Dead Mail, Strange Darling, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Traumatika
Day three and we’re getting into the swing of things. With the weekend beginning, many of the biggest and movies are due to screen and the buzz I’m getting suggests festival-goers are having a great time as usual. Though I’m not in the main screen I had a look in and it’s a vast cavern with huge seats – some of which even recline and have a small table for snacks. Outside a heavy rain starts lashing down – it seems a fitting atmosphere in which to watch…
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER
Directed by André Øvredal
It’s finally arrived! André Øvredal’s vampire film hits UK shores. Based on The Captain’s Log section from Bram Stoker’s classic novel, this explains how Dracula took over a ship from Romania to England – resulting in it washing up derelict. It’s a fascinating part of the character mythos because we learn little about it – typically filmmakers reduce the journey to a newspaper headline or a montage. As such it’s a gamble even to try and flesh out something that’s already horrifying in everyone’s heads. Moreover, with less than a short story of material to go on, Øvredal and his team have to do a lot of world-building and characterisation to fill in the many blanks. In this case, we follow Dr Clements, the soon-to-retire Captain Elliot, his grandson Toby, and his loyal crew. As strange things start happening, the crew comes across a stowaway in desperate need of a blood transfusion that warns them about an evil entity intent on killing them all. It’s difficult to recommend the book of Dracula nowadays – knowing the titular character is a vampire robs it of some of its power and it’d be hard to envision it from the perspective of a readership who didn’t have Christopher Lee in mind. In that respect, it ought to be a hard sell for this too, since the vast majority of viewers will know roughly where it’s going from the start. Yet Øvredal and crew know this and wisely play to the sense of tragedy. As we see the crew readying to hit the seas, and watch young Toby playing with the livestock, we know they’re never going to see England. It makes their scenes about what they’ll do on shore hit hard.
Indeed, almost all of this film takes place on the ship, and the set itself is a major achievement with stunning attention to detail. Moreover, it feels like a functional vessel too! Yesterday, I was writing about the importance of establishing geography. As with the brilliant Autopsy of Jane Doe, Øvredal does well with few locations, giving us a sense of where everything is so we really get to know it – along with the people on board (referred to as the “living part” of the ship). They’re rounded enough that every death is a tragedy, and at times it almost felt sadistic seeing them tangle with something that, much to Clement’s dismay, they’re not going to be able to understand. On top of this, the camera sway, the folly work and the constant rain machine combine to make for a truly immersive experience. Though as much as the weather, Dracula here is like a force of nature – albeit behaving with more reason than a mere animal. The night scenes, in which he stalks the boat, are chilling, giving us the ultimate no-way-out scenario. With tasteful use of CGI, save for a few closeups, it’s a memorable interpretation that takes us right back to Nosferatu. I liked that the day time bits come to offer both characters and audience a welcome break in the intensity. The score is also phenomenal – as thunderous as the weather and sells the sense of pure dread from the start. My main complaint is the occasion awkward match between moments of purple prose and bits of more modern vernacular. However, even if the dialogue is sometimes strange the cast deliver it naturalistically. Overall, a wonderful start to the day and a superb addition to the Dracula mythos. I really hope more people get the chance to see it here.
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DEAD MAIL
Directed by Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy
A trip back to the 1980s – a time before emails. Opening on the haunting site of a man crawling across the gravel to shove a bloody plea for help into a metal mailbox, what we have is a horror built around what happens to letters when they go missing. Well it turns out a dead mail detective gets involved. Jasper is the best in the business, though as he sets out to work on it in walks a man named Trent, who stayed in the same hostel as him the night before, who strikes him. What follows is an explanation for why the man was posting the letter and why Trent had him chained up. I’ll stop my explanation for the story here, though the framing device incorporates a level of dramatic irony. And from the moment Trent crosses paths with his victim we can see red flag after red flag as he gets needier and more inappropriate. The threat is escalated beautifully as it’s not just one thing with him, but a whole collection of relatively small things that add the best sort of baddy: a villain who see themselves as the goody.
For the first half hour or so I couldn’t connect with Dead Mail – it lands the 70s feel, though in a way that struck me as gimmicky, with a few moments looking more like parody than homage. Yet I was glad I stuck with it as the second half, which becomes more of a character-driven piece about obsession, loneliness and the need for purpose that has shades of a musicology take on Misery. Trent is an excellent villain – a mix of neuroses that’s also relatable enough in his pursuit for perfection (both in the project he’s working on and the friendships he wants) that you almost want to route for him. Heck he’d probably find that connection at the hostel of sad men, who have “all failed at something”, if he stopped trying so hard to force it. Other supporting characters are well-written, too, finding a balance between the slice-of-life flick it starts as and the thriller it effortlessly morphs into. I was also impressed with how the script forgets nothing, offering lots of payoffs and rewards for your attention. Exemplary sound design, realistic sets and a some superb period details complete the package – this is not a return to sender.
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TRAUMATIKA
Directed by Pierre Tsigaridis
Now, this one sounded like peak 2020s horror from the synopsis. It focuses on Mikey, a young boy who witnesses his “momma” descend into madness after being exposed to an ancient artefact. Has she lost her grip on reality? Or has something else taken hold of her? It’s a ball-to-the-walls horror with a scope that transcends time and sub-genre. The opening scenes are also thrilling, straight to the jugular terror. There are terrifying first-person shots straight out of REC, stellar sound design, horrific makeup and oodles of blood, bile and other bodily fluids. It also deals with childhood sexual abuse along with depicting a coat-hanger abortion and severe self-harm. And though bits of it seemed edgy and relentless in an almost exploitative way, treating these events as a plt device rather than something worthy of exploration, for around half the film, I was expecting it to be among the best of the fest. Then the second half began… I don’t want to say too much, but as much as I applaud Traumatika for not playing it safe, the direction it eventually goes in works against the strengths of what came before.
At the start, it presents itself as an empathetic piece about trauma and mental health – even opening on a bullshit claim about psychology. But then the longer it goes on the more it descends into the sort of reductive nonsense it also makes a point of mocking. In that respect, it reminded me of Incident In A Ghostland from a few years ago where the form and meaning just don’t work together. I could get behind the intergenerational cycle of violence aspect and the satirical play on true crime – but considering how dark the first half gets and how sensitive the content it deals with is, I think they detract from each other. The shift in viewpoint is welcome, and the patchwork structure is creative, but it gave me tonal whiplash. We’re never invited to empathise with the victims, who are treated with indifference, and attempts to find an emotional logic to the final act have a ‘that’ll do’ attitude. Some will love the bold, messy approach to filmmaking, which I’d often rave about for other movies: horror has always pushed boundaries and been transgressive. But with this one, it seems like the creators wanted to make something challenging without the sophistication to do the themes they chose to focus on justice (or having the sophistication but choosing not to employ it). Elsewhere there’s also bad expositional dialogue, where characters say things to each other that would have already come up, and a few predictable scares made all the more frustrating by the sense of doom established early on. Still, as much as I disliked it, I almost want it to do well for refusing to go through the motions.
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STRANGE DARLING
Directed by JT Mollner
The one I can say the least about without spoiling the fun. In short, it presents a day in the life of a serial killer, going from a kinky one-night stand to a full-blown murder spree. Though I was not initially sold on the decision to tell the story out of sequence and clocked on reasonably early on what was going to happen (largely due to the filmmakers’ introduction), it completely won me over by the end and it fits together beautifully. In contrast to the last film, this is an excellent example of how you infuse a compelling thriller narrative with weighty questions and explore challenging topics through power games and realistic dialogue. Great characters, great performances, great cinematography and some breakneck pacing. You’ll even learn a new breakfast recipe – albeit one that’s sure to give you diabetes. A brilliant film – I’d be surprised if it gets topped in the next two days.
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