Category Archives: A Night of Horror Film Festival

Movie review: Violett (2023)

19 Tuesday Sep 2023

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Having already established an impressive turn in Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism, Georgia Eyers turns out another remarkable performance for Steven Milhaljevich’s sophomore feature, Violett. The scene is set in harrowing circumstances as a series of child disappearances have dominated a small, local town. Sonya (Myers) is a tormented mother, who lives in fear with the local community, consumed by the shock and turmoil that these events have taken. For Sonya, who we learn is struggling with an undefined mental illness, struggles in a constant state of paranoia that her 11 year old daughter, Violett (Valentina Blagojevic) will be snatched away at any given moment. 

Drifting through life in this perpetual frenzy that has left her stagnating in the world, dormant to the life around her and disconnected from her husband, Stan (Sam Dudley – The Dustwalker). It is through her mind snap that Sonya starts to suffer from visions that confound and complex her understanding and the lines of reality are blurred. Is there more to be uncovered from this affliction that she has come to endure? Can she really trust herself? And is there greater danger in exposing the truth?

The Prognosis:

Milhaljevich encapsulates what it means to wallow in grief and trauma, enhancing this emotion and draining away all other sentiment. His vision is all the more intensified through Eyers representation of a mother on the brink of sanity and existence; and Shane Piggot’s cinematography, which perfectly embodies the spirit of the piece and emboldens the surrealism.

All of these components lay weight to an experience that leaves its mark on the audience and demonstrates that Milhaljevich has a unique voice, and one that presents itself with a clear identity; one that will highlight any future ventures with decisive interest.

– Saul Muerte

Violett is screening at A Night of Horror International Film Festival on Sunday Oct 1st at 6.45pm,

Plus Q&A with writer/director Steven John Milhaljevich and actor Georgia Eyers 

It also screens with short feature, The Undoing.

Movie Review: Saving Grace (2023)

17 Sunday Sep 2023

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Saving Grace is an example of what Australian filmmakers do well; embellish the natural beauty of the landscape, whilst exposing the hidden dangers both in topography and in the psychology of those who walk the country. 

The directing, writing partnership of Gareth Carr and David Sullivan work well together in slowly drawing out these concealments of character, ebbing away at the exterior to expose the true intentions.

Sarah (Kirsty McKenzie – Magic) is a live-in care worker, who discovers her patient has passed away. Seeking a chance for change, Sarah abandons the chaos of city life to take up residence in a serene, idyllic location to look after an elderly lady (the titular Grace). Grace is incapacitated and mute, so requires 24 hour care as a result. 

Surrounded by waterways, Sarah seeks refuge during her downtime, but the remote setting is shared by the resident gardener, Albert (Gary Boulter – Skinford), a man who’s friendly demeanour warrants closer scrutiny, as does his tale of Grace’s past. 

This is only part of Sarah’s concerns though, as she begins to have dark visions, forcing her to plough headlong into ominous terrain where every choice is questioned, and suspicions heightened.

The Prognosis:

Kirsty McKenzie is profound in her portrayal of Sarah, twisting and turning through every decision she makes, as the narrative equally flitters in an unpredictable way. It’s a compelling approach by the film makers, allowing for our trust to reside in the characters and the land in which it is set. Trust though, is the very thing that we, the viewer, can not rely upon. Beauty is only skin deep and just as our eyes rely upon what we see, this can be deceptive, allowing Carr and Sullivan to play with our senses, and our securities, before veering us into a entrancing-yet-disturbing direction.

– Saul Muerte

Saving Grace is screening at A Night of Horror International Film Festival on Saturday Sept 30th at 5.10pm,

Plus Q&A with writers/directors Gareth Carr & David Sullivan and actor Gary Boulter 

It also screens with short feature, Nightcap

Movie Review: Puzzle Box (2023)

16 Saturday Sep 2023

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When Jack Dignan launched his directorial debut feature, After She Died at A Night of Horror International Film Festival last year, it came with a bold, well-structured, pot-boiler of a movie that etched out the pangs of grief with minute detail. It was enough to make one sit up and take notice, eager to know where Dignan would go next in his creative celluloid venture.

This year, he has chosen to serve a familiar tale woven through the theme of a broken psyche. Choosing to self-rehabilitate at a secluded house in the woods (always a troublesome sign), a young drug addict, Kate (Kaitlyn Boyé – The Furies) is accompanied by her older sister, Olivia (Laneikka Denne) to aid her through the process, As the night unfolds, and they unpack the shared and isolated trauma that the siblings have gone through, the inadvertently fall through the cracks of time and dimension, trapped in a continuing vortex of sequences, fighting to find their way out of their turmoil.

The Puzzle Box is a metaphor for the predicament that the sisters find themselves in as each door within the remote house opens and slides different sections of time and dimensions, in a convoluted vessel of complexities that will force the pair to search deep within themselves and solve the paradox.

Dignan hones his visual prowess in this film, choosing to use a found footage approach to the narrative through his cinematography to convey his concept. The result is an unsettling, and nauseating feel to the final product to deliberately set the viewer off kilter. To double the sense of dread, we’re also presented with a screaming, ‘banshee-like-woman’ (Gotta love a good banshee!!) to hound and barrage both Kate and the audience in a relentless pursuit, that seems to have no end. 

The Prognosis:

Jack Dignan comes out swinging for his sophomore feature and delivers a haunting and harrowing journey into a paranoia filled rabbit hole. The shifts and turns are deliberately jarring and part of Puzzle Box’s charm is the unsettling way he drags the viewer down and pulls you along the disturbing pathway into a perpetual void.

– Saul Muerte

Puzzle Box is screening at A Night of Horror International Film Festival on Friday Sept 29th at 7pm.

Plus Q&A with writer/director Jack Dignan and actors Kaitlyn Boyé, Cassandre Girard and Laneikka Denne 

It also screens with short feature, Merger

Movie Review: Devil’s Work (2023)

15 Friday Sep 2023

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Ursula Dabrowsky has been slowly crafting her Demon Trilogy to continue her fascination with demonic possession and the fragility of the human mind. Where Family Demons (2009) and Inner Demon (2014) fostered the fears and anxieties that unfold through isolation and complexities of a disturbing or unsettled ménage, her third instalment, Devil’s Work grounds these ideas and gradually shifts the sands of perspectives in an almost seamless single take.

Once again, Dabrowsky chooses a remote setting as her playground, following a couple, Charlie (Cassandra Kane) and Dustin (Mark Fantasia (Bad Girl Boogey) who plan a romantic getaway at a quiet cottage away from life’s ailments; only to be hounded by Charlie’s sibling, Linda (Luca Asta Sardelis – Storm Boy).

Dabrowsky delightfully unfolds the traumatic episode with ripples of paranoia, meticulously crafting a simmering storyline, ready to boil over at any given moment.

As the audience is tantalisingly told about Lindy by her sibling Charlie, we begin to paint the picture of a disturbed mind, who is on the brink of sanity, harbouring some ill feelings and terrorised by a darkness that consumes her. Once the scene is set or our predetermined ideas settle about Lindy and her deranged behaviour, the audience is then presented with a harrowing notion; Charlie and Dustin are not alone. Somehow Lindy has found out where they are and is about to rip apart any ideals of mystique that the couple had hoped would be born out of their weekend.

It is the solitude that will haunt them and determine if they are to survive their ordeal and the extremes that Lindy will put them through.

The Prognosis:

Every family has their ailments, but what if a sibling was so dangerously unhooked that a very real danger could threaten your world?

Ursula Dabrowsky is well and truly in her comfort zone, revisiting similar themes for her third feature.  Beneath this simple premise is a dark and disturbing tale that moulds itself around you and slowly consumes you.

Dabrowsky not only has the gift of piloting the voyeur through a disconcerting vision, but she is also ably supported by cinematographer, Maxx Corkindale to lure into a false trance, before subjecting us with Luca Asta Sardellis’ wonderfully fractured portrayal of Lindy.

These are how stories should be told to unsettle the soul.

– Saul Muerte

Devils Work is screening as the Opening Night feature for A Night of Horror International Film Festival on Thursday 28 Sept @6.30pm.

Plus Q&A with Ursula Dabrowsky and Cassandra Kane.

It also screens with short feature, Mother Tongue

Movie review: Beaten to Death (2022)

12 Saturday Nov 2022

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Beaten to Death is the epitome of being put through the wringer. From the get-go, Sam Curtain’s third feature from the director’s chair (which premiered recently at Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival) is relentless in carrying out its mantra in promising to beat a man to death. Our opening shots are of a guy literally being pummelled by a brute of a man; the reasons why yet to be disclosed.

Set in Tasmania, where Curtain, who also takes on writing and cinematography duties, takes full advantage of the beautiful-yet-brutal landscape; a metaphor for the narrative as it unfolds. Both Man and Nature are at its most harshest to put our everyman to his final test. 

Jack (Thomas Roach) is the man to be subjected to all forms of torture. He along with his partner Rachel (Nicole Tudor) have rolled the dice on a gamble that could help them through their struggles, but the path they choose and fate have a different tale to tell.

The Prognosis

Beaten to Death is one of those rare movies that does exactly what it says on the tin. It is not for the faint of heart, take note of the title. It’s spelt out for you.

What Curtain does offer is anything but predictable, carving up the narrative to draw out the ebbs and flows of Jack’s suffering. He allows the audience to breathe but just enough to catch our breath and throw us into the grinder again. There is heart too as we slowly learn of Jack’s initial plight and ultimate descent. Hats off to a solid performance by Roach too to lure the audience in with his solid portrayal.

Curtain keeps dangling the hope of survival throughout, and thus the tension hits you squarely in the face… repeatedly until the end. Brace yourself.

  • Saul Muerte

Beaten to Death is currently streaming on Shudder.

Movie review: Your Love is Mine (2022)

22 Saturday Oct 2022

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Some people are born into this world and they don’t fit.

Your Love is Mine is a delightfully macabre and haunting tale of loss, abandonment, and mental health. Society will constantly enforce positivity into the world and forsake the importance that the negative emotions have in order to find equilibrium. If we continue to bury these darker emotions and impel them, we essentially provide no outlet, suppressing it to the point that something or someone will crack.

The idea that love can be possessive and that one can claim ownership or believe that to be in love will answer or solve or life’s problems is challenged here. This is highlighted further when Sam (Lester Ellis) declares his love to Violet (Senie Priti), he struggles to specify what it is he loves about her when questioned beyond exterior qualities.

The story opens with Sam and Violet in this happy place in their relationship; a place of comfort between them but as the narrative unfolds so does the exposure around Violet’s wellbeing; and perhaps is looking for a way out of the dead end town to break the psychological cycle, but will that be enough. The trappings of their environment is a reflection of Violet’s state of mind. One that despite Sam’s efforts, he will not be able to rectify. So when tragedy strikes, the essence of love is pushed to the test. Will it prevail above all? Or is there a line that can never be crossed?

The Prognosis:

The writing/directing partnership of Luke J.S. and Luke Wijayasinha-Gray have crafted an eerie portrayal of instability of the human mind. When confined to the trappings of a dead-end town, how can fragility be set free?

A complex subject is given the means to be explored through beautiful cinematography and solid performances.

The hauntingly emotional journey of the leads are supported by these visuals and is viscerally captured through a soundtrack provided by Keepondancins.

All of the elements elevate these two creatives as names to watch out for.

  • Saul Muerte

Your Love is Mine will be screening at A Night of Horror Film Festival on Sunday Oct 23 at 5pm including a Q&A with writer/directors Luke Wijayasinha-Gray & Luke J.S.

Movie review: After She Died (2022)

21 Friday Oct 2022

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It’s no mean feat to transition from short films to feature length stories, but Sydney-based writer, director, producer, Jack Dignan has taken the bull by the horns with his first foray, After She Died. Billed as part of A Night of Horror International Film Festival’s line up, Dignan has the opportunity to showcase his talents before a genre-loving audience.

The tale he has chosen to tell is one of grief, loss and heartache. Jen (Liliana Ritchie) has always had a strong bond with her mother Isabel (Vanessa Madrid), so she is thrown into a world of misery when her mother dies. What Jen doesn’t fully comprehend though is that things are going to get steadily worse. 

Jen is already estranged from her father, John (Paul Talbot) whom she believes was an abusive husband, but through their grief they will share an intense pain. One that is solidified through a curious, paranormal event; namely the arrival of John’s new girlfriend, the spitting image of Jen’s mother. Is there more to this uncanny likeness than meets the eye? And has Jen’s father dabbled with the dark arts to keep his suffering at bay? Whatever the answers, there is a festering wound that will only amount to a sickening torment, simmering to the surface where it can no longer be contained.

The Prognosis:

This may be Dignan’s debut feature length movie as a director, but he manages to carve a well-structured, pot-boiler of a movie, slowly wrenching up the tension along the way. 

The performances from his two leads, Ritchie and Madrid are solid, drawing out the angst felt by both parties. A mother, daughter relationship, ripped apart and trying to heal in the most unusual of circumstances. Above all else though, Dignan casts a light on grief and how it can tear up the soul, damaging any essence of light right to the core of hope. It’s a subject well-trodden but ventured into a terrain that allows the topic to resonate and leave questions about the roles we play in accepting one of humanity’s most natural-yet harrowing experiences. It’s not about the healing process, it’s about how we heal and what remains of us at the end of the experience.

  • Saul Muerte

After She Died will have its Australian premiere at A Night of Horror International Film Festival on Saturday, October 22, 7pm.

Movie review: Our Evil

24 Wednesday Jan 2018

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There are slow burners and then there’s Our Evil, which trucks along at the pace of a clapped out milk float.
And yes, I’m fully aware of how old that statement makes me but it’s the only analogy I could come up with that gets anywhere close to describing just how slow the pace of the movie is.

There are average cinema-goers who may cringe at the lack of speed, and it is in fairness, both its weakness and its strength.
The longbow that is being pulled is well worth the payoff in my opinion, and could very well be the reason that the film was recognised for its strength in direction at last years A Night of Horror film festival.

Brazilian filmmaker Samuel Galli would take home the “Best Director” award vision, and would the film would also capture the “Best Male Performance” award to Ademir Esteves for his role of Arthur, a man who oozes coolness from the exterior, but deep down holds a secret, that pains him to the core.

Arthur is a man of spiritual nature, who is warned by his mentor that his daughter will become possessed by a demon hellbent on destroying her soul. What would you do when faced with such a proclamation? Why hire a serial killer to protect her of course.

The beauty of this movie is that it somehow manages to ebb and flow through various styles and story-telling techniques that range from the beauty to the most violent and gruesome scenes set to screen.

The fact that it manages to do this with such ease and simplicity without jarring the audience is a testament to Galli’s ability to guide you through each scene that grips you and keeps you intrigued to know what direction he is taking you in.

Added to this is Galli’s decision to use theatre-trained actors and ask them to pair back the performance to the point that it pulls you in further into the dark world that the film is set in. Once hooked, we’re ensnared and taken on a ride that delivers a hefty punch come the conclusion.

 

The Diagnosis:

Galli’s vision is what steers this unique tale that utilises subtle performances to intensify the emotions and anguish on display.

There’s a fine line between, good and evil, life and death, and Our Evil manages to walk that line with perfect balance of both these extremes.

 

– Saul Muerte

 

Movie review: Replace (2017)

22 Friday Dec 2017

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Taking out the A Night of Horror’s “Best Film” award from this years festival, Replace doesn’t match this accolade at face value, at least for the first few minutes, but as the layers are slowly pulled back, an intelligent and beautiful movie emerges within.

The reason for this initial reaction, is through the level of confusion that the viewer is faced with and the style that director Norbert Keil has chosen seems off kilter. The acting seems to be similarly stifled too, but all this is a deliberate device to echo the feeling of despair that our lead character, Kira is confronted with.

As she unravels her situation, Kira has to face up to her situation, revealing some unwelcome truths along the way.

The topic of the movie, deals with an age-old dilemma, that seems to be more concentrated over the recent years with women in particular. Especially with the developments in social media and this continuous fascination with beauty and youth that faces our society.

Imagine then the gravity of the situation when you discover that your skin ages rapidly and begins to wither away. The impact that this has is immense and one that Kira lands head on, but when she further discovers that she can replace her skin with another’s with immediate effect, her journey then transcends into a murderous rampage, fuelled by the need to stay youthful.

If this isn’t a measure of our times, I’m not sure what is.

The cinematography on display is both stylised and stunning and Tim Kuhn deserves some of the accolades thrown his way for luring the viewer in through a hypnotic gaze in places.

The score is equally as mesmerising with its rhythmic pulse driving through the films narration.

Further praise should also be bestowed upon Rebecca Forsythe who manages to display Kira’s vulnerability, innocence, rage, and desperation, with delicate transition and believability that belies her age.

The Diagnosis:
This latest entry into the body horror genre is filled with intelligence and beauty. A lethal combination that hits the mark through Norbert Keil’s stunning vision.

 

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Bloodlands

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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Steven Kastrissios takes us deep into modern Albania for his sophomore outing in the director’s chair.

Paving his way into the horror scene, Kastrissios turned heads with his debut feature, The Horseman, partly for hits ‘extreme violence’ but also for his ability to not shy away from the harsh society that is infused throughout the films narrative.

With Bloodlands, the subject of vengeance is once again at the forefront of Kastrissios storytelling, a subject that seems close to his heart.

In this instance, we are faced with a family struggling to make ends meet and with conflicting interests pulling at their innermost desires. It is only when confronted with a blood feud set by a witch and her mysterious clan that the family must unite and stand together against a common enemy in a brutal fight for survival.

Recently Bloodlands took out 3 awards at A Night of Horror Film Festival for Best Foreign Language Film; Best Australian Film; and Best Australian Director, and one can see why as it this tale of mythology and highly tense drama is a refreshing sight against the anarchy and gore that has been presented of late on our screens.

Cinematographer, Leander Ljarja beautifully captures the Albanian landscape, and Kastrissios slow burn direction allows the tension to build steadily to keep the viewer gripped to its gritty conclusion.

It just feels a shame that the characters feel so two-dimensional in places and this makes the strong concept and themes lost in what would have been thoroughly engaging piece had more care and attention centred on this area.

As such, there are no real shock moments, and the path becomes a predictable one as a result.

The Diagnosis:

A slow-burn horror that is reminiscent of The Hills Have Eyes in tone, but is embedded with Albanian culture, which adds a new flavour to the horror scene. A rewarding watch despite some character flaws.

– Saul Muerte