Darren Tilby
- Sep 7, 2019
- 2 min read

Grimmfest 2019 Film Feature - Artik

Runtime: 78 mins

Starring: #ChaseWilliamson, #LaurenAshleyCarter, #JerryGAngelo, #MattMercer, #GavinWhite

Grimmfest Feature by: Darren Tilby

Synopsis: A comic book obsessed serial killer teaches his son how to get away with murder, until the boy befriends a mysterious man, Holton, who threatens to expose their horrifying family secret. As Holton gets closer to the truth, he must not only fight for the young boy’s life, but for his own.

Grimmfest say: Maybe Dr Fredric G. Wertham was right after all. Maybe comics are a bad influence… Tom Botchii’s feature film debut confronts the issue head on, in this contemporary rural Gothic spin on classic fairytale archetypes, as straight-edger Knight of Pure Heart, Horton (Chase Williamson from JOHN DIES AT THE END) is sent to rescue abducted children from the ogre Artik (the impressively brutish Jerry G. Angelo) and his monstrous wife, Flinn (Lauren Ashley Carter). Beautifully shot, with a fine eye for its New Mexico locations, and a great soundtrack, the film is as stark and brutal as a story by Flannery O’Connor, and offers a similarly extreme confrontation between opposing moralities. And if that all sounds a bit too high-falutin’, there’s also an impressively staged – and very brutal – knock-down, drag out fight between Carter and Williamson.

What I'm Expecting: One of the best films I saw at last year's #Grimmfest was a really interesting movie called I'll Take Your Dead. I'll Take Your Dead mixed a contemporary and isolated #rural setting, with a Grimm-like #gothic aesthetic. The excellent performances from the cast added real depth to their characters, and, despite the gruesome subject matter, the film served more as a character study for the central father-daughter relationship than it did as just another 'nasty' #horror film. What I'm saying is...more of that would most certainly be welcome. From what I've read, I believe #Artik will fail or succeed on the strength of its cast and the film-maker's ability to properly exploit the characters' situation and their relationships. This could be great, and I remain hopeful that it will be.