27/03/2009

Get ready to tremble: the 27th Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film opens its doors on April 9, for two weeks of frightened shudders, torrents of blood and gore, evil children and other deathly apparitions.

Asian horror films are doing well, while European productions are enjoying consistent success, mainly thanks to the rise of Scandinavian and Spanish works (such as last year’s REC [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
interview: Julio Fernández
film profile]).

This year’s festival line-up is headed by two diametrically opposed Iberian films. Miguel Marti’s Sexykiller gives a whole new meaning to the term "fashion victim", by centring on a female killer who is a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Paris Hilton.

Meanwhile, Elio Quiroga revisits the classic theme of the haunted house, in this case a boarding school for young Catholic girls, in The Beckoning (produced by Eqlipse Productions).

Moving north, a homage to Bram Stocker is the order of the day in Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: John Nordling
interview: Tomas Alfredson
film profile]. This Swedish reinterpretation of the vampire myth has won awards at New York, Neufchâtel and Stiltges. A US remake is already underway.

Mats Stenberg’s Norwegian hit Cold Prey 2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the sequel to the slasher movie that rose to the top of the box office in 2006. The second instalment – which won over Norwegian audiences in 2008 – doesn’t include exactly the same characters (for they’re almost all dead), but catches up with lead actress Ingrid Borso Berdal, who won an Amanda Award for the first film.

Sexykiller and Let the Right One In are competing in international competition, while The Beckoning and Cold Prey 2 will vie for the Silver Méliès for Best European Film.

A total of 18 European productions and co-productions will take part in the different feature film competitions. The only Belgian co-production on the programme – Vampire Party by Stephen Capiero and Vincent Lobelle – will screen out of competition. The prize-winners will be announced on April 21.

(Translated from French)