This final entry will mush together my third & fourth days, as I only watched 2 movies on the Monday before heading into the labyrinthine underground system and my long coach journey home.
My third day started by skipping the first movie, sometimes you just have to. As good as it is to see all these movies in one space over a weekend, sometimes you just have to duck out and feed yourself somewhere that isn’t buried in enough tourists to make the entire northern half of England seem like a cute failed experiment. London is a busy supercity, for sure, but add in that bank holiday crowd and you have numbers that explain the political motivation behind the London Vs. Everyone else divide (no, it’s not the gross simplification of “North Vs. South”). Jollibee was my choice for something to eat as it was next door to the Odeon’s Main Screen, I was tired and according to my phone’s pedometer app I walked 20.25 miles over the weekend – that’s a hidden truth of the frightfest, you will walk far more than you’d think considering you’re sat in the dark watching movies all weekend.
I finished off my frightfest in main screen showings for the next day or so – I did try and fail to get tickets for Australian Horror Salt Along the Tongue.
Up first was Tomb Watcher which is dropping on Netflix UK this coming Thursday. Like many movies from that part of the world, Vathanyu Ingkawiwat’s Thai horror has two very opposing tones, one is steeped in melodrama and soap opera histrionics and the other has shaman’s, possession’s, violence, ghosts and a promise for the male lead, Thanavate Siriwattanakul (Cheev), to spend 100 nights in the same house as his dead wife (Arachaporn Pokinpakorn) who is stored in a glass tomb – to the distress of his current partner, Lun (Woranuch Bhirombhakdi) – in order to inherit their house in her will. Odd request, but sure, let’s go with it. And all told, Tomb Watcher is fine as far as East Asian horror goes. I must say, however, the use of the trope where a husband questions the sanity of his partner’s spooky experiences has different connotations within Eastern relationship dynamics. End of the day, though, it’s a generic vengeful ghost movie and has little lasting power. What more, it didn’t promise the thrills that either its name or key art hinted at and to make matters worse this was the movie where I started to notice a theme of this year’s event: horror music used endless in non-horror scenes.
Next was the 4K restoration of The Descent, and given that this will inevitably get a fancy Blu-ray release where other movies may not even get UK distribution, I looked at the counter programming – Hellcat I’ve already seen, Salt Along the Tongue was sold out, and Super Happy Fun Clown isn’t my speed – so I opted for a first time viewing, and I am so glad I did. All that bounced around my head after the credits rolled was: what happened to Neil Marshall? His recent output of the Charlotte Kirk trilogy (The Reckoning, The Lair & Duchess) feels like the work of a completely different, and far less talented director. The Descent, by comparison, is a wonderful, economically-told horror story full of well-defined characters, positive affirmation, environmental storytelling, nasty gore, fist-pumping action and a few scares that sunk their teeth deep into me. One scare, in particular, got me good. This was my favourite watch of the event, but I won’t call it “my movie of frightfest” as that’s an honour that should be bestowed on something new.
Bone Lake was next and it proved to be quite the hit among regulars. Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s erotic thriller sees two couples double book at an exotic manor house at the titular lake, and over the course of a weekend the dynamics and relationships are put under great, increasingly horny scrutiny. Intimate (in every definition), the cast arm themselves well and Morgan directs Joshua Friedlander’s script with great urgency, even if the movie does get a little stuck in the relationship chess. That being said it does all culminate in the most satisfying final 15 minutes of the weekend with a line in glorious and deliciously over-the-top violence, and topping if off was a final shot reminiscent of Ti West’s Pearl. For me, what holds this back was over-familiarity, there’s another movie in recent years with the same exact plot, concept and twist and while that mystery movie may not be as good, over-familiarity is never a net-positive.
Last movie of the Sunday was the best movie of the festival, Redux Redux by the Block Island Sound‘s McManus Brothers. Revenge movies are overdone, for sure, but I’ll tell you what isn’t – revenge movies where the person eking out their vengeance has access to a multi-verse machine, and as such uses it to travel between dimensions killing the person who murdered her child over-and-over-and-over again. It’s neither miserable nor gratuitous thanks to the writer/director duo valuing the heart of its female lead, Irene (with an incredible performance from Michelle McManus), by asking how much revenge is enough. It’s not just an emotional treatise on revenge, it also has some viscerally lensed scenarios that maintain a small-scale to keep things relatable. The kid, Mia (a debuting Stella Marcus), that Irene picks up along the way has irked some people for her sardonic ways, but without her the stakes and subtext just wouldn’t work. The two hours absolutely blew by, and if this gets the cinematic release it deserves, I can see Redux Redux being one of 2025 (or 26’s) standout cult movies.
Onto the Monday morning we have yet more main screen movies, opening with Odyssey – an odd bed-fellow for an event like Frightfest, or so it seems. From Gerard Johnson, the director of Hyena and Muscle, Odyssey follows the exploits of slimy, coke-fuelled estate-agent, Natasha (Polly Maberly who commits brilliantly to her hateful character), for a week. It starts off fairly mundane but pointed satire, depicting the London estate-agent as a callous, manipulative soul who knows what buttons to press and when. Yet as the week goes on, it becomes apparent that the money she lent to set up her own business has become like a noose around her neck, which unfortunately connects her to London’s criminal underbelly. It’s an intentionally uneasy watch on all notable levels, and while the criminal element is well-acted and staged, it is still like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. To go further still, when a character known as “the Viking” (Mikael Persbrandt) appears, Johnson & Austin Collings’ script jumps the shark with character logic, even if it sets events barrelling towards an incredibly satisfying, visceral climax and dirty shootout al a Gangs of London. How a movie leaves a person is the most important thing, and on that, Odyssey is a success – all the same, it’s hard to equate the property satire with the violent shoot-’em-up it becomes.
My final movie at Frightfest 2025 was the Adams Family’s Mother of Flies and I hate to end on a downer. Well, that’s not entirely true, the people who understand the off kilter, surrealist, ayahuasca-trip rhythm of their previous work have all remarked that this is up there with the family’s best work – it’s just I personally haven’t found my way into that headspace yet. Mother of Flies tells of a young woman, Zelda Adams, who has terminal stomach cancer diagnosis, dreams of Toby Poser’s titular witch, setting some perverse balls into motion. Zelda takes her dad (John) and together they are treated to a series of spells, dreams, incantations and mystical acts in the attempt to save her from premature death, and him from the sickness of fear. Toby Poser does some really wild things in this movie and she wholly convinces as the titular force of nature. It’s apparent that the matriarch has really found her niche with roles like this, whereas Zelda and John play things far more straight-laced. Mother of Flies was made as someone close to the family had a similar diagnosis, and this is their homage – and because of that, their fiercely DIY ethos and singular rhythm, I can’t be against their latest title (or any of their work really).
With that, I headed for the 6 hour long coach journey home with my first ever foray to Frightfest in-person done and dusted. I learned a lot of valuable lessons, which will hopefully stand me in great stead for next year. And hopefully, next time I’m lucky enough to cover the event both as press and have my second short film selected for one of their short-film showcases – one can but dream.
