Here’s something of an exclusive as at the time of writing the following information isn’t even up on the official FrightFest 2005
website, but we're too excited to sit on this any longer
Between Friday August 26 and Monday August 28 twenty-one films will be screened at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square. We can now reveal that the line up for this year begins with a hell of an event:
Land of the Dead – the Festival's opener. It's been twenty years since legendary horror icon George A Romero's zombies last stalked the screen. Now, in his fourth harrowing vision, the human world is a mere memory. Starring Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo and Asia Argento. To honour the attendance of the legendary George A. Romero, FrightFest will be showing his entire groundbreaking 'Dead' trilogy prior to the English premiere: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1977) and Day of the Dead (1985). To complete our zombiethon, Hollywood special effects and make-up expert Greg Nicotero will explain his dead art in depth
Yep - the COMPLETE Romero zombie cycle back-to-bloody-back with the man who created our favourite genre right there on the stage! And that's just the beginnng – keep reading after the jump for A LOT more mouth-watering horror.
Wolf Creek – the closing night film. Director Greg McLean's much anticipated debut is based on the true story of the 'Back Packer Killer' who held the outback in a grip of early 90s terror. Grisly with a capital 'G'. Greg McLean will be attending.
Evil Aliens - Jaw-dropping late night lunacy comes courtesy of director Jake West's long-awaited follow-up to Razor Blade Smile that has had Cannes preview and San Francisco film festival audiences rolling and gagging in the aisles. Cast includes Jodie Marsh and Emily Booth.
Londonist hopes to be catching up with Jake West about Evil Aliens very soon.
From the opening demonic scare to The Exorcist homage ending, P - shot by Brit Paul Spurrier, is as shockingly disturbing as it is tenderly moving. Paul Spurrier will be attending.
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist - famously shelved, then re-shot with some new cast members and a different script by director Renny Harlin as Exorcist: The Beginning, FrightFest is delighted to give London audiences their only opportunity of seeing Paul Schrader's highly controversial original version on the big screen.
Wild Country - directed by Craig Strachan, this neat lycanthropic chiller from Scotland stars Martin Compston and Peter Capaldi. The cast and crew will be attending the FrightFest world premiere
German director Christian Alvart's heart-stopping psycho thriller Antibodies. Chrisitan Alvart will introduce his film.
The UK premiere of Thai Panna Rittikrai's follow-up to Ong-Bak, the even more astonishing siege action adventure Born to Fight.
Dario Argento's subtitled version of his television movie Do You Like Hitchcock? Screening at FrightFest before its Italian premiere.
The Roost - director Ti West's grainy exploitation gem hailed as the genre discovery of the year. Ti West will be in attendance.
Shot in just eight days, Marebito combines the talents of director Takashi Shimizu, creator of The Grudge franchise, and Shinya Tsukamoto, cult director of Tetsuo in a charismatic take on the nature of fear.
Written and directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, ex-Fangoria scribe, and Dog Soldiers producer Davis E. Allen, Boo bursts with goo and gore and neat homage
A Bittersweet Life is a tour de force of noir stylization and South Korean ultra-violence in which an ice-cool enforcer pays a horrendous penalty for a moment of emotional weakness in Kim Jee-Woon's stunning follow-up to A Tale of Two Sisters.
The Neighbour No.13 - video director Inoue Yasuo's gore-drenched suspense shocker is based on the legendary manga by Inoue Santa. A bumper package of surprise and splatter its cult appeal is furthered by a cameo from Audition director Miike Takashi as an angry neighbour and the first victim.
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium - Ana Clavell and James Glenn Dudelson's unofficial prequel and sequel to George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985) explains the zombie outbreak to a Russian spy plane that crashed in 1968.
Dead Meat - the first Irish horror film with mad cows and even madder zombies, is the debut feature from rising writer/director Conor McMahon. McMahon covers the Emerald Isle in gushers of blood, and a feeding frenzy of undead movie in-jokes and side-splitting shock.
The Collingswood Story - is a revolutionary experiment in the supernatural. Director Michael Costanza's tense exercise in terror is that rare example of a hyper-low budget shocker that actually manages to be creepy, scary, devilishly inventive and captivating.
The Company of Wolves - Prior to its British DVD launch in October, FrightFest is giving audiences a chance to see Interview with a Vampire director Neil Jordan's sexually symbolic werewolf revision of Little Red Riding Hood back on the big screen.
2001 Maniacs - Debut director Tim Sullivan’s madcap remake of the infamous Herschell Gordon Lewis 1964 Drive-in classic. Starring horror icon Robert Englund as the one-eyed Mayor of Pleasant Valley. This replaces the screening of The Company of Wolves
Still hungry? Eat these shorts:
The Eel (6 mins). Director: Dominic Hailstone. Something fishy is writhing around at the bottom of an electrified aquarium.
The Ten Steps (10 mins) Director: Brendan Muldowney. A young girl, frightened of the dark, calls her parents to help steady her nerves as she descends into the cellar.
The Victim (3 mins). Director: Robert Grieves A trilogy of fun cut-and-paste animatics inspired by various Alfred Hitchcock classics
We all Fall down (13 mins). Director: Jake Kennedy A tragic accident comes back to haunt a group of college kids
Mrs. Davenport’s Throat (18 mins). Director: Keith Claxton. A trip to Lisbon takes a murderous turn when a driver meets his mysterious passenger at the airport. Written and produced by horror icon David McGillivray.
And there's still more. FrightFest and Independent Revolver Entertainment have formed a new DVD label - FrightFest Presents... Malefique and Dead Meat will kick things off at the end of August with two more films due in September followed by theatrical releases in 2006.
FrightFest this year is sponsored by The Horror Channel:
the UK’s first channel dedicated to horror movies, TV series and the people who make them... available in the UK as free-to-air on BSKYB daily from 10am till dawn.
More information will of course be springing up over on the FrightFest website. Some of you may already have your full weekend passes - way to go! Everyone else should be rushing for the phones right now... Or wait until August 1 for individual tickets, either way this is going to be a lot of fun.
Have a great festival, but don't worry if you're reading this outside of London or even the UK. We'll be bringing you enough coverage so that you'll be well informed when you demand your local supplier hands over the good stuff...
UPDATE: Just to let you know that the much talked about Russian movie Night Watch WILL be showing over the weekend too. The list we had was incomplete but we can now fix that. Here's the blurb:
Night Watch - the highest-grossing Russian film of all time. Director Timur Bekmambetov’s epic is based on the first part of Sergei Lukyanenko’s best-selling trilogy. A special effects extravaganza.
