Arrow Video FrightFest 2nd Digital Edition, Feature Film Line-Up, Ticket Links, Images & Some Bloody Great Trailers!
We're in strange times right now and whilst we can't do all things we want to, we can still watch films and enjoy a little escapism. And although many film festivals have been cancelled in the physical sense, we can still enjoy the latest festival films digitally, films that we may otherwise not have a chance to see.
So thanks to the wonderful guys at FrightFest, we can once again enjoy watching some of the best, of the latest independent genre films from across the world.
Watch all the trailers in one go on the BritFlicks Youtube Channel ►
HELD (World Premiere) ARROW VIDEO SCREEN - WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER. 18:30
Directors: Chris Lofing & Travis Cluff. With Jill Awbrey, Bart Johnson, Rez Kempton, Zack Gold. USA 2020. 94 mins.
Outline: Emma and Henry's marriage is losing its spark. In an effort to reconnect on their 9-year anniversary, they vacation to a remote luxury rental, complete with automated smart house features and integrated security. After suspecting a nighttime intruder however, they decide to flee, only to become forcibly trapped inside by the all-encompassing technology. Then a Voice tells them their entire movements are being watched, revealing intimate knowledge about their relationship. As events get more brutal and dehumanizing, Emma and Henry must work together to uncover the truth and find a way out before it's too late.
THE SINNERS (UK Premiere) ARROW VIDEO SCREEN - WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER. 21:00
Director: Courtney Paige. With: Kaitlyn Bernard, Brenna Llewellyn, Brenna Coates, Keilani Elizabeth Rose. USA 2020. 90 mins.
Outline: Seven A-list students from a religious town get a lot more than they bargain for when they dabble in the occult. Calling themselves the Seven Deadly Sins, one of them confesses all their wrongdoings to the local pastor and the stakes get raised. Suddenly the fun games and sexy attic rituals cause one of them to end up dead. And the cat and mouse games begin. Who is killing them and how will they ever get their perfectly ‘innocent’ school lives back? Who can they really trust and who will help them find their way back to the light?
SACRIFICE (World Premiere) ARROW VIDEO SCREEN - THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER. 18.00
Directors: Andy Collier & Toor Mian. With: Barbara Crampton, Sophie Stevens, Ludovic Hughes, Lukas Loughran. USA 2020. 87 mins.
Outline: Barbara Crampton, the hardest working horror actor and The First Lady of FrightFest, returns to her UK homebase with a cosmic chiller from directors Andy Collier and Toor MIan, the team behind CHARISMATA. After the death of his mother, New York-based Isaac and his pregnant wife Emma return to the Norwegian village on a remote island of his birth to deal with an unexpected inheritance. There they find themselves caught in a waking nightmare as an ancient frightening evil is awakened to claim the colour of madness in a birthright of its own.
STRANGER (UK Premiere) HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN - THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER. 18:15
Director: Dmitriy Tomapolskiy. With: Anastasiya Yevtushenko, Darya Tregubova, Maria Bruni. Ukraine 2019 85 mins
Outline: Inspector Gluhovsky, whose track record in solving cases is unrivalled, is assigned the case of the mysterious disappearance of a team of six synchronized swimmers during their performance at a water therapy clinic. How could they suddenly vanish into thin air? Five years later, she dives into an apparently similar case: the unexplained evaporation of a woman from a bath in a locked room built alongside a sewage purifying treatment facility. How are these cases connected and how does a doll with real hair relate to it? As Gluhovsky investigates, she also has to find out who she really is.
THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE (European Premiere) ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN - THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER. 18:30
Director: Derek Carl. With: Rachael Perrell Fosket, Patrick D. Green, David Withers, Jason Reynolds. USA 2020. 97 mins.
Outline: From the brains of two besotted fans, director Derek Carl and writer Hank Huffman, comes a loving, note-for-note, pitch-perfect recreation of one of the greatest cult B-movies. THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE (1962) related the doom-laden fable of a doctor experimenting with transplant techniques to keep his girlfriend's head alive when decapitated in a car crash. His hunt for a new body continues in full-colour this time as the cheeky new version takes account of its forward-thinking social issues, from gender inequality, to bodily autonomy, to sexual repression, and gives them a fresh coat of silly camp paint.
DANGEROUS TO KNOW (World Premiere) ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN -THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER. 21:00
Director: David Simpson. With: David Simpson, Demelza Randall, Andrew Robert Wilson, James An. Canada 2020. 183 mins.
Outline: Best known for his award-winning speculative sci-fi series, POST-HUMAN, join director David Simpson on an epic journey employing the Zeigarnik effect, a psychological consequence that continually resets the viewer’s attention span by giving their minds new mysteries to ponder. A troubled young woman recovers from a suicide attempt in a secluded cabin, but when a series of unexplained and terrifying incidents occur, she realizes someone-or something-has a far darker future planned for her. A psychological thriller, filled to the brim with intelligent philosophy, existentialism, post-trauma family dynamics, and even the meaning of life itself.
THE BANISHING (UK Premiere) HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN - THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER. 21:15
Director: Chris Smith. With: Jessica Brown Findlay, John Lynch, Sean Harris, John Heffernan. UK 2020. 97 mins.
Outline: Hosting the premieres of CREEP, SEVERANCE, BLACK DEATH, TRIANGLE and DETOUR, FrightFest has a long history with director Chris Smith. So we are delighted to showcase his latest pre World War II horror about the most haunted house in England. Reverend Linus, his scandal-ridden new wife Marianne and her daughter move into a manor with a terrifying secret. When a vengeful spirit haunts the little girl and threatens to tear the family apart, they are forced to confront their beliefs and turn to black magic by seeking the help of famous occultist Harry Price or risk losing their daughter.
DEAD (UK Premiere) THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 21:30
Director: Hayden J. Weal. With: Thomas Sainsbury, Hayden J. Weal, Jess Sayer, Jennifer Ward-Leland. New Zealand 2020. 90 mins.
Outline: A laugh-out-loud comedy horror buddy murder mystery… with ghosts. Marbles, a hapless stoner, can see dead people, thanks to a homemade drug. Officer Tagg, a recently deceased wannabe super-cop is on the trail of a serial killer. So when Marbles’ mum plans to sell the family farm, and the only way of buying it is taking the money offered by Tagg in exchange for his help, Marbles accepts. Will the unlikely duo of directionless medium and ghost cop get over their prejudices and navigate their way through ghouls, perverts, a mysterious hooded figure, and an unexpected shot at love.
DEAD will be available on Digital Download in the UK 27th October 2020
DON’T LOOK BACK (European Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 13:00
Director: Jeffrey Reddick. With: Kourtney Bell, Will Stout, Skyler Hart, Jeffrey Holm. USA 2020. 90 mins.
Outline: From Jeffrey Reddick, creator of the FINAL DESTINATION franchise, a thrilling new take on supernatural karma and its horrific consequences. Caitlin Kramer is a young woman trying to overcome her traumatic past. Walking through the park one day she sees a man brutally assaulted. But, instead of becoming a Good Samaritan, like her, no one intervenes to stop the attack. Instead they all start filming the shocking event with their smart phones, recording every bloody detail. Soon the uncaring witnesses find themselves targeted by someone – or something – out for revenge. Can Caitlin avoid her inevitable fate?
THE RETURNED (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 13:15
Director: Laura Casabé. With: Alberto Ajaka, Edgardo Castro, Javier Drolas, Lali Gonzalez. Argentina 2020. 92 mins.
Outline: The Argentina powerhouse writer/director Laura Casabé, who graced FrightFest 2016 with the unique surrealist thriller BENAVIDEZ’S CASE, returns with her most astonishing and shocking horror to date. A period drama unlike any other, the place is South America, the time 1919. The indigenous people of the Guarani tribe has either been exterminated or reduced to servitude. Julia, the wife of a wealthy landowner, gives birth to her third dead child. In desperation, she begs Kerana, her indigenous housekeeper with ancient powers, to bring him back to life. And indeed she does, but not alone!
WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 13:30
Director: Takeshi Kushida. With: Toshiaki Inomata, Toki Koinuma, Hideki Nagai, Itsuki Otaki. Japan 2020. 89 mins.
Outline: From debut director Takeshi Kushida, a captivating and visually magnificent romantic thriller. Solitary photographer Kai is afraid of women. This doesn’t keep him from shamelessly retouching their photos when asked because he’s expert with the Photoshop brush. On a forest trek, he encounters Kyoko, a model with a fresh scar on her chest. Asking Kai if he can erase the scar in future photographs so her social media profile can keep growing, soon she grows hesitant to show her followers an increasingly manufactured version of herself. And Kai is motivated for the first time to challenge his feminine perceptions.
THE PALE DOOR (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 15:30
Director: Aaron B. Koontz. With: Melora Walters, Natasha Bassett, Zachary Knighton, Noah Segan. USA 2020. 96 mins.
Outline: The legendary Dalton Gang battles a coven of bloodthirsty witches in a hybrid Western horror with gunfights and gore. After gang leader Duncan reluctantly recruits his straight-arrow younger brother Jake to participate in their next great train robbery he’s seriously wounded when the heist goes sideways. Finding shelter in a seemingly uninhabited ghost town, Jake seeks help for their wounded leader and is surprised to stumble upon a welcoming brothel in the town's square. But the beautiful women who greet them are actually a coven of witches with very sinister plans for the unsuspecting outlaws, especially the virgin among them.
BREEDER (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 15:45
Director: Jens Dahl. With Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Anders Heinrichsen|, Signe Egholm, Olsen Morten Holst, Denmark, 2019, 107 mins
Outline: A renowned health supplement company, run by a ruthless businesswoman, is selecting and abducting young women as part of an experiment bio-hacking babies’ DNA to enable her clients to reverse the aging process. When Mia goes to investigate, she finds herself trapped, branded and tortured in a grim underground facility. Familiar faces start to appear, and she realises that she is not alone in this. Can she somehow find inner strength and escape from the nightmare?
TAILGATE (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 16:00
Director: Lodewijk Crijns. With: Jeroen Spitzenberger, Anniek Pheifer, Roosmarijn van der Hoek, Liz Vergeer. The Netherlands 2019. 82 mins.
Outline: A Dutch DUEL with a ferocious bite. Hans is a self-confident, cocksure man who decides to visit his parents on the other side of the country. With his wife and two young daughters along for the ride, the road trip goes well. Until a road raging, traffic fight with a weird van driver causes a major family upset. Ed, the van driver, wants revenge and follows the family making their journey an assault course death trap. With Hans’ ego on maximum overdrive, he starts to lose control of himself as Ed pushes every fearful and vulnerable button.
THE OWNERS (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 18:15
Director: Julius Berg. With: Maisie Williams, Sylvester McCoy, Rita Tushingham, Jake Curran. UK 2020. 91 mins
Outline: The seventh ‘Doctor Who’, Sylvester McCoy, and Swinging Sixties icon Rita Tushingham take on Maisie Williams (Arya Stark in ‘Game of Thrones’) in the Home Invasion horror adapted from the graphic novel ‘Une Nuit de Pleine Lune’ from legendary creators Hermann and Yves H. One night in 1990s rural England, a retired couple finds their isolated house besieged by a gang of young criminals. The thieves think it will be easy to make them give up the secret of their safe. But they have no idea what nightmare they’ve gotten themselves into as they fight to escape the house alive.
BABYSITTER MUST DIE (World Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 18:45
Director: Kohl Glass. With: Kristen Marie Jensen, Nathan Stevens, Scarlett Hazen, Riley Scott. USA 2020. 90 mins
Outline: When a Mustard Scout faces a life or death test will she have what it takes to survive? Babysitter Josie Jane just found the perfect hiding spot for a game of hide-and-seek with the child in her care. Seconds later, the family's home is invaded by a pack of brutal cultists, hunting down an apocalyptic secret hidden within its walls. They terrorize the family. But they don't know about Josie. Armed with useful skills she learned in childhood, Josie fights the cult - and her own fears - through a long night of terror and a world of shattering twists.
CONCRETE PLANS (World Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 19:00
Director: Will Jewell. With: Amber Rose Revah, James Lance, Kevin Guthrie, Charley Palmer Rothwell. UK 2020. 91 mins.
Outline: High in the remote Welsh mountains, five builders are bought together to renovate a sprawling old farmhouse. Housed in mouldy Portacabins, tensions soon simmer amongst the men and between the self-entitled aristocratic homeowner. World-weary old-timer Dave and kindly Foreman Bob try to keep the peace. But his nephew Steve falls under the malign influence of bigot Jim, the pair taking a dislike to Ukranian Viktor. As the weather closes in and payments are late, tempers fray. Blood is spilled. As the blue-collar men are confronted with an increasingly dark spiral of moral choices, Jim makes an astonishing proposition.
THE RECKONING (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 21:00
Director: Neil Marshall. With: Joe Anderson, Charlotte Kirk, Sean Pertwee, Steven Waddington. UK 2020. 110 mins.
Outline: England. 1665. The great plague has caused a frenzy of fear, distrust and death. Desperate and terrified, the population turns to superstition, the Catholic Church taking cruel advantage of the grim witch-hunting opportunities presented. Recently widowed Grace Haverstock is at her wit’s end when her landlord attempts to force her into paying debts with sexual favours. Her refusal means she must face horrific interrogations at the hands of Britain’s most ruthless Witchfinder General. But she is not alone. And her journey won’t end here. Not without a reckoning. From Neil Marshall, director of THE DESCENT, DOG SOLDIERS, DOOMSDAY and CENTURION.
BUTCHERS (UK Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 21:15
Director: Adrian Langley. Cast: Simon Phillips, Michael Swatton, Julie Mainville, Anne-Carolyne Binette, James Hicks, Blake Canning, Nick Allan. Canada, 2020, 133 mins.
Outline: After their car breaks down, four youths find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. One pair stay with the car whilst the other pair of friends head-off to find help. Little do they know they are being watched. Both group soon fall captive to a family of sadistic butchers, keeping their ‘fresh meat’ tied up in their wooden outhouse. With hints of WRONG TURN, the four friends have little time to escape before it’s their turn on the chopping block.
SPARE PARTS (UK Premiere) Friday 23rd October 2020 - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 21:30
Director: Andrew Thomas Hunt. Cast: Julian Richings, Michelle Argyris, Emily Alatalo, Jason Rouse. Canada, 2020, 91 mins.
Outline: In a godforsaken bar in the middle of nowhere – an all-girl punk band, Ms. 45, rip the stage apart with their anarchy spirit. Their performance impresses an enthusiastic fan who lures the girls into a trap, sedates them, and starts… customizing them. The four wake up with an axe, drill or chainsaw attached to one arm and are forced to fight gladiator-style, in an arena-style auto-wrecking yard for the amusement of the Emperor and his sadistic townsfolk. The women must now truly band together and use all of their talents if they're going to get out alive.
THE WORLD WE KNEW (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 11:45
Directors: Matthew Benjamin Jones & Luke Skinner. With: Struan Rodger, Johann Myers, Finbar Lynch, Kirk Lake. UK 2020. 78 mins
Outline: Gangsters versus Ghosts in a neo Film Noir with a dark existentialist twist, a mile-wide streak of hypnotic originality and an exclusive soundtrack by the cult French band The Limiñanas. After a job goes bad, six armed robbers must spend a single night at a deserted safe house. But during the stay their pasts come back to haunt them and the men find themselves fighting for their lives and their sanity. What is real and what is the product of their tormented minds? And is it guilt or ghosts that will finally push them over the edge?
HECKLE (World Premiere) FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 12:00
Director: Martyn Pick. With: Steve Guttenberg, Clark Gable III, Toyah Wilcox, Nicholas Vince, Dani Dyer. UK 2020. 81 mins.
Outline: Joe Johnson, at the top of his stand-up comic game, decides to share a Halloween weekend away with a group of friends. They decide on the theme of a 1980s retro party, and jokingly suggest that if they get drunk, high, and behave badly enough, hopefully they'll attract their own psycho killer. The joke is suddenly very much on them though, as in turn they reach their grisly demise at the hands of The Heckler, an uninvited guest out to turn their nostalgic horror movie fantasy into a terrifying reality, before delivering an unforgettable punchline...
FOR THE SAKE OF VICIOUS (UK Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 14:00
Directors: Gabriel Carrer & Reese Eveneshen. With: Lora Burke, Colin Paradine, Nick Smyth, James Fler. Canada 2020. 81 mins.
Outline: It’s Halloween night and nurse Romina just wants to relax after a hard day. Suddenly all hell breaks loose when desperate Chris breaks in demanding angry justice for a wrongdoing from the past. The crazed intruder is owed a debt of blood and wants a mystery confession from his hostage. Then, just as suddenly, a band of masked mercenaries invade the house causing even more mayhem. New alliances will be tested as the occupants struggle to survive a night marked by death. Loaded with guts and gore, here’s the eye-grazing splatter rollercoaster head-on-collision to leave you begging for more.
ALIEN ON STAGE (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 14:15
Directors: Danielle Kummer & Lucy Harvey. With: Employees from the Wiltshire and Dorset Bus Company. UK 2020. 86 mins.
Outline: You read about it in the news. Now live the story of the Dorset Bus Drivers whose amateur dramatics group created a serious stage adaptation of the sci-fi horror classic ALIEN. Despite finding ingenious solutions to pay homemade homage, the show was a crushing flop. But fate suddenly had them whisked from their village hall to a London theatre to perform their accidental comedy masterpiece for one night only. With wobbly sets, awkward acting and dodgy special effects, will their debut in London’s glittering West End be all right on the night? And where is the Alien? It’s behind you!
CYST (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 14:30
Director: Tyler Russell. With: Greg Sestero, Eva Habermann, Jason Douglas, Gene Jones. USA 2020. 69 mins.
Outline: Say hello to director Tyler Russell who is about to make all Sixties Monster Movie fanatics’ zipper-suited and lousy special effects dreams come true. It’s the early 1960s and a small-town doctor invents a machine that uses laser technology to remove skin abnormalities. He pulls out all the stops to make sure his final chance to get the patent on his ‘Get Gone’ appliance goes smoothly. But his nurse thinks the contraption is dangerous and not ready. The struggle between the two causes the apparatus to malfunction creating a giant cyst monster that goes on a bloody rampage.
BLOOD HARVEST (UK Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 16:15
Director: Thomas Robert Lee. With: Catherine Walker, Hannah Emily Anderson, Jared Abrahamson, Don McKellar. Canada 2020. 93 mins.
Just to confuse you all, BLOOD HARVEST is also known as The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw and The Ballad of Audrey Earnshaw.
Outline: Folklore horror brimming with unsettling atmosphere and haunting imagery, writer/director Thomas Robert Lee’s dark coming-of-age shocker is the bewitching surprise of the year. Young Audrey Earnshaw and her mother live covertly as occultists on the outskirts of a remote Protestant village. Having gone to enormous lengths to hide Audrey’s existence from the superstitious community due to her secret birth, Agatha is mortified when a local mourner catches sight of her offspring. Reeling from a series of inexplicable tragedies, hardships and crop failure, the whispers begin, suspicions grow and hysteria mounts. But Audrey’s powers are increasing along with the misplaced anger….
BENNY LOVES YOU (UK Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 16:30
Director: Karl Holt. With: Karl Holt, Claire Cartwright, George Collie, James Parsons. UK 2019. 94 mins.
Outline: Give three cheers for FrightFest alumni Karl Holt, a 2007 prizewinner in our Zone Horror Short Film Competition with HALFWAY. Finally he’s back with the feature length version of his first 2006 short where Chucky meets FATAL ATTRACTION! After the accidental death of his parents, Jack must sell his family home and start a new life. Cleaning out the house, Jack trashes his family belongings including his beloved childhood stuffed animal, Benny. It’s a move that turns lethal as Benny springs to life with one goal in mind, protect Jack at all cost, even if the price is death.
DUNE DRIFTER (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 16:45
Director: Marc Price. With: Phoebe Sparrow, Daisy Aitkens, Simon Dwyer-Thomas, Charlotte Mounter. UK 2020. 98 mins.
Outline: Remember Marc Price? The upstart director caused a media sensation at FrightFest 2008 after making his zombie horror COLIN for fifty quid. Well, he’s back, with a bigger budget for an ongoing battle for humanity when a group of rookie space fighter pilots face an armada of unbeatable enemy ships. When the trainee pilot and her mortally wounded gunner are shot down, they crash land on a nearby planet. An enemy craft offers the chance of spare parts to fix her ship, but then she spots another survivor - an enemy alien soldier with no intention of letting her escape.
BROIL (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 19:00
Director: Edward Drake. With: Johnathan Lipnicki, Avery Konrad, Timothy V. Murphy, Annette Reilly. Canada 2020. 90 mins.
Outline: From the producer of IT FOLLOWS, a fairytale about a family with a monstrous secret. Bored Chance Sinclair is sentenced to live with her draconian grandfather, August, after a violent incident at school. Locked inside the sprawling Sinclair Estate, Chance begins to question the source of her family's immense wealth and power. When her scheming mother hires a troubled chef to poison August, the family's monstrous secrets are revealed over one bloody night. Every soul is up for grabs as a Games Night gets underway and Chance learns that being a part of this family is a blood-in, blood-out proposition.
REDWOOD MASSACRE: ANNIHILATION (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 19:15
Director: David Ryan Keith. With: Danielle Harris, Damien Puckler, Gary Kasper, Jon Campling. UK 2020. 104 mins.
Outline: Twenty years ago at the infamous Redwood Farm, the owner went mad and killed his family and himself. Shrouded in urban legend ever since, a stranger obsessed with the unsolved Redwood murders convinces a group of bereaved family members to venture into the wilderness in the hope of proving the existence of the notorious burlap bag-masked maniac. Their quest for truth sees a sinister turn of events, as the hunters become the hunted and a blood-soaked fight for survival ensues when they find that the sinister tales told of the axe-wielding psycho farmer are very real indeed.
EMBRYO (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 19:30
Director: Patricio Valladares. With: Romina Perazzo, Domingo Guzmán, Carolina Escobar, Cristial Cuentrejo. Chile 2020. 72 mins.
Outline: From FrightFest’s favourite Chilean, Patricio Valladares, director of NIGHTWORLD and HIDDEN IN THE WOODS, a deliriously twisted tale of alien insemination, cannibalism, and true love. Kevin and his girlfriend Evelyn are camping in the woods when she is abducted and impregnated by otherworldly beings. As the entity inside her begins to grow at a rapid rate, Evelyn’s cravings can only be satiated by the taste of human flesh. When she brutally attacks a doctor, they go on the run to the big city where they can find help to remove the embryo that’s slowly taking over Evelyn’s body.
RELIC (Preview) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 21:30
Director: Natalie Erika James. With: Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, Bella Heathcote, Jeremy Stanford. Australia 2020. 89 mins.
Outline: When elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin), inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) rush to their family’s decaying country home, finding clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence. After Edna returns just as mysteriously as she disappeared, Kay’s concern that her mother seems unwilling or unable to say where she’s been clashes with Sam’s enthusiasm to have her grandma back. As Edna’s behaviour turns increasingly volatile, both begin to sense that an insidious presence in the house might be taking control of her. A deeply unsettling psychological horror, Relic is the unforgettable debut feature from writer and director Natalie Erika James who brings a fresh and profoundly human twist to the genre.
HOSTS (World Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL. 21:45
Directors: Adam Leader & Richard Oakes. With: Neal Ward, Nadia Lamin, Frank Jakeman, Jennifer K. Preston. UK 2020. 89 mins.
Outline: When a family invites their neighbours, a sweet young couple, over to celebrate Christmas Eve and some very happy personal news, they do not realize that their dinner guests had just become hosts to a malicious entity hellbent on taking over the world. And soon the family find themselves fighting for their lives in a night of unimaginable terror. Like THE STRANGERS at the festive season with an otherworldly twist, HOSTS is a simmering sci-fi thriller where the palpable tension of a singular event belies an even more sinister takeover on a global scale.
LET’S SCARE JULIE (European Premiere) SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 22:00
Director: Jud Cremata. With: Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Isabel May, Odessa A’zion, Brooke Sorenson. USA 2020. 83 mins.
Outline: Emma has recently moved in with her cousin Taylor after her father’s untimely death. The victim of a prank by Taylor’s friends, Emma ups the ante by planning to scare the mysteriously reclusive girl who lives across the street. All they know is Julie’s alone and the house is rumoured haunted after a little boy vanished years ago. But what starts off as a simple plan becomes a nightmare of wrong choices with horrific results in a surprising horror, cleverly filmed in one uninterrupted continuous take – once the camera started rolling it never stopped until the shocking end.
SCAVENGER (UK Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 11:30
Directors: Luciana Garraza, Eric Fleitas. With: Nayla Churruarin, Sofia Lanaro, Gonzalo Tolosa, Tisso Solis Vargas. Argentina 2019. 74 mins.
Outline: MAD MAX meets NATURAL BORN KILLERS in a slice of cruel sci-fi action horror from Argentina. In a post-apocalyptic future, where the sky appears to be as rusty as the stolen vehicles, the broken-down social landscape has been devastated by disease and economic crisis. Tisha is an organ trafficker and ignores the sweat-ridden faces of fear every time she stabs a human being to steal their body parts. But the money she raises is for a steely purpose – to find the whereabouts of the brutal cartel that murdered her family and wreak an explosive viscera-packed revenge.
THE STYLIST (UK Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 11:45
Director: Jill Gevargizian. With: Brea Grant, Najarra Townsend, Laura Kirk, Sarah McGuire. USA 2020. 101 mins.
Outline: Based on her 2016 short, welcome FrightFest alumna Jill Gervargizian to the exciting feature debut fold. Everyone dreams of being someone else… but for Claire that dream goes from an obsession to a living nightmare. Her job as a hairstylist allows her to move through other people’s worlds, but when the right target sits in her chair, she does more than observe the client’s life – she ends it, and keeps a permanent souvenir. Her lonely life, meticulous method and shocking secrets are suddenly thrown into turmoil when her regular client, Olivia, asks her to style her hair for her wedding.
THE FUNERAL HOME (UK Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 12:00
Director: Mauro Iván Ojeda. With: Luis Machín, Celeste Gerez and Camila Vaccarini. Argentina 2020. 86 mins.
Outline: Think you’ve seen it all when it comes to haunted house and possession movies? Well, think again, as you delve into debut director Mauro Iván Ojeda’s harsh and heartbreaking Argentine horror. Bernardo is an undertaker running his mortuary business in the same house where he resides. Up front are his clients. In the back, his dysfunctional family lives among coffins, wreaths and mischievous supernatural entities that visit on a daily basis. They attribute these paranormal manifestations to the dead bodies. But finding the real source of all this madness becomes their quest, even if they find terrifying truths as well.
SLAXX (UK Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 14:30
Director: Elza Kephart. With: Sehar Bhojani, Stephen Bogaert, Romane Denis, Brett Donahue. Canada 2020. 77 mins.
Outline: The on-trend couture horror comedy of the year! At Canadian Cotton Clothiers the flagship store staff is preparing for ‘Monday Madness’. For joining the range of supposedly organic, GMO-free, fair-trade, ethically sourced tops and bottoms is the eagerly awaited new line of Super Shaper designer jeans – thermally activated denim that adapts to any body size. But one pair has been accidentally soaked in sweatshop blood and wants revenge on the hipster customers brought to the store by hot social-media influencer Peyton Jules. Get ready for the tightest fitting bloodbath in horror history guaranteeing a clean up in every aisle.
ORIGIN UNKNOWN (UK Premiere) - SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 14:45
Director: Rigoberto Castañeda. With: Daniel Martínez, Lisette Morelos, Paulina Gil, Horacio Garcia Rojas. Mexico 2020. 94 mins.
Outline: FrightFest premiered director Rigoberto Castañeda’s KM-31 in 2007 before it was acclaimed as the No. 1 box office Mexican horror film of all time. Now he’s back with another stunningly innovative dark action fantasy. When a former drug-runner tries to buy his way out of the Cartels, he expects trouble. Bringing his family into a safe house surrounded by armed guards, a little girl breaches the perimeter. Not long after bringing her in, a group of unknown assailants with near-mystical powers come after her, and it quickly seems that an armoured compound filled with soldiers might not be enough….
HONEYDEW (UK Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 17:00
Director: Devereux Milburn. With: Sawyer Spielberg, Malin Barr, Barbara Kingsley, Stephen D’Ambrose. USA 2020. 106 mins.
Outline: It’s been a rough night for Sam and Riley taking a backwoods road trip. First, they’re kicked off a campsite; then, their car breaks down. Looking for help, the couple ring the doorbell of an isolated house owned by Karen, a peculiar older woman who lives with her even stranger son, Gunni. Waiting for someone to arrive to fix their ride, Karen offers them something to eat. And that’s when Sam and Riley’s night shifts from exasperating to a whole new screaming nightmare. A feverish blend of twisted violence and macabre humor introducing an unforgettable new geriatric horror villain.
CAVEAT (UK Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - HORROR CHANNEL SCREEN. 17:15
Director: Damian McCarthy. With: Ben Caplan, Tiffany-Ellen Robinson, Jonathan French, Conor Dwane. UK 2020. 88 mins.
Outline: A stunningly unique feature debut from Damian Mc Carthy, director of the FrightFest 2010 short film, HE DIES AT THE END. A lone drifter, Isaac, suffering from partial memory loss, accepts a strange job from his old landlord Barrett, to look after his niece Olga, a psychologically troubled woman living in an abandoned house on an isolated island. When Barrett convinces Isaac to confine his movements to the house with a harness contraption and leaves the two of them alone, a game of cat and mouse ensues with Isaac fighting to survive amid the terrifying resurgence of his own memory.
LUCKY (UK Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 17:30
Director: Natasha Kermani. With: Yasmine Al-Bustami, Brea Grant, Kristina Klebe, Kausar Mohammed. USA 2020. 81 mins.
Outline: IMITATION GIRL director Natasha Kermani returns with a script by writer/star Brea Grant, creator of 12 HOUR SHIFT. Firmly rooted in distressing current issues comes a potent metaphor for our disturbing times. Luck isn’t with self-help author May Ryer lately. Her books aren’t selling and when a masked intruder breaks into the house she shares with husband no one seems concerned. Even the condescending investigating cop says she’s lucky things didn’t go worse. But then they do as the attacker keeps appearing, continuing to terrorize May with an almost supernatural ability no matter how valiantly she fights back.
THE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS (World Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - ZAVVI DISCOVERY SCREEN. 19:30
Director: Paul Tanter. With: Simon Phillips, Sayla de Goede, Kate Schroder, Anne-Carolyne Binette. Canada 2020. 95 mins
Outline: Slay bells ring, are you glistening… with blood! When a series of murders in the Yuletide season are found to be linked, FBI Special Agent Natalie Parker is tasked with tracking a pair of psychotic serial killers. But she soon discovers the couple are not only crazy, having met in and escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane, but have based their personas on Santa and Mrs Claus. As Christmas approaches, they slaughter their way through their special naughty list, playing a cat and mouse game with the FBI and leaving a trail of bloody bodies in their wake.
SKYLIN3S (World Premiere) SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - ARROW VIDEO SCREEN. 20:00
Director: Liam O'Donnell. With: Rhona Mitra, Lindsey Morgan, Alexander Siddig, James Cosmo. France 2020. 112 mins.
Outline: First an extraterrestrial force threatened to swallow Earth’s entire population. Then a driven detective embarked on a relentless pursuit to free his son from a nightmarish alien warship. Now comes the thrilling third entry in the epic sci-fi action SKYLINE franchise, once again written and directed by co-creator Liam O’Donnell. Captain Rose Corley has extraterrestrial superpowers meaning she is the only person powerful enough to vanquish the alien marauders. When a virus threatens to turn Earth-dwelling friendly alien hybrids against humans, Corley assembles an elite team of mercenaries on a mission to the alien world to save humanity.
