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FrightFest · 2017

FrightFest 2017

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Programme

24 films · 15 reviews

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68 Kill

Review preview for 68 Kill

On the one level, 68 Kill is pure pulp trash, harking back to director Trent Haaga's Troma roots. On the other, it's brilliantly done.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A sewage worker is sweet talked by his glamorous girlfriend into robbing her sugar daddy, but nothing goes to plan.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Trent Haaga; Writer: Trent Haaga, Bryan Smith; Stars: Matthew Gray Gubler, AnnaLynne McCord, Alisha Boe, Sheila Vand, Sam Eidson)

Full review See: Interview with Travis Stevens about 68 Kill

Attack Of The Adult Babies (Adult Babies)

Review preview for Attack Of The Adult Babies

There's a joyousness about this kind of filmmaking, unrestricted as it is by any concern for convention.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
A home invasion forces two teenagers to break into a remote country manor little realising it is a retreat for middle-aged men who like to dress in nappies... and who have a sinister plot.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Dominic Brunt; Writer: Joanne Mitchell, Paul Shrimpton; Stars: Joanne Mitchell, Kate Coogan, Sally Dexter, Andrew Dunn, Charlie Chuck)

Full review See: Interview with Joanne Mitchell about Attack Of The Adult Babies

Alone

After going to a funfair the night before, Leila wakes up in an empty city. Where are her parents? Where has everyone gone? Thinking she must be the sole survivor of an unthinkable catastrophe, she wanders the weirdly deserted streets. Until she meets four other mystified strangers.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: David Moreau; Stars: Sofia Lesaffre, Stéphane Bak, Jean-Stan Du Pac, Paul Scarfoglio, Kim Lockhart)

The Bar

A group of strangers are trapped inside a bar.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Álex de la Iglesia; Writer: Álex de la Iglesia, Jorge Guerricaechevarría; Stars: Mario Casas, Blanca Suárez, José Sacristán, Carmen Machi, Terele Pávez, Jaime Ordóñez, Joaquín Climent, Secun de la Rosa, Alejandro Awada, Jordi Aguilar, Diego Braguinsky, Mamen García)

Cult Of Chucky

Confined to an asylum for the criminally insane for the past four years, Nica Pierce is erroneously convinced that she, not Chucky, murdered her entire family. But when her psychiatrist introduces a new therapeutic “tool” to facilitate his patients’ group sessions - an all-too-familiar “Good Guy” doll - a string of grisly deaths begins to plague the asylum, and Nica starts to wonder if maybe she isn’t crazy after all.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Don Mancini; Stars: Jennifer Tilly, Fiona Dourif, Andy Barclay, Alex Vincent, Michael Therriault)

Dead Shack

Review preview for Dead Shack

It's hard to demand too much finesse from a film centred on characters who lack all traces of it, and who are great fun to be with anyway.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A group of teens on a weekend getaway at a secluded cabin in the woods soon find themselves fighting off a serious threat to their lives. Not only that they must save their hard-partying parents from a predatory neighbour.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Peter Ricq; Writer: Phil Ivanusic, Davila LeBlanc, Peter Ricq; Stars: Lauren Holly, Valerie Tian, Donavon Stinson, Lizzie Boys, June B Wilde)

Full review

Death Note

A studentcomes across a supernatural notebook with the power to kill any person whose name he writes in it. He decides to rid the world of bad people - but something is hunting him.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Adam Wingard; Writer: Based on the manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.; Stars: Margaret Qualley, Lakeith Stanfield, Willem Dafoe, Shea Whigham, Nat Wolff)

Double Date

Review preview for Double Date

You'll laugh, and wince, and laugh again.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
An innocent out to prove his manhood meets a pair of femmes fatales.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Benjamin Barfoot; Writer: Danny Morgan; Stars: Danny Morgan, Georgia Groome, Michael Socha, Kelly Wenham, Dougie Poynter, Brooke Norbury, Lee Shone, Benny Bereal, Liz Kingsman, Elena Valdameri, Lewis Holloway, Kelly Wells, Sarah Carmen, Kerrieanne Booker, Charley Clark)

Full review

The End?

One day a businessman gets locked in his Roman office elevator before an important meeting with a client. Soon this annoying obstacle will turn into a nightmare. For outside that metal cage a deadly virus has begun to infect and transform people into extremely violent and dangerous zombies.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2017; Director: Daniele Misischia; Stars: Alessandro Roja, Euridice Axen, Claudio Camilli, Benedetta Cimatti, Bianca Friscelli)

Freehold (Two Pigeons)

Review preview for Freehold

Director Dominic Bridges and co-writer Rae Brunton strike a delicate balance between the comedic and the sinister.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Hussein, a wide-boy estate agent, doesn't realise he's sharing his apartment with a forgotten stranger, a master of concealment - until his campaign of revenge starts to hit home.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Dominic Bridges; Writer: Dominic Bridges, Rae Brunton; Stars: Mim Shaikh, Javier Botet, Mandeep Dhillon, Kola Bokinni, Michael McKell)

Full review See: Interview with Dominic Bridges and Mim Shaikh about Freehold

Game Of Death

Review preview for Game Of Death

As with most of the best games, the concept is simple; the genius is in the execution.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Seven millenials discover an obscure electronic board game and decide to test their wits against it. When it tells them they need to kill 24 people in the next 24 hours, mayhem ensues.

(Country: Canada, US, France; Year: 2017; Director: Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace; Writer: Edouard H Bond, Philip Kalin-Hajdu, Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace; Stars: Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, Catherine Saindon, Nick Serino)

Full review

Hatchet

When a group of tourists becomes stranded in a haunted Louisiana swamp, bad things happen.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Adam Green; Writer: Adam Green; Stars: Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Tony Todd, Tamara Feldman)

Imitation Girl

Review preview for Imitation Girl

Carter is superb in the dual role.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A mysterious being appears in the desert and assumes the identity of the first person she sees – a magazine cover girl. Taken in by Iranian immigrants, she forms an understanding of her new surroundings, and comes to appreciate the beauty and the sadness of her new world.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Natasha Kermani; Writer: Natasha Kermani; Stars: Lauren Ashley Carter, Lewis Black, Adam David Thompson, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Sanam Erfani)

Full review

Killing Ground

Review preview for Killing Ground

What Power does differently is to deny us the usual sources of comfort.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A young couple camping in the woods find an abandoned tent and then a lost toddler.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2016; Director: Damien Power; Writer: Damien Power; Stars: Harriet Dyer, Aaron Pedersen, Stephen Hunter, Tiarnie Coupland, Ian Meadows, Maya Stange, Mitzi Ruhlmann, Aaron Glenane, Julian Garner, Tara Jade Borg, Michael Knott, Mark Gadaleta, Jackie Dettmer, Matthew Dettmer, Liam Parkes)

Full review See: Interview with Damien Power about Killing Ground

Leatherface

Review preview for Leatherface

There is never much sense of hope in the film, only a brash defiance that sometimes, for all its ugliness, verges on the heroic.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Four teenage patients escape from a mental institution, kidnap a nurse and take her on a road trip to hell in this prequel to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Julien Maury Alexandre Bustillo; Writer: Seth M Sherwood; Stars: Stephen Dorff, Lili Taylor, Nicole Andrews, Sam Strike, Sam Coleman)

Full review See: Interview with Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo about Leatherface

Lowlife

When a simple organ-harvesting caper goes awry, a twist of fate unites three of society’s forgotten and ignored to unite in an attempt to save a pregnant woman from a gruesome fate.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Ryan Prows; Stars: Nicki Micheaux, Ricardo Adam Zarate, Jon Oswald, Shaye Ogbonna, Santana Dempsey)

Mayhem

Review preview for Mayhem

The scenes of conflict are well handled; it's actually hard to depict completely untrained, inexperienced people attacking each other in a realistic way, and director Joe Lynch achieves this without ever compromising on the fun of it all.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A lawyer betrayed by a colleague fights his way up the building to try and see the boss while it's under quarantine due to a virus that makes everybody lose their inhibitions.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Joe Lynch; Writer: Matias Caruso; Stars: Steven Yuen, Samara Weaving, Steven Brand, Kerry Fox, Dallas Roberts)

Full review See: Interview with Joe Lynch about Mayhem

Psychopaths

Over the course of one excessively blood-soaked night, multiple serial killers’ paths cross, leaving a trail of bodies and begging the question: Which psychopath will live to see morning?

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Mickey Keating; Writer: Mickey Keating; Stars: Ashley Bell, James Landry Hébert, Mark Kassen, Angela Trimbur, Larry Fessenden, Jeremy Gardner, Sam Zimmerman)

Radius

Review preview for Radius

Writer Caroline Labrèche and co-director Steeve Léonard use science fiction framing to invite viewers along on a journey that will take them somewhere very different.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
After a car crash a man is left with no memory... and discovers the horrible truth: anyone who comes within a 50-foot radius of him dies instantly.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Caroline Labrèche, Steeve Léonard; Writer: Caroline Labrèche, Steeve Léonard; Stars: Diego Klattenhoff, Charlotte Sullivan, Brett Donahue, Nazariy Demkowicz,Terry Ray)

Full review See: Interview with Charlotte Sullivan about Radius

Sequence Break

Review preview for Sequence Break

The incursion of something otherworldly into our hero's life takes place slowly, making it all the more unsettling.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A reclusive video arcade technician encounters strange metaphysical forces that result in bizarre bio-mechanical mutations when a new console appears in his shop.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Graham Skipper; Writer: Graham Skipper; Stars: Chase Williamson, Fabianne Therese, Audrey Wasilewski, Lisa Long, Lyle Kanouse)

Full review

Still/Born

Review preview for Still/Born

Burke's performance would be riveting even on an empty sound stage.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
For Mary, the joy of her son Adam’s birth is overshadowed by the stillborn death of his twin brother. Now she can't shake the feeling that something is coming for Adam too.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Brandon Christensen; Writer: Brandon Christensen, Colin Minihan; Stars: Christie Burke, Jesse Moss, Rebecca Olson, Michael Ironside, Jenn Griffin)

Full review

Tragedy Girls

Review preview for Tragedy Girls

Loud, colourful, facetious and painstakingly shallow, Tragedy Girls perfectly captures the high school movie vibe.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
High school seniors McKayla and Sadie are obsessed with their social media presence as authorities on crime - the only trouble is, they're the hands-on type.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Tyler MacIntyre; Writer: Chris Lee Hill, Tyler MacIntyre, Justin Olson; Stars: Alexandra Shipp, Brianna Hildebrand, Josh Hutcherson, Craig Robinson, Kevin Durand)

Full review

The Terror Of Hallows Eve

Timmy Stevens is brutally beaten up by High School bullies on Halloween. Yearning for revenge while carving out a pumpkin head, unknowingly he summons up the evil spirit of the hideous Scarecrow.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Todd Tucker; Stars: Doug Jones, Caleb Thomas, Christian Kane, Juliet Landau, Sarah Lancaster)

The Villainess

Review preview for The Villainess

A must-see film for action fans.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Sook-hee is a trained assassin who was born to kill. Now she works as a theatre actress and secret agent of the South Korean intelligence services.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2017; Director: Jung Byung-gil; Writer: Jung Byung-gil; Stars: Ok-bin Kim, Jun Sung, Seo-hyung Kim, Seo-hyung Kim , Ha-kyun Shin)

Full review