STURDAY at Grimmfest 2017 saw one of the standout films at this year’s festival in Benjamin Barfoot’s violent, hilarious horror-comedy, Double Date.
The Devon born director’s first feature film takes the always great concept of women luring unsuspecting men to their death and injects so much humour that a lot of the time, it feels like a pure comedy film.
Writer and lead actor Danny Morgan as Jim, is an immediately loveable character due to his extreme awkwardness around women. He and best friend Alex (Michael Socha – This Is England) think they’ve hit the jackpot when they cross paths with sisters, Kitty and Lulu (Kelly Wenham and Georgia Groome) but are in for a rather different kind of ‘memorable night’.
Double Date is impressively violent while always keeping its humorous tone. The third act in particular really ramps up the brutality in some scenes but the dialogue is so unlike what you would expect to hear in these kind of situations in a film that it gives the film a freshness.
It is awkward humour done brilliantly and there is one ‘family birthday party’ scene in particular that Danny Morgan spoke about in the Q&A that followed the screening: “The actor that played my sister in the film is actually a comedian and writes comedy songs. I asked her to write me the cringeiest family song possible and when she played it for me the first time, my skin turned inside out. It was perfect.”
For being a story that is actually based around these two women luring men to their deaths for a blood sacrifice to bring their father back to life, it is actually rather charming. The relationship between Jim and Lulu (Georgia Groome – Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) is played out wonderfully by the two actors as these characters come to actually care for each other.
Double Date is hands-down the best film of the festival so far for me. Great film. Highly recommended #Doubledate #Grimmfest2017 #Grimmfest
— Odders_uk (@RikIsRetro) October 7, 2017
Not only does the film have this oddly charming feel, its humour, its surprisingly brutal violence AND its climactic blood sacrifice but it also has an incredible amount of style. The soundtrack by the band Goat is a major player in creating the stylish feel and cameos by the likes of Dexter Fletcher (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and rapper Big Narstie just give more reason for Double Date to go on and become somewhat of a ‘cult classic’
The film clearly had a lot of love behind it and it is a joy to see all the aspects of creating a film come together so well.
Thanks @grimmfest for an amazing screening we had a blast! pic.twitter.com/otuP6a1Jbq
— Danny Morgan (@DannyMorgan83) October 8, 2017
It’s a film that will not be forgotten soon as it is one of those purely fun horror films that are so easy and enjoyable to watch. You should be keeping your eyes on this one. You will not be disappointed.
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