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Film Festivals
Thriller, horror, surrealism, dark comedy, and neo noir elements — director George Louis Bartlett’s genre-mashing Demon has all of those and more. It’s an ambitious independent film from the United Kingdom that is sometimes grounded and sometimes all over the map, but always intriguing. Ralph (Ryan Walker-Edwards) goes on the run after a small fine he incurred while oversleeping past his stop on a train balloons into a large amount that he can’t afford to pay. With the help of his friend Kent (Jacob Hawley), he holes up in an old forest motel to try to elude a bailiff bent on collecting the fine. While there, he goes through a series of real and imagined situations ranging from the bizarre to the terrifying to the deadly. Bartlett, who cowrote the screenplay with Theo McDonald, has created an interesting character in Ralph and surrounded him with quirky characters and weird proceedings. Shot mostly in black-and-white, the director knows his budgetary limitations
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A terrific thrill ride that offers up plenty of uncomfortable scenes and twists, Fox Hunt Drive boasts engaging performances from its two leads and solid, suspenseful directing. Alison (Lizzie Zerebko) wants to land an architecture job. She has the education and qualifications, but something that happened at a former position is working against her. She tries to make ends meet by working for a rideshare company. When she picks up a suspicious fare (Michael Olavson) who looks nothing like the profile photo for her fare and has a duffle bag full of questionable items, it is only the beginning of a deadly night of surprises. That set-up may sound like one used by generic thrillers and horror films galore, but what happens during the course of the night is far above the usual fare, thanks to a clever script from Adam Armstrong and Marcus Devivo. Zerebko and Olavson have crackling chemistry together, which helps elevate the suspension. They both get
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More from Cinequest Film Festival
Film Festivals
Thriller, horror, surrealism, dark comedy, and neo noir elements — director George Louis Bartlett’s genre-mashing Demon has all of those and more. It’s an ambitious independent film from the United Kingdom that is sometimes grounded and sometimes all over the map, but always intriguing. Ralph (Ryan Walker-Edwards) goes on the run after a small fine he incurred while oversleeping past his stop on a train balloons into a large amount that he can’t afford to pay. With the help of his friend Kent (Jacob Hawley), he holes up in an old forest motel to try to elude a bailiff bent on collecting the fine. While there, he goes through a series of real and imagined situations ranging from the bizarre to the terrifying to the deadly. Bartlett, who cowrote the screenplay with Theo McDonald, has created an interesting character in Ralph and surrounded him with quirky characters and weird proceedings. Shot mostly in black-and-white, the director knows his budgetary limitations
Continue reading →
News
A terrific thrill ride that offers up plenty of uncomfortable scenes and twists, Fox Hunt Drive boasts engaging performances from its two leads and solid, suspenseful directing. Alison (Lizzie Zerebko) wants to land an architecture job. She has the education and qualifications, but something that happened at a former position is working against her. She tries to make ends meet by working for a rideshare company. When she picks up a suspicious fare (Michael Olavson) who looks nothing like the profile photo for her fare and has a duffle bag full of questionable items, it is only the beginning of a deadly night of surprises. That set-up may sound like one used by generic thrillers and horror films galore, but what happens during the course of the night is far above the usual fare, thanks to a clever script from Adam Armstrong and Marcus Devivo. Zerebko and Olavson have crackling chemistry together, which helps elevate the suspension. They both get
Continue reading →
