Arrow Video FrightFest returns to Leicester Square with one of its most diverse line-ups to date, opening with the world premiere of Neil Marshall’s action-packed gore shocker The Lair (pitched as The Dirty Dozen meets The Thing!), and closing with Scott Mann’s hotly anticipated, vertigo-inducing Fall, which strands two best friends at the very top of an abandoned 2000-foot high radio tower.
Marshall will also be on hand to introduce a special screening of the new 4K restoration of his werewolf classic Dog Soldiers, and won’t be the only horror MVP in attendance. Genre icon Dario Argento premieres his newest giallo Dark Glasses, Brea Grant brings her Blumhouse-backed Torn Hearts, and indie-favourites-turned-Marvel-mainstays Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson (Spring, The Endless) return with their latest DIY blast of sci-fi Something In The Dirt.
Elsewhere in the programme are Sundance standout Piggy from Spanish writer-director Carlota Pereda, Bill Skarsgaard-starrer Barbarian, and Final Cut, the ballsy French remake of FrightFest standout One Cut of the Dead from Oscar-winner Michel Hazanavicius, which took its bow at this year’s Cannes.
And in true FrightFest fashion, almost every genre fan is catered for, with everything from vengeful cult sequels like Terrifier 2, surrealist French comedy with Quentin Dupieux’s latest Incredible But True, to documentaries, including Kyra (daughter of Tony) Gardner’s Living With Chucky, exploring her upbringing under the same roof as her FX master father and a certain homicidal doll.
This year’s festival boasts three Discovery Screens in addition to the main line-up too, screening soon-to-be cult favourites from Luxembourg, Mexico, Peru, Cyprus, Japan and beyond, as well as returning names from festivals past, including Alexis Bruchon’s The Eyes Below, the follow-up to his beautifully inventive The Woman With Leopard Shoes (which we loved last year – https://www.heyuguys.com/the-woman-with-leopard-shoes-review/)
It’s not just films on display either, with the Evolution of Horror and Arrow Video Podcasts returning with live events, and FrightFest’s own Alan Jones will also be joined by UK-fave critic Mark Kermode for their stage show Dueling Egos: An Audience with Alan and Mark.
If you’re still reading, you’re probably just as excited as this writer is; FrightFest remains one of the only places in the world you’ll ever be able to see a movie like Powertool Cheerleaders vs the Boyband of the Screeching Dead on a screen the size of a building.
Arrow Video FrightFest returns to the Cineworld Leicester Square and Prince Charles Cinema between 25th-29th August.
Ticket info and the full line-up is available at frightfest.co.uk.
