Nottingham’s long-running horror and cult film festival returns.
Mayhem is coming to the UK in October. No, not Brexit, or a possible General Election or any of the forthcoming political chaos. You can ease yourself into that madness with the Mayhem Film Festival, the annual feast of outré cinema in Nottingham that runs from the 10th to the 13th of October.
Mayhem is not the biggest of the UK horror fests, but it’s probably the most eclectic and lovingly curated. This year is no exception, as the darlings of other fests are rejected and eccentric titles, old and new, screened in their place. As ever, the films on offer promise to be a mixed bag. There are those we are rather looking forward to:
The Pool has a couple trapped in an empty swinning pool, which would be unfortunate at the best of times. In this case though, they have an angry crocodile for company. She Never Died is a gender-reversed follow-up to the impressive Henry Rollins vehicle He Never Died. The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil is a Korean thriller, with cops and crime bosses battling it out to track down a serial killer. Sword of God (The Mute) is a Polish mediaeval drama. And we have to admit to being intrigued by Richard Stanley’s The Color Out of Space, combining Nicholas Cage and H.P. Lovecraft, even though we’ve never much cared for any of Stanley’s work to date.
Films we’ll be approaching with caution include Come To Daddy, which has had rave reviews at FrightFest but promises to be everything we hate, and Something Else, which we suspect will be a difficult experience. And… well, that’s it really. Experience tells us that amongst Extra Ordinary, Daniel Isn’t Real, Bullets of Justice, Why Don’t You Just Die!, Door Lock, Vivarium and Girl on the Third Floor will be at least one film that we hate with a vengeance usually saved for the person who has just killed your entire family and one completely unexpected treat. But that’s part of the joy of these events – you never know which will be the surprise delights and which will be the turd wrapped as a birthday gift.
Alongside the aforementioned are retrospective screenings of 1967 Russian classic Viy, and cult favourites Vampire’s Kiss and The Hidden, as well as the short film showcase and The Flinterrogation, in which your Reprobate editor reduces grown men and women to tears in the most stubbornly difficult pub quiz you’ll ever take part in.
You can get full weekend passes for £70 until September 8th, at which point the price increases to £80; individual tickets and a ‘Frankenstein Pass’ – five films for £30 – will also go on sale on September 9th.
We’ll see you in the bar…
