Ghost Killers VS Bloody Mary/Troll Bridge

Mary In Haste

Ghost Killers VS Bloody Mary
(aka Exterminadores do Além Contra a Loira do Banheiro)
2018 Brazil Directed by Fabrício Bittar

Plus

Troll Bridge
2019 Australia Directed by Daniel Knight
Both screening at FrightFest 24th August 2019.

Okay so, the first feature film I picked out to see at this year’s FrightFest (sponsored by Arrow Video again this time around and celebrating it’s 20th Year) was... well it was a bit of a dud as far as I’m concerned. It had potential and, don’t get me wrong, this so called horror comedy seemed to go down a treat with the FrightFest audience that I saw it with... who seemed to be laughing in all the right places... but in all honesty, I just totally failed to engage with it. However, there was a silver lining in terms of the short film that the programmers had paired it with and which was shown before this one... but I’ll review Troll Bridge towards the bottom of this post.

Okay, so Ghost Killers VS Bloody Mary is a terrible mess of a movie and I was really expecting a lot more from it. A lot happens in terms of ‘over the top’ set pieces including a pickled, still-born foetus attack, a basketball bludgeoning and an altercation between a security guard and the demonically possessed excrement he’s just excised from his body. It’s a wild ride in many ways and, on paper this looks like just the kind of film I could normally get behind and which would suit, what a very special person in my life would call, my ‘gnarly brain windings’.

Alas this film, which follows the antics of four ‘Ghostbusters inspired' charlatans (for the most part) who are trying to hit it big with their reality style internet show and who go to investigate a school where the famous ‘Bloody Mary’ legend has taken grip... played by Dani Calabresa, Léo Lins, Danilo Gentili and Murilo Couto... was, for me, just very dull. It shouldn’t have been because it was full of comedy horror action and lashings of practical, gory effects but, ultimately, this failed to connect with me in the way I thought it would.

Now I don’t mind the tonal clash of comedy and horror... that’s a combination which has proved to work really well throughout the history of cinema and mixing these genres can often do pretty well for people. I think here, though, my main problem with the movie was that there was only one character who I could empathise with on any level and, frankly, that person gets killed early on in the film when the character’s head explodes, blood splashing over the faces of this protagonist’s colleagues. The people who have to carry the rest of the film are basically non-likeable idiots who I would steer clear of as best I could in any real life situation and who, frankly, I would be happy to watch die in an unpleasant manner early on in the movie. Ironically, it’s the characters who are the least relateable who manage to survive the film to the end.

The acting was way too over the top to be credible. Yes, I know it was probably supposed to be but these people really didn’t do themselves any favours and their exaggerated mannerisms and flailing limbs as they run and scream from each new ‘horror’ really didn’t help matters. I started off trying to have a good time with this movie but, by about half an hour in, I really wasn’t ‘on its side’ anymore.

If I was to find anything good or memorable about the film it was the scene where a still born foetus is possessed and breaks out of its bottle in the science classroom to attack one of the main protagonists and, also, the fact that the girl playing this schoolgirl variant of Bloody Mary looked really sinister when she was in the full make-up. This wasn’t enough to save the film for me though which was, bizarrely, distributed by Warner Brothers in Brazil. Despite mild flirtations of a metatextual nature with two characters who are there mostly for ballast plus tonnes of references to much better movies and TV shows, I wouldn’t recommend this film or ever need to watch it again myself.

There was that silver lining though..

Playing before this film was the Australian short Troll Bridge by director Daniel Knight and based on one of Terry Pratchett’s short Discworld stories. Now I’m not a fan of Terry Pratchett. I tried to read his first Discworld novel when it came out but for some reason couldn’t get into it. This short film is lovely, though and tells the story of an ageing Cohen The Barbarian, played by Don Bridges and his talking horse, voiced by Glenn Van Oosterom. I’d never heard of these characters before but loved the way the dialogue went, as the elderly barbarian goes to wake a troll under a bridge and ends up reminiscing with said monster about the ‘old days.’

The CGI, which I think the director who was interviewed for the audience just before the screening said took something like eight years in post-production, is actually quite charming with the troll being almost Disneyesque in his realisation. Added to this, the short has some beautiful dialogue and even more breath taking cinematography... although the amount of CGI work here makes it hard to tell whether cinematography is the right word to use. But the film does look gorgeous, is what I’m trying to say.

Also, the seemingly suicidal path of Cohen’s desire to finally take on a troll may seem pretty much like a death wish but, once all the whimsy and nostalgia has played out and he and the troll have parted company, you realise that Cohen’s encounter with said creature went more than ‘according to plan’ and that, despite paying 25 gold coins in toll to said troll, he actually comes away with something far more precious to him for use in his ‘barbarian hero’ career.

What can I say? This was a charming piece and really the only thing that made sitting through the main feature worth the price of the ticket on this one. I’d urge people to try and seek out Troll Bridge whenever or wherever it is screened as much as I would tell them not to bother with Ghost Killers VS Bloody Mary. Somewhat of a mismatch of a double bill, I thought but at least I got to see something of note on my first FrightFest screening of 2019. And, as it happens, the second feature length movie I saw there that day, the directorial debut of actor Jason Mewes of Jay and Silent Bob fame, certainly topped my expectations. More on that in my next review so, watch out for it either tomorrow or the day after.