Brian C. Tyler who wrote the killer Don't Go to the Reunion review wanted to contribute his thoughts about the Syracuse International Film Festival this past Friday night!
Horror fans in the 315 area were in for a real treat when they showed up to Syracuse's Palace Theater Friday night for a special screening of Adam Green's "Frozen" and Joe Lynch's "Wrong Turn 2" with a couple other surprises hosted by the directors themselves.
If you haven't heard of it, "Frozen" is the story of three young adults who end up stranded on a chairlift in the dead of winter and are forced to make some difficult choices in order to survive. It has been said that "Frozen" has done for skiing what "Jaws" did for swimming, and I would say that is a pretty fair statement. After making the bloody, over-the-top 80's slasher throwback "Hatchet", Adam Green steps up to the challenge of making an intense, edge-of-your seat thriller with nothing but three actors, a chairlift and lots of snow. Oh and there's wolves too. That takes a lot of talent and I think everyone who attended Friday night will agree that he did a pretty amazing job.
In between films, Green and Lynch answered some questions for the fans and gave a lot of insight into their films, their sitcom and their careers in general, giving a lot of useful advice to all the aspiring filmmakers in the theater. Next we got to see a season-two episode of their show "Holliston", which they both write, direct, produce and star in. For those who don't know, "Holliston" is a sort of "Big Bang Theory" for die hard horror fans, filled with in-jokes, homages, sick humor and most importantly lots of heart. The particular episode was a sort of spoof on 'found-footage' horror films such as "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Devil Inside", and lots of laughs were had by the audience. Just after, Joe Lynch surprised us all with a well made short film he directed that comic-book fans would love before beginning the final film of the night.
"Wrong Turn 2" is a low budget DTV sequel to the 2003 film about a cannibalistic family in the woods of West Virginia. While the first film had a very serious tone and fit in very well with the (then) current trend of theatrical horror films echoing 1970's exploitation, Lynch made the sequel into a bloody, fun, disgusting and surprisingly suspenseful throwback to the 1980's. Fans of films from that era such as "Re-Animator", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" and "Evil Dead II" would find lots to love in this film. And on top of all that, we have a scene-stealing Henry Rollins who goes all RAMBO on the deformed cannibals. It was the perfect way to cap off a great night.
After the films were done, Adam and Joe took the time to sign autographs, take pictures and talk with the fans, who all could not have asked for a better experience. As a horror fan, I have had many great nights at the Palace Theater thanks to Jeff Meyer who works year-round to put on several great shows there, but that was by far one of the best.
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