Image from Peter Daskaloff's ANTIDOTE
Plus we have the trailer for Neill Blomkamp's DEMONIC and a brilliant clip from Rob Schroeder's ULTRASOUND.
ARROW VIDEO SCREEN & SUPER SCREEN
THURSDAY 26 AUGUST
Cast: Carly Pope, Chris William Martin, Nathalie Boltt, Michael J. Rogers, Andrea Agur.
DEMONIC (European Premiere) Canada
Arrow Video Screen: 18:00, Super Screen: 18:25. Tickets
Director: Neill Blomkamp.
Cast: Carly Pope, Chris William Martin, Nathalie Boltt, Michael J. Rogers, Andrea Agur.
DEMONIC is the first feature film from renowned genre director Neill Blomkamp since 2015’s Chappie. Acclaimed director and writer Blomkamp exploded onto the film world with District 9 in 2009, which was produced by Peter Jackson and nominated for four Academy Awards™ including Best Picture. Between those two releases came 2013’s hit science fiction epic Elysium starring Matt Damon.
Outline: Demonic is a supernatural possession horror which follows a young woman who unleashes a terrifying demon as she enters the mind of her comatose, serial killer mother.
Cast: April Pearson, James Cosmo, James Dreyfus, Samantha Bond, Patrick Bergin.
THE KINDRED (World Premiere) UK
Arrow Video Screen: 20:45, Super Screen: 21:10. Tickets
Director: Jamie Patterson.
Cast: April Pearson, James Cosmo, James Dreyfus, Samantha Bond, Patrick Bergin.
Outline: After her father reveals some shocking news and then commits suicide in front of her, Helen is immediately involved in a car accident leaving her in hospital in a coma. When she wakes up, she learns she has given birth to baby Heidi, but she’s also suffering from amnesia and can’t remember what it was he told her. Soon she starts being haunted by the ghosts of children and is compelled to piece together events that led to her father’s death. But what do the missing Stoneworth kids and a maniac they call ‘Sackhead’ have to do with the mystery?
Cast: Jessica Morris, Dylan Riley Snyder, Robert Craighead, Allie Jennings, Justen Overlander.
CRABS! (World Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 23:15, Super Screen: 23:30. Tickets
Director: Pierce Berolzheimer.
Cast: Jessica Morris, Dylan Riley Snyder, Robert Craighead, Allie Jennings, Justen Overlander.
Outline: Get ready for shellshock! It’s the ZOMBEAVERS meets GODZILLA versus ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS hybrid you always craved in the creature feature comedy horror of the year. Mutated by the nuclear runoff, a horde of murderous horseshoe crabs descend on a sleepy California town causing Prom Night terror. As the deadly crustaceans claw their way through the disbelieving population, it’s up to a ramshackle band of students and police to address the increasingly ginormous crab menace.
ARROW VIDEO SCREEN & SUPER SCREEN
FRIDAY 27 AUGUST
Cast: Iani Bédard, Roy Dupuis, Marianne Fortier, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Claudia Ferri.
BRAIN FREEZE (International Premiere) Canada
Times: Arrow Video Screen: 10:55, Super Screen: 11:20. Tickets
Director: Julien Knafo.
Cast: Iani Bédard, Roy Dupuis, Marianne Fortier, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Claudia Ferri.
Outline: An upscale Golf Club contracts an unethical multinational to genetically modify its turf to stay open year round. It soon becomes contaminated with a ‘revolutionary’ fertilizer with the advantage of melting snow, but turns its inhabitants into mutants. Before his eyes, 13 year-old André sees the outbreak of a devastating epidemic that makes him an orphan. Horrified, he must fight for his survival and that of his one-year-old sister when he meets security guard Dan on a perilous journey to safety in the Golf Club chalet.
Watch the BRAIN FREEZE trailer below!
Cast: Tom Burke, Siobhan Hewlett, Ellie Bamber, Alan Moore, Christopher Fairban
THE SHOW (UK premiere) UK
Arrow Video Screen: 13:15, Super Screen: 13:40. Tickets
Director: Mitch Jenkins.
Cast: Tom Burke, Siobhan Hewlett, Ellie Bamber, Alan Moore, Christopher Fairbank.
Outline: A man of many talents and identities arrives in the strangely haunted town of Northampton, a place as dangerous as he is. On a mission to locate a stolen artefact for his menacing client, Fletcher becomes entangled in a twilight world of vampires, sleeping beauties, voodoo gangsters and noir private eyes. He quickly sinks into a delirious black hole hidden beneath the surface of this seemingly quiet town. Soon Fletcher discovers dreams and reality have blurred and there may no longer be a real world to go back to. Welcome to The Show, a mystery fantasy written by Alan Moore, the creator of iconic comic-books such as “Watchmen,” “V for Vendetta,” “From Hell” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.”
Watch THE SHOW trailer below!
Cast: Camila Sodi, Juan Pablo Castañeda, Lucy Paez, Juan Carlos Colombo.
THE EXORCISM OF CARMEN FARIAS (International Premiere) Mexico
Arrow Video Screen: 15:30, Super Screen: 15:55. Tickets
Director: Rodrigo Fiallega.
Cast: Camila Sodi, Juan Pablo Castañeda, Lucy Paez, Juan Carlos Colombo.
Outline: The exciting Mexican Wave of epic horror continues with this Gothic-drenched shocker, headlining rising Latin star Camila Sodi. She plays brave journalist Carmen who receives two crushing blows one after the other. Told she can possibly never have children, she then witnesses her mother die in hospital. At the reading of her mother’s will, she’s surprised to learn she’s inherited her grandmother’s old house, a building assumed to have long been sold. Moving into the rundown property, the strange and unsettling incidents begin… unlocking dark secrets her ancestors wanted to keep hidden to maintain her safety.
Cast: Tony Todd, Clare Foley, Erik Bloomquist, Nina Wisner, Jason Alan Smith.
THE CHANGED (European premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 18:15, Super Screen: 18:40. Tickets
Director: Michael Mongillo.
Cast: Tony Todd, Clare Foley, Erik Bloomquist, Nina Wisner, Jason Alan Smith.
Outline: From Michael Mongillo, director of the FrightFest 2017 attraction DIANE. Something has taken possession of the hearts and minds of the city’s population. At first, Mac, Kim and Jane try to convince themselves they’re wrong. They’re not. An alien intelligence has merged with their neighbour, Bill (Horror Icon Tony Todd), setting into motion a desperate struggle for the survival of humanity. Soon, the entire city is overwhelmed by the inhuman horror of the changed, but it won’t stop there! And the trio cross every line imaginable to save themselves from the horde of body snatchers gathering outside their suburban home.
Watch THE CHANGED trailer below!
Cast: Harry Shum Jr., Chris Sullivan, Kelley Mack, Justin Welborn, James Swanton.
BROADCAST SIGNAL INTRUSION (UK Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 20:30, Super Screen: 20:55. Tickets
Director: Jacob Gentry.
Cast: Harry Shum Jr., Chris Sullivan, Kelley Mack, Justin Welborn, James Swanton.
Outline: FrightFest is proud and delighted to be premiering British writing duo Tim Woodall and Phil Drinkwater’s expansion of their 2016 short submitted through our ‘New Blood’ initiative strand in partnership with Queensbury Pictures. Harry Shum Jr., is bereaved James, a video archivist who, while logging tapes of old TV broadcasts, comes across a surreal and disturbing clip of a masked entity. He believes it’s the product of broadcast signal hacking, but his discovery takes a sinister turn when he tracks down similar broadcast intrusions that turn his mission even more rabbit-hole obsessive.
Cast: Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell, Matthias Luafutu, Billy Paratene.
COMING HOME IN THE DARK (UK Premiere) NZ
Times: Arrow Video Screen: 23:05, Super Screen: 23:20. Tickets
Director: James Ashcroft.
Cast: Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell, Matthias Luafutu, Billy Paratene.
Outlook: Unbearably tense and ruthlessly bleak, director James Ashcroft’s electrifying thriller is an emotionally raw, out-of-control spiral into shock pulling no punches in showing the evil darkness that lurks within. All the Hoaganraad family want is a fun road trip through the beautiful New Zealand landscape. But no sooner have they laid out a lakeside picnic than two strangers come strolling up to their idyllic spot. Things quickly turn threatening then murderous as the clearly unhinged psychotic duo plainly has an agenda. But what exactly, how does it link to their hostages and what is the endgame for these cold-blooded lunatics?
ARROW VIDEO SCREEN & SUPER SCREEN
SATURDAY 28 AUGUST
Cast: Anna Platen, Jeff Wilbusch, Frederik von Lüttichau, Luisa Taraz, Robert Nickish.
DAWN BREAKS BEHIND THE EYES (European Premiere) Germany
Arrow Video Screen: 10:30, Super Screen: 10:55. Tickets
Director: Kevin Kopacka.
Cast: Anna Platen, Jeff Wilbusch, Frederik von Lüttichau, Luisa Taraz, Robert Nickish.
Outline: Coming on Gothic retro like an undiscovered Mario Bava S&M shocker before turning into a José Ramón Larraz acid trip, director Kevin Kopacka’s 70s exploitation homage is one from the Berberian Sound Studio. Having just inherited a run down castle, a melancholic woman and her bad tempered husband choose to spend the night before deciding what to do with the creaky, cobwebbed pile. But after horrendous mutilation, reality shifts and a Lovely Sort of Death fast approaches… Get ready to have your mind blown by a fantasy freak-out and an Acid Frog, Gandalf and Liquid Brain Orchestra soundtrack.
Cast: Rory Culkin, Isabelle Fuhrman, Stefanie Scott, Carolyn McCormick, Judith Roberts.
THE LAST THING MARY SAW (European premiere) USA
Times: Arrow Video Screen: 13:00, Super Screen: 13:25. Tickets
Director: Edoardo Vitaletti.
Cast: Rory Culkin, Isabelle Fuhrman, Stefanie Scott, Carolyn McCormick, Judith Roberts.
Outline: Vitalett’s gripping period occult drama is set in the winter of 1843. A darkly strict religious family inhabits an isolated farmhouse. One ill-omened morning, Mary, the youngest daughter, discovers her grandmother dead, covered in blood. A day like any other suddenly turns into a nightmare of murder, recrimination and mourning. Thirty-six hours later, Mary sits in a grim detention room, her clothes stained in blood, and her eyes covered with a black cloth. The town’s constable dives into her past, unearthing horrors forgotten for millennia shedding new light on the ageless forces behind the tragedy.
Cast: Daniar Alshinov, Yerkebulan Daiyrov, Asel Kaliyeva, Rustem Zhaniyamanov.
SWEETIE, YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT (UK Premiere) Kazakhstan
Arrow Video Screen: 15:20, Super Screen: 15:45. Tickets
Director: Yernar Nurgaliyev.
Cast: Daniar Alshinov, Yerkebulan Daiyrov, Asel Kaliyeva, Rustem Zhaniyamanov.
Outline: Are you ready for ‘Carry On DELIVERANCE’ Kazakhstan style? It begins with a couple quarrelling about baby names. And it ends in gory revenge, slapstick splatter and capture in a seemingly indestructible, one-eyed psychopath’s cabin in the woods. In between was supposed to be a calming fishing trip for three old friends to unwind in the wilds. If only they hadn’t witnessed a brutal family murder by a testosterone-fueled gang as they obliviously sailed past in their raft built from blow-up sex dolls. What is certain is they will all learn about life’s priorities from this savage, cruel misadventure.
Cast: Jocelin Donahue, Melora Walters, Joe Swanberg, Richard Brake.
OFFSEASON (International Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 18:30, Super Screen: 18:55. Tickets
Director: Mickey Keating.
Cast: Jocelin Donahue, Melora Walters, Joe Swanberg, Richard Brake.
Outline: Writer/director Mickey Keating returns with his finest horror fantasy yet. Coping with the recent death of her eccentric actress mother Ava, Marie Aldrich is shocked to receive a letter from the Lone Palms cemetery curator saying her grave has been vandalised. Returning with trepidation to her mother’s hated isolated island home with her husband to repair the damage, she soon becomes trapped in an unfolding nightmare of deceit, betrayal and the curse of ‘The Man from the Sea’. An astonishing slice of Southern Gothic, featuring superb acting and stunning directorial finesse, Keating’s sixth feature is his breakout masterpiece
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Nick Cassavetes, Bill Moseley, Tak Sakaguchi.
PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND (UK Premiere) USA
Times: Arrow Video Screen: 20:45, Super Screen: 21:10. Tickets
Director: Sion Sono.
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Nick Cassavetes, Bill Moseley, Tak Sakaguchi.
Outline: Take the insane visual madness of a Sion Sono movie, add raging Nicolas Cage to the post-apocalyptic mix, and the result is a Grindhouse classic that left the Sundance Film Festival reeling. In treacherous Samurai Town, ruthless bank robber Hero is sprung from jail by wealthy warlord The Governor to find his missing granddaughter. The prisoner will gain his freedom in exchange for the runaway and to ensure success he’s strapped into a leather suit that will self-destruct within five days. Let the stylish skirmishes with gunslingers, ghosts, samurai and cults begin on Hero’s road to redemption…
Watch the PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND below!
Cast: Ploy Sornarin, Savika Chaiyadej, Theerapat Sajakul, Kannaporn Puangtong, Ratchanok Suwannaket.
THE MAID (UK Premiere) Thailand
Times: Arrow Video Screen: 23:10, Super Screen: 23:30. Tickets
Director: Lee Thongkham.
Cast: Ploy Sornarin, Savika Chaiyadej, Theerapat Sajakul, Kannaporn Puangtong, Ratchanok Suwannaket.
Outline: The soul of a beautiful maid still wanders seeking justice inside the fabulously wealthy house of Uma and Nirach where she had met her horrible unexplained death. Now, years later, Joy is hired by the same lavish but cold family to serve as their housemaid. But as Joy later finds out that Ploy was none other than her elder sister, she sets out in a revenge-seeking spree against the owners, investigating why no one came to her sister’s rescue when she begged for her life in front of everyone. An audaciously violent, supernatural revenge slasher.
ARROW VIDEO SCREEN & SUPER SCREEN
SUNDAY 29 AUGUST
Cast: Matthew Gray Gubler, Angela Sarafyan, Aubrey Plaza, Barbara Crampton, Ray Wise.
KING KNIGHT (UK Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 10:55, Super Screen: 11:20. Tickets
Director: Richard Bates Jr.
Cast: Matthew Gray Gubler, Angela Sarafyan, Aubrey Plaza, Barbara Crampton, Ray Wise.
Love the deadpan weirdness of director Jim Hosking’s movies, THE GREASY STRANGLER and AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN? Then your new jam will be this offbeat, off-the-wall pagan comedy. ‘Criminal Minds’ star Matthew Gray Gubler is Thorn, the caring, sharing High Priest of a modern-day coven of misfit witches in a small Californian community. When his wife Willow unearths a secret from Thorn’s past, their lives are thrown into turmoil. The only solution: attend a high school reunion and perform the forbidden sword dance. But what will this journey of self-discovery mean for the future of Thorn’s acolytes?
Watch the KING KNIGHT trailer below!
Cast: Lili Simmons, Hana Mae Lee, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Tessa Munro, James Jagger.
SOUND OF VIOLENCE (UK Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 13:00, Super Screen: 13:25. Tickets
Director: Alex Noyer.
Cast: Lili Simmons, Hana Mae Lee, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Tessa Munro, James Jagger.
Outline: After witnessing the brutal murder of her family at age ten, music student Alexis has finally recovered her sense of hearing. But that visceral experience awakened synaesthetic abilities within and now she only finds healing solace in the sounds of bodily harm. So Alexis starts devising ingenious methods of causing pain – razor sharp harp strings, a torture piano and speaker limb grafting - to record victim’s screams of torment and death rattles to compose a gruesome symphonic masterpiece. But as the baffled police investigate, and her best friend is put in danger, can carnage conductor Alexis stop her violent compulsion?
Cast: Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Alex van Dyk, Anthony Oseyemi.
GAIA (UK Premiere) South Africa
Arrow Video Screen: 15:30, Super Screen: 15:55. Tickets
Director: Jaco Bouwer.
Cast: Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Alex van Dyk, Anthony Oseyemi.
Outline: On a surveillance mission in a primordial forest, a park ranger encounters two survivalists following a post-apocalyptic lifestyle. The boy and his father seem to have their own religion, and a mysterious relationship to nature. There are many suspicious aspects to their existence, but when the cabin is attacked by strange, post-human beings, she learns that there is an even greater threat in this emergent wilderness. Blending ancient pagan mythologies with modern technophobia, this eco-horror fantasy, engaging the burning issues of our time, incorporates old ideas in new ways to create something both familiar and fresh.
Cast: Michael Smiley, Holli Dempsey, Liam McMahon, Joanne Mitchell, Jay Taylor.
EVIE (World Premiere) UK
Arrow Video Screen: 18:35, Super Screen: 19:00. Tickets
Directors: Dominic Brunt & Jamie Lundy.
Cast: Michael Smiley, Holli Dempsey, Liam McMahon, Joanne Mitchell, Jay Taylor.
Outline: From the visionary mind of Dominic Brunt, director of BEFORE DAWN and BAIT, comes a thrilling and frighteningly sinister take on the shape-shifting Selkie, the malicious seal creatures of Celtic folklore. As a child, Evie lost herself in the myths and legends of the sea while her family collapsed around her. A devastating childhood tragedy and an estrangement from her loved ones means Evie has had to find her way in the world on her own. Only now the demons of her past have come back to reclaim her.
Cast: Elijah Wood, Robert Patrick, Luke Kirby, Aleksa Palladino, Christian Clemenson.
NO MAN OF GOD (European premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 20:50, Super Screen: 21:10. Tickets
Director: Amber Sealey.
Cast: Elijah Wood, Robert Patrick, Luke Kirby, Aleksa Palladino, Christian Clemenson.
Outline: n the early 1980s the FBI set up a new Behaviourial Analysis Unit pioneering the technique of profiling criminals. Rookie agent William Hagmaier was assigned to probe the mind of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, even though it was doubtful he would ever confess to the 30+ homicides and give his victims’ families the closure they so desperately wanted. Based on actual transcripts culled from their conversations at Florida State Prison between 1984-89, comes a powerful, gripping and stunning crime biography detailing the complicated relationship that formed between the two men during Bundy’s final years on Death Row.Also…SHADOW PROWLER (Short, World Premiere)Director: Scott Derrickson With: Dashiell Derrickson US 11.52 mins.From director Scott Derrickson (SINISTER. DOCTOR STRANGE) and his two teenage sons, This home invasion thriller was made during Derreckson and his teenage son’s Covid lockdown in Los Angeles. A boy named Brady finds himself trapped alone with a menacing intruder.
ARROW VIDEO SCREEN & SUPER SCREEN
MONDAY 30 AUGUST
Cast: Michael Lombardi, Marc Menchaca, Joseph Gatt, Katie Kelly, Abbey Hafer.
THE RETALIATORS (World Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 11:00, Super Screen: 11:25. Tickets
Directors: Samuel Gonzalez Jr & Bridget Smith.
Cast: Michael Lombardi, Marc Menchaca, Joseph Gatt, Katie Kelly, Abbey Hafer.
Outline: An upstanding pastor uncovers a dark and twisted underworld as he searches for answers surrounding his daughter’s brutal murder. A high-octane original soundtrack and cameos from some of the biggest names in rock music set the tone as this horror-thriller reveals a game of revenge played using a new set of rules. Hilariously gory with 1980s action horror pastiches and THE EVIL DEAD-style homages, this crowd pleaser features cameos and music by Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, Five Finger Death Punch, Papa Roach, The Hu, Ice Nine Kills, Escape The Fate and many more.
Cast: August Maturo, Mike Manning, Libe Barer, Mirabelle Lee, Bianca D’Ambrosio.
SLAPFACE (UK Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 13:00, Super Screen: 13:25. Tickets
Director: Jeremiah Kipp.
Cast: August Maturo, Mike Manning, Libe Barer, Mirabelle Lee, Bianca D’Ambrosio.
Outline: Is there a relationship more special than that of a boy and his monster? After Lucas and Tom lose their mother in an accident, they think they only have each other to lean on. But Lucas has become fascinated by local myths of a monster in the woods, reciting the rhyme that kids have been repeating for generations whenever he walks by the abandoned hospital. When bullying girls from his school dare him to go inside, the rhyme comes to life and as Lucas’ visits become more frequent, the disappearances begin. But surely the Virago witch would never hurt him?
Cast: Vincent Kartheiser, Chelsea Lopez, Breeda Wool, Tunde Adebimpe, Rainey Qualley.
ULTRASOUND (European Premiere) USA
Arrow Video Screen: 15:15, Super Screen: 15:40. Tickets
Director: Rob Schroeder.
Cast: Vincent Kartheiser, Chelsea Lopez, Breeda Wool, Tunde Adebimpe, Rainey Qualley.
Outline: The feature debut of Rob Schroeder, producer of SUN CHOKE and BEYOND THE GATES, is a startling puzzle box Sci-Fi mystery based on the graphic novel ‘Generous Bosom’. Glen’s car breaks down in a rainstorm and at the first house he finds he’s made an astonishing offer. Meanwhile, Katie is feeling emotionally wrecked by a secret romantic arrangement that feels like textbook gaslighting. And at a bland research facility, medical professional Shannon begins questioning her role in a bizarre experiment straight out of ‘The Twilight Zone’. The stories connect but how and why in a wicked tale of the unexpected.
Catch a clip from ULTRASOUND in the video below!
Cast: Eugénie Derouand, Honorine Magnier, Clément Olivieri, Janis Abrikh, Cyril Garnier.
THE ADVENT CALENDAR (UK Premiere) France
Times: Arrow Video Screen: 18:00, Super Screen: 18:45. Tickets
Director: Patrick Ridremont.
Cast: Eugénie Derouand, Honorine Magnier, Clément Olivieri, Janis Abrikh, Cyril Garnier.
Outline: French horror fantasy scorches the screen once again in Patrick Ridremont’s ornate and elegant chiller. Eva, an ex-dancer, is now living in a wheelchair, unable to walk. When her friend Sophie gives her an old wooden antique advent calendar before Christmas, she realizes each window contains a surprise that triggers repercussions in real life. Some of them are good, but most of them are bad, really bad. Now Eva will have to choose between getting rid of the calendar or walking again - even if it causes death and destruction to everyone she holds dear around her.
Cast: Regina, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Berant Zhu.
THE SADNESS (UK Premiere) Taiwan
Times: Arrow Video Screen: 20:45, Super Screen: 21:10. Tickets
Director: Rob Jabbaz.
Cast: Regina, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Berant Zhu.
Outline: An instant cult classic that’s relentless, merciless, dangerous. A well-polished Grindhouse epic with no boundaries of taste, we are thrilled to have Rob Jabbaz’ THE SADNESS as FrightFest’s Closing Film. Self-taught animator Jabbaz has been acclaimed in the cartoon, rock video and commercials industries and now makes his feature debut with what is already being hailed as a bloody masterpiece. After a year of combating a pandemic with relatively benign symptoms, a frustrated nation finally lets its guard down. This is when the virus spontaneously mutates, giving rise to a mind-altering plague. The streets erupt into violence, sadism and depravity, as those infected are driven to enact the cruellest and most ghastly things they can think of. Murder, torture, rape and mutilation are only the beginning. A young couple is pushed to the limits of sanity as they try to reunite amid the chaos. The age of civility and order is no more. There is only The Sadness.
