London FrightFest Film Festival
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Fright Fest is an annual film festival held in central London over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The first event was held in the year 2000.
As its name indicates the primary focus is on the horror genre. However it has included a wide variety of movies that blur the boundaries of genre definitions.
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[edit] History
For four years it was held at the Prince Charles Cinema (PCC). In 2005 it moved to the Odeon West End (OWE) due to increasing audiences. Various one-off events have been held at venues across the UK. The Fright Fest brand has been included in the Cambridge Film Festival and the Glasgow Film Festival.
The festival was envisioned by producer Paul McEvoy and is run by himself, distributor Ian Rattray, noted genre critic Alan Jones[1] and publicist Greg Day[2]. They are a visible force throughout the weekend and eager for feedback. Films are introduced on stage by a varying combination of the organisers. Question and Answer sessions are also compered by them.
The Festival has been host to many personal appearances by those involved with the making of the films being shown. Notable attendees include George Romero, Rob Zombie[3], Paul W. S. Anderson, Park Chan-Wook, Danny Boyle, Guillermo Del Toro (twice), Brian Yuzna, Neil Marshall The League of Gentlemen, and Uwe Boll.
Fright Fest also accepts short film submissions. The criteria is that the films be no longer than 15 minutes in length, yet exceptions have been made. Submissions to the festival are free [4]. Scheduling of the shorts has varied between being attached to a feature film or being shown in a continuous block.
FrightFest has had a number of different sponsors over the span of its' life including Film 4, Volkswagen Lupo, Bizzarre Magazine (of which the August issue is given away free), Xfm and Zone Horror.
Poster designs have been provided by the artist Graham Humphrys.
Merchandise is sold on site via a stall run by The Cinema Store.
FrightFest is an adherent member of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation [5].
[edit] Past Festivals
The following is a listing of each film and shorts (and previews) shown at the festival each year. The schedule is often fraught with last minute cancellations and replacements. Where possible the film being replaced will also be referenced.
[edit] FF2000
Friday: The Lighthouse - with director Simon Hunter in attendance, Ed Gein (film) accompanied by Steve Railsback and dir. Chuck Parello, Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby + Short: Purgatory.
Saturday: The Phantom of the Opera (Dario Argento), Christina's House, Scary Movie, Pitch Black, Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane (replaced Psycho Beach Party)
Sunday: Ringu 2, Blood, The Criminal introduced by director Julian Simpson, Anatomie+ short In Memory of Laura
Monday: Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre[6], Dario Agento an eye for horror[7], The 13th Sign attended by director Adam Mason, Audition (film), Cut
[edit] FF2001
Friday: The Bunker (with dir. Rob Green), Revelation (with dir. Stuart Urban), Kiss Of The Dragon + The Window (short)
Saturday: Cubbyhouse, Sleepless + Sister Lulu (short), Scary Movie 2 introduced by The Wayan Brothers, The Devil's Backbone, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Sunday: Cradle Of Fear (with dir. Alex Chandon), Urban Gothic - TV episode (with cast and crew). Dust (with dir. Adam Mason), Brotherhood Of The Wolf + Universal (short). Battle Royale
Monday: Alone (with dir. Phil Claydon), The Isle, Ginger Snaps (replaced Trouble Every Day), Resident Evil promo with Paul W S Anderson, Jeepers Creepers (film)
[edit] FF2002
The front rows of the PCC become available to weekend passholders for the first time.
Friday: Nine Lives with Dir. Andrew Green and Prod. Giles Hattersley, Frailty, The Princess Blade
Saturday: Donnie Darko, The Eye, Halloween: Resurrection, One Hour Photo, My Little Eye with dir. Marc Evans.
Sunday: Swimfan, Tuno Negro, Dark Water, Spider with novelist/screenwriter Patrick McGrath,
Monday: The Happiness of the Katakuris, Bloody Mallory with Julien Magnat, Insomnia with Christopher Nolan, Ted Bundy with Dir. Matthew Bright and Prod. Hamish McAlpine.
Shorts: Pissboy with Dir. Jim Sloan, The League of Gentlemen's The Cicerones with Dir. Jeremey Dyson and actor Mark Gatiss, Jake West's Whacked
Also there was an appearance by Danny Boyle with the first reel of 28 Days Later.
[edit] FF2003
FrightFest 2003 introduced a Surprise Movie to its schedule. The surprise movie was originally slated to appear on the Sunday timetable. Due to losing The Butterfly Effect from the festival schedule it was moved to Friday. The slot was filled however by a last minute arrival of Dracula Pages from a Virgin's Diary. This was a free of charge addition to the Festival.
Friday: Octane with Dir. Marcus Adams and crew, Surprise Movie (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)), Beyond Re-animator
Saturday: Tattoo (2002 film) with short Virus, Malefique introduced by Dir. Eric Valette, Cypher with short Suspended, Jeepers Creepers 2, Charlie's Family
Sunday Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, Phone, The Last Horror Movie with Dir. Julian Richards, Gozu + Trailer Trash (a compilation of rare and odd trailers), Cabin Fever with pre-recorded intro' by Dir. Eli Roth.
Monday House of the Dead + short The Last Dream, Between Your Legs, Fear X with Nicolas Winding Refn, House of 1000 Corpses with Dir. Rob Zombie.
[edit] FF2004
This year the short movies were shown in one block. The event also added an earlier start time for Sat - Mon.
Friday: Oldboy with Dir. Park Chan-wook, Haute Tension with Dir. Alexandre Aja and star Cecile De France, Toolbox Murders remake.
Saturday: Profondo Rosso, The Tesseract, Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt with Prod. Brian Yuzna and Dir. Paco Plaza, The I Inside, Hellboy, with Dir. Guillermo Del Toro with an unannounced appearance by actors Ron Perlman + Selma Blair + Rupert Evans (all remained for a Q&A), Monster Man
Sunday: The Card Player (Il cartaio), Buppah Rahtree, Code 46, Calvaire, Ginger Snaps Back with Dir. John Fawcett and Prod. Paula Devonshire. Short Film Showcase: Rex Steele Nazi Smasher, Oltro Ladrillo En La Pared (Another Brick in the Wall), La Guarida Del Ermitano (In The Hermits Lair), L'Autre (The Other), Amor So De Mae (Love from Mother Only).
Trailer Trash was not a feature in 2004 but was replaced with the second reel of Alien vs. Predator. Also Don Mancini with a rough cut trailer for Seed of Chucky.
Monday: The Eye 2, One Point 0, The Hillside Strangler with Prod. Hamish McAlpine, Casshern, The Machinist with Dir. Brad Anderson.
Tuesday: a last moment one off addition of Creep with Dir. Christopher Smith and actress Franka Potente. A Q&A session afterwards features as an extra on the Region 2 DVD.
[edit] FF2005
FrightFest moved to Screen One of the Odeon West End. For the first time the festival started early on the Friday morning. This was to support the opening movie Land of the Dead by screening the three preceding ...of the Dead movies. Greg Nicotero was slated to provide an onstage demonstration of make up application. Circumstances lead to the event being a display of zombie props from Nicotero.
Friday: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Gregory Nicotero onstage with prop zombies, Land of the Dead with George A. Romero, A Bittersweet Life, Evil Aliens with Dir. Jake West introducing, and actors.
Saturday: Do You Like Hitchcock?, Dead Meat with Dir. Conor McMahon, Ban the Sadist Videos documentary with Prod. Carl Daft, The Neighbour No.13 + short film The Eel introduced by Dir., Wild Country with Producers and actresses Samantha Shields and Nicola Muldoon, The Roost introduced by Dir. Ti West, 2001 Maniacs
Sunday: The Collingswood Story + short The Ten Steps, Marebito + short The Victim, Wes Craven's Red Eye (replacing Boo), Nochnoi Dozor, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
Monday: Born to Fight, Day of the Dead 2: Contagium + short Mrs Davenport's Throat introduced by Prod. David McGillivray, P with Dir. Paul Spurrier, Antikörper with Dir. Christian Alvart, Wolf Creek with Dir. Greg McLean also actresses Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi.
2005 also saw the creation of Alan Jones' FrightFest Year Book. This was a retrospective of genre films of that year. An opening chapter concerned itself with the Fest itself. The book dealt with 2005 but saw publication from Revolver Books in 2006[8].
Additionally over the course of the weekend a satelitte link up with Dir. Hideo Nakata was attempted. Due to technical difficulties it was mostly unsuccessful.
[edit] FF2006
The Festival grew in size again this year. Due to interest garnered by the success of FF2005 the event had to move from Screen One to Screen Two. Guillermo Del Toro chose FF2006 to hold the UK premiere of Pan's Labyrinth over The London Film Festival. The festival brochure/programme expanded too with an original comic strip (Intermission) and an original short story by author/critic Kim Newman[9]. There was additionally an unofficial early start to proceedings with a charity screening in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Original music composed for FrightFest played between movies and was supplied by Dave Andrews. A FrightFest exclusive trailer for Hot Fuzz was presented by Edgar Wright.
Thursday: charity screening of Severance with Dir. Christopher Smith + Screenwriter James Moran.
Friday: The Hound of the Baskervilles introduced by Mark Gatiss, Countess Dracula, Twins of Evil screening as an afternoon Hammer retrospective, El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) with Guillermo del Toro and Alfonse Cauron, Hatchet with Dir. Adam Green, Frostbiten + short Gasoline Blood
Saturday: Isolation (film) with Dir. Billy O'Brien, Earthlings Ugly Bags of Mostly Water + short Out of the Darkness, CUT! competition short film showcase (Hammer Falls, Torn Flesh, The Silent Scream, Natural Birthing, A Very Grimm Fairytale, The Collector, Curta Veraso, The Fall Down, Dead Wood, Kasting) The Marsh with Dir. Jordan Baker, See See No Evil, Adrift aka Open Water 2 + Trailer Trash, Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror
Sunday: Broken with Dir. Adam Mason and cast/crew + short snatching time, The Living and the Dead with Dir. Simon Rumley, *Ils + short In the Place of the Dead, Grimm Love + Trailer Trash, The Lost, Sheitan,
Monday: H6: Diaro De Un Asesino + short Missed Call, Ghost of Mae Nak with Dir. Mark Duffied (replacing Re-cycle) + short film Deadly Tantrum, Puritan with Dir. Hadi Hajaig and actors David Soul + Nick Moran, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, The Host.
[edit] FF2007
The start of the Fest officially moved to the Thursday evening slot. Film4 took over sponsorship. The final day of the Fest supported an attempt to break the Zombie Walk record to tie in with the showing of The Zombie Diaries[10]. A live commentary for one movie was conducted.
Thursday: Black Sheep with Dir. Jonathan King, screening of extra features from the 28 Weeks Later DVD with Prod. Andrew Macdonald, Doomsday preview footage with Dir. Neil Marshall, Black Water.
Friday: Hatchet -Live commentary with Dir. Adam Green and Alan Jones, The Sword Bearer, The Signal, 1408 with Dir. Mikael Håfström, Teeth (replaced P2), All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Shrooms with Dir. Paddy Breathnach.
Saturday: Fritt Vilt with Dir. Roar Uthaug, Joshua, Short Film Showcase (We're Ready for you now, Dead @17, The Dear Hunter, Pig Tale, Little Brats), Storm Warning, Wrong Turn 2 with Dir. Joe Lynch, Disturbia, The Devil Dared Me To with Dir./star Chris Stapp and Matt Heath.
Sunday: Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door + short The Bride, Botched with Dir. Kit Ryan, Uwe Boll double bill Postal + Seed with Q&A session, WΔZ with Dir. Tom Shankland and screenwriter Clive Bradley + preview footage from The Cottage with cast and crew including actor Reece Shearsmith, screening of Dont fake trailer from Grindhouse (film) + grindhouse trailers documentary introduced by Emily Booth, Skinwalkers.
Monday: Zombie Walk, The Zombie Diaries with cast and crew, Kilometer 31 with Dir. Rigoberto Castenada, Spiral with Dir. Adam Green[11], Dnevnoy Dozor[12] + short In The Wall[13] and its Dir. Mike Williamson, El Orfanato[14] with Dir.Juan Antonio Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez.
FrightFest Xtra a one day event held at The Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley on the following Saturday: Santo in the Wax Museum, Espectro, Mr. Brooks.
[edit] FF2008
Thursday: TBC Friday: TBC Saturday: TBC Sunday: TBC Monday: TBC
Schedule will be announced on the festival's website on 27th June 2008.
[edit] Extra FrightFest Events
[edit] Descent Premiere
In 2005 FrightFest helmed a gala preview of The Descent attended by Dir. Neil Marshall and the cast. The event was held at The Vue Cinema Leicester Square.
[edit] FrightFest All Nighter
In 2006 FrightFest began an annual all night event in the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
2006: Gone, The Chumscrubber, Re-cycle, The Raven, Heartstopper.
Preceding the first all nighter the ICA and FrightFest conducted a double bill the week before. This was attended by Tom Savini. The films shown were Meet the Feebles and Creepshow.
2007: Diary of the Dead with George A. Romero, Planet Terror, Savage Streets, Frontier(s), L'interieur and Trailer Trash. Short film Far Out with Prod.
[edit] Glasgow
FrightFest has been allocated days at various other Film Festivals. From 2006 it featured in the Glasgow Film Festival. The 2009 event will take place over two days rather than the previous single day.
FF Glasgow 2006 The Red Shoes (replaced The Great Yokai War), Bunshinsaba, Reeker, Wild Country with cast and crew, Boy Eats Girl[15]
FF Glasgow 2007 The Tripper, S & Man, The Messengers, Turistas, Motel Hell.[16]
FF Glasgow 2008 Grindhouse (film), Eden Log with Dir., REC with writer and Dir., The Cottage with cast, trailer for Beyond the Rave, faux grindhouse style trailers for Slash/Hive and Trannibal, Zombie Strippers.
[edit] Lionsgate Horrorthon
Event run in conjunction with Lionsgate. The 70 seat screen at the Rex Bar[17] in London's Soho means that audience attendance is alloted by competition.
2007 Saw III screening of extended edition, Blood Trails with star Rebecca Palmer, Snuff-Movie.
2008 Saw IV screening of extended edition, Catacombs, Bug and 20 min preview of Five Across The Eyes.
[edit] League of Gentlemen Day
One day event returning to the PCC held in May 2005. A day built around the audience premiere of The League of Gentlemen's movie debut. The day started with a film selected by a League member. It also saw the audience premiere of Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects.
From Beyond the Grave introduced by Mark Gatiss, R-Point, Shallow Ground, The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse with Jeremy Dyson; Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, Neil Marshall and Nora Jane Noone with a sneak preview trailer of The Descent, Sin City (another surprise movie), The Devil's Rejects.
[edit] Hostel Day
March 2006. A one off event once more at the PCC. Built around an early showing of Eli Roth's Hostel with two films chosen by Roth.
Death Trance[18], The Wicker Man with pre-recorded intro' by Eli Roth, Mortuary, Hostel with pre-recorded Eli Roth intro, Theatre of Blood introduced by Kim Newman.
[edit] Brighton
FrightFest also featured as part of Brighton's Cinecity festival.
CineCity 2004 Creep with Dir. Christopher Smith, The Last Horror Movie with Dir. Julian Richards
CineCity 2005 Masters of Horror: Jenifer, Boo, District 13[19]. At this event a regular attendee revealed a FF logo tattoo.
CineCity 2006 Gone, The Raven, Vampire Diaries with Dir. and cast[20].
[edit] FrightFest on Tour
FrightFest has held one off days across the UK.
Nottingham - The Broadway Cinema 2004 Dawn of the Dead, The Machinist, The Last Horror Movie, Monster Man
Leicester - The Phoenix Arts Centre 2004 The Machinist, Creep with Dir. Christopher Smith, Monster Man
Cambridge 2005 R-Point, Shallow Ground, The Devil's Rejects, Dead Meat.
Cambridge 2007 End of the Line, Hell's Ground, The Abandoned, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, Motel Hell[21].
[edit] An evening with Jessica Alba
The UK premiere of The Eye remake. Film was shown in the screening room of One Aldwych. Jessica Alba introduced the movie, stayed for a Q&A session and signed memorabilia.
[edit] Dario Argento at the Coronet
19th of April 2008 at the Coronet Cinema, Notting Hill, London. Dario Argento introduced his latest film, Mother of Tears. Also showing as part of the day were Welcome To The Jungle and an encore screening of Storm Warning.
[edit] D Day
A day at the OWE dedicated to director Neil Marshall.Dog Soldiers, The Descent and Doomsday were all screened with introductions by Marshall. Question and answer sessions followed each movie. In attendance were Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Chris Robson, Leslie Simpson, Shauna MacDonald, Saskia Mulder, Alex Reid, Myanna Buring, Nora Jane Noone, and Alexander Siddig. An exlcusive to the event poster was designed by Graham Humphreys and was exceptionally limited.
The event was organised in the most part by Marshalls partner journalist and actress Axelle Carolyn.
[edit] Forum
The festival opened a forum in July 2004[22]. Whilst most posting happens around the main events, posts are made about genre-related news, discussions and events throughout the year. Often organisers will join in discussions or release news about one off events via the forum.
The forum is run on phpBB software.
The past two Fest's saw T Shirts printed featuring slogans derived from forum postings. FF06 had "FrightFest Gives you the Willies" while FF07 was intended to be "FF Contains scenes of minge quivering ferocity".
[edit] Blogs
Semi regular blogs are now a feature of the festival's website. They began as The Alan Jones Diary and a guide to dvds Gore in the Store. Recently it has grown to include more blogs which cover Video Games, TV, the Australian horror scene, forgein language genre fare, HD format releases, Memorabilia and Comics.
The organisors of the festival blog annually about their visits to the Cannes Film Festival and the Fantastic Fest in Austin Texas.
FF07 saw a cross section of attendees provide a record of their experience of the festival. Each blogger was chosen according to differing lengths of attendance at the festival, such as a first timer or someone attending since 2000.
[edit] FrightFest Presents
In 2005 a brief "Fright Fest Presents" DVD label was created and distributed Dead Meat, Malefique, Tears of Kali, Eyes of Crystal and The Roost within the UK.[23] The label was an imprint of Revolver Entertainment.
[edit] Quiz
In 2005 the FrightFest quiz was introduced. The first quiz was spread over the weekend but was then streamlined. The most recent quiz was devised by Alan Jones and was remarked upon as being especially challenging. This quiz was conducted by British Horror institution David McGillivray (director).
[edit] Ticketing
Tickets are sold with the option of a weekend pass or individual tickets. 2007 saw the introduction of Day Passes. Weekend passes go on sale, typically, on the 1st of July each year with individual tickets on sale a month later. Tickets are bought online, by phone or in person. Since 2005 a growing group have congregated in person outside the OWE many hours before the OWE open its doors. The start time of this queue has been earlier each year earning it the nickname "The Sleepy Queue".
Weekend pass holders are presented with a "goodie bag"" of freebies. This is a mixture of promotional items and posters, badges, T Shirts and DVDs.
