In addition, the winners of the TURN YOUR BLOODY PHONE OFF competition were announced. Mike Tack, Holomax, Moneky Brains Productions, Paul While and David Scullion made idents designed to, ahem, 'encourage' patrons to turn off their mobiles during screenings. The festival has also recruited some friends (directors whose work has been featured at past festivals) to make some as well, which will be seen throughout the festival.
For full listings and to purchase passes and tickets, visit the Film4 Frightfest website.
Big Bad Wolves, August 26th, 9:00pm
The festival will close on quite a bang with this breakout Israeil crime thriller hit. It's definitely one of the best films of the year, a perfectly tuned story of a rogue cop and the father of a murdered child who decide to take their own hands. It walks a fine line between psychological terror and some pretty deft and dark humour.
We Are What We Are, August 26th, 6:30pm
It's very rare that the remake of an excellent film is just as excellent, but Jim Mickle has created this rare gem. Mickle deftly tranfers Jorge Michel Grau's Somos Lo Que Hay from Mexico to the US Appalachians and a strange religious redneck family, with all the complications of family politics and sexual awakening.
Painless, August 23rd, 6:30pm & August 25th, 10:20am
One of my favourite films of last year, Painless tells one man's terrifying journey to save his own life that lead him to the secrets of his origin, and explores one of the most difficult periods in Spain's history. A film that burns from a single flame to a bonfire, visually stunning and terribly haunting.
You're Next, August 22nd, 11:30pm
One of the best home invasion movies in recent years, a family reunion turns into a desperate fight for survival as a family is cornered in their mansion by strangers in animal masks. Only the girlfriend of one of the sons keeps her wits about her to fight back. Very dark, and very darkly funny.
The American Scream, August 23rd, 10:35am
From Best Worst Movie director Michael Stephenson's second feature, he tackles the endearing and entertaining world of haunted houses; the kind that families across America often go to great lengths and expense to create for only one night of the year, Halloween. Great fun and very inventive.
Haunter, August 23rd, 6:45pm
The latest from Canadian auteur Vincenzo Natali tells the story of a family of ghosts who unknowingly keep repeating the day of their murder, until the teenager daughter (or more accurately, her ghost) realizes the truth and tries to find a way to stop the cycle. In his review on ScreenAnarchy, Eric D. Snider wrote that the film manages to be spooky without resorting to gory effects.
Snap, August 23rd, 11:15pm & August 26th, 3:20pm
A psychological thriller about one man's descent into madness, even as people around him try to help, Peter Martin wrote in his review that the film "exerts a gravitational pull into a well of despair that is overwhelming and/or repellent as it gives a unique perspective on representations of mental illness.
The Hypnotist, August 24th, 10:30am
I'm a big fan of Lasse Hallstrom's early Hollywood films What's Eating Gilbert Grape and The Cider House Rules, so it should be interesting to see his new work, made in his native Sweden. A hypnotist, who has ceased his practice, is convinced to return to work to help a traumatized patient, but it ends up unleashing strange events upon him and his family.
Willow Creek, August 24th, 1:00pm & August 25th, 11:00pm
The irrepressible Bobcat Goldthwaite is back, this time with a found footage style film about a couple on the search for Bigfoot. Andrew Mack's review notes that the film not only challenges preconceived ideas of the found footage format, but how and why it is used.
Cannon Fodder, August 24th, 3:15pm & August 26th, 1:40pm
Israeli genre film is suddenly bursting out of the gate. Cannon Fodder has been nilled as the country's first zombie flick. Setting itself in something of a real-world political scenario of an elite army group on a clandestine mission to Lebanon, who encounter a more sinister enemy, this could be a welcome addition to the monster subgenre.
The Desert, August 25th, 6:40pm & August 25th, 6:40pm
There are few things I love more than a post-apocalypse story, and there has been some amazing fantastic genre film coming out of Argentina recently, so it looks like an interesting combination. A trio's well-maintained alliance against the annihilated world comes under threat when two of the group begin to fall in love.
The Last Days, August 25th, 9:10pm
It's another apocalypse story from the Pastor brothers (the directors of Carriers this time from Spain (and regular readers will know how my attachment to Spanish fantastic film). A strange virus turns the entire human population agoraphobic, driving them underground. In Barcelona, one man is determined to brave the streets and subterranean chaos to find his girlfriend.
Dark Touch, August 26th, 11:30am
It's nice to see women directors turning more to the fantastic genres, and getting their work recognized. Marina de Van's work is certainly eclectic (I'm a big fan of her musical comedy with a touch of horror, 8 Women); in his review, Joshua Chaplinky writes that de Van is "is adept at setting up an atmosphere of dread and delivering visceral bursts of violence". Horror films frequently give female characters supernatural powers, so I'm interested to see how a woman filmmaker might offer a different perspective on the trope.
Odd Thomas, August 26th, 3:35pm
There's something about a couple of Stephen Sommers earlier adventure films, such as The Mummy, that I really enjoy. He went off track for a while, but this new film, about a clairvoyant short order cook (Anton Yelchin) trying to save his town from catastrophe might tap into that matinee-adventure story again.