FrightFest hits London’s Empire Cinema in Leicester Square next week, with the UK’s biggest and best horror celebration hosting 10 world premieres, five European premieres, and a whopping 23 UK premieres. But what’s worth seeing? What are those hidden gems that will have horror hounds shooting their collective loads? The following are five of the best playing at the fest, including an anthology, a foreign flick, a remake, and a soon-to-be-cult classic.
The late screening on opening night, it feels like we’ve been talking and writing about You’re Next for years. Because we have. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2011, won a bunch of awards, then promptly disappeared from view. Lionsgate is finally releasing it this month however, and if the studio gets it right, the film could be massive. Revolving around a family reunion that goes horribly and violently wrong, it’s a brutal home invasion flick that also happens to have a wicked sense of humour. We've already reviewed the film here, but you’re advised to find out as little as possible about this one in advance as the surprises are part of the fun.
Another film that we’ve already reviewed, V/H/S 2 is a sequel to the hit horror anthology about some deeply unpleasant videotapes. This time around the framing device concerns the efforts of a shady private detective to track down a missing college student. But his search leads him to a set tapes that feature stories about a deadly retinal implant, a disastrous bike ride, and a slumber party alien abduction. But best of all is ‘Safe Haven,’ a short that follows the efforts of a documentary crew to shoot the shady goings-on inside a creepy cult. Directed by The Raid’s Gareth Evans (alongside Timo Tjahjanto), it’s terrifying, endlessly inventive, and may well be the best slice of horror that we’ve consumed this year.
Less out-and-out horror and more comedy with a jet-black heart, Cheap Thrills is nevertheless one of the most entertaining movies playing at the festival. The brilliant Pat Healy (The Innkeepers, Compliance) plays Craig, an ‘average Joe’ who is struggling to provide for his family while at the same time facing eviction from his home. And that’s before he loses his job. Heading out to drown his sorrows, Craig bumps into an old friend, and they start drinking with a rich couple who challenge them to a series of bets for money. As the drinks flow, the challenges escalate, the bets turn nasty, and what starts out as innocent alcohol-fuelled fun soon turns dark and deadly.
Mexican cannibal horror We Are What We Are was a hit at FrightFest 2010, and this English-language remake should make as much of a mark when it screens on the festival’s closing night. Directed by Stake Land helmer Jim Mickle, the film details what happens when torrential rain hits a town in upstate New York, the rivers overflow, and in the aftermath local authorities uncover the secrets of a family’s unusual eating habits. A horror which proves that remakes aren’t always the worst things to happen to the genre.
Directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado made the first Israeli horror film with Rabies in 2011. And now they return with the country’s second, a dark and twisty-turny thriller about a series of brutal murders that put three men on a deadly collision course. The FF programmers promise a film that combines the brilliance of Oldboy with elements of Hitchcock and the Coen brothers; high praise that makes the festival’s closing night film something of a must-see.
That’s just five of the best. Also worth checking out are documentaries The American Scream and Rewind This!, horror sequels Curse of Chucky, The Dead 2 and Hatchett III, Bobcat Golthwaite’s eagerly anticipated Bigfoot flick Willow Creek, and Renny Harlin's found footage effort The Dyatlov Pass Inident. Plus Andy Nyman’s brilliant, frustrating, hilarious and at times impossible ‘Quiz From Hell.’ The full Film4 FrightFest schedule plus details on how to buy tickets can be found here.
Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and will happily accept drinks from IGN readers at FrightFest. He can be found at the Phoenix, or talking nonsense on both Twitter and MyIGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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