The annual FrightFest programme has been released, with new films and classics alike jostling for space at Cineworld Leicester Square and the Prince Charles Cinema. This year, the festival welcomes Pigeon Shrine as its new headline sponsor supporting the five-day event that runs from Thursday 24th to Monday 28th August. Seventy films are programmed across FrightFest 2023, including twenty-five world premieres, twenty-three European premieres and twelve UK premieres. Fourteen countries are represented from across five continents, from France’s FARANG to Japan’s MY MOTHER’S EYES. Here are some suggested viewings, with many more available for your perusal at this address.
Co-director Alan Jones states: ‘FrightFesters will experience an amazing variety of films, in an eclectic line-up which serves as a powerful tool of democracy, activism, diversity, inclusivity and social awareness. As always, FrightFest is keen to show, through an open-minded philosophy, that the most unexpected and delightful discoveries happen when wide-ranging topics, different people and varied cultures come together in horror harmony’.
The Main Screen, Empire Studios, plays host to twenty-five films, opening with the European premiere of SUITABLE FLESH, directed by festival favourite Joe Lynch and starring Heather Graham (remember her?) along with horror icon Barbara Crampton. Next up is THE DIVE, a German remake of the Swedish film BREAKING SURFACE, featuring two sisters who must fight for survival underwater. Rounding off Thursday is the world premiere of CHEAT, where cheating on your significant other might have deadly consequences. Alongside the Main Screen, Discovery Screen 1 on Thursday offers a devilish double bill of PUNCH, a world premiere from writer, director, producer Andy Edwards that looks to be the first UK slasher franchise, followed by another world premiere British horror, LORE, a tale of telling tales of terror. Thursday is sure to provide plenty of juicy fun.
Friday is when the festival kicks into high gear, with twenty-one films showing across the four screens. While a time-turner device is sadly not available to those who wish to see everything, there are plenty of promising titles. Among them on the Main Screen are IT LIVES INSIDE, which blends identity crisis with diversity in a chilling demonic story, as well as FACELESS AFTER DARK, a home invasion thriller that taps into ideas of toxic and obsessive fandom. Further social commentary is interlaced with slasher kills in the international premiere of POUNDCAKE (Discovery 2), while BLACK MOLD (Discovery 2) takes the premise of daredevil content gathering to a horrific extreme. Those wanting something more at the sci-fi end of the genre can check out A MILLION DAYS (Discovery 1), which pits human ingenuity against artificial intelligence (given time, this might be a survival guide!).
After a tiring Friday, festival goers can enjoy an exhausting Saturday, with the Main Screen showing (amongst others) COBWEB, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, which also has a concurrent screening with closed captions in Discovery 3. The Main Screen also presents the world premiere of TRANSMISSION in the evening, described as the world’s first channel-surfing horror film. Who says there are no new ideas? The Discovery screens offer an eclectic range of scares, including the second short film showcase as well as four world premieres from the First Blood initiative – THE MOOR, ISAAC, THE GLENARMA TAPES and HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE. These films all champion new talent and may herald the future of horror.
If you have energy left on Sunday (and let’s face it, you do), the Main Screen presents fairy tale and survival horror. PIPER brings an old legend back to haunt a family, THE SEEDING offers paedophobia in a desert setting while COLD MEAT presents a beast in the snow. If you like creepy house scares interwoven with social commentary, both are available in RAGING GRACE. Discovery 1 on Sunday offers some retrospectives: ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE documents Bruceploitation, the Asian film industries’ attempts to create the new Bruce Lee, and [REC] TERROR SIN PAUSA recounts the surprising success of the [REC] franchise. Discovery 2 also looks back, presenting KIM’S VIDEO, a documentary about the enduring love for a very special video collection, as well as The J-Horror Virus, which documents the rise of Japanese horror films in which ghosts haunt technology. Narrative films about films are also on offer, including THE BLUE ROSE (Discovery 1), the tagline of which mentions Hollyweird, and T BLOCKERS (Discovery 2), where a trans filmmaker might be the only one who can save the world. Plus, everyone’s favourite massively talented star makes an appearance in SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (Discovery 1), where Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman take a hellish ride through Las Vegas.
On Monday, hardcore FrightFesters in the Main Screen can enjoy MY MOTHER’S EYES, a Japanese film featuring VR contact lenses, as well as FOUNDERS DAY, where politics can be murder. Discovery 1 offers a double bill with OTTO BAXTER: NOT A F**KING HORROR STORY and THE PUPPET ASYLUM, an allegorical biopic followed by a documentary about the making of the film. Discovery 2 presents I AM MONSTERS! In the morning, a film adaptation of actor/director Nick Vince’s autobiographical stage show about loving horror and growing up gay, as well as GOOD BOY and DEPARTING SENIORS in the afternoon. The first of these looks to be another example of vicious Scandinavian cinema as man plays dog, while the second might just be SCREAM for the next generation.
This year, Discovery Screen 3 is showing films twice at different times, so if you can’t make one, there is another chance. Comedic animated horror is not that common, but maybe THE WEIRD KIDZ will start a new trend as it plays on Friday and Sunday in Discovery 3. More Scandinavian cinema is on offer with THE KNOCKING, inspired by myths from its native Finland, also showing on Friday and Sunday. On Saturday and Monday, Discovery 3 presents the world premiere of HOSTILE DIMENSIONS from director Graham Hughes (DEATH OF A VLOGGER), in which documentary filmmakers make their way through the multiverse (it’s all the rage, don’t you know?), as well as MINORE, the Greek monster action-comedy fantasy we didn’t realise we needed. Saturday gives another retrospective with the documentary 1982: THE GREATEST GEEK YEAR EVER! Take a glance at the releases of that year if you need a reminder of why this documentary will be a delight. Less delightful but no less 80s is THE DARKSIDE OF SOCIETY, documenting the life of Woody Keith which inspired the classic consumerist satire SOCIETY.
As well as these and more new offerings, this year’s festival also features a string of classics. On Saturday, Discovery 1 presents THE CONJURING, a 10th anniversary screen of James Wan’s haunted house tale that kickstarted horror’s most successful cinematic universe. Discovery 1 also plays host to IT FOLLOWS on Monday, a 4K world premiere of David Robert Mitchell’s modern classic that wears its genre influences proudly while also feeling new and fresh. If 80s animal attack is more your vibe, Discovery 2 presents ALLIGATOR on Sunday afternoon, the cult monster movie that showed even in New York you are not safe from vicious jaws. And it would not be a horror film festival in 2023 without a 50th anniversary screening of William Friedkin’s THE EXORCIST. Exclusively showing in the Main Screen on Monday, this screening of ‘The Version You Never Saw’ is introduced by the UK’s favourite film critic and world-leading THE EXORCIST expert, Mark Kermode. If you have never seen the film or this version on the big screen, now is your chance. If you have seen the film and this version on the big screen, now you have another chance.
These are only some of the films available to see at this year’s FrightFest. Something is available for all horror fans, from classics to new blood. Plus, there are so many lovely people to see! Check back on this very site for future reviews, as the horrors of FrightFest slip out…
