is a joy. It\u2019s laugh-out-loud funny and as disarming as Femke herself (a conversation with Femke\u2019s gothic horror writer boyfriend springs to mind as he readily admits that his mother paints his nails black for him \u2013 \u201canother excuse to see her!\u201d he happily adds).<\/p>\n

With a wry, witty script, exceptional performances and a polished look, The Columnist<\/strong><\/em> is reminiscent of Mary Harron\u2019s American Psycho<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u2026 mixed with an episode of Midsummer Murders<\/strong><\/em>. It\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n

The Columnist was reviewed at Arrow Video’s FrightFest<\/a> 2020.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A newspaper columnist is out for revenge against internet trolls in Ivo van Aart\u2019s horror comedy, The Columnist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":115122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[6954,8],"tags":[6942],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/The-Columnist.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}