Following the success of its spectacular 25th Anniversary August five-day event, the UK’s most popular genre film festival returns to the Odeon Luxe West End in Leicester Square. BOOK TICKETS
Opening the event is the UK premiere of Sam Yates’s MAGPIE, a darkly intense psychological thriller that thrives on its classic neo-noir atmosphere, building tension that is seconds away from snapping. Daisy Ridley delivers a tour de force performance as a neglected wife on the edge, and will attend the screening alongside her husband, actor Tom Bateman, who is the writer/producer of Magpie.
The second film on Friday is the UK premiere of PARVULOS, a thought-provoking, zombie ‘Lord of the Flies’, helmed by Mexican director Isaac Ezban, whose fantastic eye for gothic tableaux makes for a powerful and shocking treat. A bold and visually arresting horror designed to make you squirm, our four-star Fantasia Festival review of Parvulos is available to read here.
Parvulos
The first day closes with the World premiere of Airell Hayes’ ADVENT, which charts one woman’s countdown descent into Christmas supernatural hell. Inspired by the terrifying true story of the blue whale game, this is a new kind of Christmas ghost story. Airell will be joined by the film’s stars, including Nicholas Vince.
FrightFest Halloween’s Saturday programme starts with the World premiere of THE BITTER TASTE, Guido Tölke’s outlandish tale of the undead. Watch out for full-bore gore, chainsaws, eye-grazing stunts and one of the best OTT scores by Clemens Damerau. This is followed by the UK premiere of ALIEN COUNTRY, a balls-to-the-wall, extraterrestrial invasion comedy directed by popular YouTubers Boston McConnaughey and Renny Grames, who plan to attend. Up next is the UK premiere of THE DRAFT!, a fist-pumping Indonesian body count terror which delights in honouring horror cliches while subverting them totally into a gruesome gore-fest.
Alien Country
The UK premiere of TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS, the Meta-universe comedy fantasy of the year from acclaimed writer-producer duo the Shakespeare Sisters and co-written and directed by Chris Reading, follows on Saturday. The film stars British comedy royalty Johnny Vegas, Sophie Thompson, Jane Horrocks, and Mark Heap and is narrated by Stephen Fry. Many of the cast will attend, including Jane Horrocks, Brian Blessed, Laura Aikman, Guy Henry, Brian Bovell, Ruth Syratt, Tom Lenk and Simon Killick, and director Chris Reading and producers Hillary and Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare. Teddy Grennan, the director of CATCH A KILLER, will also be attending, which will receive its international premiere. Grennan has fashioned one of the year’s most exciting neo-noir serial killer thrillers, featuring breakout performances from Sam Brooks and Tu Morrow.
Time Travel is Dangerous
The UK premiere of Emma Benestan’s Cannes Critics’ Week closer, ANIMALE, a shape-shifting horror drama that takes toxic masculinity by the horns, completes the FrightFest Halloween line-up. Paul McEvoy, FrightFest co-director, said, “What a perfect Halloween Treat we have lined up for everyone this year. A wonderful movie mix-tape of nine exciting, exceptional, new and varied genre titles. There is something for every film fan, along with an incredible list of guest attendees. This will be a sensational end to our 25th Anniversary banner year, and we hope you all enjoy it.”
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