“When you’re after the top banana…you peel off the skin!”

If anyone can revive the Alien franchise it’s the guy who created it! Done correctly, Aliens could be terrifying in 3D! Hopefully we will hear more news soon.

At the festival the writer/director of Stag Night was there to answer our questions once the film was over and listening to him describe his inspiration for the film was fascinating. He referenced the documentary Dark Days which is about the large community of people who actually live underground in New York City. It’s a fantastic documentary on which to base a horror film as the idea of encountering a community of people living in the dark underground of one of the largest cities in the world at night is terrifying as it is, so if you turn them into a group of crazed killers for a movie, you have a good horror on your hands!

One thing I really enjoyed about the film was that it didn’t attempt to hide the identity of the killers. We are pretty much shown who they are straight away and the tension in the film comes from the chase and the terrifying game of hide and seek that ensues between the killers and the the rest of the characters. As I mentioned previously, a lot of people are comparing this to Creep, which is an excellent film. However if you take away the underground setting the films are quite different. The killers in Stag Night are a prime example. They don’t just follow and hunt you down…they run and don’t stop until one of the characters is dead. Despite being quite basic in terms of movie villains go, it works very well here.

The best thing about the film is indeed the location. It adds so much to the tension and the feeling of hopelessness that the characters go through. As they attempt to find a way out, the audience is right there with them. Being lost in New York City at night may be a scary thought for some people as it is, but being lost in the New York underground is far worse and the dark setting actually steals the show as the film’s best character.

Horror fans will be glad to know that there is plenty of scares and plenty of gore in Stag Night. The director is obviously a big fan of horror and certain parts of the film reminded me of some of the unrelenting chase scenes that we have seen in classics such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other films of the same nature. The chase scenes are unrelenting and intense and you’ll find yourself shouting at the screen, telling the characters where to run to next.

Stag Night is not a groundbreaking film by any means. However it delivered for what it was. It has solid performances all round, some excellent gore to please the bloodthirsty mob and a great location. The script was written well, and the direction was good, apart from a few overly shakey camera moments where I simply couldn’t tell what was happening. The film is highly recommended to horror fans and to anyone looking for a good little horror flick to relax and watch with some friends on a night in. Pick it up when it is released on dvd later this year.

Back to Frozen. The premise of the movie is fairly simple – three skiers are stranded on a chairlift after sneaking on for one final ride before going home. The park is closed up for the week and they have nowhere to go. It’s them against nature as they are forced to make life-or-death decisions before they freeze to death.

When I first heard about the film I wasn’t sure what to expect. My first reaction was “how much can they REALLY do if the whole movie is set on a ski lift?”, however with Adam Green at the helm I knew it wouldn’t be bad. After hearing rave reviews from early screenings and from Sundance, I couldn’t wait to see it. Adam Green himself was also supposed to attend the festival, but due to the weather his flight was cancelled. It would have been good to see him there and to hear him talk a bit about the film.

The pacing of the film is perfect with the tension building nicely towards our three main characters getting stranded. We are also treated to some nice character development through random conversation at the beginning, which adds to the film much later on. Once the film really gets going it never lets up. The three characters are really put through some of the most intense, devastating situations you could imagine and what makes it all the more terrifying is that this isn’t your typical horror film. There is no ‘bad guy’. No slasher, no crazy escaped convict, no ghost coming back from the dead to seek revenge. It’s simply the three characters against nature. It gives the film a realistic edge that is often missing in horror films. One of the things I liked the most about the film was how the horror and the scares was broken up with the characters having conversations about their personal lives, attempting to take their minds off what was happening to them. Adam Green used this as a fantastic way to further build the characters when many other writers/directors would be happy to simply shove buckets of mindless gore down the throats of the audience.

Speaking of the gore, before reading the film I had read a few reviews where people wrote about how disgusting it was and went on about how people were walking out of screenings outraged. Maybe I’ve just became desensitized to gore over the years but I really didn’t see what the fuss was about. Sure it had a few horrible moments however when you compare it films such as Hostel and Saw it was nothing really. Perhaps audiences were getting so upset by it because the gore is more harrowing, realistic and true to that type of real life situation? Who knows.

Overall Frozen is a masterful horror/thriller that never lets up for 90 nail biting minutes. Yes, the plot is pretty straightforward but that only works in it’s favour. The audiences are constantly reminded that yes this could happen in real life and you’ll find yourself watching and wondering “what would I do in that situation?”. I hope that when the film is released later in the year it does well as it’s far better than any of the big budget horror blockbusters that Hollywood have churned out in recent memory.

We arrived at the GFT around 6pm, just enough time to get in the queue before it got too big, so we were able to get pretty good seats. Once inside, the venue filled up pretty quickly and everyone in the audience was excited for the first film kicking off. The atmosphere never let up during the entire weekend (except perhaps during one or two movie stinkers, but we’ll get to that later) and as always the Fright Fest boys made the crowd feel welcome and put on one hell of an experience for us all. We were treated to special guests, hilarious trailers, free dvds, free t-shirts and good fun over two jam packed days.

I’ll be reviewing the films individually over the next couple of days so keep checking back for the updates.

Thanks again to the Fright Fest team for putting it all together! I’m already looking forward to next year!

I can’t wait!

Cain Velasquez looked phenomenal in his destruction of Nogueira. I had quite a few thoughts after the fight was over. Firstly, I couldn’t help but think about how much I want to see Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos. Coming up at 111 we are going to see Frank Mir and Shane Carwin fight for the interim title with the winner going on to fight Brock Lesnar to unify the belts. If Carwin/Mir make it out of the fight with little damage I’d like to see Dos Santos fight Velasquez (if he gets past Gonzaga), with the winner fighting either Lesnar, Mir or Carwin. If Carwin or Mir are hurt after the fight, I’d rather see Velasquez fight Brock in the Summer with the winner fighting Carwin or Mir once they are healthy. Whatever happens, I don’t think the UFC heavyweight division has ever been more exciting!

As for Nogueira, I’ve read a lot of comments since the fight on Saturday saying he should hang up the gloves. I disagree. I do agree that he is no longer the fighter he was in Pride, however his fight with Randy Couture showed us that he still has a lot of passion for the sport and can put on a thrilling performance. I’d like to see him go up against Mirko Cro Cop next, who looked good on Saturday. Probably the best Mirko we have seen in the UFC so far. I’d love to see a UFC fight between these two, maybe on a card over here in the UK?

Velasquez finishes Nogueira

I was happy to see Wanderlei Silva defeat Michael Bisping. It was a great fight, made even better by the super hot crowd who couldn’t get enough of Wanderlei. It was an extremely close fight and I had Bisping winning round 1 with Silva taking rounds 2 and 3. Without a doubt the flurry by Silva at the end of the fight secured the decision for him. I’m not the biggest fan of Bisping, however he did appear humble at the end of the fight. However, at the press conference he did proceed to say that he felt he actually won the fight. Umm…I think Bisping needs to go back and watch the tape over again. As for where both guys go from here…I’d love to see Wanderlei fight Yoshihiro Akiyama, which looks like it will happen sooner rather than later. As for Bisping, I say put him in against Nate Marquardt. Both guys are coming off losses and I think it would be a good fight.

The crowd really got behind George Sotiropoulos and within 15 minutes he was turned into a star. It was a great fight and just an amazing showcase of what the ground game is all about. I would love to see Sotiropoulos get a few more fights with some bigger names, perhaps even working his way up to a fight with BJ Penn next year when the UFC goes back down under. I hope Joe Stevenson bounces back quickly too as he is always exciting to watch.

Where does Keith Jardine go from here? He got knocked out pretty bad and overall I really wasn’t impressed by his performance during the fight. I guess he’ll probably go the undercard now until he gets a few more wins back under his belt. Bader seems like he has improved, however I think his gas tank is still a bit of a problem. I’m looking forward to seeing him fight again though!

I also have to mention the absolute war between Krysztof Soszynski and Stephan Bonnar. Without a doubt one of the most enjoyable fights I have ever seen with both guys putting their heart and soul into it. Both guys proved why they belong in the UFC. It was a real shame to see it end the way that it did. There is absolutely no way the win should have been given to Soszynski. Not taking anything away from his performance – after all the headbutt was an accident, however the fight should have been ruled a no contest due to the cut. I don’t think I’m the only one who is hoping for an immediate rematch between these two!

Also, how sick was that submission from Chris Lytle?! That guy never has a bad fight. I can’t wait to see him fight again and hopefully move further up the ladder!

Overall UFC 110 was an excellent card from top to bottom and a major success for the company. I’m just glad that March is probably the most stacked month ever for fight fans as right now I’m craving more!

Next stop – Manny Pacquiao vs Joshua Clottey on March 13th from the 60,000 seat Dallas Cowboys stadium, which should be a fantastic fight. Then we have UFC Live on March 21st with Jon Jones vs. Brandon Vera, Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga and Paul Buentello vs. Cheick Kongo. Then on March 27th it’s UFC 111 with Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy and Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir. ALSO we have UFC Fight Night on March 31st which will feature Kenny Florian vs. Takanori Gomi! Add to that the debut of Ultimate Fighter season 11, WEC 47, Strikeforce Challangers and DREAM 13…fight fans might as well just not leave the house!

Full results:

Cain Velasquez defeated Antonio Nogueira via KO (punches) at 2:20 of round 1.
Wanderlei Silva defeated Michael Bisping via unanimous decision.
George Sotiropoulos defeated Joe Stevenson via unanimous decision.
Ryan Bader defeated Keith Jardine via KO (punch) at 2:10 of round 3.
Mirko Cro Cop defeated Anthony Perosh via TKO (doctor stoppage) at 5:00 of round 2.
Krysztof Soszynski defeated Stephan Bonnar via TKO (cut) at 1:04 of round 3.
Chris Lytle defeated Brian Foster via submission (kneebar) at 1:41 of round 1.
CB Dollaway defeated Goran Reljic via unanimous decision.
James Te-Huna defeated Igor Pokrajac via TKO (strikes) at 3:26 of round 3.