28TH SGIFF - ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE AT MIDNIGHT
The sky is dark - what happens when the clock strikes 12?
Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next. It is also the time of the night associated with supernatural events. If our worst fears come true, creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts will appear and that is the time they will be at their most powerful.
At the 28th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), however, what you are going to get instead is something else more potent, more exciting and definitely something worth looking forward to.
SGIFF has introduced a new Midnight Mayhem section which promises “peaks of manic madness and genre-bending thrills”. Nope, you won’t be seeing high-brow and inaccessible artistic fare typically featured at film festivals here. What you’re going to get are four films with monsters, virus breakouts, prison breaks and yup – lots of blood and gore.
Sounds like a guilty pleasure? Bring on the mayhem!
Date: 24 November (Friday), 11.55pm @ Filmgarde Bugis+
The world, especially in a post-apocalyptic state, isn’t a nice place. At least this is the picture painted in American director Trey Edward Shults’ follow-up to his breakout debut Krisha (2015), which won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.
Starring Joel Edgerton (Midnight Special) as a man who realises that the evil lurking in his house is a prelude to something more horrifying, this film is a fine example of what’s unseen can be as terrifying, if not more, than anything put out there on screen. We are not sure whether we even want to be trapped inside a house with our loved ones when all hell breaks loose.
Get tickets here
Date: 25 November (Saturday), 11.55pm @ Filmgarde Bugis+
Love extreme action flicks like The Raid (2011) and Headshot (2016)? We dare you to take on this film by Jimmy Henderson. While you may have heard a lot about Thailand’s Muay Thai and Indonesia’s Silat, this no-nonsense movie will introduce you to Bokator, Cambodia’s martial artform. Expect savage fights and scenes that make you go “Ouchhhhhh!”
The story is simple: a crime-fighting team finds itself trapped in a prison riot. We don’t expect an Oscar-winning screenplay from this movie because all we want to see are people pulling punches and knocking each other out unconscious. So bring on the fights!
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Date: 1 December (Friday), 11.55pm @ Filmgarde Bugis+
Think you’ve seen it all with found footage horror movies like Cloverfield (2008) and Paranormal Activity (2009)? It isn’t over till you check out director Sherad Anthony Sanchez’s latest film. Set in Mindanao(the second largest island in the Philippines), which also happens to be the filmmaker’s birthplace, things go haywire when a news crew goes too far with their investigations of a series of violent deaths.
Making us a little more disturbed is the fact that these deaths are attributed to one of the most prolific monsters in Filipino folklore - the “aswangs”. Has the director seen these flesh-eating ad shape-shifting monsters in the course of the production? He will be present during this international premiere to answer all your burning questions.
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Date: 2 December (Saturday), 11.55pm @ Filmgarde Bugis+
You haven’t seen the worst of corporate culture until you see this film by director Joe Lynch. Which is worse - an airborne virus that turns office workers into violent madmen, or the daily acts of back stabbing, fault finding and hypocrisy? This satire may just make you rethink your life as a soulless corporate slave.
Eye candy comes in the form of Korean-American actor Steven Yeun who is known for his role on The Walking Dead. The good looker (who also starred in Okja) plays an infected attorney who, after being framed for something he didn’t do, gets all bloody in his quest to reclaim his job. The director will be present at this Singapore premiere to tell you whether he thinks the corporate world is this scary.
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