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FrightFest · 2020

FrightFest 2020

October features

Programme

44 films · 31 reviews

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Alien On Stage

Review preview for Alien On Stage

Nothing is taken too seriously - there's plenty of teasing within the group itself - but respect is shown for the effort that has gone into all this.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The story of the Dorset Bus Drivers whose amateur dramatics group created a serious stage adaptation of the science fiction horror classic Alien and ended up performing in London's West End.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Danielle Kummer; Lucy Harvey.)

Full review

Babysitter Must Die

Babysitter Josie Jane just found the perfect hiding spot for a game of hide-and-seek with the child in her care. Seconds later, the family's home is invaded by a pack of brutal cultists, hunting down an apocalyptic secret hidden within its walls.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Kohl Glass; Stars: Kristen Marie Jensen, Nathan Stevens, Scarlett Hazen, Riley Scott)

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.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Chris Smith; Writer: David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich; Stars: Jessica Brown Findlay, Sean Harris, John Lynch, John Heffernan, Anya McKenna-Bruce)

Full review

Benny Loves You

After the accidental death of his parents, Jack must sell his family home and start a new life. Cleaning out the house, he trashes his old belongings, including beloved childhood stuffed animal, Benny. It’s a move that turns lethal as Benny springs to life with one goal in mind: protect Jack at all costs, even if the price is death.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Karl Holt; Stars: Karl Holt, Claire Cartwright, George Collie, James Parsons)

The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Review preview for The Brain That Wouldn't Die

There are some fantastic laugh-out-loud moments here and some wonderful design work.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A doctor experiments with transplant techniques to keep his girlfriend's head alive after she is decapitated in a car crash.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Derek Carl; Writer: Hank Huffman, based on characters created by Rex Carlton, Joseph Green; Stars: Rachael Perrell Fosket, Patrick D. Green, David Withers, Jason Reynolds)

Full review

Breeder

Review preview for Breeder

Dahl wants to make a certain type of film but Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen's script just isn't right for it.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A renowned health supplement company, run by a ruthless businesswoman, is selecting and abducting young women as part of an experiment bio-hacking babies’ DNA to enable her clients to reverse the ageing process

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2019; Director: Jens Dahl; Writer: Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen; Stars: Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Anders Heinrichsen|, Signe Egholm, Olsen, Morten Holst)

Full review

Broil

Review preview for Broil

A handsome setting, gorgeous costumes by Nataliya Fedulova and a sumptuous score by Hugh Wielenga give this film a real touch of class.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A bored girl is sentenced to live with her draconian grandfather, August, after a violent incident at school. Locked inside the sprawling Sinclair Estate, she begins to question the source of her family's immense wealth and power.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Edward Drake; Writer: Edward Drake, Piper Mars; Stars: Johnathan Lipnicki, Avery Konrad, Timothy V. Murphy, Annette Reilly)

Full review

Butchers

After their car breaks down, four youths find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. One pair stay with the car whilst the other pair of friends head-off to find help. Little do they know they are being watched. Both group soon fall captive to a family of sadistic butchers.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Adrian Langley; Stars: Simon Phillips, Michael Swatton, Julie Mainville, Anne-Carolyne Binette, James Hicks, Blake Canning, Nick Allan)

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.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Damian McCarthy; Writer: Damian McCarthy; Stars: Ben Caplan, Tiffany-Ellen Robinson, Jonathan French, Conor Dwane, Jed)

Full review

Concrete Plans

Review preview for Concrete Plans

Ultimately there are only so many possibilities, but director Will Jewell manages some effective sleight of hand nonetheless.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
High in the remote Welsh mountains, five builders renovate a farmhouse. Two of them take a dislike to Ukranian Viktor. When payments are late, tempers fray and one man makes an astonishing proposition.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Will Jewel; Writer: Will Jewell; Stars: Amber Rose Revah, James Lance, Kevin Guthrie, Charley Palmer Rothwell)

Full review

The Curse Of Audrey Earnshaw (The Ballad Of Audrey Earnshaw)

Review preview for The Curse Of Audrey Earnshaw

Witchcraft is a difficult subject for today's filmmakers, not least because of the public's shifting sympathies, but Lee has found a story in which it is a perfect fit.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A mother and daughter are suspected of witchcraft by their devout rural community.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Thomas Robert Lee; Writer: Thomas Robert Lee; Stars: Jared Abrahamson, Hannah Emily Anderson, Catherine Walker, Don McKellar)

Full review

Cyst

Review preview for Cyst

The best thing about the film is Eva Habermann as the nurse.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
In the early Sixties a doctor invents a machine to remove skin abnormalities. But his nurse thinks it's dangerous. The struggle between the two causes it to malfunction, creating a giant cyst monster.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Tyler Russell; Stars: Greg Sestero, Eva Habermann, Jason Douglas, Gene Jones)

Full review

Dangerous To Know

A troubled young woman recovers from a suicide attempt in a secluded cabin, but when a series of unexplained and terrifying incidents occur, she realises someone-or something-has a far darker future planned for her.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: David Simpson; Stars: David Simpson, Demelza Randall, Andrew Robert Wilson, James An)

Dead

Review preview for Dead

Tremendously enjoyable.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Marbles, a hapless stoner, can see ghosts. Tagg, a recently dead wannabe super-cop, needs to find a serial killer. Can a critical ghost cop and a directionless stoner get over their prejudices and work together to save lives - and deaths?

(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2020; Director: Hayden J Weal; Writer: Thomas Sainsbury, Hayden J Weal; Stars: Emily Campbell, Michael Hurst, Tomai Ihaia, Mayen Mehta, Kanye Peters)

Full review

Don't Look Back (Good Samaritan)

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.

(Country: US; Year: 90; Director: Jeffrey Reddick; Writer: Jeffrey Reddick; Stars: Kourtney Bell, Will Stout, Skyler Hart, Jeffrey Holm)

Full review

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.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Marc Price; Writer: Marc Price; Stars: Phoebe Sparrow, Daisy Aitkens, Simon Dwyer-Thomas, Charlotte Mounter)

Full review

Embryo

Kevin and his girlfriend Evelyn are camping in the woods when she is abducted and impregnated by otherworldly beings. As the entity inside her begins to grow at a rapid rate, Evelyn’s cravings can only be satiated by the taste of human flesh.

(Country: Chile; Year: 2020; Director: Patricio Valladares; Stars: Romina Perazzo, Domingo Guzmán, Carolina Escobar, Cristial Cuentrejo)

For The Sake Of Vicious

Review preview for For The Sake Of Vicious

For The Sake Of Vicious demonstrates that you don't need exotic settings to make a pulsing action film.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An innocent nurse, a tortured maniac and a suspicious hostage face off against a wave of violent intruders as they descend upon their place of refuge on Halloween night.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Gabriel Carrer, Reese Eveneshen; Writer: Gabriel Carrer, Reese Eveneshen; Stars: Lora Burke, Nick Smyth, Colin Paradine, TJ Kennedy, James Fler, Erin Stuart)

Full review See: Roundtable with Gabriel Carrer and Reese Eveneshen about For The Sake Of Vicious

The Funeral Home (La Funeraria, The Undertaker's 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.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2019; Director: Mauro Iván Ojeda; Writer: Mauro Iván Ojeda; Stars: Luís Machín, Celeste Gerez, Camila Vaccarini)

Full review

Heckle

Review preview for Heckle

Though not exactly polished, it has an innate exuberance that will encourage viewers to tick with it.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
Stand-up Joe Johnson decides to share a Halloween weekend away with a group of friends. They jokingly suggest that if they get drunk, high, and behave badly enough, hopefully they'll attract their own psycho killer. The joke is suddenly very much on them.

(Year: 2020; Director: Martyn Pick; Writer: Airell Anthony Hayles; Stars: Steve Guttenberg, Clark Gable III, Toyah Wilcox, Nicholas Vince)

Full review

Held

A couple's ailing marriage is put to the test when they are held hostage in an isolated vacation rental by an unseen Voice that commands their every move.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Travis Cluff, Chris Lofing; Writer: Jill Awbrey; Stars: Jill Awbrey, Bart Johnson, Rez Kempton, Zack Gold, Jener Dasilva)

Honeydew

Review preview for Honeydew

A species of all-American folk horror bound up with Biblical fundamentalism and the tainted bounty of the land.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Unfortunately for a young couple on a camping trip, their car broke down in the middle of the night. Even more unfortunate: In hopes of using a phone for help, they’ve stepped foot inside a house of, to put it lightly, very strange horrors.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Devereux Milburn; Writer: Dan Kennedy, Devereux Milburn, Devereux Milburn; Stars: Sawyer Spielberg, Malin Barr, Barbara Kingsley, Stephen D'Ambrose, Jamie Bradley, Joshua Patrick Dudley, Rachel Alexandria Arnold, William Aydelott, Shauna Mizula, Sawyer Spielberg, Malin Barr, Barbara Kingsley, Stephen D'Ambrose, Jamie Bradley, Joshua Patrick Dudley)

Full review

Hosts

Review preview for Hosts

Fans of straight out violence and gore will find a fair bit to enjoy here.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
When a family invites their neighbours, a sweet young couple, over to celebrate Christmas Eve and some very happy personal news, they do not realise that their dinner guests have just become hosts to malicious entities.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Adam Leader, Richard Oakes; Writer: Adam Leader, Richard Oakes; Stars: Neal Ward, Nadia Lamin, Frank Jakeman, Jennifer K Preston)

Full review

Let's Scare Julie

Review preview for Let's Scare Julie

Johnson does impressive work, rarely getting to pause for breath and carrying her character through a difficult arc.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The victim of a prank by her cousin’s friends, Emma ups the ante by planning to scare the mysterious, reclusive girl who lives across the street. But what starts off as a simple plan becomes a nightmare.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Jud Cremata; Writer: Jud Cremata; Stars: Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Isabel May, Odessa A'zion, Brooke Sorenson)

Full review

Lucky

Review preview for Lucky

Grant, who wrote the script as well as starring, submits completely to the logic of the role even as her character grows increasingly outraged by the absurdity of it all.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A suburban woman fights to be believed as she finds herself stalked by a threatening figure who returns to her house night after night.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Natasha Kermani; Writer: Brea Grant; Stars: Brea Grant, Hunter C Smith, Kristina Klebe, Kausar Mohammed, Dhruv Uday Singh)

Full review See: Interview with Natasha Kermani about Lucky

The Nights Before Christmas

In the run-up to Christmas, FBI Special Agent Natalie Parker is tasked with tracking a pair of psychotic serial killers who have styled themselves after Santa Claus and his wife.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Paul Tanter; Stars: Simon Phillips, Sayla de Goede, Kate Schroder, Anne-Carolyne Binette)

Origin Unknown

When a former drug-runner tries to buy his way out of the Cartels, he expects trouble. He takes his family into a safe house surrounded by armed guards, a little girl breaches the perimeter. Then a group of unknown assailants with near-mystical powers come after her, and it quickly seems that an armoured compound might not be enough.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2020; Director: Rigoberto Castañeda; Stars: Daniel Martínez, Lisette Morelos, Paulina Gil, Horacio Garcia Rojas)

The Owners

Review preview for The Owners

It's almost the equivalent of pantomime, an established genre style in which we all all know that certain things are going to happen at certain times - some of them grisly - with the surprise lying in the (ahem) execution.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
One night in Nineties rural England, a retired couple finds their isolated house besieged by a gang of young criminals. The thieves think it will be easy to make them give up the secret of their safe. But they have no idea what nightmare they’ve gotten themselves into as they fight to escape the house alive.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Julius Berg; Writer: Mathieu Gompel, Julius Berg, Geoff Cox; Stars: Maisie Williams, Sylvester McCoy, Rita Tushingham, Jake Curran)

Full review

The Pale Door

The legendary Dalton Gang battles a coven of bloodthirsty witches in a hybrid Western horror with gunfights and gore.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Aaron B Koontz; Stars: Melora Walters, Natasha Bassett, Zachary Knighton, Noah Segan)

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.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Neil Marshall; Writer: Edward Evers-Swindell, Charlotte Kirk; Stars: Sean Pertwee, Charlotte Kirk, Steven Waddington, Joe Anderson, Ian Whyte)

Full review See: Interview with Neil Marshall and Charlotte Kirk about The Reckoning

Redwood Massacre: Annihilation

Twenty years ago at the infamous Redwood Farm, the owner went mad and killed his family and himself. Shrouded in urban legend ever since, a stranger obsessed with the unsolved Redwood murders convinces a group of bereaved family members to venture into the wilderness in the hope of proving the existence of the notorious burlap bag-masked maniac.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: David Ryan Keith; Stars: Danielle Harris, Damien Puckler, Gary Kasper, Jon Campling)

Relic

Review preview for Relic

Director Natalie Erika James, still only in her twenties, draws viewers into her astonishing debut feature by externalising the horrors of a disease that will be all too familiar to many.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
When Edna, the elderly and widowed matriarch of the family, goes missing, her daughter Kay and granddaughter Sam travel to their remote family home to find her. Soon after her return, they start to discover a sinister presence haunting the house and taking control of Edna.

(Country: Australia, US; Year: 2020; Director: Natalie Erika James; Writer: Natalie Erika James, Christian White; Stars: Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote, Robyn Nevin, Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote, Robyn Nevin)

Full review

The Returned (Los Que Vuelven)

Review preview for The Returned

There are shadows everywhere, shapes moving on the fringes of one's vision, and it's easy to suspect that one is being watched.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The indigenous people of the Guarani tribe has either been exterminated or reduced to servitude. Julia, the wife of a wealthy landowner, gives birth to her third dead child. In desperation, she begs Kerana, her indigenous housekeeper with ancient powers, to bring him back to life - but he doesn't return alone.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2020; Director: Laura Casabé; Writer: Laura Casabe, Lisandro Colaberardino, Paulo Soria; Stars: Alberto Ajaka, Edgardo Castro, Javier Drolas, Lali Gonzalez)

Full review

Sacrifice (The Colour Of Madness)

Review preview for Sacrifice

Sacrifice builds with a slow, gentle rhythm, like the waves rolling up against the shore.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
After the death of his mother, Isaac and his pregnant wife Emma return to the remote Norwegian island of his birth to deal with an unexpected inheritance.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Andy Collier, Toor Mian; Writer: Andy Collier, Paul Kane; Stars: Barbara Crampton, Sophie Stevens, Ludovic Hughes, Lucas Loughran, Johanna Adde Dahl)

Full review

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.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2019; Director: Luciana Garraza, Eric Fleitas.; Writer: Sheila Fentana, Eric Fleitas, Luciana Garraza; Stars: Nayla Churruarin, Sofia Lanaro, Gonzalo Tolosa, Tisso Solis Vargas)

Full review

The Sinners (The Color Rose)

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.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Courtney Paige; Writer: Erin Hazlehurst, Courtney Paige; Stars: Kaitlyn Bernard, Brenna Llewellyn, Brenna Coates, Keilani Elizabbeth Rose, Jasmine Randhawa)

Full review

Skylin3s

Captain Rose Corley has extraterrestrial superpowers meaning she is the only person powerful enough to vanquish the alien marauders. When a virus threatens to turn Earth-dwelling friendly alien hybrids against humans, Corley assembles an elite team of mercenaries on a mission to the alien world to save humanity.

(Country: France; Year: 2020; Director: Liam O'Donnell; Stars: Rhona Mitra, Lindsey Morgan, Alexander Siddig, James Cosmo)

Slaxx

Review preview for Slaxx

A consistently smart, well-structured film with well-drawn characters, superb performances and a serious point to make.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
When a possessed pair of jeans begins to kill the staff of a trendy clothing store, it is up to Libby, an idealistic young salesclerk, to stop its bloody rampage.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Elza Kephart; Writer: Patricia Gomez, Elza Kephart; Stars: Romane Denis, Brett Donahue, Sehar Bhojani, Kenny Wong)

Full review See: Interview with Elza Kephart about Slaxx

Spare Parts

Members of a punk band who have been surgically altered to have with an axe, drill or chainsaw attached to one arm and are forced to fight gladiator-style in an arena-style scrapyard for the amusement of the Emperor and his sadistic townsfolk.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2020; Director: Andrew Thomas Hunt; Stars: Julian Richings, Michelle Argyris, Emily Alatalo, Jason Rouse)

Stranger

Inspector Gluhovsky, whose track record in solving cases is unrivalled, is assigned the case of the mysterious disappearance of a team of six synchronised swimmers during their performance at a water therapy clinic.

(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2019; Director: Dmitriy Tomapolskiy; Stars: Anastasiya Yevtushenko, Darya Tregubova, Maria Bruni)

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Jill Gervagizian; Writer: Jill Gevargizian, Eric Havens, Eric Stolze; Stars: Brea Grant, Najarra Townsend, Laura Kirk, Sarah McGuire, Jennifer Seward, Millie Milan, Kimberly Igla, Kyle Ament, Davis DeRock, Steven Hugh Nelson, Bety Le, Edward Patterson, Pepper, Vienna Maas, Chelsea Brown)

Full review

Tailgate (Bumperkleef)

Review preview for Tailgate

Crijns handles the action set pieces well, creating a real sense of danger and dynamism despite the smallness of the setting, but it's in the film's chillier moments that he really comes into his own.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Hans is a self-confident, cocksure man who decides to visit his parents on the other side of the country. With his wife and two young daughters along for the ride, the road trip goes well. Until a road raging, traffic fight with a weird van driver causes a major family upset. Ed, the van driver, wants revenge.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2019; Director: Lodewijk Crijns; Writer: Lodewijk Crijns; Stars: Jeroen Spitzenberger, Anniek Pheifer, Roosmarijn van der Hoek, Liz Vergeer)

Full review

Woman Of The Photographs

Review preview for Woman Of The Photographs

For all its elegance, there's a neediness and an inherent dishonesty about it which continually distract from the development of its central ideas.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A misogynistic photographer discovers for the first time in his life the joys of loving a woman, by helping her in her perceptions of herself with his retouching skills.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2020; Director: Takeshi Kushida; Stars: Hideki Nagai, Itsuki Otaki, Toshiaki Inomata, Toki Koinuma)

Full review

The World We Knew

Review preview for The World We Knew

With a sometimes poppy, sometimes bluesy score by French band The Limiñanas, which contributes some much needed energy, the film establishes a distinct personality.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
After a job goes bad, six armed robbers must spend a single night at a deserted safe house. But during the stay their pasts come back to haunt them and the men find themselves fighting for their lives and their sanity.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Matthew Benjamin Jones, Luke Skinner.; Writer: Matthew Benjamin Jones, Kirk Lake; Stars: Matthew Benjamin Jones & Luke Skinner. With: Struan Rodger, Johann Myers, Finbar Lynch, Kirk Lake)

Full review