The Mixing Room: conversations about cinema Sight & Sound: the international film magazine

Demonic oppression was the story of this year’s UK horror film showcase – along with female survivorship, identity differences and the dangers of the internet. Hardy survivors Kim Newman, Anton Bitel and Virginie Selavy explore our latest demons in this roundtable post-mortem.

Under discussion:

Demonic conspiracies and satanic possession in
👻 For We Are Many (Lawrie Brewster, Andrew Ionides, Brad Watson, Mitch Wilson, Carlos Omar De Leon, Matthan Harris, Dane Keil, Mark Logan; UK)
👻 Porno (Keola Racela, USA)
👻 Ready or Not (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, USA)
👻 Daniel Isn’t Real (Adam Egypt Mortimer, USA)
👻 The Black String (Brian Hanson, USA)

The slipperiness of truth and safety online in
👻 Death of a Vlogger (Graham Hughes, UK)
👻 Deadcon (Caryn Waechter, USA)
👻 Ghost Killers vs Bloody Mary (Fabrício Bittar, Brazil)
👻 Halloween Party (Jay Dahl, Canada)
👻 The Drone (Jordan Rubin, USA)

Differences of sexuality, class and gender in
👻 Spiral (Kurtis David Harder, Canada)
👻 The Dark Red (Dan Bush, USA)
👻 Satanic Panic (Chelsea Stardust, USA)
👻 The Wind (Emma Tammi, USA)
👻 Criminal Audition (Samuel Gridley, UK)
👻 Why Don’t You Just Die! (Kirill Sokolov, Russia)

Female survivors in
👻 A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (Abner Pastoll, UK)
👻 Feedback (Pedro C. Alonso, Spain/USA)

Parental angst in
👻 Freaks (Zach Lipovsky, Canada)
👻 The Deeper You Dig (Toby Poser & John Adams, USA)
👻 Knives and Skin (Jennifer Reeder, USA)

The monstrous in
👻 Rabid (Jen & Sylvia Soska, Canada)
👻 Depraved (Larry Fessenden, USA)

To make Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, director Steve Sullivan conducted a decades-spanning quest to uncover and understand the man behind Frank Sidebottom, the cult comic figure with the papier-maché head. On Sight & Sound’s website, he tells Leigh Singer all about it, and shares some of the material he uncovered:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/being-frank-chris-sievey-story-frank-sidebottom-steve-sullivan-making-of-archive

Tara Brown, Keith Jarrett and Ben Walters talk through all the fun in the 2018 BFI Flare! Film Festival, from queering the South Bank and LGBTQ+ bingo cards to mainstream incursions, gay miserabilism and the marvellous indescribability of Good Manners.

What does Steve McQueen’s new heist thriller Widows – Sight & Sound’s November 2018 cover film and gala opener of this year’s London Film Festival – tell us about race and class? Philip Concannon, Nick James, Isabel Stevens and Kelli Weston discuss this, Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-ke’s new crime drama Ash Is Purest White, plus three more picks from this year’s festival: Sudabeh Mortezai’s Joy, Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls and Bi Gan’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Read about our November issue: bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/november-2018-issue

See all our London Film Festival 2018 online coverage: bfi.org.uk/sight-sound-magazine/london-film-festival-2018

Gaspar Noé’s closing-night Climax set the tone for a horror bonanza that went big on spiked drinks, ghosts, nuns and dollhouses. We locked Anton Bitel, Kim Newman and Virginie Selavy in a room to chew it over.

A look back at the best of last year’s FrightFest with Anton Bitel, Kim Newman and Virginie Selavy.