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Festival coverage

FrightFest

27 August – 31 August 2026

Opening with Abner Pastoll's Nervous and closing with Marion Le Corroller’s dizzying début Species, this year's Frightfest has a line-up full of fabulous treats for genre fans. The festival runs from 27 to 31 August.

Other years (19)

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Latest reviews

  • Dead Howling
    Review preview for Dead Howling

    If this film has one thing to distinguish it, it’s its werewolf concept.

    Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
    A werewolf hunts zombies after losing his family. He meets two humans seeking sanctuary and joins their quest, protecting them with his powers. Their journey grows perilous as zombies start evolving.
  • Crawlers
    Review preview for Crawlers

    It’s a monster movie by the numbers and yet its creators have a good understanding of how to give viewers what they really don’t want.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    Tenants at Paradiso Palms apartments fight a deadly spider invasion.
  • The Cull
    Review preview for The Cull

    The Cull is well suited to an experienced horror audience ready to engage with [its] ambiguities.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    A remorseful ex-con tries to make a fresh start in an woodland cabin, but his past isn't finished with him.
  • The Dark Gets In
    Review preview for The Dark Gets In

    There is plenty of mystery for those who enjoy such things, and it’s well put together, but it’s only one aspect of a film which is really interested in what people choose not to consider and in how people allow themselves to be misdirected.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    When a documentary team set out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young girl, events soon take an unexpected turn, leading the filmmakers down an increasingly dark and horrifying path.
  • Compliance
    Review preview for Compliance

    Mangione-Smith...is particularly successful at telling the story dynamically without compromising the found footage approach.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A found footage horror film about the modern surveillance state, dark web crime, and political conspiracy.
  • Hyena
    Review preview for Hyena

    Ninaber makes cautious, conscious choices throughout.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    After a brutal breakup, Nicole finds herself drawn into the world of online sex work, where a series of murders turns everything upside down.
  • Faces Of Death
    Review preview for Faces Of Death

    It’s rare to find a character this well developed in a slasher film, but Goldhaber pays equal attention to the smaller roles.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A moderator at a social media platform gets thrown face-first into a macabre mystery when she uncovers a series of visceral snuff videos bearing resemblance to a mythical 1978 cult film.
  • Full Moon Rising
    Review preview for Full Moon Rising

    The thesis behind it doesn’t really emerge until the end, when we get the suggestion that if Band’s work is less visible these days, that’s at least in part because of what has happened to everything else.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A documentary about the director and producer Charles Band.
  • Valley View Motel
    Review preview for Valley View Motel

    Ignatius and Psinakis know what they want and most of the time, they get it.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    It’s 1977, and after a diamond heist goes seriously awry with multiple slaughters, two small-time crooks attempt to flee the wrath of the hitman put on their tail. Seeking refuge at a motel in the remote foothills of Pennsylvania run by a very peculiar owner and his sister, they make the mistake of thinking that they're safe.
  • Bunny Rabbit
    Review preview for Bunny Rabbit

    Branson dispenses with those tired old survivor narratives and casts humanity’s future in a different light.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    In a climate-collapsed 2030 Australia, young Bunny roams the ruins of the post-apocalyptic world she never got to grow up in. Raised by her deceased father on old books and B-movies, she now lives alone in the shack they once shared. Supplies are scarce. There is nothing left to hunt… except other people.

A–Z of FrightFest 2026 reviews

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