TagArrow Video FrightFest
12 stories
Film FestivalsReviews
Last Survivors, the latest entry in the thriller subgenre of “children beginning to question their parents’ philosophies after an apocalyptic event” (this year’s Gaia being one example) is a solid outing fueled by fine performances from its three leads. Troy (Stephen Moyer) is a stern man who has raised his adult son Jake (Drew Van Acker) from very young childhood in a remote mountain area, with the two of them living off the land and storing venison jerky for long winters. Troy has been training Jake to kill any intruders without hesitation to protect what is theirs, and Jake declares himself ready to do so. When Troy is injured during one such confrontation, he tells Jake where a supply of medicine is hidden. The young man goes to fetch it and spies a woman just outside of their property. He has second thoughts about shooting her, and instead breaks into her house, where he learns that her name is Henrietta
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignInterviewsMovies
London’s Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween event, taking place October 29th and 30th, will include an appearance from director/writer Romola Garai at the U.K. premiere screening of her film Amulet. Garai spoke with Arrow Video FrightFest press staff for this syndicated review in anticipation of the event. AMULET will receive its UK premiere at FrightFest’s Halloween event. Excited or what? So excited! It’s a great honour to have our UK premiere at such a brilliantly subversive festival. We are very grateful! You’re most well known as an actress but have you always wanted to write and direct films? I’ve been writing since my teens but it wasn’t until my late 20’s that I realized I wanted to direct as well and I made my short film SCRUBBER. Now what I’d love is to write, direct and act. Never all three together though! What was the writing process like? Were there any major inspirations and motivations that drove you? I was very
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsNews
Arrow Video FrightFest celebrates Halloween with nine slices of cinematic scare-fare from around the globe, with aliens, creepy kids, locals gone loco, and much more. Following is the official press announcement. Following on from its hugely successful August five-day event, Arrow Video FrightFest is back at the Cineworld, Leicester Square with a bumper two-day Halloween event on Friday 29th Oct and Sat 30th October, presenting nine fear-packed premieres from around the world. The monstrous movie marathon embraces World, International and UK premieres, as we journey through an unholy celebration of mayhem, menace and murder. Kicking off the Black Friday gala ghoulishness is the UK premiere of THE SEED [pictured above], a gut-bursting alien creature feature from Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’ director Sam Walker. Walker will be attending, alongside the main cast – Lucy Martin, Sophie Vavasseur and Chelsea Edge – and SFX maestro Dan Martin. This is followed by the UK premiere of BARBARIANS with Game of Thrones star
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Strap on your seat belts and turn the volume up loud for The Retaliators (2021), a high-octane combination of revenge thriller, crime drama, and outright horror movie from codirectors Samuel Gonzalez Jr. and Bridget Smith. Power plays, power tools, and power chords abound in this gore-fueled exploitation shocker that serves up a fair amount of surprises. In the film’s opening sequence, two women have trouble with their van and are attacked by what look to be either zombies or backwoods mutants (I won’t spoil what they actually are). A bloodied rescuer attempts to save one of them, laying the groundwork for the scare fare ahead. Pastor John Bishop (Michael Lombardi) is the widowed father of two daughters, living in a peaceful, upscale small town. His teenage daughter Rebecca (Abbey Hafer) accidentally witnesses a crime in progress and is ruthlessly murdered by a vicious baddie named Ram Kady (Joseph Gatt). When local cop Jed (Marc Menchaca) offers Bishop an opportunity at
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Director David Buchanan’s Laguna Avenue is a low-budget, black-and-white sci-fi noir with body horror elements and some dark humor that is strong on building a paranoid vibe. If that sounds like a lot of genres to tackle in one film, it is, but Buchanan and his game cast and crew make an energetic go of it. Russell (Russell Steinberg), a former musician who lost one of his hands in an accident and now wears a prosthetic one, was recently fired for repeatedly sleeping on the job. He lives with his girlfriend Rita (Stephanie Brait), who has a well-paying executive-level job and is tired of supporting Russell. When Rita goes away, ostensibly on a business trip, Russell is attacked in the couple’s apartment and saved by their downstairs neighbor Gary (James Markham Hall Jr.), who begins rattling off — what initially sounds like to Russell — paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories that put people close to Russell at the center of
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 — the U.K.’s premiere event for fear-fare films and the fanatics and cinephiles who love them — has taken things to a new level with its second-wave announcement of features slated for its August 26–30 theatrical run. Following is the official press announcement. It’s Full Scream ahead as Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 announces its second wave of hugely anticipated Discovery Screen and First Blood titles — a summer collection of provocative, edgy and transgressive entertainment to die for. There are fourteen World and ten European/ International premieres amongst the thirty-four films on offer. Eleven countries are represented, with titles ranging from Canadian entries BLOODTHIRSTY, Amelia Moses’ simmering LGBQT+ werewolf movie and sinister isolation thriller MOTHERLY to Francesco Erba’s AS IN HEAVEN, SO ON EARTH, a stunning Italian blend of live action and Gothic puppet animation. Then there’s Péter Bergendy’s sumptuous POST MORTEM, an epic Hungarian ghost story, Frida Kempff’s Swedish entry KNOCKING, a breakout Sundance sensation,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsNews
Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 will see the United Kingdom’s largest horror and fantasy film festival return to the cinema, and it does so in huge way: with 25 films set to show on the main screen! With a schedule of films ranging from supernatural to slashers and monsters to murderous mayhem, there is something for every scare-fare fan. Following is the official press release. Arrow Video FrightFest, the UK’s biggest horror and fantasy film festival, is back at the Cineworld Leicester Square from Thurs August 26 – Monday 30 August, 2021 for five days of the very best of global genre cinema. The internationally renowned event leads the way in attesting to the versatility of the genre and, despite the interruptions caused by the pandemic, this year is no exception as the twenty-five films to be presented in the main screens are revealed. They include four world premieres and eight International / European premieres. Global events over the past eighteen
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Arrow Video FrightFest, the United Kingdom’s premiere horror and genre-film festival, will be back in cinemas again this year, and the super poster by artist Graham Humphreys reflects that return. Following is the official press announcement. Arrow Video FrightFest is proud to present Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2021, which marks the 13th appearance for his iconic Monster. Graham revealed today: “”We have a happy monster this year. Though how happy a monster should be in a horror film festival raised the question, what would make the monster happy? Last year’s event was not ‘live’. This year, with a return to the social interaction that makes the festival such an important event in the annual calendar, it’s as if we have bypassed 2020 in a time machine, full throttle, into 2021. To celebrate – a bottle of champagne! Although the monster would probably prefer a full-blooded vintage…” This year’s annual Bank Holiday event, the UK’s largest celebration of genre
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Imagine classic science fiction creature features of the past such as Fiend Without a Face mashed up with modern gross-out comedy gags and you are on the right track toward describing Cyst, a loving tribute to the black-and-white creature feature classics and clas-sicks of the 1950s and 1960s with a garish coat of cinematic color. With Cyst set sometime in those aforementioned decades, Eva Habermann stars as Patricia, a put-upon nurse in a medical clinic who serves notice of her intention to quit when physician in charge Dr. Guy (George Hardy of Troll 2) tells her that patent officials are due any minute to have another look at Get Gone, his laser invention meant to be a pain-free way of removing cysts. Patricia still bears the scars from one of his earlier attempts with the device, and she wants nothing more to do with it — though she must serve out the rest of the workday. Naturally, the machine doesn’t
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormal
Folk horror meets found footage in They’re Outside, a solid U.K. fear-fare effort from codirectors Sam Casserly and Airell Anthony Hayles. Max Spencer (Tom Wheatley) plays psychologist on his YouTube channel, despite his qualifications being questionable. He sets a 10-day goal to cure agoraphobic Sarah Sanders (Chrissy Randall) and get her to go outside of her home for the first time in a few years. Sarah’s fear of the outdoors stems from the death of her daughter, who she believes was taken by Green Eyes, a local, woods-dwelling supernatural legend said to haunt people by degrees before leading them to their demise. Max is a hardcore skeptic who refuses to listen to anything having to do with Green Eyes, despite his cameraperson/girlfriend Nicole (Nicole Miners) and Sarah’s friend Penny Arnold (genre veteran Emily Booth of Event Horizon and Grindhouse in a delightful supporting role) pleading with him to at least consider Sarah’s viewpoint. Sarah isn’t as easy a case to
Continue reading →
More from Arrow Video FrightFest
Film FestivalsReviews
Last Survivors, the latest entry in the thriller subgenre of “children beginning to question their parents’ philosophies after an apocalyptic event” (this year’s Gaia being one example) is a solid outing fueled by fine performances from its three leads. Troy (Stephen Moyer) is a stern man who has raised his adult son Jake (Drew Van Acker) from very young childhood in a remote mountain area, with the two of them living off the land and storing venison jerky for long winters. Troy has been training Jake to kill any intruders without hesitation to protect what is theirs, and Jake declares himself ready to do so. When Troy is injured during one such confrontation, he tells Jake where a supply of medicine is hidden. The young man goes to fetch it and spies a woman just outside of their property. He has second thoughts about shooting her, and instead breaks into her house, where he learns that her name is Henrietta
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignInterviewsMovies
London’s Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween event, taking place October 29th and 30th, will include an appearance from director/writer Romola Garai at the U.K. premiere screening of her film Amulet. Garai spoke with Arrow Video FrightFest press staff for this syndicated review in anticipation of the event. AMULET will receive its UK premiere at FrightFest’s Halloween event. Excited or what? So excited! It’s a great honour to have our UK premiere at such a brilliantly subversive festival. We are very grateful! You’re most well known as an actress but have you always wanted to write and direct films? I’ve been writing since my teens but it wasn’t until my late 20’s that I realized I wanted to direct as well and I made my short film SCRUBBER. Now what I’d love is to write, direct and act. Never all three together though! What was the writing process like? Were there any major inspirations and motivations that drove you? I was very
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsNews
Arrow Video FrightFest celebrates Halloween with nine slices of cinematic scare-fare from around the globe, with aliens, creepy kids, locals gone loco, and much more. Following is the official press announcement. Following on from its hugely successful August five-day event, Arrow Video FrightFest is back at the Cineworld, Leicester Square with a bumper two-day Halloween event on Friday 29th Oct and Sat 30th October, presenting nine fear-packed premieres from around the world. The monstrous movie marathon embraces World, International and UK premieres, as we journey through an unholy celebration of mayhem, menace and murder. Kicking off the Black Friday gala ghoulishness is the UK premiere of THE SEED [pictured above], a gut-bursting alien creature feature from Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’ director Sam Walker. Walker will be attending, alongside the main cast – Lucy Martin, Sophie Vavasseur and Chelsea Edge – and SFX maestro Dan Martin. This is followed by the UK premiere of BARBARIANS with Game of Thrones star
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Strap on your seat belts and turn the volume up loud for The Retaliators (2021), a high-octane combination of revenge thriller, crime drama, and outright horror movie from codirectors Samuel Gonzalez Jr. and Bridget Smith. Power plays, power tools, and power chords abound in this gore-fueled exploitation shocker that serves up a fair amount of surprises. In the film’s opening sequence, two women have trouble with their van and are attacked by what look to be either zombies or backwoods mutants (I won’t spoil what they actually are). A bloodied rescuer attempts to save one of them, laying the groundwork for the scare fare ahead. Pastor John Bishop (Michael Lombardi) is the widowed father of two daughters, living in a peaceful, upscale small town. His teenage daughter Rebecca (Abbey Hafer) accidentally witnesses a crime in progress and is ruthlessly murdered by a vicious baddie named Ram Kady (Joseph Gatt). When local cop Jed (Marc Menchaca) offers Bishop an opportunity at
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Director David Buchanan’s Laguna Avenue is a low-budget, black-and-white sci-fi noir with body horror elements and some dark humor that is strong on building a paranoid vibe. If that sounds like a lot of genres to tackle in one film, it is, but Buchanan and his game cast and crew make an energetic go of it. Russell (Russell Steinberg), a former musician who lost one of his hands in an accident and now wears a prosthetic one, was recently fired for repeatedly sleeping on the job. He lives with his girlfriend Rita (Stephanie Brait), who has a well-paying executive-level job and is tired of supporting Russell. When Rita goes away, ostensibly on a business trip, Russell is attacked in the couple’s apartment and saved by their downstairs neighbor Gary (James Markham Hall Jr.), who begins rattling off — what initially sounds like to Russell — paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories that put people close to Russell at the center of
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 — the U.K.’s premiere event for fear-fare films and the fanatics and cinephiles who love them — has taken things to a new level with its second-wave announcement of features slated for its August 26–30 theatrical run. Following is the official press announcement. It’s Full Scream ahead as Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 announces its second wave of hugely anticipated Discovery Screen and First Blood titles — a summer collection of provocative, edgy and transgressive entertainment to die for. There are fourteen World and ten European/ International premieres amongst the thirty-four films on offer. Eleven countries are represented, with titles ranging from Canadian entries BLOODTHIRSTY, Amelia Moses’ simmering LGBQT+ werewolf movie and sinister isolation thriller MOTHERLY to Francesco Erba’s AS IN HEAVEN, SO ON EARTH, a stunning Italian blend of live action and Gothic puppet animation. Then there’s Péter Bergendy’s sumptuous POST MORTEM, an epic Hungarian ghost story, Frida Kempff’s Swedish entry KNOCKING, a breakout Sundance sensation,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsNews
Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 will see the United Kingdom’s largest horror and fantasy film festival return to the cinema, and it does so in huge way: with 25 films set to show on the main screen! With a schedule of films ranging from supernatural to slashers and monsters to murderous mayhem, there is something for every scare-fare fan. Following is the official press release. Arrow Video FrightFest, the UK’s biggest horror and fantasy film festival, is back at the Cineworld Leicester Square from Thurs August 26 – Monday 30 August, 2021 for five days of the very best of global genre cinema. The internationally renowned event leads the way in attesting to the versatility of the genre and, despite the interruptions caused by the pandemic, this year is no exception as the twenty-five films to be presented in the main screens are revealed. They include four world premieres and eight International / European premieres. Global events over the past eighteen
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Arrow Video FrightFest, the United Kingdom’s premiere horror and genre-film festival, will be back in cinemas again this year, and the super poster by artist Graham Humphreys reflects that return. Following is the official press announcement. Arrow Video FrightFest is proud to present Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2021, which marks the 13th appearance for his iconic Monster. Graham revealed today: “”We have a happy monster this year. Though how happy a monster should be in a horror film festival raised the question, what would make the monster happy? Last year’s event was not ‘live’. This year, with a return to the social interaction that makes the festival such an important event in the annual calendar, it’s as if we have bypassed 2020 in a time machine, full throttle, into 2021. To celebrate – a bottle of champagne! Although the monster would probably prefer a full-blooded vintage…” This year’s annual Bank Holiday event, the UK’s largest celebration of genre
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Imagine classic science fiction creature features of the past such as Fiend Without a Face mashed up with modern gross-out comedy gags and you are on the right track toward describing Cyst, a loving tribute to the black-and-white creature feature classics and clas-sicks of the 1950s and 1960s with a garish coat of cinematic color. With Cyst set sometime in those aforementioned decades, Eva Habermann stars as Patricia, a put-upon nurse in a medical clinic who serves notice of her intention to quit when physician in charge Dr. Guy (George Hardy of Troll 2) tells her that patent officials are due any minute to have another look at Get Gone, his laser invention meant to be a pain-free way of removing cysts. Patricia still bears the scars from one of his earlier attempts with the device, and she wants nothing more to do with it — though she must serve out the rest of the workday. Naturally, the machine doesn’t
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormal
Folk horror meets found footage in They’re Outside, a solid U.K. fear-fare effort from codirectors Sam Casserly and Airell Anthony Hayles. Max Spencer (Tom Wheatley) plays psychologist on his YouTube channel, despite his qualifications being questionable. He sets a 10-day goal to cure agoraphobic Sarah Sanders (Chrissy Randall) and get her to go outside of her home for the first time in a few years. Sarah’s fear of the outdoors stems from the death of her daughter, who she believes was taken by Green Eyes, a local, woods-dwelling supernatural legend said to haunt people by degrees before leading them to their demise. Max is a hardcore skeptic who refuses to listen to anything having to do with Green Eyes, despite his cameraperson/girlfriend Nicole (Nicole Miners) and Sarah’s friend Penny Arnold (genre veteran Emily Booth of Event Horizon and Grindhouse in a delightful supporting role) pleading with him to at least consider Sarah’s viewpoint. Sarah isn’t as easy a case to
Continue reading →
