As we all know, the world is getting hotter. So this August Bank Holiday weekend cool down with a gorenucopia of chillers at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2023. The sponsor may have changed, but this year’s festival of the macabre promises to deliver the same shocking, thrilling, and mind-blowing cinema fans expect.
From Thursday 24th to Monday 28th August, the Cineworld Leicester Square will play host to 70 FrightFest movies across four screens. A horrifyingly strong line-up boasts 25 world premieres, 23 international or European premieres, and 12 UK premieres. Fans know FrightFest welcomes audiences into a world of horror, and 2023 is no exception. The FrightFest team have drawn together those 70 movies from 14 countries, including the US, Germany, Japan, Finland, South Korea, and dear ol’ Blighty.
One more figure: FrightFest 2023 is the festival’s 24th unbroken year (yep, they went online during Covid). A remarkable achievement, which builds anticipation for that quarter century anniversary next year.
But enough of the facts and figures, which movies should you check out? Below are the 10 we’re most anticipating, but a few honourable mentions before then. Cobweb we have already been able to see, and this fairy tale infused frightener delivers good jolts of panic and a brace of unhinged performances from Lizzy Caplan and The Boy’s Anthony Starr.
The haunting Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives is a single-take shocker from Germany, while Founders Day is a bloody, political satire from the team that brought the lively She Came from the Woods to FrightFest last year. The Scandinavian Good Boy looks to give “puppy love” a whole new meaning, while the festival welcomes its first film from the Philippines, the action-thriller Topaak/Trigger. Plus, its first Greek entry, the bizarre action-comedy fantasy Minore.
18-year-old Australian transgender filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay delivers the attention-grabbing possession horror T Blockers, while trans icon Eddie Izzard leads a reimagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s horror classic in Doctor Jekyll.
FrightFest is also the home of first-class documentaries. We chose one for our 10 must-see movies, but shout-outs also to Enter the Clones of Bruce Lee, [REC]: Terror Without Pause, 1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever, and The Darkside of Society.
On Bank Holiday Monday evening, Mark Kermode will host a special 50th anniversary screening of The Exorcist (pictured above). An event given added poignancy due to the sad passing of director William Friedkin this month.
Check out the full line-up of Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2023 movies here. Now onto those films sending extra special shivers of excitement down our spines.
SUITABLE FLESH (Opening Film – European Premiere)
(Thursday 24th – Main Screen – 5.45pm)
“No more questions,” says Heather Graham at the end of the Suitable Flesh teaser trailer, while brandishing a knife in a man’s face. But you will have so many questions, because this literal teaser reveals little but promises plenty. There seems to be lashings of lust and lethality, in a hospital setting. Plus a suggestion of an H.P. Lovecraft influence (including the credit-boast “Filmed in CthuluScope”). Horror icon Barbara Crampton joins Graham for the messy fun and Mayhem director Joe Lynch is calling the shots. Making this a FrightFest opener to get your flesh suitably tingling.
THE DIVE (UK Premiere)
(Thursday 24th – Main Screen – 8.25pm)
Survival horror is an evergreen subgenre, and one that often ends up in the water. Typically with a shark. This German thriller, based on the 2020 Swedish hit Breaking Surface, seems to be fin-free, but still looks like a deep-dive into suspense. When two sisters go deep sea scuba diving, a landslide leaves one of them pinned beneath rocks and running out of air. The other tries a desperate rescue attempt, but danger is always close-by. We watched a little of the trailer, but it looked so good we stopped, so the thrills will come fresh and fast when we check this one out.
THE J-HORROR VIRUS (World Premiere)
(Friday 25th – 11am, Sunday 27th – 8.50pm – Discovery Screen 2)
Two years ago, Sarah Appleton co-directed and co-wrote the thrilling and illuminating The Found Footage Phenomenon. Now Appleton has teamed up with Japanese horror expert Jasper Sharp to surf the wave of J-Horror that dominated the globe at the turn of the millennium. Heavyweights Kurosawa (Pulse) Kiyoshi, Shimizu (Ju-on) Takashi, and Takahashi (Ring) Hiroshi are among the interviewees discussing why this Japanese horror caught such a mood, and endures to this day. The Found Footage Phenomenon was the best documentary of FrightFest 2021. We’re guessing The J-Horror Virus is a strong contender for the same in 2023.
MONOLITH (UK Premiere)
(Saturday 26th – Main Screen – 10.45am)
FrightFest likes serving up a good head-scrambler, and Saturday morning seems to be the slot of choice. Last year was Moorhead and Benson’s excellent Something in the Dirt. This year it is the Australian chiller Monolith. A tale of a disgraced journalist-turned-podcaster who becomes obsessed with what she believes is proof of alien intelligence, we’re guessing it delivers intriguing puzzle-box movie suspense. Evil Dead Rise star Lily Sullivan reportedly carries the movie single-handedly, supported by what looks to be a breathtaking bit of imposing architecture.
HOSTILE DIMENSIONS (World Premiere)
(Saturday 26th – 3.25pm, Monday 28th – 1.20pm – Discovery Screen 3)
Two words best describe why we’re so excited about this one: Graham Hughes. In 2019, Hughes wrote, produced, directed, and starred in (oh, and edited too) Death of a Vlogger. That film was an impressive mockumentary, with genuine chills and an acidly wry dissection of social media stardom. Hughes is on all those filmmaking duties again for his latest movie, which looks to challenge Monolith as the festival’s biggest head-scrambler. Two documentary filmmakers discover a portal to other dimensions and go searching for a vanished graffiti artist. The teaser suggests Moorhead and Benson-style plotting, fused with the low-budget high-inventiveness filmmaking that made Death of a Vlogger such a winner.
FARANG (UK Premiere)
(Saturday 26th – Main Screen – 8.45pm)
Director Xavier Gens will be no stranger to FrightFest audiences. Frontier(s), The Divide, Cold Skin, and the TV series Gangs of London have built him a loyal following. Farang is action-thriller rather than horror, with emphasis on crunchy mayhem if the trailer is anything to go by. Meaning you need to watch this decent-guy-pushed-to-his-limits movie with a FrightFest crowd. Believe us, there is nothing finer than experiencing an outrageous flick with the FF audience. The whoops and applause greeting every OTT moment will leave you giddy and grinning.
PIPER (World Premiere)
(Sunday 27th – Main Screen – 10.45am)
Director Anthony Waller has made seven films in 34 years, and is best known for his 1995 belter Mute Witness. We’re always intrigued when he releases a new movie, even when it bites us (ahem, An American Werewolf in Paris?). Piper is his first film in 13 years, and we’re quietly hopeful it will carry some of that Mute Witness magic. Elizabeth Hurley plays a history teacher who relocates to Hamelin, Germany with her young daughter. When dark secrets from her history are revealed, the teacher discovers the figure of the Pied Piper may be more than a mere story. Colour us curious…
RAGING GRACE (English Premiere)
(Sunday 27th – Main Screen – 6.15pm)
Paris Zarcilla’s debut takes its FrightFest bow having won Best Narrative Feature at SXSW earlier this year. Early reviews promise a socio-political view of the immigrant experience through a horror lens. Max Eigenmann plays Joy, an undocumented Filipina housekeeper struggling to make ends meet and raising for her daughter. She seems to land the perfect job caring for a wealthy, terminally ill old man. But, when Joy’s daughter discovers all is not what it seems, Joy must fight to keep everything she has worked for. We’re hoping this delivers on the promise of its timely premise…
MY MOTHER’S EYES (International Premiere)
(Monday 28th – Main Screen – 11am)
Okay, here’s another contender for best head-scrambler of FrightFest 2023. Well, mind-bending cinema is what the festival is all about. Kushida Takeshi’s latest movie looks to blend twisted family relationships, twisted realities, and twisted technologies in one mouthwatering package. The teaser is giving us shades of Tsukamoto Shin’ya, Miike Takashi, and David Cronenberg. All of which makes this a must-see in our eyes.
THE SACRIFICE GAME (Closing Film – European Premiere)
(Monday 28th – Main Screen – 9.15pm)
Like Hostile Dimensions, there are two words for why we’re so excited about The Sacrifice Game. The two words this time are Jenn Wexler. Wexler made her directorial debut with the witty, snotty, and oh-so-bloody The Ranger, which opened FrightFest back in 2018. The wait for a follow-up is over and her sophomore outing is set to close this year’s festival. Two girls are trapped in an elite boarding school over Christmas with demon summoning occultists. Quite a story starter for a film that reportedly taps into the vibe of such classics as Black Christmas and The Evil Dead. FrightFest has a proud tradition of shooting the summer season with a great festive movie. The Sacrifice Game looks to continue the trend.
So, those are our 10. Let’s see how close to the mark we were come the festival’s end. But, as is tradition, the closing words go to FrightFest co-director Alan Jones:
“FrightFesters will experience an amazing variety of films, in an eclectic line-up which serves as a powerful tool of democracy, activism, diversity, inclusivity and social awareness. As always, FrightFest is keen to show, through an open-minded philosophy, that the most unexpected and delightful discoveries happen when wide-ranging topics, different people and varied cultures come together in horror harmony.”
OFFICIAL PIGEON SHRINE FRIGHTFEST 2023 SITE
Rob Daniel
Twitter: rob_a_Daniel
Letterboxd: RobDan
Podcast: The Movie Robcast
