London FrightFest Unveils Biggest Ever Line-up

LONDON — Film4 FrightFest, the U.K.’s leading event for genre fans, has unveiled its biggest line-up ever, with 64 films plus 20 shorts.

There are 16 countries representing five continents with a record-breaking 38 U.K. or European premieres and 11 world premieres.

Returning for its 15th year, the event runs Aug. 21-25 at the Vue West End, Leicester Square, London, across five screens.

The fest, which opens with thriller “The Guest” and closes with sci-fi fantasy “The Signal,” has netted the latest works from genre big-hitters such as Eli Roth (“The Green Inferno”), Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins (“Show Pieces”), Tommy Wirkola (“Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead”), Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”), Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (“Among the Living”), Fabrice Du Welz (“Alleluia”), Nacho Vigalondo (“Open Windows” and “Extraterrestrial”), John McNaughton (“The Harvest”), Adam Green (“Digging Up the Marrow”), Nicolas McCarthy (“Home”), Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson (“All Cheerleaders Die”), Adrian Garcia Bogliano (“Late Phases”), Greg Mclean (“Wolf Creek 2”), Eduardo Sanchez (“Exists”) and Milan Todorovic (“Nymph”).

Among the movies that have garnered attention from other festivals and now play at FrightFest are “Life After Beth,” “Zombeavers,” “The Babadook,” “The Samurai,” “Stage Fright,” “Starry Eyes,” “Housebound,” “R100,” “Faults,” “I Survived a Zombie Holocaust” and “Shockwave Darkside 3D.”

The spotlight on British talent is fixed on Luke Hyams’ “X Moor,” Phil Hawkins’ “The Last Showing,” featuring horror icon Robert Englund, Adam Spinks’ creature feature “The Expedition,” John Shackleton’s supernatural horror “The Sleeping Room,” Ivan Kavanagh’s sinister “The Canal,” Oliver Frampton’s urban nightmare “The Forgotten,” Jeremy Wooding’s wild Western “Blood Moon,” Edward Boase’s spooky “The Mirror,” and Simeon Halligan’s shocker “White Settlers.”

FrightFest’s Discovery Strand, which seeks out new talent from across the globe, boasts 38 films, which include “The House at the End of Time,” which claims to be the first-ever horror movie from Venezuela, Matthew A. Brown’s neo-noir revenge thriller “Julia,” Chad Archibald’s maniac movie “The Drownsman,” mumblecore pic “Creep,” gag-filled “Bad Milo!,” Lowell Dean’s laffer “Wolfcop,” cyber chiller “The Den,” Australian urban legend “Lemon Tree Passage,” the giallo-infused “Another,” and Ate de Jong’s psycho-sexual horror “Deadly Virtues.”

Documentaries receiving their U.K. premieres include Alexandre O. Philippe’s zombie culture reveal “Doc of the Dead,” and Erik Sharkey’s touching portrait of Drew Struzan, “Drew: The Man Behind the Poster.” There is also the world premiere of David Gregory’s “Lost Soul – The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau.”

The retrospectives include restored versions of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Jorg Buttgereit’s “Nekromantik” and Giulio Paradisi’s cult exploiter “The Visitor.”

There is also a special presentation of James Ward’s mind-bending horror sci-fi “Coherence.”

Alan Jones, festival co-director, said: “Everything genre-wise you’ve been hearing about — and a whole lot you haven’t yet — has been included in the program to ensure our move to the Vue will be the most exciting and game-changing genre event of the year.”

Julia Wrigley, head of Film4 channel, added: “It’s fantastic to be back for our eighth year of fear as headline sponsors of Film4 FrightFest. For us, it’s still a great place to get reacquainted with favorite filmmakers and make exciting discoveries, many of which end up on the channel. We can’t wait to settle into a new venue to see what the team has in store for us, while our FrightFest fortnight on Film4 allows viewers to invite the horror and excitement into their own home.”

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