For a small island, there’s a pretty substantial division between the British countryside and its urban neighbours. You can see it reflected in our film genres. Barring one brief flurry of rural realism about ten years ago (The Levelling, God’s Own Country etc.) most kitchen-sink dramas are set in towns […]
From the Festivals
The Death of Us (Frightfest 2026)
One of the films featured in this year’s Fresh Blood slate, The Death of Us marks festival regular Annabella Rich’s directorial debut. It opens in a heightened dramatic register that leans into melodrama, a deliberate pitch that has become increasingly common in modern horror, and Rich embraces a mode where […]
Big Baby (Frightfest 2026)
The tagline for SCREAM warns that ‘Someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far’. With BIG BABY, the love for scary movies is clear from the filmmaker, while the participation of the protagonist in the genre is what goes too far. Despite this apparent convolution, BIG […]
Welcome to G-Town (FrightFest 2026)
For all it’s a major horror festival, FrightFest always finds the space for little low-budget oddities, and sometimes these can be the most rewarding films on the schedule. A case in point is Welcome to G-Town, directed by twin brothers Nathan and Ben McQuaid. It opens with a caption explaining […]
Nervous (Frightfest 2026)
One of the opening‑night main‑screen titles, Nervous set the tone for the sheer number of Korean projects at this year’s FrightFest. It’s the latest from Abner Pastoll, director of A Good Woman Is Hard to Find, and reunites him with Sarah Bolger. Here, Sarah (Sarah Bolger) and Sungsoo (Sungsoo Yune) […]
The Flesh Itself (Frightfest 2026)
Brazilian cinema is having quite the moment, with not one but two wildly different horrors arriving at FrightFest. One is a gross‑out comedy of insane-o escalation; the other, Ian SBF’s The Flesh Itself, is about absolute desperation. Three soldiers, deserters fleeing the horrors of the Paraguayan War have abandoned the […]
The Fright Stuff (FrightFest 2026)
One thing that distinguishes horror fans from other genre fandoms is this; they have a healthy curiosity about why their chosen genre works for them. You cannot watch movies where people are chased, stabbed, tortured and dismembered without encountering at least one person who wrinkles their nose and asks “Why […]
The Nameless Ballad (Frightfest 2026)
OOne of the many films receiving its World Premiere at FrightFest 2026 is The Nameless Ballad. Federico Zampaglione’s film has a familiar setup: a musician who has recorded a hit debut album is under pressure from his record label, so he retreats to an isolated Italian villa, hoping the change […]
Buddy (FrightFest 2026)
In the brief frenzy of deal-making that followed Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Mattel executive Kevin McKeon said the company was developing an “A24-style” Barney the Dinosaur movie with Daniel Kaluuya which would be “leaning into the millennial angst of the property”. At this, the world rose and spoke with one voice: […]
Ithaqua (Frightfest 2026)
It’s the 19th century in Northern Ontario, Canada. The winter is harsher than usual, and the fur trade is in decline. Food is scarce, and tension is plentiful. The woods are quiet. Too quiet. It’s the late 1970s. England’s beloved home-grown horror studio Hammer Film Productions is struggling in the […]