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FrightFest · 2025

FrightFest 2025

Discovery Screen 2

Programme

17 films · 8 reviews

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Above The Knee

Review preview for Above The Knee

Although Jonas describes his leg as rotting, we get only the briefest hints of what this looks like to him. For the most part, it just looks like an ordinary leg, and our understanding of his position comes from Singh’s performance.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Amir has a secret. He's tormented by visions of his leg rotting and longs to cut it off, convinced it doesn't belong to him. So, he devises a plan - one that will drag everyone around him into his relentless quest for relief.

(Country: Norway; Year: 2024; Director: Viljar Bøe; Writer: Viljar Bøe, Freddy Singh; Stars: Freddy Singh, Julie Abrahamsen, Louise Waage Anda, Viggo Solomon)

Full review

The Arborist

After suffering a devastating loss, a grief-stricken arborist and her resentful son are hired by mysterious recluse Arthur Randolph to fell the trees in part of his vast, remote estate. As the son starts falls prey to creature hallucinations, a past tragedy reveals itself, a haunting awakens, and Arthur discloses the real reason he chose them to clear the ‘Wound Wood’.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Andrew Mudge; Stars: Lucy Walters, Hudson West, Will Lyman, Chloe Trejo)

A Blind Bargain

Review preview for A Blind Bargain

Cinematographer Fransisco Bulgarelli captures the angles perfectly: the theatrical glides, the lingering gaze, the suddenly intimate close-ups on faces when we don’t know whether to expect comedy or violence.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A reimagining of the Lon Chaney classic in which a desperate young man strikes a dark deal with an unhinged doctor, offering his mother as a subject for the physician's twisted experiments.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Paul Bunnell; Writer: John Falotico, Paul Bunnell, Bing Bailey; Stars: Crispin Glover, Jake Horowitz, Lucy Loken, Annalisa Cochrane)

Full review

Blockhead

A failing novelist desperate for inspiration to spark his second book thinks his muse appears to him in the form of a drunk, psychotic handyman and decorator.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Matt Harlock; Stars: Danny Horn, Joe Sims, Michele Moran, Hussina Raja)

Blood Shine

Review preview for Blood Shine

There is visceral violence in Bennett and Brooks’ film, an explicit study of some of the dynamics of self harm, at times eroticised, and a lot of blood. Still, it is essentially a character-driven piece.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
In her remote country home, a religious zealot takes a young filmmaker captive, claiming her sadistic rituals will change him into a god.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks; Writer: Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks; Stars: Emily Bennet, David Call, Brendon Sexton III, Larry Fessenden)

Full review

Borderline

A bodyguard protects a pop superstar and her athlete boyfriend from a determined stalker in 1990s Los Angeles.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Jimmy Warden; Writer: Jimmy Warden; Stars: Samara Weaving, Eric Dane, Ray Nicholson, Jimmie Fails, Alba Baptista)

The Confession

When a struggling musician moves back into her childhood home, she discovers a recording of her deceased father confessing to a grisly murder he claims to have committed to protect himself from an unknown evil force. Then her young son begins exhibiting increasingly unsettling behaviour.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Will Canon; Stars: Italia Ricci, Scott Mechlowicz, Terence Rosemore, Justin Matthew Smith)

Degenerate: The Life And Films Of Andy Milligan

Before unsung gay NYC exploitation maverick Andy Milligan died of AIDS, he cranked out grindhouse-ready shock and so-bad-it’s-good schlock movies throughout the late 1960s and Seventies. Yet, as captured in this fascinating documentary, his life and on-set persona were messy, complicated, and unforgettable.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Grayson Tyler Johnson, Josh Johnson; Writer: Josh Johnson; Stars: Hope Stansbury, Gerald Jacuzzo, Stephen Thrower, John Borske, Jimmy McDonough, Sam Sherman)

Dog Of God

Review preview for Dog Of God

Sin, heresy and sexual ecstasy intertwine in a story which lacks theological depth but probably approximates fairly well the understanding of most peasants and low status clergy at the time.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Rotoscope animation sets the stage for this 17th century look at a woman accused of witchcraft whose trial reveals the presence of a werewolf.

(Country: Latvia, US; Year: 2025; Director: Lauris Abele, Raitis Abele; Writer: Lauris Abele, Raitis Abele, Ivo Briedis, Harijs Grundmanis; Stars: Armands Bergis, Einars Repse, Regnars Vaivars, Agate Krista, Kristians Karelins, Jurgis Spulenieks)

Full review

Five

Review preview for Five

What does deserve attention here is Harvey Davis’ score, which skillfully balances Lifestyle motifs with horror ones to great comic effect.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A struggling actor is hoping her star will rise again with the romcom Renovated Romance, but while on location shooting her hopeful comeback, she finds a cabin in the woods and becomes possessed by a demonic force, causing havoc amongst the crew.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Dani Barker; Stars: Teagan Vincze, Sean Depner, Donna Benedicto, Giles Panton)

Full review

Gill

Gon was on the verge of death when suddenly, gills started to grow and he could breathe again. Kang Ha and his grandpa rescue Gon, and together they become an odd family.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2024; Director: Ahn Jae-huun; Stars: Jin Yang-wook, Kim Sung-soo, Yoo Se-hee, Kim Ji-jung)

Hellcat

Review preview for Hellcat

Hellcat is an unforgettable ride.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A woman wakes in the back of a moving camper trailer with a badly infected wound. A voice from the truck towing it tells her they must reach a doctor within the hour or she'll suffer a horrific fate.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Brock Bodell; Writer: Brock Bodell; Stars: Dakota Gorman, Todd Terry, Jordan Mullins, Elise Horn, Liz Atwater)

Full review See: Interview with Dakota Gorman about Hellcat

The Mannequin

A creatively starved stylist assistant discovers that the historical downtown Los Angeles factory building where her fashion designer sister mysteriously died is haunted by a serial killer posing as a headshot photographer for film studios who brutally murdered and dismembered his victims half a century earlier.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: John Berardo; Stars: Isabella Gomez, Lindsay LaVanchy, Shireen Lai, Krystle Martin)

The Only Ones

A group of friends venture out to a remote family home for a weekend of reconnecting and relaxation, but their plans unravel when a string of misfortunes spirals into bloodshed.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Jordan Miller; Stars: Brett Wagner, Jesse L. Green, Cayla Berejikian, Nancy Anne Ridder)

The Other People

Review preview for The Other People

Ultimately. McClarnon’s biggest advantage lies in his cast.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
When a new stepmother's troubled eight-year-old girl befriends a boy that lives in the shadows, the family learns why things that live in the dark don't want be seen.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Chad McClarnon; Writer: Trey McClarnon, Chad McClarnon; Stars: Lyndie Greenwood, Bryce Johnson, Valentina Lucido, Quinnlan Ashe, BD Boudreaux, Ashley Crow)

Full review

Where Is Juan Moctezuma?

Review preview for Where Is Juan Moctezuma?

There are enough details here to spawn a lot of conspiracy theories.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A documentary about Mexploitation movies, luchadores, true love, unhealthy obsession and a mysterious disappearance.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Alaric S Rocha; Stars: Arturo Ripstein, Brian Yuzna, Isaac Ezban, Julian Richards)

Full review

Your Host

Four friends are trapped in a macabre gameshow, forced to outwit his twisted mind while racing against time. Every move brings them closer to freedom or their final, gruesome fate.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: DW Medoff; Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Ella-Rae Smith, Jamie Flatters, Seth Michaels)