Kino immer anders
The annual Brugggore Festival is right around the corner with its 5th anniversary, taking place from the 22nd to the 26th of April. All the reason to look back at least years edition and ahead to see what you can expect from the festival this year.
The Brugggore Festival takes place every year since 2021 in, as the name suggests, Brugg. Every year the town becomes a host to a wide array of different horror films, new and old. In total 46 films were shown over the course of the 4 days in 2024, including almost 20 swiss premiers. This year they even add another day and screen a total of 50 films. I had the pleasure to attend the festival last year for about 2 and a half days and will present to you some of the highlights before I tell you what I am looking forward to this year the most.
Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento, IT)
One of the early highlights certainly was Dario Argento’s classic giallo Film Suspiria. While the film itself would already be a highlight alone the reason why I have to talk about it is also the event surrounding it. Then the Film was shown with live music, but not just by any band, by Goblin, the band that originally created the soundtrack for the movie. While mostly not the original members anymore, only Claudio Simonetti was there, the experience of watching this classic with live music was certainly a night to remember. The following highlight concert also did not disappoint, especially with the inclusion of the Phenomena (1985, Dario Argento) Soundtrack. The movie itself hasn’t lost anything of its style since its release and remains a sight to behold. If you have been a visitor of filmstelle since 2018 you might even have seen it there and if you haven’t, it certainly would be high time now.
Satan Wants you (2023, Sean Horlor, Steve J. Adams, CA)
Next to great classics the festival also had a documentary in store. Satan wants you covers the “Satanic Panic” in the 80s that took a hold over the US. More specifically it tries to trace the origins of the Panic back to the Book “Michelle Remembers”. The Movie serves as an interesting introduction to the subject but ultimately fails to fully deliver on its goal, remaining in large parts too superficial. Nevertheless, the 90min go by very quickly and as a first view on to the theme it works very well. You are never quite sure if you should laugh at the utter stupidity of the theories or be terrified that a lot of people lost their jobs or got imprisoned because of absurd accusations. Some of the archival material is also very interesting and overall, the movie is a recommendation for everybody that wants to have an entry point to the topic.
The Invisible Maniac (1990, Adam Rifkin, US)
Not only quality movies were shown at the festival, but that was clearly by design. In cooperation with the KultMovieGang(KMG), they presented one of their beloved “Worst Movies Nights” at the festival. The premise is simple enough: a crazy scientist (one could say a maniac) tries to find the secret to invisibility and when he succeeds, goes on a killing spree at the school where he is a teacher. The movie is most definitely bad, to be frank, absolutely horrible. But that is the reason why it is such a fun one. I strongly advise against watching this alone but in a group of people this can be a very entertaining night. It is, in a way, similar to The Room where laughing about it can be very fun, and I think such films deserve their place at a horror film festival.
Vermines (2023, Sébastien Vaniček, FR)
As someone who is terribly afraid of spiders and avoids movies about them at all costs, I still am not sure why I let myself be convinced to watch this. But in the end, it was worth the ride. The story is about as simple as it could be; A young man brings home a spider that turns out to be able to reproduce and grow rapidly and the whole apartment building has to defend themselves against the very hungry spiders. But the strength of the movie lies in the setting and the extremely scary design of the monsters. The building lends itself to many great chases and the number of characters allows the filmmakers to kill of a lot of people in different and creative ways. The social commentary about poverty in France is a bit on the nose (and questionable in its logic) and most of the characters remain flat, but the reason one watches a movie like this is of course the spiders and they are certainly creepy. Laying eggs in the heads of their victims, trying to crawl down the mouth or a whole corridor being covered in cobwebs, certain scenes really do have it in them. Thankfully you never really see their eyes which made the movie for someone like me even watchable. Overall, a great fun for all fans of spider horror films.
Hundreds of beavers (2022, Mike Cheslik, US)
The absolute highlight for me at the festival were surprisingly beavers, hundreds of them to be more precise. The story follows an applejack salesman who is down on his luck and tries to hunt down beavers to build up his wealth and eventually marry the daughter of a salesman. If that story sounds weird to you, well it kind of is, but the story really is secondary. The reason why you should watch this film is because it’s just enormous fun. The continuous struggle of our main characters to hunt down the beavers, which are all portrayed by humans in costumes, never gets boring. The creative ways through which he tries to achieve his goals, and his subsequent failures are all so funny and charming. The movie is overflowing with creativity and is in my books the best live action Looney Tunes Film I could ask for.
Those were last year’s highlights for me, but I had the chance to watch some other unknown gems. Among them the Swiss exploitation Film Max Foxes (1981) which, as we learned in an interview with the director afterwards, was created using as many “Blick” Headlines as possible. But also the first Mongolian Horror Movie to receive a bit of a wider release in the form of Aberrance (2022).
But now we shall look ahead to next week for the 5th edition. One thing I am really curious about is certainly this year’s live performance. While it can’t bring up the name power of a Goblin and Suspiria from last year, I am sure the live performance by OZ GOREGULU in company of video artist Martin Riesen will be a night to remember. Like last year the event will take place on Thursday (24.04).
Also very exciting are the many swiss premieres that Brugggore once again is presenting. I am very much looking forward to seeing the Ecuadorian Alucina (Javier Cutrona, 2024) as the combination of the dramatic elements with horror is always intriguing to me (and there is a really big fish on one of the pictures). Another anticipated highlight is Chainsawas were singing (2024, Sander Maran). Horror Musicals are rare but as a big fan of both Genres I can’t wait to see how a dancing maniac is killing people while singing catchy songs. Probably the biggest film in the Line-up is the movie adaptation of Until Dawn, called (who would’ve thought) Until Dawn (David F. Sandberg, 2025). In time for the cinema release with the director of Shazam 1 & 2, I still have a morbid curiosity for the film. I’m not convinced that the Film will truly be good, but I hope it will be entertaining. Sandberg definitely didn’t show in his last outings that he has it in him to make a great film but movies made in a franchise can’t really be considered, so I am still interested. Last, but definitely not least, The Surfer (Lorcan Finnegan, 2024). Nic Cage is a name that needs no introduction and seeing him go mad is always a pleasure and the hopes that new meme-worthy line-deliveries come are high. With a bloodthirsty crowd I can’t imagine this not being entertaining.
Next to the newer films we also get the pleasure to discover older classics (that, according to Brugggore, are to die for). A special mention must be made to the collaboration with Fantoche. With the Animation film festival, we get to see 3 anime horror classics by the great Yoshiaki Kawajiri: Demon City Shinjuku (Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1988), Ninja Scroll (Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1993) and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 2000). I can’t wait to see all of them, as I have a sweet spot for Anime in general. Kawajiri as co-founder of legendary Studio Madhouse is a name I can’t wait to discover (all three are introduced by a fellow filmstelle member even, a great honor). If you are still sad that you missed Suspiria last year, don’t worry, there is another Dario Argento film coming to Brugg this year. Opera (Dario Argento, 1987), a later Giallo film but that is all the more a reason for me to be excited about it. Argento has made some of my favorite movies and I am in awe every time I get to see another one of his bloody, stylish and amazingly sounding masterpieces. A last mention goes out to Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001). Maybe a teenage film for many of you, I saw it rather late but was still captivated by the style and rather unusual story about a young boy trying to make sense of life. Seeing it on the big screen would certainly be a treat and I can’t wait for it.
A last film I am very much looking forward to seeing is Escape from the 21st century (Li Yang, 2024). The whacky premise about three friends discovering that they can time travel with their sneezing sounds exactly like the kind of crazy that I hope to discover at Brugggore.
Many of the films and names are of course unfamiliar to myself, but I find that this is exactly what I am looking for in Festivals such as the Brugggore. It is clear that the festival refuses to really pander to the mainstream and prefers to really make their core audience, lovingly called maniacs, happy. I can’t wait to spend some more bloody, scarry, funny and crazy days in Brugg. We’ll see each other on the other side when I tell you which films you missed in Brugg.
Jérôme Bewensdorff
