FrightFest — A–Z of films

It's exploitation cinema but it's made with care.

This feels like an episode of Mystery Theater and will charm fans of old radio horror.

2016’s Blood Feast rises to the challenge with aplomb.

Working with a tightly restricted budget, Casabé has created a film that looks magnificent.

Crampton is clearly having a whale of a time.

An engaging, riveting watch.

Delivers the goods with conviction and not a hint of apology.

The final moments of this film, as bodies shamble out of the shadows, capture the real darkness of the zombie genre in a way that recalls the best of George Romero's work.

Valladares’ film may be confused in places but he keeps up the pace, and the increasingly frantic protagonists don’t have time to pause and ask questions.

One might fairly say that The Evil In Us is cobbled together from scraps of other films, but it's nicely shot and edited and looks, overall, much better than one would expect with that in mind.

The stunning visuals - beautifully shot in a whirl of rich colours and edited together with feverish energy - easily overwhelm the plot, as does the pounding, vibrant score.

Although it has a solid horror premise, the script here tends to meander, leaving Orr reliant on shocks and gore to maintain the tension.

If you go into this film believing in demonic possession, you are likely to find it chilling in places. If you don't, it's unlikely to change your mind. The more interesting questions are focused on Martin himself.

It's the introspective nature of the drama that makes the film genuinely sinister, and its silences are as effective as its frantic action scenes.

Whilst it may not be the sharpest piece of sociological analysis, The Killing Of America has an important point to make about the level of brutality Americans have come to take for granted.

Morris is good but has to work very hard to keep us interested.

Lost Solace deftly skewers the conventions of films which pit unfeeling men against one another, undermining the conventional masculine dynamic and moving the goalposts.

There is smoke, there is a cauldron, there is an altar of sorts and there is a not very Grand Wizard who looks like someone who has crawled out from inside a bin lorry.

Silvestrini, in only his second feature, does an excellent job of sustaining the tension in a situation where it would be easy for the audience, as well as the protagonist, to despair.

A raw, blistering work which audiences witness rather than watch.

There's an extra treat for US fans because of the casting of Engvall, the self-described 'sitcom dad', in his first ever horror role.

Along the way, narratives blur and questions arise about just whose story this is.

To say that Realive is an ablist film would be a colossal understatement.

The family setting gives this a lot more depth, allowing for complex relationships that make the interaction of the terrorised characters much more interesting than that of the usual screaming teenagers.

Though its tendency to whimsy means it’s not quite as tightly plotted as it needs to be, this charismatic little thriller still manages to punch above its weight.

Director Isaac Ezban brings a very distinctive look to the film, in more ways than one.

Walter Lima Jr's exquisitely photographed film is big on atmosphere, short on structural detail - very much in the spirit of Henry James' work, and you will get more out of it if you are already familiar with that.

As befits a film set on a rapid commuter train, the pace rarely lets up.

It may be derivative, underdeveloped and twee, but it has force of personality.

With a lot of characters to deal with, The Windmill Massacre wastes no time on setting up. The basic logic of the situation is quickly established and there’s never much of a pause between deaths.