GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL The Shrine
FRIGHTFEST HIGHLIGHTS
Paul McEvoy, founder and co-director of the horror film festival within a festival, picks the best of the line-up
‘We always have a snapshot of exactly where the genre is at the moment, so we’re only as strong as the films that are being produced. I think it’s a fantastic line-up this year. Little Deaths has three British directors taking different tacks on a sex and horror theme. We’ve got Simon Rumley who gives us Bitch and Shaun Hogan’s House & Home which is kind of a vampire story, without wanting to give too much away.
The brilliant Korean picture I Saw the Devil, which we’re going to be screening uncut, is a serial killer movie. It’s very extreme but it’s done with that Korean sensibility so it’s going to look amazing on the big screen.
Rubber has a killer tyre on the loose and lots of exploding heads. It’s a very unusual concept but the director has done a great job with it. It’s very violent and very funny. The Shrine is by the Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer people and is a straightforward dark horror movie, with no humour in it at all. It’s very Mario Bava-esque. Then we have Darren Lynn Bousman’s semi-remake, remixed version of Mother’s Day with an all-star cast, which delivers brutalities in extremes. I think Hobo with a Shotgun is
one that will blow people away with its high level of splatter and audience- friendly excitement. We did the Grindhouse UK premiere a few years ago in Glasgow and this follows in that tradition. It’s our closing night film and this will be the film’s first screening after its debut at Sundance so it’s going to be a really big ticket.’ ■ FrightFest, GFT, Fri 25 & Sat 26 Feb. See www.glasgowfilm.org/festival and www.frightfest.co.uk for more information.
16 THE LIST 17 Feb–3 Mar 2011
F or a city that doesn’t (yet) boast a gallery of its own Lycra-clad do- gooders in the way that the superhero capital New York does, it’s ironic that it is writers Mark Millar and Grant Morrison, two sons of Glasgow, who are the current creative driving forces behind, respectively, the Marvel and DC Comics super-powered universes. It’s wholly appropriate, then, that GFF ambassador Millar should curate this new festival strand that features new and classic films, guest talent, industry events and a focus on the Scottish comics scene.
Millar, who is working on a sequel to Kick- Ass and his Glasgow-set superhero team film Miracle Park, will host a workshop looking at the art of writing graphic novels (CCA, Wed 23 Feb, 2.30pm). Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons (GFT, Fri 25 Feb, 4pm) and Millar/Morrison collaborator Frank Quitely (CCA, Wed 23 Feb, 4.30pm) will talk about illustrating them, while manga historian Paul Gravett will discuss the rise of the artform with Japanese illustrator Chie Kutsuwada and Scottish-born, Japan-based writer Sean Michael Wilson (CCA, Thu 24 Feb, 1pm).
Elsewhere, ComicCamp 11: Comics, Gaming and the Film Industry (CCA, Fri 25 Feb, 11am), described as a ‘non-conference’, gathers professionals to look at the relationship between the entertainment media and where it’s headed. Portfolio Review with CLiNT Magazine (CCA, Thu 24 Feb, 4.30pm) assembles the team behind the comic magazine launched by Millar who will be on hand to appraise the work of aspiring comics creators.
Finally, in Metaphrog: Graphic Novels & Adaptations (CCA, Thu 24 Feb, 2.30pm), the eponymous Glasgow-based duo, who recently
adapted poet Edwin Morgan’s The First Men on Mercury, will discuss working from different media.
And so to the films. Millar’s offbeat selection of cult and classic titles is intriguing. There’s the ultra-violent manga- alike adaptation Battle Royale (Cineworld, Thu 24 Feb, 9pm), now rendered in spanking new 3D 11 years after it was released. There’s Danger Diabolik (CCA, Thu 24 Feb, 4.30pm, and Arches, Sat 26 Feb, 5.30pm), horror maestro Mario Bava’s super-camp 1968 romp inspired by the Italian comic (and an inspiration for Austin Powers). And there’s Heavy Metal (Cineworld, Wed 23 Feb, 7pm, and Thu 24 Feb, 3.15pm), the 1981 Canadian animation based on the infamous adult illustrated magazine of fantasy and erotica. Terry ‘Ghost World’ Zwigoff’s wonderfully weirdo documentary, Crumb (CCA, Wed 23 Feb, noon), a warts-and-all look at the life and work of legendary underground commix creator Robert Crumb, also receives a welcome screening. As does Superman II – the Richard Donner Cut (Cineworld, Tue 22 Feb, 6.30pm), which is a reassembly of the director’s original vision before he was kicked off the Christopher Reeve film.
Millar’s selection is capped by a new release, Griff the Invisible (Cineworld, Thu 24 Feb, 6.30pm, and Fri 25 Feb, 8.45pm), an Australian comedy about a bullied office worker who moonlights as a masked crime fighter on the mean streets of Melbourne.
As Marvel supremo Stan Lee would say,
‘nuff said!
Various venues, Tue 22–Fri 25 Feb. See www.glasgowfilm.org/festival for information on events.
Heavy Metal
THE
GEEKS
WERE RIGHT
Miles Fielder looks at how the Superheroesi in Glasgow strand of the 2011 GFF exploresi
the world of mainstream comics andigraphic novelsi and celebrates Scotland’s strength in the fieldi