The Dark Heart Of Cinema has got its sun hat on high factor gore suncream as Horror Channel Frightfest announces it’s 18th line up of sun, sangria and bloodfest. Now the festival has grown it deserves an ‘adults-only’ anniversary as it heads back to London’s West End (Cineworld Leicester Square and Prince Charles) for it’s the biggest lineup ever. Reflecting the global love for the genre, with 64 movies which includes 20 World, 22 European and 18 UK Premieres from Fourteen countries are represented spanning five continents.
This year’s festival will open with the global premiere of the seventh instalment of the iconic doll of destruction Cult Of Chucky. It will be criminally entertaining and director Don Mancini and stars Jennifer Tilly and Fiona Dourif in attendance, even the iconic doll itself will be there too!
Mancini said today: “It’s a true pleasure to be hosting the world premiere of CULT OF CHUCKY at FrightFest. I have fond memories of unveiling CURSE OF CHUCKY there in 2013 so it’s great to be returning to the UK’s acknowledged home of horror – especially as this film picks up from where CURSE…left off”.
Other world premiere’s includes’a version’ of Adam Green‘s cult slasher Hatchet, a version that we; re been told we’ve never seen before. Keeping with legendary ‘killers’ Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s prequel to the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre Leatherface will get its first presentation.
FrightFest adore unveiling new directorial talent Tyler McIntyre whose Patchwork played at the Glasgow Film Festival will present closing night film/ With the UK Premiere of Tragedy Girls starring Alexandra Shipp and Brianna Hildebrand which can be described as Heathers meets Scream!
FrightFest welcomes back one of their illumines Adam Wingard who will present the European Premiere of his Netflix-bound supernatural manga Death Note. Joe Lynch’s Mayhem starring The Walking Dead’s Steven Yuen will get it’s European Premiere. Other European premieres include Mickey Keating‘s eye-shattering Psychopaths and Graham Skipper‘s surreal sci-fi romance Sequence Break.Genre favourite Barbara Crampton, will star in Norbert Kell’s skin-crawler Replace, will its UK Premiere.
In a programme packed with innovation, uniqueness and individuality, the Frightfest line up has something for all tastes and levels of horror. Some of those highlights include Ryan Prows’ powerful cult-in-waiting Lowlife, Trent Haaga’s stunning 68 Kill, Cannes hotty The Villainess hot from Cannes and Alex de la Iglesia’s bleakly comic The Bar, Fans of French extreme will love Miguel Angel Vivas’ remake of Inside will go down a treat, Daniele Misischia’s undead Romageddon The End? Todd Tuckers’ affectionately creepy The Terror Of Hallows Eve, and Brandon Christensen’s terrifying Still/Born will be joined by Sebastien Landry & Laurence Morais-Lagace’s head-exploding Game Of Death, Kurtis David Harder’s provocative sci-fi horror Incontrol and Royce Gorsuch’s kaleidoscopic mindbender Mindhack.
Frightfesters love supporting the cream of the homegrown crop and Frightfest oblige with their our British strand. If you were at Glasgow Frightfest Emmerdale star come film director Dominic Brunt’s presented a preview of his perverted shocker Attack Of The Adult Babies, now you will enjoy the movies World Premiere. He will be joined by Christian James’ prison-set vampire comedy Fanged Up and Matthew Heaven’s scorching revenge study Accountable. There are also European Premieres for Dominic Bridge’s debut dark morality tale Freehold, Tom Paton’s nerve-shredding Redwood and Benjamin Barfoot’s hilariously blood-soaked Double Date when 2 boys date 2 girls have different plans for the night from them!‘First Blood’ strand Is back on the menu with five tasty titles with Jason Flemyng’s blood-sucking feature debut Eat Locals, Louis Melville’s squaddie shocker Boots On The Ground, Hendrik Faller’s ice-cold thriller Mountain Fever, Michaël Boucherie’s tattoo-terror Where The Skin Lies and Peter Stray’s alien-invading black comedy Canaries all making up the rest of the menu.
The festival loves it’s rising talent too which is enriched with Preston DeFrancis’ extreme slasher Ruin Me, Natasha Kermani’s sci-fi fantasy Imitation Girl, Clay Staub’s supernatural detective thriller Devil’s Gate.Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard’s mesmerising Radius, Samuel Galli’s devilishly shocking Our Evil hope to fulfil the shock troops. Andrés Goteira’s dazzling Dhogs, David Chirchirillo’s Tinder Terror Good Match and Tini Tuellman’s spine-chilling psycho suspense thriller Freddy/Eddy, Haritz Zubillaga’s car-killing giallo The Glass Night, Scott Poiley’s hard-edged chiller Exhume, Adam Graveley’s Aussie outback shocker 3rd Night, Michael Mongillo’s audacious and haunting Diane, Peter Rice‘s stark comedy Dead Shack and Carlos Algeria and Alejandro Martinez-Beltran’s gripping psychological twister Veronica.
Fans of Documentaries will be treated to three movies making their eagerly awaited premieres at FrightFest this year. King Cohen: The Wild World Of Filmmaker Larry Cohen a dazzling career overview of the maverick director behind such classic horrors as It’s Alive, Q The Winged Serpent, fantasy television series like ‘The Invaders’, Hell Up On Harlem Blaxploitation, recent releases CELLULAR and soon the MANIAC COP remake. We welcome back on screen Kane Hodder, everyone’s favourite Jason Voorhees in the FRIDAY THE 13th series, with his moving and eye-opening To Hell And Back: The Kane Hodder Story. Finally, there’s the extraordinary Mansfield 66/67, a super Hollywood Babylon-style whisk through the final years of movie goddess Jayne Mansfield’s life and untimely, possibly Satanic, death.
Other attractions include Emilia Clarke in Voice From The Stone, Robert Englund in Nightworld, and an adaptation of the French graphic novel Alone. It wouldn’t be Frightfest with some over the top crazy fun movies and the outrageous gore-fest Meatball Machine Kodoku will provide that substance with The Aussie chiller Killing Ground, the hilarious Top Knot Detective and the opening 2 episodes of the amazing Japanese TV series Crow’s Blood. If you missed FrightFest Glasgow, 2 hits from the Glasgow are being rescreened: Simon Rumley’s Fashionista and Colin Minihan’s It Stains The Sand Red.
It’s not all about the new movies, the classics get their rare chances on the big screen with this year’s retrospective restoration strand highlights the underrated British horror Dream Demon, Return Of The Living Dead III. They will be joined by two classic Hammers, Blood From The Mummy’ Tomb and Demons Of The Mind. There will also be a special screening of the seminal proto-Giallo Death Laid An Egg, the longest version of the movie to date which was lovingly restored by Nucleus Films’ Jake West and Marc Morris.
The Duke Mitchell Film Club will make a welcome with a hosted presentation of the UK premiere of Stefan Ruzowsky’s Cold Hell, a gripping serial killer thriller. That will be followed by the not-to-be-missed Duke Mitchell Party when audience mix and mingle with guests in Saturday late night mayhem.
Alan Jones, co-director of FrightFest, said today: “The whole cinema landscape is changing and Horror Channel FrightFest is listening. We know the fans want to see the films first, see them fast and see them in an environment that is second to none. That’s why we have what we believe is the finest line-up ever assembled and are showcasing the superlative selection in premium surroundings. So, the West End becomes the Dark Heart of London once again. And we’ve made it to our 18th birthday. It’s going to be quite some party”.
Horror Channel Frightfest 2017 will take place 24th until 28th August 2017.Festival passes will go on sale Saturday 1 July at noon and will only be available to buy online Here.
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