Skip to main content

FrightFest · 2025

FrightFest 2025

Discovery Screen 1

Programme

19 films · 7 reviews

Jump to a film

The Arbiter

The city is a battlefield with gangs ruling the night, and with the bloodiest one of all making a murderous push, not stopping until every rival mob is erased. In a desperate bid to avoid being wiped out, the remaining gang leaders gather for an unprecedented summit.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Marc Price; Stars: Craig Russell, Jon Xue Zhang, Georgina Leonidas, Jasmine Summer)

Bambi: The Reckoning

After a mother and son are involved in a car accident, they become the targets of a terrifying deer hunt. Traumatised by the loss of his own mother, Bambi undergoes a horrifying transformation, becoming a mutated and vengeful creature, and he goes looking for the two of them.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Dan Allen; Stars: Roxanne McKee, Nicola Wright, Samira Mighty, Russell Geoffrey Banks)

The Caretaker

A mute man who takes care of his cruel, ailing mother, who is on the cusp of losing their home, takes a caretaker position at the foreboding Lockbridge School. There he meets a cleaner, sparking an instant connection that will alter the trajectory of his life

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Luke Tedder; Stars: Ben Probert, Mackenzie Larsen, Scott Hume, Peter Pearson)

Death Cycle

After the death of her sister, a distraught woman is visited by a man looking to solve a series of murders by a motorcycle maniac.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Gabriel Carrer; Stars: Kristen Kaster, Matthew Ninaber, Sasha Ormond, James Fler)

Don't Let The Cat Out

A college student is hired to house-sit for an eccentric couple at their secluded mansion. But once they leave, His reality turns bizarrely pussy powered, with strange house rules and cat-related ornaments everywhere. Then his best friend arrives, only to be killed by a cat-masked intruder.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Tim Cruz; Stars: Anthony Del Negro, Cerina Vincent, Edy Ganem, Sterling Sulieman)

Foreigner

Review preview for Foreigner

An astute portrait of an experience still underexplored onscreen.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An Iranian-born teenager is desperate to fit in at her new high school in Canada, but the more she tries to absorb and understand the unfamiliar mindset, the more she becomes consumed by a dark entity.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2025; Director: Ava Maria Safai; Writer: Ava Maria Safai; Stars: Rose Dehgan, Chloe Macleod, Cassie Collis, Talisa Mae Stewart)

Full review See: Interview with Ava Maria Safai about Foreigner

The Haunting At Jack The Ripper's House

Review preview for The Haunting At Jack The Ripper's House

The Haunting at Jack the Ripper’s House feels more like a high speed soap opera than a properly creepy ghost story.

Jennie Kermode · 1 out of 5
YouTube ghost hunters get out of their depth when exploring Jack the Ripper's home.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Natasha Tosini, Stephen Staley; Writer: Natasha Tosini, Stephen Staley; Stars: Jack Hoy, Kelly Rian Sanson, Natasha Tosini, Stephen Staley)

Full review

Healing Andy

Review preview for Healing Andy

Cleverer than it looks, and not altogether as cynical, Healing Andy may not always succeed in its tricky balancing act but it deserves praise for doing something so different.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
When Andy gets left at the altar, his best friends turn his Italian honeymoon into a ‘bros trip’ for the world to see. But as their influencer-fueled getaway spirals into a nightmare, they soon realise some things aren’t meant to be filmed.

(Country: UK, Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Villablanca; Stars: Matthew Kay, Frederik Lysegaard, Samuel Nunes De Souza, Elliott Eason)

Full review

He Kills At Night

On Christmas Eve, a mother desperate to reconnect with her estranged family is abducted by a serial killer and forced to help him flee the country.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Tom Pickering; Stars: Levi Heaton, Richard Galloway, Isabella Percival, Roger Bingham)

Human

It’s past midnight and Dani Ferris is a woman all alone, away from home. A woman who’s tired as hell, wanting nothing but a little tease of digital debauchery before shutting her eyes. A woman not even remotely prepared for the roller coaster of emotions she’s about to ride with a front-row seat.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Matt Stuertz; Stars: Jackie Kelly, Brock Russell, Cecily Dowd, Jeffrey Decker)

In A Cold Vein

After escaping an attempted assassination, a professional criminal will stop at nothing to find who is behind his attempted murder, and to make sure his beloved family is safe.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Eric Owen; Stars: Evan Gamble, Brian Villalobos, P Michael Hayes, Mor Cohen)

Parasomnia

After her friend is the latest to go missing in a series of strange events, a young woman comes to suspect that the demonic figure lurking in her night terrors may have found its way into the real world.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: James Ross; Stars: Jasmine Matthews, RJ Brown, Sally Stewart, Stephen Barrington)

Pig Hill

Review preview for Pig Hill

If you’re in it for the gore and grotesquerie...you’ll find a good deal to satisfy you, but it does give the impression of wanting to deliver in more sophisticated ways as well.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A writer is fascinated by the local legend of the pig people of Pig Hill, revolting creatures who breed and cause havoc in the area of Radio Tower Hill, where women keep going missing.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Kevin Lewis; Writer: Jarrod Burris; Stars: Rainey Qualley, Shiloh Fernandez, Shane West, Tammy Pescatelli)

Full review

Portal To Hell

Debt collector Dunn’s life is suddenly turned upside down when a portal to hell opens in his local laundromat. Out comes a demon who offers him a deal - to find three souls to save his neighbour, Mr Bobshank, from being dragged to hell for an unpaid debt.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Woody Bess; Stars: Trey Holland, Romina D'Ugo, Keith David, Richard Kind)

Sane Inside Insanity: The Phenomenon Of Rocky Horror

Review preview for Sane Inside Insanity: The Phenomenon Of Rocky Horror

Zerr’s documentary has its own rough edges and suits the spirit of Rocky Horror.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
It's the story of a lifetime: a script, a play, a movie, unprecedented success, and everlasting fame.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Andreas Zerr; Writer: Andreas Zerr; Stars: Barry Bostwick, Jamie Donnelly, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Lou Adler, Sky du Mont, Christopher Biggins)

Full review

The Serpent's Skin

Review preview for The Serpent's Skin

Alice Maio Mackay’s...most accessible film to date.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A young woman leaves her transphobic small-town, and develops a romance with tattoo artist Gen with whom she shares a paranormal connection. But their deep-rooted insecurities unknowingly release a demon, which possesses one of their ex-lovers and begins feeding on their friends by sucking out their lifeforce.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2025; Director: Alice Maio Mackay; Writer: Alice Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson; Stars: Alexandra McVicker, Avalon Fast, Jordan Dulieu, Charlotte Grimes)

Full review See: Interview with Alice Maio Mackay, Alexandra McVicker and Avalon Fast about The Serpent’s Skin

Sick Puppy

When Charlie's serial killer husband John decides to finally quit his crimes on her insistence, she's thrilled, but soon finds herself committing violent acts herself to protect the man she loves.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Jay Reid; Stars: Natasha Calis, Brett Geddes, Rachel Boyd, Dylan Taylor)

Super Happy Fun Clown

Review preview for Super Happy Fun Clown

Seward invests heavily in her character. Despite everything Jen does, one keeps hoping for the world to give her a break.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
An unhappy woman who is tired of being pushed around decides to combine her love of clowning, serial killers and classic movie monsters into a night of bloody horror the world will never forget.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Patrick Rea; Stars: Jennifer Seward, Nicole Hall, Matt Leisy, Deborah Madick)

Full review

The Weed Eaters

When Jules agrees to a rural New Year’s getaway with her boyfriend and two mates, she’s looking for peace and quiet and to smoke some dope. But when they stumble across their reclusive host’s long-forgotten stash of ancient cannabis, their holiday high takes a sudden nightmare turn, for the weed’s strange side effect is an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

(Country: New Zealand/Aotearoa; Year: 2025; Director: Callum Devlin; Stars: Samuel Austin, Alice May Connolly, David Correos, Delaney Davidson)