Mayhem Film Festival 2021 Review

It's the most wonderful time of the year! No, I don't mean Christmas I mean Mayhem Film Festival. After a scaled back 'skeleton' edition in 2020, this year was back to normal, except for a few minor COVID-related changes, with 15 feature films plus their signature shorts showcase over four days. Taking place at the stunning Broadway cinema in Nottingham, Mayhem has been running since 2005. Initially starting with shorts, they soon expanded to include features too with a focus on horror, sci-fi and cult. I have attended the festival in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, & 2019 so you can see why I was so excited to be back! This year we had several films directed by duos as well as zombies, and demons, and magic, oh my!

First of all, I'd like to say well done and thanks to all the team for the COVID precautions they put in place. As someone who was shielding last year and is nowhere near back to my normal level of social activity, I was a little nervous to attend. However, the seats were sold allowing for social distancing, the screen had to be emptied in between each screening for a cleaning, and all the Broadway staff were wearing masks. A lot of hard work and thought had obviously gone into it so it felt very safe. The prize giveaways still happened but due to COVID people had to hold items over their heads first to win. This was a fun change but I'm looking forward to getting back to failing at Steven's insanely hard questions next time.

The atmosphere is always good at Mayhem but it was even better this year as you could tell everyone was happy to be back. Chris, Steven, Meli, and all the Broadway team helped create a warm, welcoming environment as usual.

Opening the festival on Thursday was the hilarious, heart-warming Alien On Stage (2020), following an am-dram group of bus drivers from Dorset as they ambitiously prepare to take their performance of Alien to the West End. Directors Lucy Harvey and Danielle Kummer give the group space to really be themselves on camera so you warm to them almost immediately. You get a sense of how much of themselves they've poured into this production and how it has taken over their lives. My favourite example of this is when the group's prop master Peter Lawford looks into the camera, sighs, and says 'the eggs!'. When you finally see the group performing, and being appreciated, towards the end of the film it's a wonderful pay-off. I'd recommend this to any fan of Alien, you wouldn't think they'd be able to make Alien funny but trust me they do! We were lucky enough to have a Q&A after the screening with co-director of the film Danielle Kummer, director of the play Dave Mitchell, and star of the play Lydia Hayward who plays Ripley. They were all very genuine and obviously enjoying how well the film is going down. My very blurry face even made it into the official photos by Tom Morley!

Up next, in one of the most extreme tone changes of my Mayhem experiences so far, we had the very chilling The Deep House (2021). Brought to life by the directors of Inside, Alexandre Bustillo & Julie Maury, the film follows a young couple of urban explorers who document the creepiest locations they can find hoping for YouTube fame. When they hear about an intact house on the bottom of a lake from a creepy local, down they dive. You probably already guessed that it doesn't go well. The underwater setting makes the film unique and gives the option for some different effective scares. The couple balance each other out nicely with Camille Rowe's character being more cautious and attempting to rein in her reckless spontaneous boyfriend. Luckily, her acting also balances out James Jagger's which is rather wooden. There's a few plot points that could do with more fleshing out and the foreshadowing is a bit clunky but overall it's an atmospheric film that will leave you with a chill down your spine.

The first slot on Fridays at Mayhem is for older, lesser-seen films. This year, that was the black and white The Queen of Spades (1949). Army officer Herman believes a countess sold her soul to gain the secret to winning a fortune on a card game and sets about on a mission to learn that secret, whatever the cost. The acting was good and it was fun to see how they decided to make the UK look like Russia by adding Russian signs and snow. It was a little slow though and the end confused me so probably not my favourite from this slot to be honest.

Up next we had Alan Moore's first fever dream of a film, The Show (2020). First of all, we had a video introduction from Moore and director Mitch Jenkins who were both funny, with Jenkins informing the audience that Moore wrote the part of Mr. Metterton for himself and no-one else had a chance. This is not surprising when Moore appears on screen decked out in a suit adorned with stars and silver face paint, hair and beard arranged to resemble a crescent moon, and having the time of his life playing a ukulele. The film follows Tom Burke's mysterious Fletcher Dennis who finds himself in Northampton on his search for a valuable piece of jewellery. He soon finds himself drawn into a strange world that only shows itself in dreams he shares with Siobhan Hewlett's Faith. Admittedly I'm biased because it's not often you get to see your small home town on the big screen, but I really enjoyed this one. Drenched with vibrant colours and featuring a host of funny secondary characters, you can't tear your eyes away from the screen. The film is clearly meant to fit into a larger story though as there are characters whose origins are never even hinted at and throwaway lines that tease stories left untold for now. This approach to world-building gets a little annoying given how much is already happening on screen but there are definitely some interesting stories left to discover.

Next was my surprise of the festival, Night Drive (2019). The festival brochure listed this synopsis: "Bowen plays a ride-share driver whose life begins to fall apart when he picks up his last passenger and accidentally hits a pedestrian." It didn't pique my interest overly but actually this synopsis doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what this film is about and it blew me away. I don't want to say too much because you should definitely watch it, on a big screen if you can. I'll just say it's hard to know where it's going next, the way the lead two characters play off each other is great to watch, and it crosses a lot of genres.

Closing out day two was the first of three Korean movies playing at the festival, Midnight (2021). I think reviews should be honest or there's no point so I will say this is the first instance in my time attending Mayhem that I feel they made a mistake in their film choice. Don't get me wrong, it's a well-made film that's incredibly scary and the acting is excellent. It's a similar premise to Mike Flanagan's Hush but it takes the chase into the city not just one house. However, showing a film about a woman being chased by a serial kidnapper and murderer of women who finds that the police aren't much use less than two weeks after a police officer was sentenced to a whole life term for kidnapping and murdering an English woman? That didn't sit well with me. It's certainly not going to put me off Mayhem as I don't think there was any malice in the choice but it certainly wasn't escapist horror and I found it hard to come down and get to sleep afterwards.

Kicking off Saturday was the rather insane The Spine of Night (2021). A horror cartoon is quite a novel idea and it looks gorgeous, using the old Disney method of painted backgrounds with moving figures in a different style laid on top. Some of these figures look like the all-star cast voicing them and some don't at all which is an odd choice. The voice actors obviously know what kind of film they've signed up for and really lean into the craziness. It's a mad, colourful journey through a world of magic where almost everyone is power-hungry and don't care who they have to cut down to get it. Plot-wise it's strangely paced, there's a framing device where Lucy Lawless' Tzod is telling her strange tale to Richard E Grant's Guardian but every time she continues her tale we seem to meet a new group of characters and have to figure out how they fit in. I'm not sure it's one I'd watch again but it was certainly an experience and if it leads the way for more horror cartoons I'd be good with that.

Clearly the overall theme of Mayhem this year was tone changes so extreme you get whiplash! So after a bloody cartoon spanning a large fantasy land, we moved to an understated thriller taking place largely in one flat, Knocking (2021). Molly leaves a psychiatric hospital after a nervous breakdown but her attempts to get back to her normal life are disturbed by mysterious knocking noises in her apartment. Actress Cecilia Milocco does such a good job it's hard to imagine anyone else ever even being considered for the role of Molly. The camera is kept almost attached to Molly throughout so the film has a tense, claustrophobic feel even before anything bad happens, although the titular knocking begins early in the film. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat and it's quite grim but definitely worth a watch.

On Saturday afternoon we had the lovingly named 'dark heart of the festival', the Short Film Showcase. I always enjoy the shorts, I think in some ways you can be more inventive with a short. This year's number one for me was Waffle (2020). Starring a gleefully twisted Katie Marovitch, it manages to make you laugh, keep you guessing, and take a Black Mirror type shot at our disconnected society, all in only a ten minute run time. Other honourable mentions were Eye Exam (2020), which will put you off going to the opticians any time soon, The Thing That Ate The Birds (2021) which pulls off the notoriously difficult broad daylight scare, and They're Here (2021) which is a unique concept as a young girl tries to rid her Grandma of an alien parasite. For me A Tale Best Forgotten (2020) is just that I'm afraid! It's a creepy little poem but it didn't really need an accompanying short.

In case any of the shorts made you feel sleepy, they were followed by the action-packed Spiritwalker (2020). Like Night Drive, this one crosses into a lot of different genres so it's quite hard to classify. A man loses his memory and wakes up in a new body every twelve hours, but as his memories return he makes some shocking discoveries. The transitions between bodies look really good, especially the first two. The fight scenes, which there are plenty of, are well choreographed. The story will keep you guessing and there are lots of endearing characters, the stand-out for me being the homeless man who is drawn into events by helping the protagonist but then of course can't recognise him as he switches bodies.

Closing out day three, in the cult classics slot, we had Phantom of the Paradise (1974). I often have never seen the classics Mayhem picks for this slot and it's fun to see them for the first time on the big screen with a crowd, and that was the case this year. Music producer Swan is looking for the perfect music to open his new club, The Paradise, but when he steals it from Winslow Leach how far will Winslow go to get it back? The film has some catchy songs, the best of which are performed to perfection by Jessica Harper. All of the characters are over the top and most are incredibly unlikable, although poor old Winslow played by William Finley definitely deserved better! If you watch it and you're a member of the LGBTQ+ community, do be warned there is a use of the F-word slur (it's a product of its time I guess!). It's not quite going to knock Rocky Horror off the number one horror musical spot but it is now high on the list. The fact that this film is from Brian De Palma, the same person who wrote and directed Carrie and Suspiria blows my mind as my goodness did his work change in tone! Also, be warned that the film will definitely make you hungry for Beef:

Kicking off the final day was Get The Hell Out (2020). In one of the funniest intros, Meli said 'if you're not quite awake this will do it. If you're hungover, I'm sorry.' Taiwan's parliament falls prey to a new rabies virus that turns most people into zombies with the rest fighting to get out. Part comedy, part political satire, part video game homage, and with buckets of blood, this bright manic film refuses to be put in a box and just has to be watched. As with many zombie films, there is one person who is immune and has the potential to create an antidote but this idea is taken further here as the other characters cover their hands in his blood and slap at the zombies causing an acid like reaction which is very funny to see. I've thought for a while that zombies now work best in a comedy setting and this one just strengthens my argument.

Second, we had Hellbender (2021). Made by the talented Adams family, who I'm hoping will adopt me because how fun must it be to hang out with your family and make movies all the time, the film focuses on Izzy who is isolated by her mother but when she learns the truth about her family history and its connection to magic things take a dark turn. Izzy and her mother form a metal band called Hellbender and I enjoyed their songs, although some of the instrumental soundtrack in the rest of the film was grating. There's some gross-out moments, some decent CGI effects, and a great setting in a sprawling woodland. Part coming-of-age movie, part horror, and weaving in folklore and magic this is another one to see on the big screen if you can.

Up next in what seems to be becoming the slot for the scariest movie of the festival, we had The Night Shift (2021). This one also had a great introduction from Meli: 'It's a bit triggering and a bit scarring, and on that note, enjoy!'. To look this one up, you have to search for Ghost Mansion as it won't accept the alternate name for some reason. The film follows a man collecting stories of unlucky former residents from the caretaker of a haunted building. I love an anthology horror but they can very quickly feel disconnected. That's not the case here as all the segments are directed by the same person so they all weave together perfectly, and characters end up in each other's tales. It's full of psychological scares, jump scares, gross-out moments (the mould section had everyone groaning), twists and turns, and interesting characters. There's one plot point I'd have liked to be explained more but the overarching story surrounding the segments still feels complete and I enjoyed the ending.

Second to last we had Lamb (2021). There's no way to review this one without spoiling it so I'm not going to say much, I will just say that there's one character who looks almost straight at the camera and says 'what the fuck is happening here?' and I feel like that sums up the film! If you want to watch it, you need to be aware that there's a couple of sad animal deaths, and don't watch the trailer on IMDb beforehand.

Closing out Mayhem 2021, we had the brilliant Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2021). Kato finds that the monitor in his cafe shows two minutes into the future, and as his friends get involved things get crazier from there. Kato's friends are a ragtag bunch who get very invested in the time travel very quickly. Like One Cut of The Dead which we saw at Mayhem 2018, the film is done in a single take. This is an absolutely insane way to make a movie, and you can see some of the behind the scenes on how they did it over the credits. The film is charming, and funny, and even though I couldn't get my head around most of the science that didn't matter. Part sci-fi, part romance, part comedy, this is yet again one that deserves to be seen on the big screen and was an amazing way to end the festival.

So in conclusion, the film choices were almost all excellent, it was good to back, and I'm already looking forward to Mayhem 2022!