A boy deals with the loss of his mother by creating a dangerous relationship with a monster rumoured to live in the woods. Grimmfest says:&nbsp;A feral fairytale of childhood alienation and escalating adolescent rage, this mixes the MidWest Magic Realism of Ray Bradbury with the unsentimental, ruthless clarity of S.E. Hinton's sour studies of teenage outsiderdom. There are echoes of Spielberg in the film's boy's-eye view of events, and of Guillermo del Toro and Issa Lopez in its deft melding of the fantastic and the realistic, the grounding of the allegorical elements with accumulated naturalistic detail, while the stark portrait of disaffected youth in some miserable small town environment recalls Tim Hunter's RIVER'S EDGE. But none of these points of reference quite capture the eerie uniqueness of the film's approach; the skilful interweaving of the more overt horror movie tropes within such a detailed and downbeat depiction of dead-end, small-town life, the way in which we are kept guessing about the exact nature of the creature, the Virago – very clearly a manifestation of the boy's own worst, darkest, most destructive and violent impulses, but is it real, or simply a product of an overly vivid and violent imagination? Sharply played, with a remarkable lead turn from August Maturo, and quite surprisingly brutal, both emotionally and literally, this is an off-beat, off-kilter gem.

SLAPFACE

Join Mariam as she chat's to director Jeremiah Kipp

SLAPFACE Q&A

17-year-old Sol and her mother move to a new town, and into the home of her mother's new boyfriend, Gonzalo. Encountering only hostility and bullying at her new and harassment from Gonzalo at home, Sol takes to the streets where she crosses paths with a mysterious white dog. From then on, any time she finds herself in danger, the dog appears, seemingly out of nowhere, to protect her... Grimmfest says:&nbsp;Thematically, something of a companion piece to SLAPFACE, this opts for a far more low-key approach; dialling the genre element right down and focusing almost entirely on the human drama. The protagonist here is slightly older, a teenage girl, and the creature she forms an unlikely bond with is less obviously supernatural; a mysterious feral white dog, which starts turning up to rescue her whenever she feels threatened, or in a situation outside of her control. Less a full on horror movie than a study of teenage alienation with a twist of dark urban fantasy, in which the dog serves as a highly ferocious concrete metaphor for the protagonist's escalating rage and anxiety, this is nevertheless a disquieting, and ultimately emotionally devastating film. The performances are strong, with Lu Grasso exceptional in the lead, there's a fine sense of place, and of the characters' small-town, dead-end existence, and the dog is both impressively fearsome and strangely appealing. Those of you who enjoyed TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID will want to check this one out.&nbsp;

THE NIGHT BELONGS TO MONSTERS

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Isle of Man

SLAPFACE & THE NIGHT BELONGS TO MONSTERS

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