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FrightFest · 2024

FrightFest 2024

Discovery Screen 1

Programme

20 films · 10 reviews

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7 Keys (Seven Keys)

Review preview for 7 Keys

McDonald is excellent.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
When Lena learns Daniel has the keys to every place he’s ever lived, she wants to use them. But what starts as a romantic tour soon takes a sinister turn.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Joy Wilkinson; Writer: Joy Wilkinson; Stars: Emma McDonald, Pete Postlethwaite)

Full review

The A-Frame

A quantum physicist's groundbreaking machine inadvertently opens a portal to a subatomic universe while attempting to prove its efficacy. During his experiments on rats, he stumbles upon a radical cancer treatment that could revolutionise modern medicine.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Calvin Lee Reeder; Writer: Calvin Lee Reeder; Stars: Johnny Whitworth, Dana Namerode, Nik Dodani, Laketa Caston)

Agatha

The Professor is a man suffering from a terminal disease. By a strange twist of fate he witnesses an incredible event involving his mysterious neighbour Agatha. In the hope of finding a cure to his sickness, he agrees to follow her on a strange and risky journey into a forgotten but not entirely deserted urban wasteland beset by the passing of time and the disintegration of nature, institutions, and people.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Roland Becerra, Kelly Bigelow; Stars: Emily Joyce-Dial, Ryan Whiting, Erin McDonough, Lauren Mascali)

Bogieville

A young couple on the run come across a derelict trailer park, Bogieville. Convinced to stay by the sinister caretaker Crawford they soon learn he is guardian to the residents, a pack of vampires, headed by the formidable Madison who has condemned his 12 year-old daughter to everlasting immortality. An eternal struggle exists between Madison and a rival vampire who will stop at nothing to take control.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Sean Patrick Cronin; Stars: Arifin Putra, Eloise Lovell Anderson, Jonathan Hansler, Sean Cronin)

The Bunker

A scientist must create a bio-weapon to stop unknown alien visitors before they can take over the Earth. But paranoia and isolation cause her to question the true intention of her mission with devastating consequences.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Brian Hanson; Stars: Chelsea Edmundson, Chad Michael Collins, Tobin Bell, Tony Todd)

Carnage For Christmas

Review preview for Carnage For Christmas

Mackay succeeds where [others] have failed partly because there is a deep vein of sincerity beneath the playful surface of her work.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola visits her hometown for the first time since running away and transitioning, the local urban legend, The Toymaker, is the least of her worries. But then the vengeful ghost of the historical murderer seemingly rises again.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2024; Director: Alice Maio Mackay; Writer: Alice Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson; Stars: Chris Asimos, Dominique Booth, Betsey Brown, Lewi Dawson, Olivia Beeble)

Full review

Charlotte

Review preview for Charlotte

There’s too much reliance here on pre-existing audience emotions about certain topics, and not enough effort made to forge direct connections.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
In the dead of night, a young teenager appears on Roy's doorstep, fleeing from her abusive father. Despite a few too many drinks, Roy reluctantly offers her shelter for the night. But is either of them what they seem?

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Georgia Conlan; Writer: Georgia Conlan, Martin Hardwick; Stars: Georgia Conlan, Louis Brogan, Dean Kilbey, Liam Conlan)

Full review

Children Of The Wicker Man

Review preview for Children Of The Wicker Man

The popular concept of genius is thoroughly subverted here.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A documentary about The Wicker Man and its legacy.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Justin Hardy, Dominic Hardy, Chris Nunn)

Full review

Cinderella'a Curse

Cinderella wishes for love and happiness, but she finds herself ill-treated and abused daily by her evil stepsisters and stepmother, unable to escape their cruel clutches. Until she summons her fairy godmother from an ancient flesh-bound book, who is able to grant Cinderella her greatest wish: ultimate revenge. Now, with bloodlust, Cinderella goes to the ball to massacre those who have done her wrong before the hour strikes midnight.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Louisa Warren; Stars: Kelly Ryan Sanson, Chrissie Wunna, Lauren Budd, Natasha Tosini)

The Daemon

Review preview for The Daemon

The Daemon has been billed as Lovecraftian Horror. This turns out to be less in the existentially sublime way than in the slime coming out of people’s faces way.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
Haunted by his father's suicide, Tom abandons his wife Kathy and seeks refuge at the lakeside cottage where he met his tragic end. There, tormented memories from childhood resurface, all intricately connected to an ancient, mystifying force lurking beneath the lake's depths, driving Tom inexorably towards madness.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: David Yohe, Matt Devino; Writer: Matt Devino, David Michael Yohe; Stars: Adriana Isabel, Tyler Q Rosen, Sara Fletcher, Oscar Wilson)

Full review

The Lonely Man With The Ghost Machine

After a global catastrophe, the last man on Earth finds himself questioning his purpose and sanity as both his deceased wife and a mysterious stranger confront him with his past, his present, and whatever future might remain in the wastes of a dead world.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Graham Skipper; Stars: Graham Skipper, Paul Guyet, Christina Bennett Lind)

Mutilator 2

Many years after its initial 1984 release, the slasher classic The Mutilator is being remade. A wrap party has been scheduled for the night following the final day of shooting. Cast members from the original film have been invited too and everyone is excited. Unfortunately they are besieged by an unknown killer, who favours the use of similar nautical implements of death to those used by Big Ed, the original grief-crazed Mutilator maniac.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Buddy Cooper; Stars: Terry Kiser, Eva Hamilton, Chaney Morrow, Cody Renee Cameron)

Never Have I Ever

Review preview for Never Have I Ever

Heavy on ominous music from the outset, the film too often comes across like it’s trying to tell us what to feel rather than letting it happen naturally.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
Sam is having a bad day. He is battling an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, is late on a deadline for a writing gig and risks having to pay back an advance he can’t afford to. Then a chance encounter whilst drowning his sorrows sends his already bad day spinning in directions he couldn’t possibly have seen coming.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Damon Rickard; Writer: Damon Rickard, Andrew Lee Potts, Mitch Bain; Stars: Andrew Lee Potts, Amber Doig-Thorne, Beatrice Fletcher, Johnny Vivash, Graham Skipper)

Full review

A Nightmare On Elm Street

Review preview for A Nightmare On Elm Street

A Nightmare On Elm Street remains an atmospheric and genuinely unsettling film with a chilling, universally relatable central motif: sleep gets everyone in the end.

James Gracey · 5 out of 5
A child molester killed by vigilantes seeks revenge on their children through their dreams.

(Country: US; Year: 1984; Director: Wes Craven; Stars: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Johnny Depp)

Full review

Protein

Review preview for Protein

There’s a deep vein of black comedy running through what might otherwise be a relentlessly grim film, and yet one never feels that Burke lacks sympathy with the people of this benighted Welsh town.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A traumatised ex-squaddie and serial killer returns to South Wales to escape his demons. There he becomes workout and gym-obsessed and eats a local drug dealer for their protein. Compelled to kill again, he sends shockwaves through the local criminal underworld.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Tony Burke; Writer: Tony Burke; Stars: Craig Russell, Andrea Hall, Charles Dale, Ross O'Hennessy)

Full review See: Interview with Craig Russell and Tony Burke about Protein

Scared Shitless

Review preview for Scared Shitless

This may present itself as a B-movie but it’s very well crafted, at every level from the dramatic to the cinematographic.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A father and son plumbing duo face a gruesome challenge: rid a building of a toilet-dwelling creature before it unleashes itself to the rest of the world.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Vivieno Caldinelli; Writer: Brandon Cohen; Stars: Steven Ogg, Daniel Doheny, Chalsea Clark, Mark McKinney, Julian Richings)

Full review

Scarlet Blue

Review preview for Scarlet Blue

In order to explore the mystery, viewers need to courage to engage with Alter’s visions and the maze they lead into, with Mengin using surrealist techniques and colour coding to map out this journey.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A woman who struggles with depression, schizophrenia and a schism of communication with her mother endeavours to recover from a suicide attempt by consulting a healer who practices mystical hypnosis and lives an isolated existence in a cave.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Aurélia Mengin; Writer: Aurélia Mengin; Stars: Amélie Daure, Anne-Sophie Charron, Stefano Cassetti, Patricia Barzyk, Emmanuel Bonami)

Full review See: Interview with Aurélia Mengin about Scarlet Blue

Scopophobia

Scopophobia: the extreme, irrational fear of being looked at. Four young women return home to a ghost town but find themselves being followed. By someone who knows what they did? Or just their guilty conscience?

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Aled Owen; Stars: Catrin Jones, Emma Stacey, Ellen Jane Thomas, Bethany William Potter)

Touchdown

When meteor storms bring a new life form to earth, global authorities implement emergency controls as they move in secret to eliminate the predators. A group of five friends, who are separated in different countries, risk everything to survive.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Josephine Rose; Stars: Will Attenborough, Cressida Bonas, Kai Luke Brummer, Jason Flemyng)

Year 10

A cataclysmic event has blackened the sky plunging the earth into an endless winter. Toxic clouds turned rain to acid, crops can't grow and the human race is all but extinct. Deep in the dying forest Son and his Father eke out an existence scavenging the wreckage of the former world. Though their lives are bleak they have each other. But when Son's girlfriend is struck down by an infection, everything falls apart.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Benjamin Goodger; Stars: Toby Goodger, Hannah Khalique-Brown, Duncan Lacroix)