FrightFest review – I Am Monsters!
Written by, directed by, starring and about Nicholas Vince, this is an adaptation of the actor-author-genre fixture’s autobiographical one-man show … it’s kind of like being trapped in a lift with Nick as he talks about some gruesome medical work he had done, though the stories of skull surgery are soon topped by the suffering he was put through by Clive Barker and his merry band of special effects sadists on the sets of the first two Hellraiser (Nick played the Chatterer cenobite, aka Poor Bastard) films and Nightbreed. It intercuts segments recorded on stage with an audience with to-camera narration, illustrated by some fun animations – including an illustrated passage from Bram Stoker which lands this in the Your Daily Dracula archive and a hilarious Trumpton-look version of that time Nick was knocked down by a green van in Crouch End. Vince talks about his school days, fascination with monsters, the ups and downs of a regular showbusiness career and being gay in the days of Thatcher, AIDS and laws against the promotion of homosexuality (which he retroactively breaks with a commercial for gayness). It was a sharp, fast, fun evening out at the theatre, with a couple of thought-provoking footnotes – and the film keeps it moving sweetly.
Here’s the FrightFest listing.
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