Bifff, short for Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, is celebrating its thirtieth edition this year. As usual, the programme is bountiful. There is something for everyone, even those who can’t stand gore.
Thirty years of splatter, horror, and gore
(© Jan Lievens)
The Cabin in the Woods
A Scream for the second decade of the 21st century? There may be some truth to this. The first reviews are wildly enthusiastic, describing the Bifff’s closing film as an original horror comedy that innovatively reinvents the genre by mocking its clichés. If any duo can do it, it is certainly Drew Goddard (director, screenwriter) and Joss Whedon (producer, screenwriter), the brains behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Cloverfield.
Zombifff Day & Night
The Vampire Ball, which is on Friday 13th this year, is and will stay the jewel in the crown, but four years ago, a popular new event was added: the Zombie Parade. There were more than one thousand participants last year, staggering down the streets of Brussels half-decapitated, with twisted limbs and drool and blood dripping from their mouths. Watching is fun, joining in is better. See you on Saturday 7 April?
Killer Joe
William Friedkin is coming to Brussels. Even more exciting: the 76-year-old director of The French Connection and The Exorcist is not just being celebrated for his illustrious past, he has a new film. Just like the underrated Bug, Killer Joe is adapted from a play by Tennessee Williams fan Tracy Letts. The rumour is that the slick Matthew McConaughey is excellent in this jet-black comic thriller as a psychotic cop who is asked by a young drugs dealer and his white trash father to take out the mother/wife.
A Scream for the second decade of the 21st century? There may be some truth to this. The first reviews are wildly enthusiastic, describing the Bifff’s closing film as an original horror comedy that innovatively reinvents the genre by mocking its clichés. If any duo can do it, it is certainly Drew Goddard (director, screenwriter) and Joss Whedon (producer, screenwriter), the brains behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Cloverfield.
Zombifff Day & Night
The Vampire Ball, which is on Friday 13th this year, is and will stay the jewel in the crown, but four years ago, a popular new event was added: the Zombie Parade. There were more than one thousand participants last year, staggering down the streets of Brussels half-decapitated, with twisted limbs and drool and blood dripping from their mouths. Watching is fun, joining in is better. See you on Saturday 7 April?
Killer Joe
William Friedkin is coming to Brussels. Even more exciting: the 76-year-old director of The French Connection and The Exorcist is not just being celebrated for his illustrious past, he has a new film. Just like the underrated Bug, Killer Joe is adapted from a play by Tennessee Williams fan Tracy Letts. The rumour is that the slick Matthew McConaughey is excellent in this jet-black comic thriller as a psychotic cop who is asked by a young drugs dealer and his white trash father to take out the mother/wife.
Beast
“Don’t forget this: it is all film. It is all reconstruction. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt,” Christoffer Boe warned us in Reconstruction (Caméra d’or, Cannes 2003). The Dane faded away after his strong debut. In the aestheticized Beast, the fantastic Nicolas Bro (Adam’s Apples, War Horse, The Killing) plays a man whose love for his wife drives him insane.
Juan of the Dead
So close to the hotbed of the United States, it had to happen sooner or later: zombies in Cuba. The plague finally gives layabout and bon vivant Juan a goal in life. If only half the hype is true, this will be a fun highpoint.
“Don’t forget this: it is all film. It is all reconstruction. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt,” Christoffer Boe warned us in Reconstruction (Caméra d’or, Cannes 2003). The Dane faded away after his strong debut. In the aestheticized Beast, the fantastic Nicolas Bro (Adam’s Apples, War Horse, The Killing) plays a man whose love for his wife drives him insane.
Juan of the Dead
So close to the hotbed of the United States, it had to happen sooner or later: zombies in Cuba. The plague finally gives layabout and bon vivant Juan a goal in life. If only half the hype is true, this will be a fun highpoint.
30 years of Belgian fantastic film
Even Belgium has produced a number of notable fantastic films. The Bifff is screening three radically different examples. Rabid Grannies (crazy grandmothers slaughter their family) is a tasteless gore-classic from director Emmanuel Kervyn and producer Johan Vandewoestijne, AKA James Desert. Taxandria is a feature-length animated film by Raoul Servais about a totalitarian country where people are only allowed to live in the present. Calvaire is the Brussels-based Fabrice Du Welz’s answer to Deliverance or Straw Dogs, set in the Ardennes.
The Road
The Bifff keeps a close eye on the genre films that pop up all over the world. The Road is from the Philippines. Three teenagers on a dark road are overtaken by a car without a driver. The next day, they have vanished. A dedicated inspector suspects a link with a gruesome, cold case. If the The Road seems similar to Sigaw or The Echo, Yam Laranas’s earlier films, it is not the plot but the intense, oppressive atmosphere and the special cinematography that distinguishes this film.
Even Belgium has produced a number of notable fantastic films. The Bifff is screening three radically different examples. Rabid Grannies (crazy grandmothers slaughter their family) is a tasteless gore-classic from director Emmanuel Kervyn and producer Johan Vandewoestijne, AKA James Desert. Taxandria is a feature-length animated film by Raoul Servais about a totalitarian country where people are only allowed to live in the present. Calvaire is the Brussels-based Fabrice Du Welz’s answer to Deliverance or Straw Dogs, set in the Ardennes.
The Road
The Bifff keeps a close eye on the genre films that pop up all over the world. The Road is from the Philippines. Three teenagers on a dark road are overtaken by a car without a driver. The next day, they have vanished. A dedicated inspector suspects a link with a gruesome, cold case. If the The Road seems similar to Sigaw or The Echo, Yam Laranas’s earlier films, it is not the plot but the intense, oppressive atmosphere and the special cinematography that distinguishes this film.
Ace Attorney
We dislike films based on video games, but we’re happy to make an exception for Ace Attorney. Not so much for the plot (a young, inexperienced lawyer has to win various cases), we are especially interested to see what Takashi Miike has made of it. We used to consider him an iconoclast who built a great cult reputation with his sickening scenes (Ichi the Killer). But since 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, we know that he is a man of many genres with never a dull moment.
Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival
5 > 17/4 • Thurn/Tour & Taxis Havenlaan 86C avenue du Port, Brussel/Bruxelles,
www.bifff.net
We dislike films based on video games, but we’re happy to make an exception for Ace Attorney. Not so much for the plot (a young, inexperienced lawyer has to win various cases), we are especially interested to see what Takashi Miike has made of it. We used to consider him an iconoclast who built a great cult reputation with his sickening scenes (Ichi the Killer). But since 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, we know that he is a man of many genres with never a dull moment.
Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival
5 > 17/4 • Thurn/Tour & Taxis Havenlaan 86C avenue du Port, Brussel/Bruxelles,
www.bifff.net
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