MAYHEM Festival 2017 -Thursday/Friday

Well it was Thursday 12th of October and I had arrived at Broadway Cinema for the 13th  MAYHEM festival. I went to collect my weekend pass and shot up to screen one eagerly awaiting the first movie with a pint in my hand and a end of row seat with easy access to the toilet and plenty of leg room. The first movie started without an intro which was weird, I looked around and there were probably 10 - 20 people in the whole place, very odd.
The film started, People were still  playing on their phones and a group of rowdy teenagers started throwing popcorn around. I slid down my seat thinking" oh no this is terrible, it will be back downstairs next year if it happens at all"  then, Beep Beep Beep.... 7.30 AM Thursday 12th October, it was all a terrible nightmare!! Glad to say the festival was brilliant as ever , Gets better each year, Here are our thoughts .

Met up early at Broadway which was a surprisingly warm night so we sat outside and  had a beer and awesome cake that Angela had cooked for Martyn pre-birthday , Then Natalie arrived with some Butterscotch Tarts we had talked about all week beforehand so we had them as well, Mike arrived in a cool The Thing T-Shirt and the MAYHEM gang was all back together fully loaded with sugar and ready to tackle the first movie Double Date.

Double Date was hilarious, People still go on about Shaun of the dead and rightly so but Double Date in my opinion should be up there with the best British comedy/ horrors since that. It was Gory, Sexy and Hilarious. In attendance were Danny Morgan (Jim) , Georgia Groome (Lulu) and Director Benjamin Barfoot, Incredibly it was his first full directorial feature and it was proper,  It tells the story of Jim who is about to reach his 30th Birthday and is 6FT tall, Ginger and still a Virgin. His best mate Alex (Michael Socha) is determined that his birthday night is when his virginity will be taken.When Jim gets hit on by two sexy ladies it seems to good to be true and believe me it is! All i can say is wow that fight scene and pill popping with the christian family!! I shall say no more just make sure you see it as SOON as you can.

Next up was M.F.A and unfortunately due to work commitments i had to skip this, A rape revenge movie with more than enough violence so i heard, i asked those who had seen it and this is what they said
Natalie "Rape Revenge. I really enjoyed it!! Loved the lead actress thought she did a great job, Glad they didn't overdo the rape scene. Its a very cool vigilante idea as well, Love the ending"

Angela "I thought it was very tense and as Natalie said she's an amazing actress, It's very disturbing"
So with the night over early for me and Emma we headed off home to get some sleep before work and sure to be fresh for the Friday at MAYHEM.

So today's line up was Bitch, 68 Kill, Habit and with it being Friday 13th there was a special showing off Friday 13th :Part 3 in 3D!!

On to Bitch, Now known as the weird time slot at MAYHEM because of out there films from the last few years such as CRUMBS and We Are The Flesh shown at this slot this year we had BITCH. It told the tale of a seemingly perfect house with a high flying rich husband and the perfect kids but all is not well in the world of the "perfect"housewife, One day she just loses it and has a very hard t watch mental breakdown where she takes on the persona of a dog and is locked in the basement, Naked and covering herself in excrement and barking at anyone who enters. Itis a grim watch in places but utterly compulsive, The lead character Jill played brilliantly by Marianna Palka who also directed BITCH is mesmerising and terrifying in equal measures along side Dad(Jason Ritter) who is played with a level of annoyance at times you just want to punch him! Described on IMDB  as Comedy/Drama couldn't be more wrong, I'd like to see the reaction of your average family who sit down to watch this comedy! Grim but brilliant.

Up next was 68 Kill, Pretty much non stop all the way through when a girlfriend and boyfriend rob her employee of $68,000 dollars and go on the run, The don't get far before it all goes wrong again and again and again, I did find it a little repetitive in places and it was trying to hard to wear the Tarantino tag, But in saying that it was a fun ride and definitely not short on sex and extreme violence in places, Not amazing but i would say it's definitely worth a one time watch.

Next we had new British movie HABIT, Directed by Simeon Halligan and staring Elliot James who were both in attendance. It's set in the rainy grim underbelly of Manchester, Michael (Elliot) meets up with Lee (Jessica Barden) by chance outside a job centre where she proceeds to tell him she has nowhere to sleep and can she stay at his place for a while, He agrees which in turns end up with him working for her friend as a doorman at a back street massage parlour but all is not what it seems at all. It's brilliantly filmed and retains the "Up North" dark and grim and very British feel throughout, A definite movie you should keep your eye out for, A high recommend from me.

Last up was Friday 13th :Part 3 3D. Once again sadly due to work i had to give this a miss but have seen it on the big screen before and not too long ago the Blu-Ray release, From what i heard and kind of knew it was a blast! Just really shows how different it can be seeing a film such as this in the cinema with fans. A lot of people were saying on the Saturday that having a 3D film on was a great laugh and many including myself would love to see at least another one play at MAYHEM but not Argento's Dracula 3D!
So into the Taxi we got off home again, Straight to bed to look forward to a weekend packed with many more exciting looking MAYHEM movies, Part 2 Saturday/Sunday coming soon,
Jonny T.