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Making Polterheist, an Interview with Dave Gilbank

17 Feb

Director Dave Gilbank.jpgBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

  • Extended cut and reprinted from
    Absolute Underground Magazine with permission.
  • Movie Available on Amazon UK

How can anyone go wrong with a crime heist type film with supernatural elements mixed in? When the budget is tight, and you are dealing with a possession scenario, it has all the makings of going either way. In what I found when watching this indie work is a huge respect and perfect use of the tropes commonly found in a ghost story.

Quite often, it is not about the scares that can take place. Instead, it’s with how unfinished business gets resolved, especially by those whose life gets cut short. In this hilarious mashup of drama and comedy, I was certainly hooked. This mini-review serves as my intro to Dave Gilbank, the writer-director of Polterheist. He’s been making independent works for about 15 years, and is now based in the UK–the place to experience many a classic haunt due to its millennia-old history–and I had to ask how this story came about.

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Independent Film Shows Taking it “Easy” is Hardly That

13 Feb

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

* Spoiler Alert

Life is never easy for anyone, ever. Isidoro (Nicola Nocella) had a chance for doing great things, but in whatever happened in his early career from transitioning from a champion go-kart racer to Formula One, it all came crashing down. This detail is important and gets explored in the comedy-drama simply known as Easy. This film’s title is also the nickname given to this protagonist

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The Power of Myth in Mirai no Mirai & Shintoism

11 Feb

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Mamoru Hosoda‘s Mirai no Mirai (未来のミライ) will get a North American home video release on April 9th, 2019 through GKIDs, but I had to see this title on the big screen first! It was this year’s Jammies and Toons selection at the Victoria Film Festival; they often feature an anime. This part of the show is one I’m always there for, and they sometimes promote it as part of Canada’s Family Day celebrations when the dates line up. This work by Studio Chizu is certainly the perfect choice.

This movie is jovial and very reassuring in teaching attention-seeking Kun (voiced by Jaden Waldman in the dub and Moka Kamishiraishi in the original) how family matters. Every time he acts up and tries to run away, his world gets turned upside down ala Alice in Wonderland. The Lewis Carroll references are light, but Tick-Tock if the time runs out, he better get the moral of what’s being taught to him Charles Dickens style, lest he gets forgotten. His parents are generally forgiving, but sometimes they feel too exasperated.

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Seder-Masochism, An Animated Magnum Opus

7 Feb

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Seder-Masochism is an animated film that’s not easy to classify. In one level, it’s a very loose retelling of Passover Seder, and in another, it’s an animated Broadway musical! One part developed to entertain and another part attacking the patriarchy within organised religion, I’m not certain if I should worry. I have my own opinion about following the light and never patronise how others follow God.

With this work, the events from the Book of Exodus are retold by Moses, Aharon, the Angel of Death, Jesus, and the director’s own father. The Goddesses, humanity’s earliest deities, are well represented. Presented are effigies of Lilith, Catal Huyuk, the Venus of Hohle Fels and the Venus of Willendorf. Great Isis is just as important, and a lot of time is spent interpreting what this ancient Egyptian culture’s spiritual path is like. Much of it is accurate, including the roles she played in Greco-Roman times. With these character designs, the way these Egyptian figures look suggests a sense of worry because of what’s looming.

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