25th Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival
15 to 26 April 2009 – Pathé Tuschinski
www.imaginefilmfestival.nl


With MUM & DAD (UK: Steven Sheil, 2008), EDEN LAKE (UK: James Watkins, 2008), DONKEY PUNCH (UK: Olly Blackburn, 2008), THE CHILDREN (UK: Tom Shankland, 2008) en CHEMICAL WEDDING (UK: Julian Doyle, 2008), among others.

IMAGINE got wind of a new wave of disturbing British genre films and selected the most spectacular titles for a separate segment in the programme: Anarchy in the UK. It shows the UK as a country where every-day situations turn into nightmares and civilization is but a thin layer of gloss that is easily burnt off.
Apart from the occasional gem, British genre film never really found its feet again after the famous Hammer Studio, safe haven for Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster, closed it doors at the end of the seventies. It looks like things have started to turn around in the last few years though. Possibly inspired by Neil Marshall’s revolutionary THE DESCENT from 2005, a steadily increasing group of British filmmakers are eagerly working with disturbing themes.
Even though the films are very different from each other, what they have in common is that they all cast off the comforting British image we know from TV: a country of idyllic cottages, eccentric pub patrons and killers with a high – read: cosy – Agatha Christie content. In the pitch black horror comedy MUM & DAD, a Polish cleaning lady falls prey to an insane working-class family. In the nerve-wrecking EDEN LAKE, young hooligans terrorize a yuppie couple. In DONKEY PUNCH, the moral backbone of ‘kids these days’ is exposed mercilessly, and in THE CHILDREN the pride and joy of parents turn against them without good reason. Odd one out is CHEMICAL WEDDING, a curious blend of fantasy and science-fiction in which black magician Aleister Crowley is reincarnated in the body of a university teacher.


25th AMSTERDAM FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL
15 to 26 April 2009 – Pathé Tuschinski Amsterdam
www.imaginefilmfestival.nl
info@imaginefilmfestival.nl
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