Robin Moon
Last weekend, I attended Leeds International Film Festival’s annual Night of the Dead event. LIFF was founded in 1987, and every year films from all around the world are screened at various venues across the city. Fun fact: the reason why Leeds is the leading city for film in the UK is because the world’s first-ever films were made by Louis le Prince in Leeds in 1888! It’s a fantastic film festival with a few different categories throughout the program, including the Official Selection (changes yearly), Retrospective (screening older films that people may not have had a chance to see in the cinema), Cinema Versa (documentary and low budget, independent films), Fanomenon (cult cinema and genre films), and Short Film City (speaks for itself!).
Night of the Dead is part of the Fanomenon segment of LIFF and is the UK’s longest-running all-night film marathon. From 11 pm to 8 am, it ran six short horror films in addition to four feature horror films. And yes, I somehow managed to stay awake! The hosts of the event introduced each segment with a brief intro to the shorts and features, did some giveaways, a Q&A with the crew after the first feature film (more on that later), and all-around kept morale up throughout the event. The atmosphere was brilliant even when it hit the early morning, and Hyde Park Picture House is just a lovely, cozy cinema to spend nine hours in.
Now, onto the films! I’m not going to go into too much detail on each one, and this will remain spoiler-free as a lot of these films are very recent releases.
Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round
The first short of the night was Make Me a Pizza, directed by Talia Shea Levin. If you’ve seen this Vine, then that’s essentially the concept of the film. As one of the hosts quoted the director in saying, “It’s about pizza and sex. If you don’t like pizza, it’s got sex. If you don’t like sex, it’s got pizza.” That pretty much sums it up! It’s a hilarious short well worth watching to the end.
Next up, we had Meat Puppet, a short directed by Eros Vlahos. This one centres on a young man who is too wrapped up in playing with toys than showing dedication to his girlfriend. When a mysterious package arrives for him, this increases the pressure on both his relationship and himself. Despite a solid concept and some good comedic moments, I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. It felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be funny and fast-paced rather than allowing some breathing space for the audience. However, I can certainly see why it was paired to go with Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, so it was a good choice to lead into it.
Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round was undoubtedly my film of the night. Directed by Aidan Leary, the film is a mash-up of existential/body horror and a children’s TV show. Sounds crazy, right? It’s a hell of a concept, and the balance between the wholesome show, colorful set, and tinge of humor alongside the extremely disturbing horror is absolutely spot-on. The film is led wonderfully by Michael Gilio, who plays Mr James Jensen, the only human amidst a cast of puppets. His performance is utterly outstanding; the way his mood switches, his voice changes, his physical mannerisms convey his emotional state, AND his singing/dancing is oddly soothing… Is there anything this man can’t do? The set and puppet design, the latter created by the talented Jackie Smook, were a perfect storm of colorful and creative, reminiscent of a children’s TV show, whilst also being just slightly off in a thoroughly disturbing way. For example, the eponymous Monkey is a pretty standard monkey puppet, but with dirty human hands jutting out of his sleeves. It’s one of those things where you first see it and think “Oh, that’s weird…” and then it somehow gets creepier the more you ponder on it. Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round is a supremely unnerving film that has some terrifying moments and lore while still leaving enough to the imagination of the audience.
As mentioned, I was very lucky to see a Q&A with a few of the crew members, namely Aidan Leary (director), Joe Swanberg (producer), Ben Gojer (producer), CR Thompson (writer), Michael Gilio (actor), and Jackie Smook (puppet designer and voice actor). All the crew were so incredibly passionate and excited about this project, it was a joy to see. It’s especially impressive considering Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round was Leary’s debut film at the age of 24 years old, and Gilio’s first acting gig in 16 years (which you wouldn’t be able to tell at all)! Currently, LIFF is the only place Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round has been screened, so I’m unable to point you to where you can watch it, but I’m hoping it gets the publicity it deserves.
Dark Match
The second segment of the evening kicked off with Chris McInroy’s short film, We Joined a Cult. The concept is pretty self-explanatory: on their way to kickball practice, two guys bump into their friend who appears to have, well, joined a cult. An absurd conversation ensues and it just gets weirder from there. This one was also rather fast-paced, but it made sense for the specific scenario. The humor was very in-your-face, but in a fun way!
In a completely different vein was the next short, Carlos A.F. Lopez’s Dream Creep. This one follows a young couple sleeping one night when David suddenly hears his wife’s voice from inside her ear pleading for help. Again, it only gets stranger from here. The tone is hard to pin down, but I dug it! Very disturbing concept, good performances, and a memorable ending. All-in-all, an odd but solid short!
Onto the main event… Dark Match, made by WolfCop director Lowell Dean, was the film I was most excited about at Night of the Dead. Look, I’m a huge wrestling fan as well as a huge horror fan, so this was absolutely made for me. Set in the 80s, Dark Match follows a small-time heel wrestler called Miss Behave (which, can I just say, incredible name) as she navigates finding a foothold in the industry as well as her relationship with a veteran wrestler. After her dodgy manager lands her a match in a private show, things start to take a turn towards the occult.
Don’t go into Dark Match expecting it to be ‘good’, because you will most likely be disappointed. As films go, it’s not great; the pacing was way off with not much build-up to events despite the whole film simultaneously feeling like it was only build-up, there was a hell of a lot of clunky exposition via dialogue, and a few underdeveloped areas. BUT! I had an absolute blast from start to finish. I mean, Chris Jericho as a narcissistic, crazed villain is just hilarious to watch. Say what you will about his acting, the man’s got serious stage presence! As well as poking fun at and playing up the goofy parts of pro wrestling, Dark Match stays loyal to the medium and its history. If you’re looking for a whole 94 minutes of fun, then look no further.
Dark Matter will be available to watch on Shudder on January 31, 2025.
Chainsaws Were Singing
As the night hit its midpoint, the next two features only had one short film to accompany them. This one was Pocketman, directed by Ericka Clevenger. Only one minute in length, Pocketman is a trailer for a non-existent horror-comedy feature film about a man who steals things from your pockets. It was super fun! Both visually creepy and hilarious, this short made me want to watch a full-length version, even in such limited time. And it set the tone perfectly for Chainsaws Were Singing.
My close second-favourite of the night, Chainsaws Were Singing is an absolutely outrageous horror-comedy by Estonian director Sander Maran. It recently won Best Picture in Horror Features at Fantastic Film Fest and is generally getting hyped up after screening at a lot of horror film festivals. The film primarily follows a young couple being pursued by “some f*ckface with a chainsaw,” to quote directly from it, who end up meeting a wacky cast of characters along the way. It’s absurdly funny, involving very silly humor that worked well for me; the audience were in hysterics for the majority of its runtime! The comedy contrasts nicely with the over-the-top gore and blood, and also rather disturbing band of villains terrorizing anyone who makes the mistake of getting too close to their remote abode.
Chainsaws Were Singing feels like a Texas Chain Saw Massacre parody in many ways, yet it remains firmly unique to its own brand of horror, ludicrous events, and oddball characters. My only major criticism is that it felt about 30 minutes too long, so some parts could have been cut and it wouldn’t have massively changed the film. However, after ten years in the making, Chainsaws Were Singing was definitely worth the wait. Please check out Sean’s full review here!
Currently, Chainsaws Were Singing isn’t available online, but it will be released on Plex on December 20.
Body Melt
The final short of the night was God’s Anus, a Swiss film directed by Jan-David Bolt. Wild title, I know, but unfortunately, in my opinion, that was the best thing going for it. The short centers on a circle of heads poking out of a desert that have to put up with strange devices bothering them ceaselessly. Without saying much more, it was very abstract and bizarre but not in a satisfying way. Personally, I didn’t understand what it was about, and it remained purposefully ambiguous in a way that, for me at least, made it frustrating rather than entertaining to watch. I’m sure it works for other people, but it wasn’t my thing.
This does sadly also sum up my experience of Body Melt, the final feature of the night. Directed by Philip Brophy in 1993, this was the only older release of the selection as part of LIFF’s The Weird of Oz Retrospective of 2024, covering Australian New Wave cinema. In the suburbs of Australia, a new pharmaceutical vitamin supplement ends up causing strange mutations and transformations in its consumers. This would usually be my kind of vibe, as I love body horror, but it didn’t hit the spot unfortunately. The plot didn’t really make any sense as it moves at break-neck speed and isn’t resolved in a satisfying way. Parts of it felt outdated, which is to be expected from a 90s film, but it seemed there was an intriguing social commentary present in the concept that never came to fruition. I found Body Melt a rather uncomfortable watch, but not in a good, “ew that’s horrible!”, body horror kind of way.
Despite all this, the wackiness was fun in parts, and it was off to a strong start with the first sequence revealing the body horror. The prosthetics were extremely impressive too! I wish I’d have enjoyed it, but perhaps you’ll get more out of it than I did.
Although LIFF 2024 finished on November 17, I’d recommend checking out these films if you can. Plus, there’s always next year! Night of the Dead is an excellent annual event, so if you’re able to go to it in 2025, I’d absolutely recommend it.
