MILLENNIUM played as well as it could have. THE DESCENT PART 2 got a far better reaction than we ever expected. HEARTLESS received the love it/hate it reception it will have to get used to. Alan is having record numbers sign up to his AA (Argento Anonymous) therapy sessions after GIALLO. And as for TRICK R’ TREAT what can we say other than how great it was to see it at last on the fabulous Empire screen. So how was Film4 FrightFest 2009 for you? For the organisers it was a shattering, overwhelming, thrilling and extraordinary experience. It wasn’t just the change of venue to the Empire that seemed to heighten everything either. The moment we saw Melissa George in the buzzed up TRIANGLE media line we could tell something was happening above and beyond our control. FrightFest always has been the friendliest and most inclusive fantasy festival in the world. Now it seems a lot more people have cottoned on and finally ‘got it’. Many mainstream critics came up to Alan in amazement at what they were witnessing for the first time. As if he hadn’t been telling them about it for years anyway! The fact that FrightFest can now attract major directors like John Landis and stars such as Brian Cox and Jim Sturgess is testament to how seriously we, and the genre we love, are now being taken. Wasn’t David Hess absolutely terrific too? A lovely man and always available to the audience who still cannot forget his classic role in THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT original.

We can see from the forum posts and overviews of the event how well people seemed to respond to the line-up, the vast array of guests, and our new Empire home. Regarding the programme, the democracy that is FrightFest proved yet again that every film has its champions and its detractors. It was ever thus. Adam Green and Joe Lynch, plus their Rat Pack of Michael Dougherty, Anthony DiBlasi, Ti West, David Parker, Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson, gave us off-Hollywood attitude. Matched by the no nonsense grit of Brit contingent Lawrence Gough, Marc Price, Paul Davis, Chris Smith, Philip Ridley and Jon Harris. Norwegian Tommy Wirkola, Dutch Tom Six and Italian Federico Zampaglione were the Continental chic in the mix. With actors Sam Parsonson, Bobbi Sue Luther, John F. Beach and THE DESCENT PART 2 girls adding glamour. The Empire lobby was always a sea of available celebrity, although when Myleene Klass turned up it did seem slightly incongruous in context.

You’ve all agreed on the Empire being a wonderful venue. Comfortable seating, great presentation (even though Zampaglione kept turning the SHADOW sound up!) and the staff super-helpful and unflappable, especially when the HEARTLESS world premiere mob morphed into THE DESCENT PART 2 crowd ramming the place. Although we thanked them all from the stage, we can’t tell you how great the Empire staff and management were. They and our new band of helpers were an invaluable resource to us. It meant we were free to roam around more and meet our audience. Now they’ve all been through a FrightFest and understand what it’s all about, it can only be onwards and upwards.

For us the Discovery Screen worked well. It was very much an experiment to provide choice to the FrightFest audience so we knew going in we would make some mistakes. Those will be rectified next year and we have already had many suggestions on how to do this better. Each film was chosen to play there for a specific reason as many forum posters have correctly identified. For example, one scene in BEST WORST MOVIE answers why we placed it in the Empire 4. When the cast and director come to the UK for a convention, no one knows who they are and virtually only one fan asks for an autograph. So the film played to the small Brit audience who knew about the whole TROLL 2 cult in the Discovery Screen. Another example? Showing COLIN on the vast Empire 1 screen would have had a detrimental effect on its reception because of the way it was filmed. Perhaps PONTYPOOL should have played the bigger screen, but because it had already played in Scotland we erred on the side of discretion. As for BLACK in the main auditorium, don’t get us started on the problems we had with that!

Although in hindsight everything worked out, we were somewhat concerned our move to the much bigger Empire would have an adverse effect on our core audience. Happily that doesn’t seem to have happened. You, our audience, will always be of the prime concern. Obviously the freebie distribution didn’t work as people at the back of the Empire rightfully felt they were being ignored. Also the Q&A audience experience still needs some tweaking. Seriously it was impossible to see anything from the stage. The lights had to be bright for filming purposes, part of our deal with distributors, but this meant anything from the front row backwards was a black hole. Now we have knowledge of the Empire space, all this can be re-jigged in everyone’s best interest.  The standing ovation you gave us (honestly Adam and Joe’s final thanks were a complete surprise) was such a nice gesture. From the bottom of our hearts we will attempt to live up to it next year. Roll on 2010!

 © London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2010
_____________________________________________