Enter your short horror film into the 666 Short Cuts To Hell competition
The 666 Short Cuts To Hell competition invites you to submit your own horror short for the chance of winning a rather incredible prize…
Horror anthology V/H/S getting a limited edition VHS release
V/H/S, the horror anthology that brought the scares at FrightFest 2012, is getting an extremely limited VHS release…
FrightFest 2012: Grabbers first reaction
Boasting the best high-concept of the festival, Grabbers’ alcohol vs aliens premise seems tailor-made for for the FrightFest midnight crowd, who often seem to consume booze as much as they drink blood…
FrightFest The 13th reveals guest lineup
FrightFest The 13th has revealed its full lineup of special guests, with a whole host of horror directors and actors confirmed to attend this year’s celebration of the hottest new entries to the genre canon.
Dario Argento, Jennifer Lynch and the Manetti Brothers are among the high-profile auteurs who will be in attendance, while the likes of Sheridan Smith, Russell Tovey, Andy Nyman, Sean Pertwee and Ross Noble will represent some familiar on-screen faces…
FrightFest 2011: Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark Reaction
Things go bump in the night in FF opening movie
FrightFest 2011 started with a shiver, a jolt, a whisper and a vague whiff of disappointment with the opening movie, Guillermo del Toro produced/scribed freakish fairytale Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark.
Read our full reaction here…
10 Films You Have To See At FrightFest 2011
The UK’s ultimate horror happening takes over Leicester Square’s Empire Cinema from 25-29 August. Here are the flicks that should be topping your (kill) list…
1. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark: Thursday 25 August, 6.30pm
Mexico’s hobbit of horror Guillermo del Toro has spent his entire career practising the black arts. After producing shiversome Spanish classics such as The Orphanage, he’s backing Troy Nixey’s debut, a remake of a 1973 TV movie that traumatised an entire generation.
Young Bailee Madison is sent to live with dad Guy Pearce and stepmum Katie Holmes in their creepy mansion. In the basement she discovers all kinds of Pan’s Labyrinth-alike creatures bent on persuading her – and FrightFesters – to completely disregard that title.
Exclusive poster for horror flick The Woman
As well as the exclusive gory image above, we’ve got an exclusive poster for horror movie The Woman, showing at FrightFest this weekend.
The Story Behind FrightFest
With FrightFest 2011 kicking off this week, we’re taking a creeptastic stroll down memory lane. Join us, if you can stomach it…
1.FrightFest 2000
FrightFest was born bloody in a dark corner of Leicester Square in August 2000.
Hosted at the pokey Prince Charles Cinema, it offered gore and more with a line-up that included Dario Argento’s The Phantom Of The Opera, Ed Gein, The Lighthouse, J-horror Ringu 2 and docs on Mario Bava and Argento.
It was a screaming success.
Key Movie: Audition, Takashi Miike’s slow-burning torture horror.
Controversy: Several unexpecting audience members felt faint after Audition’s piano-wire conclusion.
Exclusive! First trailer for five-star British thriller Kill List
We’ve got the world exclusive first look at the trailer for astonishing British thriller Kill List.
Directed by Ben Wheatley, Kill List is the movie Total Film are getting behind at FrightFest 2011.
It follows the violent mission of a former soldier turned hitman, and, as you can see from the trailer [below], it’s dripping with tension and has atmosphere to spare.
“Given to gloriously unpredictable, violent mood swings, Kill List is the best British genre film in years,” says Jamie Graham, Deputy Editor of Total Film Magazine, in his five-star TF review.
FrightFest 2010: Monsters review
Time to blow our own trumpet: the Total Film-sponsored Monsters is one of the best of ‘Fest so far.
Just when you think the monster genre is on its last four or more legs, someone goes and reinvents it.
That someone is Gareth Edwards, a Brit whizzkid who, on this evidence, could be the next James Cameron. And not just because of his film’s bio-luminescent flora.
Monsters puts Hollywood budget-bloaters to shame, achieving scale and spectacle on a staggering $15,000. That’s right. Only three zeroes.
It’s also an intimate epic whose laptop-produced FX are used sparingly but with Spielbergian impact.
The movie’s blend of the earthy and the otherworldly have earned comparisons with District 9 that Edwards (in a post-screening Q & A) admitted are flattering.
Yet Monsters is very much its own beast, fresh, original and unpredictable.
Notice how we haven’t spilled much of the plot yet? That’s because it’s one of those movies where you’re best off going in as cold as possible.
Suffice to say that the eponymous beasties are ETs scattered six years ago by a crashed NASA probe over an area between Mexico and the US.
The area is now an Infected Zone, through whose hazardous terrain journo Scoot (Andrew Kaulder) and his boss’ daughter Whitney (Samantha Wynden) must cross to reach safety.
You’re on your own from hereon in to discover the film’s striking sights and surprises.
Edwards has a terrific eye for large-scale grandeur (the South American landscapes snatch the breath) but also rich, tiny details, tucked into the margins of the screen.
True, some of the early tautness does start to seep away in the second half, and the leads’ chemistry isn’t as combustible as it could be.
Yet the characters essay a lot more depth and interest than those in Cloverfield, a film that shares Monsters’ attention to authenticity, but not its haunting poetry.
Click here to watch our interview with Monsters director Gareth Edwards.
At the Empire Leicester Square for the FrightFest Q&A with Mr Tobe Hooper, the inaugural Total Film Icon. This should be good!
