Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend, August 27th - 31st 2015
thatcambridgebird
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by thatcambridgebird »

27052014 wrote::twisted: I think it's time the organisers thought of a new name for the festival.
People associate it with horror movies but I discovered quite early on that few actual horror movies are shown.
Maybe at the end of next year's festival they can promote this.
I sort of know what you mean - FrightFest 2015, compared (in my mind) to say, FrightFest 2011, had a lot more thrillers and tense cat-and-mouse style psychological films rather than out-and-out horror. When Inner Demon came around I was looking forward to something obviously ghostly, and was massively disappointed, but we won't go there. I really liked the lineup though. We only went over the weekend days, and for me Sunday was stronger than Saturday, but it was still a good batch of films.

However, I don't think it needs to be renamed! The idea of it being a horror film festival has been built up over years, but pretty much every scenario in the films I saw was horrific or elicited horror in some way - the idea of 'horrror' doesn't have to be the classic ghosts and ghouls, or splatter and slasher. There's a lot to be said for the creeping dread of the everyday scenario taking a nasty turn - those kind of films (Slumlord, Rabid Dogs, Shut In [for all of its clunky final reveal]) tend to stay with me a lot longer.
DJBenz
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by DJBenz »

27052014 wrote::twisted: I think it's time the organisers thought of a new name for the festival.
People associate it with horror movies but I discovered quite early on that few actual horror movies are shown.
Maybe at the end of next year's festival they can promote this.
I think the subtitle covers it "Frightfest - The Dark Heart of Cinema" the fest has evolved over the years in its programming, for sure, but renaming it would be the end of an era that no one would want.
wakko
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by wakko »

I sense a bit of Horror-Hipsterism :geek:
"I liked horror films before [insert observation that will make horror veteran look badass].. and these annoying new people who will acquire better day pass seats and help keeping the industry alive."
anaana
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by anaana »

I don't think so. I've done 12 years and I don't see a drop in general film quality or any sign of "trending", whatever that might mean.
One thing worries me, though. As a huge fan of zombies, I have found a serious lack of zombies in the Main Screen lineup this year, perhaps with the only exception of those wonderful elves in A Christmas Horror Story.
I am less of a fun of vampires as a "theme", but there's also been a dearth of vampires this year.

Demons and revenge seem the dominating themes in FF15.

In any case, these are genre trends and FF is doing great capturing them. I am against mainstream-ing the festival, but that has hardly been the case.
MalJutley
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by MalJutley »

I kind of get the comments above and i had a good chat with the organisers during frightfest and a lot of the tie they are at the mercy almost of the film companies., For example Alan was saying he wanted to show Cooties in place of Cherry Tree but the film company wasn't playing ball so Cherry Tree was brought in. I'm sure this may have been the case for many other films. Added to this is the fact that they can only show what is made that year. I don;t know how man "out and out" horror movie were missed, but in essence frightfest has always been about the indie films or films that have gone on to make a big name but got their break ( in the UK) at frightfest. If there weren't many slashers or ghost story movies (like sinister, insidious) made this year then we have to go with what we have i guess.

Personally i'd have liked more scary movies or ones that make you jump but i was happy with the likes of Night Fare, Nina Forever, Jeruzalem etc too

Finally - if frightfest remains small and doesn't appeal to the masses then it probably won't make money enough to become a major festival. They sold more tickets than ever this year which means more movies on offer next year i assume and more guests flown over. Having said all this more scary movies and less thrillers are preferred by me :)
Jon H
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by Jon H »

I personally think observing the trends is quite interesting. You are right – zombies appear to be ‘out of fashion’ and witches/devilment are in. I have no idea why .Its also true to say that we see more brutality and personal struggle/survivalist stuff these days, which without sounding too ‘film studies’ about it, is probably a response to post crash/recession conditions both here and in US.
LeighM
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by LeighM »

I noticed a refreshing lack of found footage this year too. Could it be that it’s finally dying a death?! I think the big studios will probably persevere with it for a bit longer but it seems the indy filmmakers, who have always been the trendsetters, have already moved on.
Alex J
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Re: Is Frightfest becoming 'trendy'?

Post by Alex J »

I thought the lack of zombies a bonus - how many more zombie apocalypses do we need to see? Very few directors / writers seem to come up with anything new to do with them, so I must confess to being a little bored with them - although The Walking Dead is still great!

I'd love to see a fictional horror created out of some TV horror doc that Anthony Stewart Head was in a few years back - plenty of great material to do something interesting with zombies that isn't apocalypse based.
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