{"id":90540,"date":"2016-08-26T08:54:30","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T07:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=90540"},"modified":"2016-08-26T11:04:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T10:04:41","slug":"frightfest-day-1-southern-gothic-zombies-and-dark-halves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/frightfest-day-1-southern-gothic-zombies-and-dark-halves\/","title":{"rendered":"FrightFest 2016 Day 1 – Southern Gothic, zombies and dark halves"},"content":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s finally here! Horror Channel FrightFest 2016<\/strong>, in its brand new home at Vue Shepherd\u2019s Bush. The location may have changed but it\u2019s immediately obvious that the things we love are still very much in place: the films, the fans, the atmosphere…<\/p>\n We took our seats for the European premiere of Sean Brosnan\u2019s My Father Die<\/em><\/strong>, but first we were treated to an intro by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson, who announced that their brilliant play Ghost Stories<\/em><\/strong> is to be imminently turned into a film directed by the pair and starring Martin Freeman. Even though they have yet to shoot a frame of footage, they still gave us a brilliantly creepy little teaser. We can\u2019t wait for this one\u2026<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n So, to My Father Die<\/em><\/strong>. writer-director Sean Brosnan\u2019s feature debut is a pretty potent blend of lyrical Southern Gothic and revenge-driven B-movie. As a boy, Asher was deafened by a punch from his father before watching his old man beat his beloved big brother to death. When Ivan is released from prison years later, the adult Asher (Joe Anderson) takes it upon himself to deliver the justice he deserves.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a slightly schizophrenic film that Brosnan works hard to shape into a coherent whole. He\u2019s not entirely successful but the results are still interesting and for the most part really quite enjoyable. There\u2019s a bit of Philip Ridley and a lot of Terence Malick in Asher\u2019s breathy, mythic voiceover (in a nice touch, we never hear Asher\u2019s adult voice, only the child’s), and then there\u2019s your down and dirty backwoods swamp revenge movie as our hero meets violence with violence.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a deliberate swaggering machismo to the film that comes through in the homophobic slurs and the treatment of women, and Brosnan does tend to double down on this when there\u2019s no real reason too, particularly in the final act. However, Anderson (Hannibal<\/em><\/strong>, The Crazies<\/em><\/strong>) continues to be an exciting and very watchable performer as the silent Asher and has some nice scenes with childhood friend Nana (Candace Smith) and her young son, Brosnan makes sure that there’s atmosphere to spare with his cinematographer Marc Shap and composers Ohad Benchetrit and Justin Small, and it\u2019s consistently watchable. It\u2019s wobbly and definitely not perfect, but it\u2019s an ambitious, stylish and assured debut, and we\u2019ll be interested to see what he does next.<\/p>\n