Mayhem Film Festival Reviews - Day 3

  

MAG MAG

First film of Day 3, was the darkly comic spoof of the Japanese Horror genre MAG MAG by Japanese comedian Yuriyan Retriever.

Art student Sanae, is obsessed with one of the boys in her class, who unfortunately seems to fancy someone else. But she is even more upset, when he is apparently murdered by a vengeful spirit called the Mag Mag.

Vowing to put a stop to the evil spirit and avenge her friend's death, when the Mag Mag begins to stalk a family, she decides to use them as bait, so she can lure it into a trap. And so the fate of the family depends on whether her scheme will succeed, or if the family can find out why they've been cursed and get it removed.

Kind of like a bizarre mash-up of THE RING, HOME ALONE and GHOSTBUSTERS, this is definitely one for fans of J-Horror films, like THE RING, or THE GRUDGE. However, I doubt the casual horror fan, or cinema goer would get the humour, which is extremely off beat, even going into a song and dance routine at one point, which breaks the fourth wall.

I enjoyed it, but whether you will, will depend on your love of Japanese Horror films.

MAN FINDS TAPE

Next up was pseudo documentary MAN FINDS TAPE, which raises the increasingly poignant question “how can you believe anything you see online?” as a young film maker discovers something creepy going on in her former home town.

Whilst away at University, aspiring film student Lynn Page receives a mysterious call from her brother Lucas. It seems that one afternoon, everyone in the town just stopped dead for several minutes. But no one seems to have any recollection of it actually happening, despite actual CCTV evidence clearly showing it.

Her brother later discovers a mysterious tape, which appears to show him as a child, being manhandled in bed by a mysterious shadowy figure, which he has no recollection of.

Returning home, the two of them start investigating and find this has been going on for a while. But only she, and one other person, seem unaffected. Digging deeper, it seems something otherworldy might be going on, but in an age of internet hoaxes and CGI fakery, how are they going to convince anyone?

An interesting film, I was initially unsure if I would like this, as it was described as a “found footage” film, which are often rather boring. However, this was more like a pseudo documentary, with the found footage element only making up parts of it, and I actually rather enjoyed it.

Definitely one to look out for, when it becomes available

For more info, watch this interview with the Director on YouTube. 

BULK

Mindbending sci-fi was the next order of the day, with a screening of Ben Wheatley's exteremely confusing BULK.

A journalist, who's been asked to write a feature on the governments new experiment on interdimensional travel, finds himself being sent into the void by mysterious government agents, to rescue a number of scientists after the experiment went wrong and they became trapped in one of the alternate universes.

What follows is a very trippy film, of him stumbling through alternate realities of war torn cities, endless deserts and tropical beaches, in which he keeps encountering the same 3 people over and over again, as different characters.

Filmed (mostly) in black and white and in the old 4:3 style TV aspect ratio, as opposed to widescreen like most modern films, this was a very bizarre film, made even weirder by the fact its done in the style of a 1950's “Film Noir” type thriller. 

I've always found Ben Wheatley's films to be a bit hit and miss to be honest. Personally, I found this one fell into the latter category, as did several of my collegues who attended the screening. Although the majority of the audience seemed to enjoy it.

Only recommended if you're a die-hard fan of Wheatley's films, or you like surrealist art films. As I doubt this would hold much interest for the casual viewer.

View the Trailer on YouTube

EVENT HORIZON

Final film of the day was a screening of the classic 1990s sci-fi Horror EVENT HORIZON. I didn't stick around for this, as I've seen this one a few times and wasn't that interested in watching it on the big screen.

But for those who are unfamiliar, it's essentially a haunted house film in space. As Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburn and several other characters (including Sean Pertwee and Kathleen Quinlan) go to investigate a spaceship, that went missing several years earlier and has just mysteriously reappeared.

Unfortunately, wherever its been, its brought back something nasty with it, as the crew find themselves being picked off in increasingly nasty ways by some sort of malevolent entity.

A great film, with some suitably nasty death scenes, although I always found it to be extremely reminiscent of the old Roger Corman film GALAXY OF TERROR. 

If you like sci-fi films, then this one is definitely a must. There was apparently a lot more footage filmed for this, that didn't make the final cut. But it seems this has since gone missing, so unless it turns up somewhere, the theatrical version here is all we're left with. 

Watch the Trailer on YouTube.

And that was it for Day 3, for more info on future events held by the Mayhem Festival, visit the following links.

Offical Website - https://www.mayhemfilmfestival.com/

Facebook Page - @mayhemfilmfestival 

X - @mayhem_festival