MANFISH **** UK 2022 Dir: Marc Coleman. 81 mins
The debut horror comedy from Marc Coleman premiered in January 2022 at Horror on Sea Film Festival, where it was well received.
The film follows Terry (Dean Kilbey) who spends hours down at the beach looking for seashells, where he meets Manfish (Matty Noble). This really is the making of Terry as he finds purpose in his miserable life. Although his girlfriend Tracy (Emma Stannard) tries to exploit the incident and sell Manfish to the highest bidder.
Brilliantly funny and bizarre, this is an ideal end to a horror marathon. Whilst it is a creature feature, we do get to see a softer side to Manfish.
Dean Kilbey is honestly fantastic playing down on his luck Terry and pairs brilliantly with Noble’s Manfish. Kilbey draws the audience in as we hope he can win over Manfish and find the courage to stand up to Tracy and his criminal brother. We feel sympathetic towards him, especially seeing the attitude he has to put up with from Tracy. Stannard portrays her so well that she becomes the opposite of Terry.
The film is a great watch and even adds some humanity into the storyline. There may not be much gore or many scares, but it works well.
Review by Poppy Blundell