Best of Frightfest: As the twentieth anniversary of Arrow Video Frightfest approaches, we at team THN take a look back at some of the best and brightest films that have screened over the last two decades. Today’s selection isn’t one film, but a series of them, a series that began in 2006 with Hatchet.
Frightfest is known for being very supportive of new filmmakers. Not only do they give these filmmakers a platform to screen their films to their target audience, the team also support said filmmakers throughout their careers. This means that if you screen one film at Frightfest, the team will likely happily screen whatever you make next (as long as it fits in with the dark heart mantra). At this year’s Frightfest, amongst others, there are screenings of Tom Paton’s Stairs, which makes three years in a row that Paton has unveiled a film at the festival. There’s also the sophomore project from Some Kind of Hate‘s Adam Egypt Mortimer, Daniel Isn’t Real. They’ll even stick with a franchise – Adam Green’s Hatchet series is a perfect example.
To date, there have been four films in the series (Hatchet, Hatchet II, Hatchet III and Victor Crawley), which play equally for laughs and screams. All are set in Honey Island Swamp and see various characters get murdered in bloody brutal ways. The first film follows a group of tourists travelling the Bayou on a night-time haunted swamp tour. It’s a rather unsafe time to be taking a trip down the water though as the swamp is said to be haunted by the undead Victor Crowley, a deformed man whom murders people with a hatchet. The sequel follows the Halloween template with events picking-up immediately after the end of the first, and the third film picking-up just after the end of two. The fourth film, Victor Crowley, is set years later with one of the massacre survivors returning to the scene for a book signing. Once again, mayhem ensures and, as the films progress, the kills get more and more inventive.
A slasher is only as good as its monster, and Victor Crowley is way more intense than the likes of Michael Myers or Jason. He’s completely unbiased in who he slaughters, and is so strong, he can literally rip someone in two. Behind the heavy make-up is none other than Kane Hodder whom is most famous for having played Jason in several Friday the 13th films. For the first three films, Hodder pretty much just stomps around murdering folks, but the fourth film shines more light onto the Crowley character. Hodder isn’t the only horror star in the series though, as it’s filled with familar faces of the horror world. Stars including Danielle Harris, Robert Englund, Zach Galligan, and Tony Todd.
The series is a true comedy-horror slasher flick that is made to be watched in a crowd, making Frightfest the perfect fit. The audience fully embraced the first film, meaning that it was a no-brainer for Green to bring the next three instalments to the festival. The most recent one Victor Crawley was met with a standing ovation for Green, an accolade that has only happened twice in the festival’s twenty-year history.
Arrow Video Frightfest returns for its twentieth year on 22nd August 2019. Full details about the event can be found on the Frightfest website.
Kat Hughes is a UK born film critic and interviewer who has a passion for horror films. An editor for THN, Kat is also a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic. She has bylines with Ghouls Magazine, Arrow Video, Film Stories, Certified Forgotten and FILMHOUNDS and has had essays published in home entertainment releases by Vinegar Syndrome and Second Sight. When not writing about horror, Kat hosts micro podcast Movies with Mummy along with her five-year-old daughter.
