August’s Arrow Video FrightFest was the first big UK film festival to take place in a physical space since the “before” times. The five-day event was a resounding (and safe) success, and allowed the horror loving community to once more experience the dark heart of cinema as one. The organisers are hoping to recreate this jubilant atmosphere with their Halloween event. This portion of FrightFest is historically only one day, but the four horsemen of horror are feeling generous and have expanded the event out to two days. Running on Friday 29th October and Saturday 30th October, the spooky extravaganza will premiere nine new horror offerings, traversing the globe to uncover the best of the best. Tickets go on sale this coming Saturday 2nd October, making today the perfect time to announce the line-up.
Kicking off the Black Friday gala ghoulishness is the UK premiere of The Seed, a gut-bursting alien creature feature from Screen ‘Star of Tomorrow’ director Sam Walker. Walker will be attending, alongside the main cast – Lucy Martin, Sophie Vavasseur and Chelsea Edge – and SFX maestro Dan Martin. This is followed by the UK premiere of Barbarians with Game of Thrones star Iwan Rheon. First-time director Charles Dorfman, who will be in attendance, alongside members of the cast, reveals his talent for Pinter-esque dialogue, multi-layered resonance and unsettling tone in this subtle shocker based around a birthday dinner party. Bringing the evening’s thrills to a fitting climax is the UK premiere of The Possessed. The director of Boar is back with a supernatural shocker inspired by true events and starring John Jarratt from Wolf Creek.
Scary Saturday begins with the UK premiere of hugely informative in-depth documentary Pennywise: The Story of IT. With contributions from Stephen King, Tim Curry and Tommy Lee Wallace, this is packed with little known details and rare behind-the-scenes footage, You could say, this is IT!
Next up is the World Premiere of the uniquely visionary Last Survivors, an intense and ultimately tragic study of isolation and family bonds, starring Stephen Moyer and Alicia Silverstone. Director Drew Mylrea will be joining us. The lonely, uncanny and often accidentally violent world of childhood is explored with chilling candour in The Innocents, which has its UK Premiere. Blind writer/director Eskil Vogt’s creepy art house horror has been winning major awards around the world. Next up is the UK premiere of Amulet, the feature film debut of distinguished actor Romola Garai. Romola will be attending to discuss her freaky and frightening chiller, which marks her as an audacious new horror auteur on the scene..
The 9pm presentation is the UK premiere of Veneciafrenia, Spanish horror icon Álex de la Iglesia’s shocking fable about tourism, and the final film is the International premiere of Miracle Valley, the astounding directorial debut of Greg Sestero, survivor and star of the cult midnight movie The Room.
Passes and tickets go on sale at noon on Saturday 2nd October. Prices are as follows; Full Pass – £69, Friday day pass – £30, Saturday day pass £50, single tickets – £15. To book ticket head to the FrightFest website.
