Arrow Video FrighFest 2022 Line Up Unearths Liars And Unholy Terror

The weather maybe hot hot hot, next month things are about to get bloody! August will see the Dark Heart of Cinema with Arrow Video FrightFest. The UK’s biggest horror and fantasy festival will chill our souls and terrorise our minds once again.

The festival, is back at London’s Cineworld Leicester Square and the Prince Charles Cinema from Thursday 25th August until Monday 29th August for five days of the very best of global genre cinema. Unearthing liars and unholy terror, and we won’t be safe at any height.

23 years young and as they said a blockbuster event. Which will have thirty-two world, twenty-two International / European and eighteen UK premieres. The world renowned event attesting to the versatility of the genre and this year is no exception, with seventeen countries represented, spanning five continents.

The festival opens with an action packed gore shocker of a World Premiere from Neil Marshall, The Liar. His latest monstrous creation  has been described as “The Dirty Half Dozen meets THE THING”.  Neil will be attending with star Charlotte Kirk and will also introduce a special 4K restoration screening of his cult classic, Dog Soldiers.

If you don’t like heights, the Closing night film Scott Mann‘s Fall will have you even more anxious. The European premiere is a pulse-pounding, vertigo-inducing experience as two best friends, stranded at the top of a remote, abandoned 2000-feet high radio tower, fight for survival.

There is a welcome return, for horror icon Dario Argento. He’ll introduce the UK premiere of his latest giallo Dark Glasses. The film has been compared to the extreme thrillers he pioneered in the 1970s with The Bird With The Crystal Plumage and Deep Red.

If it’s shock and awe you’re looking for, the main screen is your place. Grindhouse style classics Ryûhei Kitamura’s sensational The Price We Pay and John Swab’s extraordinary Candy Land will feed that craving. Barbarian starring Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård, will have it’s UK Premiere. If you love clowns the World premiere of anticipated slasher sequel Terrifier 2, will continue the gory misadventures of Art the Clown. Dominic Brunt’s hair-raising Wolf Manor, also a world premiere, the Sundance sensation Piggy, Travis Steven’s Tribeca hit A Wounded Fawn. Japanese cult favourite One Cut Of The Dead, got a French remake at Cannes Film Festival opening with Final Cut. They’ll also be H4Z4RD, the turbo-charged, splatter action movie of the year.

It’s a rich year for ambitious and quirky sci-fi movies and the main screens light up with Mali Elfman’s warm-hearted science fiction epic Next Exit. Sensational sci-fi horror hybrid The Visitor From The Future, Quentin Dupieux’s returns with quirky comedy time travel fantasy Incredible But True. Before they directed Moon Knight, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead made with Something In The Dirt .A fusion of DIY science fiction, pre-apocalyptic vibes and overwhelming paranoia. The visionary dream-weavers will be attending the festival, as will Brea Grant, here as director of twisted rock horror Torn Hearts and star of Night Sky, Jacob Gentry’s provocative indie science fiction fantasy.

Other main screen World premieres include  Midnight Peepshow, a twisted portmanteau threesome exploring the nightmare side of psychosexual fantasy.  horror anthology sequel Scare Package  II: Rad Chad’s Revenge,  Andy Mitton’s menacing supernatural horror, The Harbinger. Erik Bloomquist’s coming-of-age horror She Came From The Woods, starring Cara Buono and stylish psychological chiller Mastemah from director Didier Daarwin, who will be attending. Also attending is director Ben Parker (The Chamber), for his latest thriller Burial. He will be bringing along the cast, including Tom Felton. 

The documentary strand is as bright and bold as ever and FrightFest welcomes French cult icon Brigitte Lahaie, who will introduce the fascinating in-depth Jean Rollin documentary Orchestrator Of Storms. The subversive and explicit is also explored in Cult Of VHS, which takes a trip down Memorex lane to nostalgically relive the allure and passion for straight to video titles and yes, those Video Nasties. Another cult favourite is Chucky, who is the subject of Kyra Gardner’s Living With Chucky . Kyra, daughter of FX designer Tony Gardner, explores what it was like growing up amongst this creative family of stars, eccentrics, technicians and a serial killing doll.

Your taste for blood will be quenched with Blood-thirsty hounds, rampaging reptiles, a teacher-eating pupil and a gore-filled talent show…Brit horror hits a bloody sartorial vein this year with the World premiere of Hounded starring Samantha Bond and Larry Lamb,. Liam Regan’s Eating Miss Campbell, Pat Higgins’ Power tool Cheerleaders  VS. The Boyband Of The Screeching Dead and Paul W. Franklyn’s Croc! Also, there are outings for Paul Wilkins’ The Ghost Writer, Steve Johnson’s Stalker, and Christopher Hatton’s Raven’s Hollow.

Plus, we have the UK’s ‘First Blood’ class of 2022 – The Creeping, starring Sophie Thompson, Scott Lyus’s apocalyptic vision Walking Against The Rain, Bite a horror story of entrapment and cannibalism, Will Hugo’s The  Group and Cerebrum starring Steve Oram.

The world’s stage is always well represented at the festival with the depth and diversity of its Discovery Stand. This year three screens will be devoted to bringing the best new films from around the world. From Luxembourg there is the savage thriller Wolfkin, from Mexico and Peru is the much anticipated Huesera from director Michelle Garza Cervera. FrightFest’s first entry from Cyprus is the World premiere of paranormal thriller The Ghosts Of Monday.  Other World premieres in the Discovery strand include Japan’s bold, unique fantasy New Religion from director Keishi Kondo, the subversive mockumentary Everybody Dies By The End, and Daughter, which marks the distinctive feature film debut for Corey Deshon and stars Casper Van Dien.

Plus, there are UK premieres for erotic spookfest Hypochondriac, real-time black comedy thriller Holy S**t!, gruesome murder mystery The Breach, serial killer drama The Last Client , Super Z, which injects new blood into the zombie genre, Family Dinner, which puts gut-punching shocks on the menu and The Once And Future Smash + EndZone2, Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein’s spoof documentary and End Zone sequel in a double bill that is simply fake GRINDHOUSE heaven.

Emily Hagins  returns to FrightFest with Sorry About The Demon, a supernatural horror comedy that is movingly funny. Another  welcome back this time to Patrick Rea with his haunting domestic abuse chiller They Wait In The Dark,. Eric Pennycoff with The Leech starring FrightFest favourite Graham Skipper. A weird, fun and twisted look at humanity  with Tiny Cinema from Tyler Cornack (Buttboy), and Alexis Bruchon with The Eyes Below, the second in his noir trilogy following The Woman With The Leopard Shoes.

The international and European premieres with a record number, which includes Bitch Ass, Bill Posley’s black exploitation horror, with Tony Todd. Tom Ryan’s award-winning frightener Splinter, kickass rocking gore-fest Pussycake. Dark Faustian morality tale The Summoned , home-invasion thriller, Who Invited Them?, psychological family horror The Ones You Didn’t Burn, Spain’s Everyone Will Burn,  John Ainslee’s human flesh-eating Do Not Disturb, new body horror Swallowed from Carter Smith (The Ruins), Grégory Beghin’s survival horror Deep Fear, and packed shocker Night Of The Bastard , from Erik Boccio and London May, creators of the multi-award winning Brutal Reality, INC.

Plus, the live streaming age is given deadly digital treatment in Hannah Barlow’s Sissy, Joseph Winter’s Deadstream and twisted social media thriller Follow Her. Director Sylvia Caminer will be attending.

There are plenty of special events taking place this year – The Devil’s Hour is an upcoming six-part mind-bending thriller for Amazon Prime Video and FrightFest will be hosting a special exclusive preview with talent in attendance. The cast and crew will also be gracing the FrightFest stage for a special exclusive preview of Wreck, an upcoming comedy horror series coming soon to BBC Three.

For the first time ever Alan Jones and  Mark Kermode bring their stage show DUELLING EGOS: AN AUDIENCE WITH ALAN AND MARK to the Prince Charles Cinema, and Alan also takes the stage in his role as artistic director of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, to introduce the World premiere of Control, the first Canadian sci-fi thriller to use real-time virtual production tools, and which will also play at Trieste.

The Duke Mitchell Film Party will return will his annual chaos. Podcast fans Arrow Video Podcast and The Evolution Of Horror will feed your podcasting hunger before and during the festival!

Festival co-director Paul McEvoy said today: “We are absolutely delighted with this year’s fantastic Arrow Video FrightFest line-up. This is the wildest and most diverse selection we have ever assembled. The mix includes a stunning variety of the latest must-see SF, thriller, fantasy and horror titles from around the world. With a vast array of premiere screenings, special events and incredible guests the Cineworld Leicester Square and The Prince Charles Cinema will be the ONLY places for film lovers to be over the late August Bank Holiday weekend and we cannot wait to unleash our prime selections to our wonderful audience.”

Arrow Video FrightFest   will also be joined by Shudder and 101 Films as new screen sponsors.

Most important  information for your dairies. Saturday 16th July full festival passes will go on sale, then 23rd July for single tickets. Both dates box office opens 12 noon,  Booking and programme details go to FrightFest website.