Feature - Celluloid Screams 2013

It's that time of year again, a time of bloodletting, sleep deprivation and pasties. Yep, Celluloid Screams is back for the fifth year running. And this year it has an allnighter.

As luck would have it, the allnighter fits in perfectly with my quest this year to watch one zombie film per week. I've already reviewed The Return of the Living Dead this year, and I'm saving The Beyond for a special occasion. 

I don't know quite how I'm going to keep awake (maybe some Opera style tape and pins are in order) but I'm really looking forward to seeing The Beyond at four o'clock in the morning. Life doesn't get much better than that. I've never seen it before on the big screen and the thought of seeing the ending with its stunning marriage of visuals and soundtrack, is sending me a bit giddy.

I try not to look too much at the new films that are showing, but I did happen to catch the fact that The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears is directed by the same people as Amer, which is a film that I didn't really like but it has a strange pull on me, that makes me want to watch it again. Frank Henenlotter is making a guest appearance, along with showings of Basket Case, Basket Case 2 and Frankenhooker. I've never really been that interested in seeing the latter but I'll give it a go.

In the past I've written full reviews of every film. I was able to do this because I always had a week off after the weekend's antics. This year I'm only going to have one day off (and I'll probably spend the majority of that sleeping). If there is anything really great (or bad) it will get the full treatment, but the more average specimens may get shorter reviews.

I'm going to make a conscious effort this year not to go too overboard on the ratings. I have been guilty in the past of slightly over-inflating some of the films' scores (for example, Excision should have been a 7 rather than an 8). I think this is because when I'm watching so many films at the same time, I tend to rate them against each other, rather than against every film I've seen. So please bear in mind that our usual rating system applies. An average film gets an average rating of 5/10. A good film would get 7 or 8/10, and an excellent film, 10/10. (I hear the word 'awesome' bandied around far too often for films that are quite good. I can't think of one film that I'd describe as 'awesome'. I'd be tempted to use it for the endings of two of my favourite films, The Wicker Man and the aforementioned The Beyond, but there's no way I'd say that the whole of either fills me with awe.)

Minor rant over. So there are 18 films in total (one of them the customary secret film) and 20 short films, and surely one of them has got to be a classic. I didn't buy any of the films from Celluloid Screams 2012, unlike in previous years, and I found the offerings a bit disappointing on the whole. Ah well, I live in hope for this year...

evlkeith

NB I tried to post every review at the same time and Blogger had a bit of a hard time coping with it. I'll post the first six tonight, six tomorrow and quite predictably six the day after that.