Glasgow Frightfest: Schlock and Gore

Subtlety and taste be damned, Frightfest is back in all its bloody, gory glory. Now a staple section of Glasgow Film Festival, the cult London genre film festival has made its way back to Scotland to bring viewers an exciting, horrifying, spine-tingling preview of eight future horror releases.

Fans of the genre may have noticed that, with modern horror challenging both film censorship and audience's stomachs, spooks and chills have been replaced with enough blood and guts to make even the video nasties look tame. Frightfest's selection reflects this move to the more obvious body-horror of recent years, with an array of serial killers, sexual deviants, mothers from hell and vigilante hobos to remind us that, all too often, humans are the scariest beings on Earth.

Hot on the heels of Robert Rodriguez' mexploitation Machete comes Hobo with a Shotgun (26 Feb, 23.15). Both began as spoof trailers in Grindhouse, while the latter, incidentally, has the best title in the entire festival. With tongue firmly in cheek and finger firmly on the trigger, Rutger Hauer is the Hobo in question, hellbent on eliminating the crooked cops, paedophiles, pimps and general scum that walk the streets. The result is gory, ridiculous and utterly delightful for fans of old-school exploitation.

One should not discuss exploitation films without mentioning the abundance of Filipino drive-in movies from the 70s and early 80s. It was then that schlocky directors with dubious talents and low- to no- budgets headed to the far east to take advantage of relaxed laws, cheap labour and exotic locations. Mark Hartley's documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed! (25 Feb, 23.45), his follow up to the excellent Not Quite Hollywood (GFF 2009), provides genre veterans and virgins alike an invaluable insight into the world of the likes of Eddie Romero (director of the Blood Island series) and Jack Hill. We recommend bringing pen and paper with you, so that you can take note of the films you will invariably have to find afterwards.

Possibly the most delightfully daft films to show at Cannes this year, Robert the killer tyre terrorises a small town in Rubber (26 Feb, 14.00). Probably not to everyone's taste, Quentin Dupieux's tale of a psychic tyre on a murderous rampage hasn't yet been subject to overly-devoted online fan-based publicity, which, following the subsequent disappointment of films like Snakes on a Plane, is undoubtedly a good thing.

With these original films included in the programme, it is a sign of the times that Frightfest also includes Mother's Day (26 Feb, 21.00), a remake of the 1980 grindhouse classic tale of a twisted matriarch. With Rebecca De Mornay replacing Beatrice Pons as the mother in question, it remains to be seen if this updated version will improve on the original. Talking of remakes, included in the programme is I Saw the Devil (25 Feb, 21.00), a Korean serial-killer thriller being shown in its brutal, uncut glory – it will almost inevitably be reimagined in the English language at some point, so grab the chance to see the original in all its haunting beauty first.