London’s legendary FrightFest is celebrating 25 years of being the UK’s biggest horror and fantasy film festival with an absolutely stacked lineup of features hitting the capital later this year between August 22 and August 26.
Moving from its previous venue at Cineworld Leicester Square, the 25th edition of the fest will this year be held across two ODEON Luxe cinemas on Leicester Square.
The gargantuan lineup includes twenty-five main screen premieres and forty-five Discovery Screen titles, embracing the famed ‘First Blood’ strand, the latest genre documentaries, and some exciting restorations and retrospectives. Plus, there’s the regular short-film showcase (to be announced later), panels, and some surprise 25th edition extras. This year there are twenty-eight world premieres, with eleven countries represented, spanning four continents.
Co-director Alan Jones expressed his excitement for this celebrated anniversary:
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.
Full FrightFest festival and day passes will be on sale from noon BST on July 13, while single film tickets will be available from noon BST on July 20. Full lineup and ticket details can be found on the official FrightFest site.
Without further ado let’s dive into just a selection of what’s on offer, via FrightFest’s official press release:
The festival opens with the World premiere of BROKEN BIRD, the directorial debut feature from actress/filmmaker Joanne Mitchell. Based on an original story by Tracey Sheals and Mitchell’s subsequent award-winning short Sybil, this is an absorbing and disturbing tale about a mortician (played brilliantly by Rebecca Calder), whose dark desires are becoming more insatiable and progressively out of control.
The closing night film is the English premiere of THE SUBSTANCE, the second thrilling shocker (after Revenge) from French writer/director Coralie Fargeat. The Cannes 2024 award-winning sensation is a Visionary Feminist Body Horror, starring a fearless Demi Moore as fading celebrity Elizabeth Sparkle who uses a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
This year FrightFest celebrates a host of our past alumni and showcases their latest offerings. In the main screen we have BOOKWORM, which gloriously reunites the Come To Daddy team of star Elijah Wood and director Ant Timpson, AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH, the wordless flesh-eating creature feature from E.L. Katz, the director of Cheap Thrills; the lean, mean jolt of true crime horror INVADER from director Mickey Keating (Psychopaths), haunted house thriller GHOST GAME, the latest from Jill Gervargizian, director of The Stylist and André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) brings us his stunning Dracula adaptation, THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER, never shown in the UK before.
Other main screen attractions include the International premieres of AN TAIBHSE (THE GHOST), the first Irish Language horror film ever made, and THE DEAD THING, a stunning neo-realist take on ‘The Invisible Man’ for the online dating era. Then there are European premieres for JT Mollner’s twisty serial-killer chiller STRANGE DARLING,A DESERT, the powerful feature debut from Joshua Erkman and COLD WALLET, a witty, cyber suspense thriller presented by Steven Soderbergh. Plus, there is a World premiere for sci-fi high of the year TEST SCREENING, and UK premieres for the twisty, engrossing DEAD MAIL, gripping Luxembourgish drama THE LAST ASHES and post-apocalyptic thriller SURVIVE
Tales of supernatural terror are given contemporary twists this year with the dread-filled TRAUMATIKA, the hilarious male stripper caper MEMBER’S CLUB, with Steve Oram and Peter Andre, queer ghost story anthology HAUNTOLOGY, the visually haunting paranormal thriller SHELBY OAKS and LADYBUG, where a gay artist (Anthony Del Negro) is haunted by a homophobic serial-killer. Then there is DW Medoff’s I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE which explores personal mental health themes, and DARK MATCH, where wrestling champion Chris Jericho, comes up against some pretty hefty demons in the latest from Wolfcop director Lowell Dean.
This year’s Discovery strand once again reflects the festival’s legacy in championing emerging and established voices from across the world and sees the return of many talented filmmakers discovered over the years. Graham Skipper is back with his heart-felt post-apocalyptic tale THE LONELY MAN WITH THE GHOST MACHINE, which he directs and stars in. CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS is another signature fun, gory shocker from 19-year-old, transgender filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, who brought us T Blockers and Brian Hanson, director of The Black String, returns with THE BUNKER, an alien invasion shocker, which stars horror icons Tobin Bell and Tony Todd.
The range of documentaries on show further proves how important to film historians the genre strand has become with subjects such as exploration of tech-centric genre cinema (SO UNREAL), the rise of boutique specialty collector labels (BOUTIQUE: TO PRESERVE AND COLLECT), and the huge wealth of eaerly Millennial genre films (GENERATION TERROR). Then there is CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN, where Robin Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic journey through the complex nature of independent filmmaking and fatherhood.
From Japan we have the kiss-ass, time-altering A SAMURAI IN TIME and, to celebrate its 40th Anniversary, there is a screening of MERMAID LEGEND, a rare exploitation cult movie that has never played any film festival outside of its native Japan
Finally, FrightFest has once again teamed up with Warner Bros to celebrate the 40th anniversary of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Wes Craven’s classic shocker that re-energised the teens-in-terror stalk-and-slash cycle and proved getting a good night’s sleep can severely damage your health.
