The Broadway Cinema in Nottingham was once again host to the annual Mayhem Film Festival this October. Now in it's 20th year, I'd once again managed to blag myself a press pass, so was only too eager to attend.
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKS CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON (2023) Dir - Ariane Louis-Seize.
The fun kicked off with this French language Canadian Horror-Comedy, which revolves around a family of vampires. Whose youngest daughter Sasha (Sarah Monpetit) finds she doesn't have the heart to kill humans for food, so relies on her parents to keep her supplied with blood packs to live off.
However, when she crosses paths with a downtrodden teenage schoolboy named Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), who's looking to commit suicide, she thinks she's found the perfect solution. But as their friendship begins to quickly grow, will they actually be able to go through with it?
Marking the feature film Directorial debut of Ariane Louis-Seize, the film was a kind of bizarre cross between “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Let the Right One In”, and was extremely tongue in cheek, in many ways playing like a teenage comedy. Albeit with a lot of slapstick bloody killings thrown in and proved to be one of the more popular films of the festival, which had the audience laughing out loud throughout.
If you're a fan of the aforementioned “What We Do in the Shadows”, you should love it and would definitely recommend Vampire fans check this out.
However, when she crosses paths with a downtrodden teenage schoolboy named Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), who's looking to commit suicide, she thinks she's found the perfect solution. But as their friendship begins to quickly grow, will they actually be able to go through with it?
Marking the feature film Directorial debut of Ariane Louis-Seize, the film was a kind of bizarre cross between “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Let the Right One In”, and was extremely tongue in cheek, in many ways playing like a teenage comedy. Albeit with a lot of slapstick bloody killings thrown in and proved to be one of the more popular films of the festival, which had the audience laughing out loud throughout.
If you're a fan of the aforementioned “What We Do in the Shadows”, you should love it and would definitely recommend Vampire fans check this out.
View the Trailer on YouTube.
The film is currently available to stream on MUBI.
MADS (2024) Dir - David Moreau
Second film of the evening was another French language horror. MADS from David Moreau, which looks at the problems of taking cheap drugs and, to a lesser extent, picking up strangers.
Set in rural France, teenager Romain (Milton Richie) picks up a load of drugs for a party he's attending that evening. However, a chance encounter with a strange woman that he tries to help, who appears to have escaped from a psychiatric ward, sets in motion a series of deadly events.
Having got blood all over his drugs, he simply washes off the outside of the bags and takes them to the party. But shortly after snorting the contents, he and his 2 female friends start behaving rather strangely and they begin to question whether anything they are seeing is real or not.
But when armed soldiers in hazmat suits show up and start shooting people, they realise something's very wrong and somehow they have to try and escape.
Filmed in a series of single long takes, this was a bit of a slow burn horror, in which you're unsure at first whether any of the events you're witnessing are real, or part of their drug induced state. But when things get real, you're still left wondering why it's happening.
The film was rather reminiscent of the Crazies, in which you have these friends, who may or may not be “infected” with something, trying to escape the authorities. But the focus stays on the 3 main protagonists, with each persons story taking up a portion of the film, so you never get to see the full scope of whats going on around them.
Whilst boasting some nice gore, it was a bit too slow for my liking. However, it was well received by the rest of the audience. The Director previously worked on “Them” [AKA “Ils”] (2006) and “The Eye” (2008), so if you enjoyed those, you may want to check this one out.
Set in rural France, teenager Romain (Milton Richie) picks up a load of drugs for a party he's attending that evening. However, a chance encounter with a strange woman that he tries to help, who appears to have escaped from a psychiatric ward, sets in motion a series of deadly events.
Having got blood all over his drugs, he simply washes off the outside of the bags and takes them to the party. But shortly after snorting the contents, he and his 2 female friends start behaving rather strangely and they begin to question whether anything they are seeing is real or not.
But when armed soldiers in hazmat suits show up and start shooting people, they realise something's very wrong and somehow they have to try and escape.
Filmed in a series of single long takes, this was a bit of a slow burn horror, in which you're unsure at first whether any of the events you're witnessing are real, or part of their drug induced state. But when things get real, you're still left wondering why it's happening.
The film was rather reminiscent of the Crazies, in which you have these friends, who may or may not be “infected” with something, trying to escape the authorities. But the focus stays on the 3 main protagonists, with each persons story taking up a portion of the film, so you never get to see the full scope of whats going on around them.
Whilst boasting some nice gore, it was a bit too slow for my liking. However, it was well received by the rest of the audience. The Director previously worked on “Them” [AKA “Ils”] (2006) and “The Eye” (2008), so if you enjoyed those, you may want to check this one out.
View the Trailer on YouTube.
The film should be available to stream on Shudder shortly.
And that concluded Day 1
For more information on the festival and other special events throughout the year, visit the Official Website at: https://www.mayhemfilmfestival.com/
Also visit their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Also checkout http://www.broadway.org.uk/
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