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FrightFest · 2024

FrightFest 2024

Discovery Screen 2

Programme

18 films · 4 reviews

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Boutique: To Preserve And Collect

Review preview for Boutique: To Preserve And Collect

Levey’s enthusiasm for his subject is infectious.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A documentary about the history of physical media, the rise of boutique specialty collector labels and the role they have played in film restoration, preservation and elevation of underrepresented voices.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Ry Levey; Stars: Chris Alexander, David Gregory, Joe Rubin, Peter Kuplowsky)

Full review

Cara

A history of abuse, a roommate coming apart at the mental health seams, a failed career in online sex work with dismissive viewers, a father incapable of communication and a well- meaning mother who reaches out but does nothing. Determined that she will not be sent back to an institution where she believes she was assaulted, Cara has a plan. One to ensure the doctors and her mother can’t put her back  in the Sunnyside hospital. Enlisting the help  of a subservient punter  and a therapist, Cara sets the wheels in motion for her escape strategy, with brutal and horrific consequences.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Hayden Hewitt; Stars: Elle O'Hara, Michaela Longden, Donna Louise Bryan, Johnny Vivash)

Cursed In Baja

A burnt out ex-detective is lured by the rich Los Angeles family responsible for his desperate plight to locate the missing heir to their fortune.  But the young rapper is in Baja, Mexico, and a member of a Russian beast cult that worships the notorious Chupacabra.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Jeff Daniel Phillips; Stars: Jeff Daniel Phillips, Jose Conejo Martin, Finnegan Seeker Bell, Mark File)

Dark Match

A small-time wrestling company accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town only to learn, too late, that the community is run by a mysterious cult leader with devious plans for their match.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Lowell Dean; Writer: Lowell Dean; Stars: Steven Ogg, Sara Canning, Michael Eklund, Chris Jericho, Jonathan Cherry, Ayisha Issa)

Delirium

The owner of a small Airbnb finds the decomposed corpse of a guest. Once the police leave, he trashes the man’s belongings and discovers a heavy antique metal box. Inside he finds some Medieval coins, World War II memorabilia, photos and a tape recorder on which is recounted the misery of a curse that follows the box.

(Country: Iceland; Year: 2023; Director: Arró Stefánsson; Stars: Hjörtur Jóhann Jónsson, Heiddis Chadwick Hlynsdottir, Jóhann Sigurðarson, Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson)

Derelict

Abigail is a socially isolated, angry young woman who is struggling to come to terms with the savage death of her father some years prior. Matt is a young man whose life gets turned upside down by the return of his brother. Their paths cross in ways that will tragically shape their lives.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Jonathan Zaurin; Stars: Suzanne Fulton, Michael Coombes, Pete Bird, Dean Kilbey)

Drive Back

A struggling artist and his pregnant fiancée are celebrating their new engagement when a car accident leaves them lost in the woods. Searching for directions leads to a rundown store run by a creepy older couple who suggest the best way home is by taking an old short cut through dark backroads. But after violent visions, lost memories, a troubling hitchhiker encounter, and an inability to escape the road itself, their car breaks down and they discover that a terrifying killer is watching their every move.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Cody Ashford; Stars: Whit Kunschik, Zack Gold, Robert Lewis Stephenson, Tammy Kaitz)

The Freaks Of Fancy

1927: Four medical graduates are invited to spend the weekend at a beautiful island mansion by their mentor, the experimental and controversial scientist Dr. Reed Wakefield - but is it really about relaxation, or are they caught up in a sinister plan?

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Elliott Léon; Stars: Rachel Brownstein, Gordon Lawson, Holly Lovelady, Matthew Jackman)

Fright

Review preview for Fright

Dudley has a deep understanding of the visual language of the genre, and viewers who know the period well will be delighted by some of the images he presents.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
1937: young Emily is trapped in a nightmare. Chronic agoraphobia and a strange, domineering mother have turned their sprawling gothic mansion into a prison. On the brink of madness, she's haunted by lurking malevolent forces, her only hope that her missing father might save her. But as she longs for his return, she's tormented by visions of a sinister, gnarled black hand—a spectre haunting her earliest memories.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Warren Dudley; Writer: Warren Dudley; Stars: Gwyneth Evans, Jill Priest, Daniel Tuite)

Full review

Generation Terror

A documentary looking back at the late 1990s film industry on a global scale to find out what happened at the turn of the millennium to allow for the huge wealth of horror films flooding out from all corners of the globe.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Phillip Escott, Sarah Appleton; Stars: Adam Wingard, James Wong, Joe Lynch, Rob Zombie, Xavier Gens)

Happy Halloween

A small midwestern town is celebrating its 300th birthday with festivities including a Halloween dance and corn maze. The previous year, Hadley survived a brutal attack by her ex-boyfriend which put him in prison, but now a  new series of slayings has started with the masked perpetrator making grisly decorations out of their victims’ body parts. Soon Hadley and her friends find themselves ensnared in a deadly game.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Brittney Greer; Stars: Emma Reinagel, Aline O'Neill, Graham Weldin, Cameron Mabie)

In The Name Of God

A priest whose wife is seriously ill becomes convinced that he’s been chosen by God to rid the world of sinners in order to bring new life to true believers. Miraculously, at the moment that he commits his first murder, his wife’s health improves and the congregation starts referring to him as the 'miracle priest'. But lurking in the shadows is a disbeliever determined to uncover the bloody traces of the priest's unholy deeds.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2024; Director: Ludvig Gür; Stars: Linus Wahlgren, Lisa Henni, Vilhelm Blomgren, Thomas Hanzon)

I Will Never Leave You Alone

After being released from prison a brooding man with a dark past is forced to stay in a haunted house to clear it of any spirits. If he leaves, he goes back to prison, but the witch-ghost he encounters may be more of a punishment than even he can withstand.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: DW Medoff; Stars: Ken Trujillo, Katerina Eichenberger, Emma Anne Wedemeyer, Chris Genovese)

The Monster Beneath Us

Windswept Yorkshire, 1898. A grieving woman and her son move back to the unoccupied house of her ex-husband who was recently found dead in mysterious circumstances. However they soon discover that they are not alone inside the icy house in a slow burn horror exploring the themes of isolation, otherness and loss. For the house is home to a boggart, and each haunted character reacts to it in a different way.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Sophie Osbourne; Stars: Becca Hirani, Jack Forsyth-Noble, Nicola Wright, Jennifer Lim)

Razor Blade Smile

Transformed into a vampire in the 19th century, Lilith Silver now acts as a hired killer in modern times. When she targets elite businessmen, ‘The Illuminati’, who secretly are taking over corporations and the government, Scotland Yard detective Inspector Price starts investigating. Then Lilith discovers the head of ‘The Illuminati’ is none other than Sir Sethane Blake, the undead creature who first gave her immortality and she goes all out for revenge.

(Country: UK; Year: 1998; Director: Jake West; Stars: Eileen Daly, Christopher Adamson, Kevin Howarth, David Warbeck)

Schlitter: Evil In The Woods

Review preview for Schlitter: Evil In The Woods

A beautifully made but otherwise problematic film.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
Lucas returns to his native village lost in the mountains to bury his parents who have tragically died in a mysterious fire. Traumatised by his abusive father as a child, he also witnessed the death of his best friend when he was eight-years-old. But he has never told anyone the truth about what really happened.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Pierre Mouchet; Writer: Pierre Mouchet, Nicolas Robin; Stars: Luka Meliava, Léna Laprès, Gilles David Gilles David, Côme Levin)

Full review

So Unreal

An exploration of film as a conduit for the anxiety, fear, exhilarating joy and obsession from humanity over emerging technology at the end of the millennium, all through the cyberspace cinema from 1981-2001.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Amanda Kramer; Writer: Britt Brown, Amanda Kramer; Stars: Debbie Harry)

Video Vision

Review preview for Video Vision

When the film isn’t being didactic, there’s some good dialogue here.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
When an old VCR mysteriously shows up at the digitising facility Video Vision, it starts affecting one of the employees in strange ways. Meanwhile, her new romance with a trans man has her head in the clouds - until she's brought to her knees by the supernatural force that's slowly taking control of her body and mind.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Michael Turney; Writer: Michael Turney; Stars: Andrea Figliomeni, Chrystal Peterson, Shelley Valfer, Hunter Kohl.)

Full review