The UK’s top horror and fantasy festival is back in London’s Leicester Square this August bank holiday weekend, promising another bloody escape from the British summertime with five solid days of exciting new genre cinema, projected large and loud. Now stretched across Odeon’s biggest screen and the new-look Odeon West End for its 25th anniversary, the just announced line-up certainly doesn’t pull any punches…
Kicking things off with a triple threat opening night, which includes the world premiere of Joanne Mitchell’s feature debut Broken Bird; buzzy sci-fi Test Screening, and relentlessly funny Spielberg parody The Invisible Raptor (which took its first bow in Glasgow this year to great acclaim).
The weekend will also see premieres from FrightFest alums Mickey Keating, with his true-crime horror Invader, Jill Gervargizian with her sophomore feature Ghost Game, and Ant Timpson’s Elijah Wood-fronted Bookworm – the Come To Daddy reunion we all knew we needed. As well as the first London screening of André Øvredal’s splashy Dracula thriller The Last Voyage of the Demeter, a terrifically tense take on the legend which lost its UK distribution last year despite stellar reviews from across the pond.
Not forgetting E.L. Katz’s much anticipated creature feature Azrael, starring genre legend Samara Weaving; John Farrelly’s Irish-language chiller An Taibhse (The Ghost), the first ever to be filmed in the language; and Chris Stuckmann’s hugely buzzed about feature debut (backed by none other than Mike Flanagan) Shelby Oaks.
As well as a range of documentaries and the fan-favourite shorts showcases, FrightFest’s First Blood strand also returns, shining a spotlight on emerging British talent, including a nod for Joy Wilkinson’s 7 Keys. And wrapping the long weekend up is one cracker of a closer…
Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes prize-winner The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, has its English premiere on Monday’s closing night. Fargeat’s follow-up to her blistering French thriller Revenge promises 140 minutes of body horror so audacious, early audiences have apparently been both appalled and impressed in equal measure, which can only be a good thing.
Pigeon Shrine FrightFest will open at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, 22nd-26th August 2024. For the full line-up and ticket info, head to frightfest.co.uk.
