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Festival coverage

FrightFest

28 August – 31 August 2020

The Stylist
The Stylist

Running online because of Covid-19, 2020's Arrow Video FrightFest was a little smaller than usual but no less fearsome. Showcasing 25 films from 10 continents, the August part opened with Sky Sharks and the October part with Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula. Both included a range of online events and activities to help fans get into the spirit of things.

The first part of the festival ran from 28 to 31 August. The second ran from 22 to 25 October.

Other years (19)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Caveat
    Review preview for Caveat

    No matter how good everything else is, it’s impossible to make a good film from a weak script.

    Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
    An amnesiac drifter accepts a strange job from his old landlord: to look after his niece, a psychologically troubled woman living in an abandoned house on an isolated island.
  • The Sinners
    Review preview for The Sinners

    A weighty legacy of films about dead girls has informed this film and shaped its imagery.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    An A-List Girl clique starts a secret cult where each of them must embody one of the seven deadly sins. They realise there's more to their small religious town when they start to go missing one by one.
  • Scavenger
    Review preview for Scavenger

    Connoisseurs of grindhouse will appreciate it for what it is.

    Jennie Kermode · 1.5 out of 5
    In a post-apocalyptic future, a woman murders others for their organs so she can afford to find the brutal cartel that murdered her family and wreak an explosive revenge.
  • The Reckoning
    Review preview for The Reckoning

    The various torture devices used here are all real but lose much of their horrific impact because the film is so over the top.

    Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
    A period thriller set in 1665 during the Great Plague and subsequent witch hunts.
  • The Banishing
    Review preview for The Banishing

    McKenna-Bruce is good in a role that first requires her to restrain her emotions and then pulls her in several directions at once.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    The story of the most haunted house in England. In the 1930s, a young reverend, his wife and daughter move into a manor with a horrifying secret.
  • The Stylist
    Review preview for The Stylist

    Townsend is fully committed to the role and her performance is as heartbreaking as it is disturbing.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A lonely hair stylist becomes obsessed with the lives of her clients and descends into murderous madness.
  • The Funeral Home
    Review preview for The Funeral Home

    The film is literally very dark, which can be frustrating in the dramatic scenes but works well with the approach taken to special effects, adding to the sense of threat and general unpleasantness.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    An undertaker's dysfunctional family lives amongst coffins, wreaths and mischievous but nonviolent ghosts - but then a malevolent entity arrives.
  • 12 Hour Shift
    Review preview for 12 Hour Shift

    A splatter-happy romp through one night in the organ trade.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    Nurse Mandy is just trying to make it through her double shift alive, but her nasty drug addiction, annoying coworkers, needy patients, and devious cousin are making it pretty tough, not to mention organ-stealing criminals and an injured convict.
  • Don't Look Back
    Review preview for Don't Look Back

    Bell...brims with confidence and keeps her character believable even when the story loses its grip.

    Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
    A young woman trying to overcome her traumatic past is walking through the park one day she sees a man brutally assaulted while passers-by stop to film it on their phones. Later, one by one, the witnesses fall prey to someone or something seeking revenge.
  • Dune Drifter
    Review preview for Dune Drifter

    From the outset, Sparrow's work is gripping, even though she has to do most of her acting through a visor.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    When a 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.

A–Z of FrightFest 2020 reviews

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