FrightFest

On The Edge A husband's hoped for kinky hotel stay takes a darker turn in the Soskas' latest. Being unable to watch the extended strobe lighting sequence and also the loud score that often drowned out the dialogue meant that I struggled to understand what was really going on, but I may have missed ...

Outpost A solid, if at times a little slow, psychological thriller that redeems itself with a gory and wild final act. I could see where much of where the story was going in advance and there were seemingly one or two minor continuity inconsistencies, but the deliciously feral performance by the le...

Mad Heidi My pick of the festival, this was a fun ride. There's plenty of humour in the first half of the film, which does dry up a little in the second half as the story progresses and the movie leans more into its exploitation action roots. Heidi is a great character and the makers have demonstra...

Freeze Sadly not as fun as the short preceding it, Gnomes , this suffered from some poor acting and plotlines that seemed to go nowhere. The creature designs were good and effective though and it was interesting to learn afterwards that only two costumes were used in reality but it was made to look...

I suspected exactly the same iro your first spoiler related comment - and the same for the second movie you mention for your latter comment!

There are far too many people involved in making the films shown at Frightfest, selecting them, getting them to the event, showing them at the cinema and supporting the festival in lots of ways to name them all, but thank you to all of you, with a special big thank you to Paul, Alan, Ian and Greg fo...

My top 6 for this year's event (too many good films to whittle it down to 5!): 1st: Candy Land 2nd: Fall 3rd joint equal in no particular order: The Visitor From The Future Night Sky Lola Terrifier 2 An immensely strong line-up across the board, a number of films that missed my top 6 would have made...

Wow! How intense was this one?!! Not a film for those who don't get on with heights, as this is extremely vertiginous with oodles of tension and nerve-wracking moments. A great film to close the fest and to view with the best audience in the land! And on a ginormous screen with which to appreciate t...

A rollercoaster ride that brings several tales together into one overall narrative. Some of the directions the plot takes are not the most obvious, which keeps you guessing and surprised, even if the characters occasionally make questionable decisions. A very entertaining tale that is fairly restrai...

An end of World War II actioner with some horror elements, the extent of which I'll leave the viewer to discover. The two leads are very good and the setpieces are well executed. The bookend segments are good and really help to add context and meaning. A solid effort from a festival regular.

7 / 10

A fun slasher romp that flies by despite its lengthy running time. Art the Clown continues to be entertaining and witty, whilst this sequel introduces a little more fantasy into the lore. Lauren LaVera does a great job in the lead female role, while the ante really has been upped in the gore stakes ...

There are some creepy moments in this Mexican supernatural thriller, but a bit too few and far between for my liking, although my eyelids were very heavy during this, which probably didn't help. I wasn't keen on the ending although it was true to the story and the message the film was trying to conv...

A typical old school action horror, albeit with Kitamura's signature stylistic flourishes, as a robbery gone wrong goes even more awry. Gory, with plenty of twists and turns, although the most shocking revelation was - sadly - the tribute at the end credits.

8 / 10

Fairly predictable and not as graphic or dark as some films of this type are, but this is quite fun nevertheless, this tale of a country duet that meet their idol with the hope she can give them their big break, but matters become more freaky and horrifying as the story unfolds.

7.5 / 10

A good, solid effort in this sci-fi mystery thriller. Although just as the plot seems to be going somewhere it ends - and as I didn't catch some of the dialogue I didn't really understand the twist ending either. One to catch again, when I'll have the option to rewind if needed!

7 / 10