Night of the Dead

15 November 2008

It’s around 7 o’clock in the evening and I’m pacing around a gloomy garage forecourt somewhere on the A1, watching as the Guv is trying to negotiate a deal on his fuel/oil/coffee combo with the unimpressed attendant.

It’s not the chill in the air, or indeed the fact that I’ve only got 20 cigarettes on me and I haven’t seen the attendant pass any over to the Guv, that’s making me edgy.

Tonight we’re going up to Leeds to attend the 8th Annual NIGHT of the DEAD – part of the 22nd Leeds International Film Festival. The Guv’s put together a new trailer and we’ve trimmed down the Behind the Screams doc so that we can get it into the festival as a short feature.

The first film festival that I attended was the aptly titled Shock Around The Clock 2 at the Scala Cinema in London Kings Cross in 1988. What an amazing day/night! We laughed and cheered our way through European premieres of Bad Taste, The Hidden, a 9 minute preview of Hardware, The Church (they were going to show Dario Argento’s Opera but they only had it in Italian) and winced a little when they screened Necromantic. I think it was 10 films straight through – around 23 hours in total.

On a sad note, the Scala closed a couple of years later. Real shame, it was great venue for independent and international films, stuff you just couldn’t see on the big screen anywhere, let alone at your local goggle-plex.

For those of you that love horror films and have never been to a full on horror festival, I highly recommend searching out Night of the Dead or something similar like Frightfest at the Prince of Wales. There’s no better way to watch horror flicks than among a 400 strong audience of gore hounds!

11.45pm – Hyde Park Picture House

We finally find a good parking spot just around the corner from the cinema. As we stroll up the crowds are starting to gather. We meet up with one of the organisers and are shown to a couple of reserved seats near the front. First there’s going to be a short film and then, after My Name Is Bruce gets it’s UK premiere, we’re up. The Guv is going to do a Q&A after the footage is screened and then I’m going to judge a “best zombie” competition apparently.

00.30am – Night of the Dead

So, the first film up was Eel Girl (a least that’s what I think it was called). An interesting tale in which a lonely lab technician becomes fascinated by a weird green lizard/fish woman who likes to splash around naked in a bath of slime. Unfortunately for him it isn’t his affections that she’s after! At about 10 minutes Eel Girl was well shot and acted with some great practical make-ups. I thought it was a good opener. The crowd agreed and it eased my nerves as I settled back to watch My Name Is Bruce.

Star of such genre defining movies as the Evil Dead trilogy, Bubba Ho-Tep and err…  Maniac Cop, long time Sam Raimi (Evil Dead trilogy, Spider-Man trilogy) cohort Bruce Campbell has entertained a generation of horror fans with his work on both the big and small screens. Directed by Campbell himself, My Name Is Bruce is at the same time a love letter to his many avid fans and a classic slice of b-movie schlock in the same vein as Bubba Ho-Tep.

The story is pretty straight forward – Bruce’s no.1 fan inadvertently re-awakens an ancient Chinese protector of Bean Curd (yes, that’s right, Bean Curd!) who then proceeds to chop the head off of everyone who crosses its path. No.1 fan feels guilty and calls in Bruce to save the day. Playing the ‘classic Campbell’ unwilling hero, Bruce does battle with both the town’s demon and a few of his own.

The best thing about this movie is the way it isn’t afraid to reference its own limitations, whilst maintaining a genuine respect for the genre. There are loads of ‘in jokes’ for the avid horror fan and Campbell pulls it all off with a style akin to Raimi’s early (better) works. Oh, and the sound design is really fantastic!

My Name is Bruce reminded me of the original Evil Dead in the way that Campbell puts himself through the ringer as both a performer and genre icon – he really gets beat up in this movie. I don’t see how they could ever top Campbell’s “Ash” in the long in production hell remake. There’s not really much here for the serious gore-hound, just a few decapitations and the like but it’s all handled well and you should definitely give it a look if you’re into low-budget comedy/ horror. Recommended.

There’s a short break next – we stretch our legs and see how many cigarettes can be smoked in 15 minutes before our bit is screened. First they show the new trailer and then straight into the Behind the Screams footage. There’s a few laughs – thankfully in all the right places – and even though both me and the Guv are not happy with the grading in a couple of the shots, the audience don’t seem to notice. Unfortunately the last couple of seconds is strangely missing and the Behind the Screams finishes abruptly leaving the audience (and us) a bit bewildered. At least it was in the correct ratio!

The Guv is called to the stage and confidently takes questions regarding budgets, distribution, release dates and how to get hold of cast and crew. If people buy two copies of the DVD then the Guv says that they can be in the next film (let’s finish this one first eh?)

Then it’s my turn. The organisers call me up to judge a “best zombie” competition. Three people volunteer and gleefully dash onto the stage. I’m asked what makes for a good zombie and mumble something about ‘maintaining an air of threat’ and ‘the ministry of funny walks’. As I’m finishing my sentence the first zombie lurches towards me and I have to admit that he’s pretty intimidating. The second guy looks like he’s had a couple too many bevvies in the break and he falls face down hard, narrowly missing the lights dotted along the front of the stage. Not a bad attempt but more drunk than dead. The last guy is quite tall and he waves his arms around like Magnus Pike whilst twisting his leg into an awkward position. Looks painful.

Personally I like the last one best but think it prudent to ask the audience which is their favourite. The audience all ‘zombie groan’ for each of the contestants and number 3 is easily the winner (damn – I wish we had taped it as background sound for the film!) All 3 receive some horror related books and leave the stage happy.

So, I leave the stage and our 15 minutes are over. We watch the next short – about some German guy who gets bored watching the same old crap on TV and decides to make his own show in which he cuts great chunks out of his own body with a Stanley knife. Good FX and pretty cringe-worthy. Can’t remember the title – hope someone can tell me?

They’re showing Tokyo Gore Police next (which I really want to see) but we’re both knackered and have a 3 hour drive home – so decide to call it a day. We shake hands with the organiser and he says to keep in touch.

Leeds is empty and we’re soon flying back down the A1. We take a turning near to the Guv’s house and are about 5 minutes from the his when we come across a police car blocking the road. Some poor bugger’s taken a dive into a really deep ditch on the side of the road. Looks messy.

I finally hit the hay at 6am satisfied that we had a positive reaction to all the footage and hopeful that everyone will agree that the film (whenever it’s finished) is worth the wait.

The Wrangler

PS. We hope to get something special for Christmas up on the web site soon…

P.P.S. (by The Mascot) Massive thanks to Scott Smith who pointed me in the direction of the video of Neils Q&A session which has been uploaded to YouTube. Scott – you rock!

P.P.P.S. (by The Mascot) Using the power of t’Internet, I have now managed to find video footage of the zombie contest with The Wrangler on YouTube. Huzzah!