The tenth edition of FrightFest offers an ideal opportunity to reflect on the achievements of a festival that has become a permanent, much-loved fixture in the horror calendar, and to look forward to another decade of disembowelling, decapitation, dismemberment and dread.
Melissa George in Chris Smith's 'Triangle'
This year's event takes place from Thursday August 27 to Monday 31. The big change this year is a move to the 1,300-seat Empire Leicester Square, adding an extra 500 places. A risky strategy in a time of recession, you might think – but with audiences having increased 30 per cent year-on-year for the last three years, co-organisers Alan Jones, Paul McEvoy and Ian Rattray don’t think so. They’re so confident that they’ve also added a side-bar event in the 100-seat Empire 4 screen: the ‘Discovery’ section will showcase low-budget movies such as Marc Price’s ‘£45 zombie movie’ ‘Colin’ and Laurence Gough’s ‘Salvage’, a ‘Crazies’-inspired movie shot on the abandoned Brookside cul-de-sac in Liverpool. Some fans balked at the idea of clashing screenings, but Jones insists that the festival must innovate: ‘We wanted to give the audience the chance to discover these little gems, which might get lost in a 1,300-seat auditorium. It’s important to support these low-budget movies, which might mark the debut of a major new director.’
One established British director who is grateful for FrightFest’s support is Chris Smith, whose ‘Triangle’ opens this year’s fest. Jones and McEvoy are thanked in the credits of Smith’s follow-up to ‘Creep’ and ‘Severance’ (both showed at FrightFest), and Smith’s association with Jones goes back even further: ‘When I was a little kid I used to read Alan’s articles about horror movies in Fangoria magazine, so I’m always scared of what he thinks of my films. I was shooting my next film, “Black Death”, when “Triangle” was shown at Cannes. I knew Alan and Paul had seen it, but then I didn’t hear anything for ages. So when they told me “Triangle” was the opening film, it was fantastic.’
British films are well represented, with Philip Ridley’s mesmerising urban fairy tale, ‘Heartless’, racking up healthy advance sales. But the programme is also packed with diverse titles from all over the globe: ‘Millennium: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, a Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s serial-killer novel; the Mo Brothers’ ‘Macabre’ from Indonesia; ‘Død Snø’ from Norway; ‘La Horde’ from France; ‘Shadow’ and Dario Argento’s ‘Giallo’ from Italy; ‘Hierro’ from Spain; and ‘Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl’ from Japanese goremeister Yoshihiro Nishimura.
The horror genre is also digging up its own past. One of this year’s more nostalgic titles, Glenn McQuaid’s ‘I Sell the Dead’, is a comically gruesome tale about two nineteenth-century grave-robbers, filmed in a mist-wreathed style that recalls Hammer and Amicus movies of the 1950s and ’60s. John Landis will also present a restored print of his 1981 film ‘An American Werewolf in London’ and is about to return to the capital to shoot a film about the Scottish grave-robbers Burke and Hare. Bringing proceedings to a stygian close will be ‘The Descent: Part 2’, which plunges survivor Sarah Carter (Shauna MacDonald) and the audience back into the dark of Neil Marshall’s cave.
Jones knows that the hardcore FrightFest audience is vital, but so too is new blood: ‘It’s not just about blokes in “Zombie Flesh Eaters” T-shirts. We’re very proud of how many women come to the festival, and we need to build on that idea of a community of like-minded enthusiasts, who are knowledgeable and savvy about the genre. Above all, FrightFest is a festival by fans for fans.’
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