This August Bank Holiday Weekend, FrightFest, one of the UK’s most important film festivals and the most important for horror movie devotees, reaches its 25th anniversary. Back in 2000, it screened 17 movies across four days at London’s Prince Charles Cinema. Including Miike Takashi’s Audition, just as the world was beginning to look East for its chills. FrightFest has always led the conversation when it comes to the best in macabre movies.
Since then the festival has evolved, expanding the number of films shown and the size of its venue. This year, the Pigeon Shrine FrightFest will showcase 69 movies from Thursday 22nd to Monday 26th August.
25 films will play the main screen. Over 40 on the Discovery Screens. 28 movies will be world premieres. There are new films, restored classics brought back to the big screen, and exciting new voices in the First Blood strand.
A festival this size requires a mighty venue. This year FrightFest will take over all seven screens at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, the flagship cinema of London’s West End. A fitting place for a festival celebrating 25 years of thrilling and delighting movie fans.
Now it may sound odd to say a horror film festival has something for everyone. But FrightFest isn’t just a guts n’ gore grindhouse fest. Patrons wanting outrageous splatter will find their needs met, but this is a festival whose best movies engage the brain rather than the stomach.
The opening film Broken Bird is the feature debut from cult horror actress Joanne Mitchell, and is an absorbing, disquieting tale of obsession and madness. House of the Dragon’s Rebecca Calder is a sensitive mortician who discovers reality is not what it used to be.
Closing film The Substance also suggests reality is a slippery beast. The sophomore feature from Coralie Fargeat (who impressed with her debut, 2017’s Revenge), it asks the question, if you could share your life with a better version of yourself, would you? Drawing comparisons with John Carpenter and Brian De Palma, The Substance also brings star wattage to the cast, with Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid.
Those two films are officially sold out, but like all good film festivals returns may be available on the day for those turning up to try their luck.
Plenty else is on offer too. Bella Thorne stars as a teenage serial killer in Saint Clare, and another to look out for is E.L. Katz’s flesh-eating creature feature Azrael: Angel of Death, starring Ready or Not‘s Samara Weaving. Katz’s Cheap Thrills is one of the best hidden gems of the 2010s, and Weaving is always on good form, so we’re excited for this one.
An Taibhse (The Ghost) is the first Irish language horror film ever made, The Dead Thing is an unusual take on The Invisible Man, updated for the modern dating era, and Cold Wallet, a cyber-suspense comedy-thriller is presented by Hollywood legend Steven Soderbergh. Arriving fresh from its triumph at FrightFest Glasgow earlier in the year is The Invisible Raptor, a monster hit guaranteed to bring down the house.
The best of British horror is represented by full-blooded, twisted fairytale Cinderella’s Curse, avenging angel movies Cara and Charlotte, and the cat-and-mouse jolts of Never Have I Ever.
FrightFest veterans know that some of the fest’s best movies are to be found in the documentary strand. Of the docs playing this year, Generation Terror, about the explosion of Millennial genre films, and Boutique: To Preserve and Collect, about the rise of specialty film collector labels, both caught our eye.
Those wanting their boundaries of taste and decency tested may want to check out the memorably monikered Canadian monster mash Scared Shitless, or from France the revenge-thriller Schlitter: Evil in the Woods or the shocking and delirious Scarlet Blue.
One of the best horror movies ever made, hell, one of the best movies ever made period is Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. FrightFest is putting it where it belongs, back on the big screen for a 40th anniversary screening. This classic shocker is a belter with an audience, so we heartily recommend checking out Freddy Krueger’s terrifying debut outing. Speaking of 80s classic, the new 4K restoration of the Rutger Hauer shocker The Hitcher is also showing, in the main Odeon screen no less.
Yet this merely scratches the surface of what is on offer. Check out the full programme for all the treats in store, and ticket booking information here.
And as is custom, the final word is given to FrightFest co-director and all-round horror guru Alan Jones:
“FrightFest, the Dark Heart of Cinema, has been beating loud and proud now for an amazing 25 years. An incredible quarter of a century that has seen major challenges and transformations to the global film industry that FrightFest has embodied, embraced and emblazoned. Our past 25 glorious years have shown FrightFest in a state of continuous evolution, something we are determined will never, ever stop. So let the 25th Anniversary FrightFest begin”.
Rob Daniel
Letterboxd: RobDan
Podcast: The Movie Robcast
