This horrorfest has a new location this autumn as well as a new take on scary locations – featuring horrors about hairdressers (The Stylist) and ballerinas (The Garden). FrightFest originally started in 2000 in the Prince Charles Cinema as a cult event, but since then has grown till it’s been called the “Woodstock of Gore” by director Guillermo Del Toro. After increasing in size and duration, it will be held in the Vue Shepherd’s Bush for its five day run.
Fans of classic horror will be able to see the original HG Lewis’ Blood Feast (1964) before the Frightfest world premiere of Marcel Walz’s remake.
Short films fans are also well catered for this year with the Horror Channel FrightFest’s 2016 short film showcase offering 26 shorts in three days – with 10 from the UK.
Programmer Shelagh Rowan-Legg promised the shorts programme will include dystopian prisons, underground fetish clubs (Carnal Orient), isolated country houses (Blight) and Seoul streets (Bow Wow Bow), and take the audience to “the darkest depths of the human soul”.
Longtime FrightFesters will be taking note especially of a short by Preston Nyman, the son of FrightFest’s former compere and horror actor Andy. Nyman has directed the 5 minute horror Francois, about a young man who loves 1950s music but has a “disturbing mission”.
Other wellknown faces to watch for are Jason Flemyng in Neville Pierce’s 10-minute Bricks, and Kim Newman cameos in short Connie, showing the darker side of standup. For those who think horror is a well-formatted genre, there’s a Shakespearian homage in Neck and Neck, which riffs on an updated version of Othello and Desdemona.
Further shorts include a kick ass performance from Zoe Bell supported by Jake Busey in No Touching, which sees two women in a haunted house attraction dealing with patrons’ unwanted attention, and a fetish club sees its performers dish out some revenge (Carnal Orient).
As well as the gross-out entertainment, gorehounds can sharpen their blood-soaked pens to take notes at Rosie Fletcher’s “Women in Horror” symposium as well as a “Horror Writing Master Class” from writer and director James Moran.
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