FrightFest 2017 Announces Frightening Festival Lineup, Starting With CULT OF CHUCKY

Now in its 18th year, Horror Channel FrightFest is one of the signature genre festivals in the world, its lineup capturing the best of recent horror and fantasy titles as well as previewing the films that will cause our future nightmares.

The next festival will return to London's West End from August 24-28. The world premiere of Don Mancini's Cult of Chucky will open the fest. Director Adam Green will return with his explicit horror fave Hatchet, in a version never seen before. And, love them or loathe them, Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo will debut their prequel, Leatherface, which is sure to provoke strong reactions from the fervent crowd. Popular fave Tragedy Girls will serve as the closing night film in its UK premiere.

Here is more from the official statement (all words by the festival):

FrightFest also welcomes back Adam Wingard with the European Premiere of his supernatural manga DEATH NOTE, Joe Lynch with the European Premiere of his highly infectious action thriller MAYHEM, Mickey Keating with the European Premiere of his eye-shattering PSYCHOPATHS, Graham Skipper with the European Premiere of his surreal sci-fi romance SEQUENCE BREAK and genre favourite Barbara Crampton, who stars in Norbert Kell's skin-crawler REPLACE, receiving its UK Premiere.

In a programme packed with innovation, uniqueness and individuality, other tips of the ice-pick are Ryan Prows' powerful cult-in-waiting LOWLIFE, Trent Haaga's stunning 68 KILL, high voltage THE VILLAINESS hot from Cannes, Alex de la Iglesia's bleakly comic THE BAR, Miguel Angel Vivas' remake of the French extreme thriller INSIDE, Daniele Misischia's undead Romageddon THE END? Todd Tuckers' affectionately creepy THE TERROR OF HALLOWS EVE, Brandon Christensen's terrifying STILL/BORN, Sebastien Landry & Laurence Morais-Lagace's head-exploding GAME OF DEATH, Kurtis David Harder's provocative sci-fi horror INCONTROL and Royce Gorsuch's kaleidoscopic mindbender MINDHACK.

Continuing the festival's important and vital commitment to highlighting the cream of the homegrown crop, our British strand is well-populated with World Premieres for Dominic Brunt's perverted shocker ATTACK OF THE ADULT BABIES, Christian James' prison-set vampire comedy FANGED UP and Matthew Heaven's scorching revenge study ACCOUNTABLE.

There are also European Premieres for Dominic Bridge's debut dark morality tale FREEHOLD, Tom Paton's nerve-shredding REDWOOD and Benjamin Barfoot's hilariously blood-soaked DOUBLE DATE. And the 'First Blood' strand Is back on the menu with five tasty titles: actor Jason Flemyng's blood-sucking feature debut EAT LOCALS, Louis Melville's squaddie shocker BOOTS ON THE GROUND, Hendrik Faller's ice-cold thriller MOUNTAIN FEVER, Michaël Boucherie's tattoo-terror WHERE THE SKIN LIES and Peter Stray's alien-invading black comedy CANARIES.

The festival's accent on rising talent is further enriched with Preston DeFrancis' extreme slasher RUIN ME, Natasha Kermani's sci-fi fantasy IMITATION GIRL, Clay Staub's supernatural detective thriller DEVIL'S GATE, Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard's mesmerising RADIUS, Samuel Galli's devilishly shocking OUR EVIL, Andrés Goteira's dazzling DHOGS, David Chirchirillo's Tinder Terror GOOD MATCH, Tini Tuellman's spine-chilling psycho suspense thriller FREDDY/EDDY, Haritz Zubillaga's car-killing giallo THE GLASS COFFIN, Scott Poiley's hard-edged chiller EXHUME, Adam Graveley's Aussie outback shocker 3RD NIGHT, Michael Mongillo's audacious and haunting DIANE, Peter Ricq's stark comedy DEAD SHACK and Carlos Algara and Alejandro Martinez-Beltran's gripping psychological twister VERONICA.

Three documentaries will receive their eagerly awaited premieres at FrightFest this year. KING COHEN: THE WILD WORLD OF FILMMAKER LARRY COHEN is a dazzling career overview of the maverick director behind such classic horrors as IT'S ALIVE, Q THE WINGED SERPENT, fantasy television series like 'The Invaders', HELL UP IN HARLEM Blaxploitation, recent releases CELLULAR and soon the MANIAC COP remake. We welcome back on screen Kane Hodder, everyone's favourite Jason Voorhees in the FRIDAY THE 13th series, with his moving and eye-opening TO HELL AND BACK: THE KANE HODDER STORY. Finally there's the extraordinary MANSFIELD 66/67, a super Hollywood Babylon-style whisk through the final years of movie goddess Jayne Mansfield's life and untimely, possibly Satanic, death.

Other attractions include Emilia Clarke in VOICE FROM THE STONE, Robert Englund in NIGHTWORLD, the French graphic novel adaptation ALONE, the outrageous gore-fest MEATBALL MACHINE KODOKU, the Aussie chiller KILLING GROUND, the hilarious TOP KNOT DETECTIVE and Episodes 1 & 2 of the amazing Japanese TV series CROW'S BLOOD. Plus two FrightFest Glasgow hits are being rescreened: Simon Rumley's FASHIONISTA and Colin Minihan's IT STAINS THE SANDS RED.

This year's retrospective restoration strand highlights the underrated British horror DREAM DEMON, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD III, two classic Hammers, BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB and DEMONS OF THE MIND, plus the longest version found of the seminal proto-giallo DEATH LAID AN EGG, lovingly restored by Nucleus Films' Jake West and Marc Morris.

The Duke Mitchell Film Club is back with a hosted presentation of the UK premiere of Stefan Ruzowsky's COLD HELL, a gripping serial killer thriller. This is followed by the not-to-be missed DUKE MITCHELL PARTY, where the audience and invited special guests can expect all manner of madness guaranteed to kick off your Saturday late night in style.

Alan Jones, co-director of FrightFest, said today: "The whole cinema landscape is changing and Horror Channel FrightFest is listening. We know the fans want to see the films first, see them fast and see them in an environment that is second to none. That's why we have what we believe is the finest line-up ever assembled and are showcasing the superlative selection in premium surroundings. So, the West End becomes the Dark Heart of London once again. And we've made it to our 18th birthday. It's going to be quite some party".

Festival passes will go on sale Sat 1 July at noon and will only be available to buy online: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/tickets.html

Single tickets will go on sale on Sat 29 July from 9am.

For full programme details: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/tickets.html

It's truly a staggering lineup -- and not an event to be missed, if you can possibly attend.