Fright Fest review: Finally a film named Fright Fest screens at Frightfest, but can it live up to its name?
Fright Fest review by Kat Hughes.
Fright Fest review
It was only a matter of time before a horror film decided to name itself Fright Fest. Whatever film that happened to be was destined to screen at Frightfest, but sadly, the Fright Fest film does not live up to the calibre of the festival.
Prolific horror film director Spencer Crowe (Dylan Walsh) has fallen from grace. A reputation as a drug-crazed lunatic has meant that no one in Hollywood wants to work with him. Meanwhile, the Mayor of Somertown needs to be re-elected. Desperate to appeal to voters, he has the ingenious idea to get the public onside by hosting an interactive scare attraction. And who better than Spencer Crowe to bring it to life? Disaster strikes on opening night when a bus full of prisoners crashes outside the site and the resident psychopath descends to unleash a whole lot of bloodshed.
If you read the above synopsis and thought ‘this sounds rather cliched’ you would be very, very right. Fright Fest is one of those horror films that we’ve seen time and time again. It offers nothing in terms of progression, and if anything, actually goes a few steps backwards with its treatment of women and minority characters. The female characters all seem to be there to be starred at, perved on, dressed in fetish costumes, stripped, or just plain ignored. The character of Finkle, a dwarf, is treated even worse, used as a glorified beer opener by Crowe and constantly belittled and berated by everybody else.
Fright Fest review
No one gets any character development and all are there to just be fodder for the psycho. Even he isn’t that interesting and is something of a contradiction too. When we are first introduced to him, he’s the strong silent Jason Voorhees type, but a couple of kill’s in he’s a wise-cracking Freddy Krueger. It’s confusing. Worse still, the deaths really aren’t that good either.
A sad and sorry slasher film that somehow manages to take the genre back in time – a time that many had hoped was over. Lacking the fun nature that we have come to expect, Fright Fest just feels like one big misogynistic and politically incorrect mess.
Fright Fest review by Kat Hughes, August 2018.
Fright Fest screened at Arrow Video Frightfest 2018. It arrives on DVD via Signature and Frightfest Presents later this year.
