Film4 FrightFest, the annual London-based unspooling of the best in a given year’s genre entertainment has unveiled the 2014 lineup and, as usual, it’s more than enough to make those of us stateside plenty jealous. There's a lotta great titles in the lineup this year, including several premieres, so let's get to it.
THURSDAY AUG 21
OPENING NIGHT FILM – THE GUEST (UK Premiere)
(Times: 18:20 across all three screens)
Director: Adam Wingard. Cast: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser. USA 2014. 99 mins.
A brilliant homage to 1980s action flicks and slasher horror given a sharp twist by YOU’RE NEXT director Adam Wingard, it showcases ex-‘Downtown Abbey’ actor Dan Stevens in an inspired star-making turn. He plays David, a soldier arriving on the bereaved Peterson family’s doorstep, claiming to be the best friend of their son who died in action. Inviting him to stay, at first the charming veteran seems the perfect guest, but then the random killing starts. What’s going on and can the family stop the cold-blooded lethal weapon in their home committing even worse atrocities?
HOUSEBOUND (UK Premiere)
(Times: 21:00, 21:15 & 21:30)
Director: Gerard Johnstone. Cast: Morgana O’Reilly, Rima Te Wiata, Glen-Paul Waru, Cameron Rhodes, Millen Baird. New Zealand 2014. 109 mins.
Kylie Bucknell is forced to return to the family house when the court places her on home detention. Her punishment for a botched ATM raid is made all the more intolerable by the fact she has to live with her over-bearing motor-mouth mother Miriam who’s convinced the house is haunted. But after dismissing Miriam’s superstitions, rebellious Kylie too starts hearing unsettling whispers in the dark, creaking floorboards and strange bumps in the night. Find out in this TALES OF THE CRYPT-style Kiwi comedy chiller sporting a great sense of humour, a very creepy atmosphere and a good deal of splatter mayhem.
ZOMBEAVERS (UK Premiere)
(Times: 23:30, 23:40 & 23:50)
Director: Jordan Rubin. Cast: Chad Anderson, Lexi Atkins, Brent Briscoe, Bill Burr, Cortney Palm. US 2014. 80 mins.
CABIN FEVER goes AMERICAN PIE on a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as college kids stay at a riverside cabin in the woods for a weekend of debauchery. Little do they know they are right next door to a lodge of beavers mutated by toxic waste into rabid zombie critters. Let the fur fly and the blood flow as sexual shenanigans get hampered by the rampaging rodents on a flesh-eating frenzy. A massive Tribeca hit, this fast, funny and smart high-concept B-movie revels in its horror parody styling, hilarious gore, cute practical creature special effects and self-aware performances.
FRIDAY AUG 24
SHOCKWAVE DARKSIDE 3D (World Premiere)
(Times: 10:30, 13:00 & 15:45)
Director: Jay Weisman. Cast: Bill Sage, Mei Melançon, Sonequa Martin-Green, Rich Ceraulo, Alexander Cendese. USA 2014. 92 mins.
From THE BANSHEE CHAPTER producers comes a space shocker with gravity. The nano-plague that poisoned Earth’s water supply has reached its 60-year critical mass. The Unlight enemy have launched from Earth and are amassing on the south-west sector of the darkside of the moon. It will be the last Great War and lunar troops are sent into battle for the precious resource. However one squad is shot down and the five surviving soldiers find themselves stranded behind enemy lines, with only 36 hours of oxygen left. As their numbers dwindle, they make an amazing discovery about Earth’s satellite that just might save their lives.
THE GREEN INFERNO (English Premiere)
(Times: 10:45, 13:30 & 15:15)
Director: Eli Roth. Cast: Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Daryl Sabara, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Sky Ferreira. USA 2013. 103 mins.
From genre guru Eli Roth comes a post-modern celebration of the notoriously lurid and savage Italian cannibal genre as popularised by director Ruggero Deodato, his HOSTEL 2 star. Roth’s long-awaited return to the director’s chair after this six-year absence finds politically attuned NYC university student Justine roped into a campus activist group’s idealistic plan to travel to Peru to halt the annihilation of an endangered tribe by a corrupt construction company. But after a horrific plane crash that leaves half the radicals dead, the survivors are caged by the very tribe they were trying to help. Worse, the mountain clan are cannibals and they are ravenous.
LATE PHASES (UK Premiere)
(Times: 11:00, 12:45 & 15:30)
Director: Adrian Garcia Bogliano. Cast: Nick Damici, Ethan Embry, Tom Noonan, Tina Louise, Rutanya Alda. USA 2014. 97 mins.
From the director of PENUMBRA, COLD SWEAT and HERE COMES THE DEVIL, a freshly horrifying take on the werewolf genre. Crescent Bay is not the best place to live out one’s golden years. Once an idyllic retirement community, the gated hamlet has been beset by mysterious deadly attacks. So when blind, cranky war veteran Ambrose McKinley (the superb Nick Damici) moves in, the residents are put off by his abrasive personality, But it’s his grizzled take-no-prisoners attitude that’s needed to survive the sinister secret the secluded tight-knit neighbourhood is harbouring.
DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS. DEAD (UK Premiere)
(Times: 18:00, 20:50 & 23:30)
Director: Tommy Wirkola. Cast: Stig Frode Henriksen, Martin Starr, Vegar Hoel, Orjan Gamst, Amrita Acharia. Norway 2014. 105 mins.
Director Tommy Wirkola improves on his Nazi zombie original in clever ways that do not betray the core conceit of witty non-stop action, heartfelt emotion and crowd-pleasing carnage. Sole survivor Martin crashes his getaway car in the mountains after fighting SS officer Herzog for control of the vehicle. Waking up in hospital Martin discovers he’s blamed by police for all his friends’ murders and he’s had Herzog’s severed arm attached to his shoulder by mistake and he now has the zombie creating power. Something whoch will come in use when Herzog’s dead army advance towards the small town of Tarvik.
THE LAST SHOWING (European Premiere)
(Times: 18:15, 21:00 & 23:05)
Director: Phil Hawkins. Cast: Robert Englund, Finn Jones, Emily Berrington, Keith Allen, Chris Geere. UK 2014. 85 mins.
Martin and Allie are on a date at their local multiplex, watching the midnight screening of Wes Craven’s THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II. The movie is in full swing when suddenly the screen goes black and their nightmare begins. For veteran cinema projectionist Stuart Lloyd has other nerve-jangling ideas. Fired that very afternoon from his beloved job, Stuart is determined to shoot his own horror film with the unfortunate Martin and Allie its star attractions. From award-winning commercials director Phil Hawkins and starring horror icon Robert Englund, get ready for a midnight movie massacre.
FILM TO BE ANNOUNCED
(Times: 18:30, 20:35 & 23:15)
SATURDAY AUG 23
ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE (Preview)
(Times: 10:30, 12:45 & 15:45)
Directors: Lucky McKee & Chris Sivertson. Cast: Caitlin Stasey, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, Brooke Butler, Tom Williamson, Chris Petrovski. USA 2013. 90 mins.
Lucky McKee (THE WOMAN, MAY) and Chris Sivertson (THE LOST, I KNOW WHO KILLED ME) join forces to create a wickedly ghoulish subversion of the sex comedy high school movie. Tragedy has rocked Blackfoot High. Students are mourning the shocking death of Lexi, captain of the cheerleading squad. Enter Maddy who wants to make the cheerleading squad pay for their bullying and wanton ways and her weird loner neighbour Leena who claims to practise the Dark Arts. Before you know it a sect of murderous succubi are born. Let the supernatural vengeance begin…
STARRY EYES (UK Premiere)
(Times: 10:45, 13:30 & 15:45)
Directors: Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer. Cast: Alex Essoe, Noah Segan, Pat Healy, Amanda Fuller, Shane Coffey. USA 2014. 96 mins.
Determined to make it in Hollywood, reluctant waitress Sarah Walker (Alex Essoe) goes on countless casting calls in hope of getting her big break. After a series of weird auditions at the mysterious Astraeus Pictures, she lands her dream part. But with this opportunity comes bizarre ramifications that will transform her both mentally and physically into something beautiful… and altogether more terrifying. From Travis Stevens, producer of CHEAP THRILLS, an occult tale of ambition, possession and the true cost of fame and fortune.
THE HARVEST (UK Premiere)
(Times: 11:00,13:20 & 15:35)
Director: John McNaughton. Cast: Michael Shannon, Samantha Morton, Peter Fonda, Natasha Calis, Charlie Tahan. US 2013. 98 mins.
HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER director John McNaughton makes a welcome return to the genre with this eerie psychological thriller featuring two dynamite performances from Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon, as married medical professionals Katharine and Richard who keep their sick son Andy isolated from the outside world in their remote countryside house. When young Maryann moves in with her grandparents close by, her attempts to befriend Andy are met with vehement resistance by his over protective parents. Until one day she is forced to hide in the house and discovers the basement…
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (Special Preview)
(Times: 18:15, 21:00 & 23:15)
Directors: Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez. Cast: Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Eva Green, Bruce Willis, Rosario Dawson. US 2014. ? mins.
Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller reunite to bring the latter’s visually stunning graphic novels back to the screen with a stellar cast. Weaving together classic stories with some new tales, the town’s most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with its more notorious inhabitants. Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) is summoned by his ex-lover Ava Lord (Eva Green) for help to escape her abusive husband, but soon learns her true intentions are far more sinister than they appear. Also starring Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jessica Alba and Bruce Willis. It’s booze, broads and bullets business as usual in smoky SIN CITY!
LIFE AFTER BETH (London Preview)
(Times: 18:45, 20:55 & 23:30)
Director: Jeff Baena. Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Anna Kendrick, Molly Shannon. USA 2014. 90 mins.
Called one of the most emotionally credible zom-rom-coms since SHAUN OF THE DEAD after its Sundance Film Festival premiere earlier this year, director Jeff Baena’s stunning debut feature is a delightfully demented screwball slapstick shocker. Zach is devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend Beth. But when she miraculously comes back to life, he’s overjoyed.. However the newly returned Beth isn’t quite how he remembered her, especially her signature rotting corpse aroma and habit of chewing up his car upholstery, and before long Zach’s whole world takes a turn for the worse.
THE BABADOOK (UK Premiere)
(Times: 18:30, 20:40 & 23:00)
Director: Jennifer Kent. Cast: Essie Davis, Daniel Henshall, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinny, Benjamin Winspear. Australia 2014. 92 mins.
REPULSION meets ‘The Gruffalo’ in writer/director Jennifer Kent’s Sundance acclaimed debut feature as the unresolved traumas of a conflicted mother and disturbed son manifest as a malevolent entity threatening to consume them both. Amelia (Essie Davis) and her son, Sam (Daniel Henshall), have had a raw deal in life. Her husband Oskar died six years prior while driving her to the hospital pregnant with Sam, and his birthday is a particularly painful reminder. But now things worsen dramatically. Samuel’s been having nightmares, and when a mysterious pop-up children’s book appears on his shelf titled ‘Mister Babadook’, he is finally able to put a name to the terror.
SUNDAY AUG 24
AMONG THE LIVING (UK Premiere)
(Times: 10:45, 13:15 & 15:40)
Directors: Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo. Cast: Beatrice Dalle, Théo Fernandez, Damien Ferdel, Zacharie Chasseriaud, Fabien Jegoudez. France 2014. 90 mins.
First they gave us INSIDE, next came LIVID, and now French fear directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo offer their most intense nightmare to date. It’s the last day of school before summer vacation and 14 year-old troublemakers Victor, Tom and Dan leave early to explore the countryside and commit some petty crimes. Ending up on the scenery-strewn back-lot of an abandoned Film Studio, they witness a masked figure dragging a kidnapped woman into an underground lair. Back home no one believes their crazy story. But the mysterious maniac has followed them and plans to silence them forever
FAULTS (EUROPEAN PREMIRE)
(Times: 11:00, 13:30 & 15:30)
Director: Riley Stearns. Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Leland Orser, Beth Grant,
Chris Ellis, Jon Gries, Lance Reddick. USA/ 2014. 89 mins
A subversive, psychologically disturbing back comedy marking the feature film debut of director/writer Riley Stearns, who cleverly employs the considerable talents of his wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead to play Claire – a young woman who appears to be under the grip of a mysterious new cult called ‘Faults’. After a divorce that has left him without any money, cult expert Ansel (Leland Orser) is on tour giving seminars about brainwashing. Approached by Claire’s distraught parents, he agrees to help them, and their daughter’s de-programming seems to run smoothly enough. However, the more Ansel spends with Claire, the more the question is raised, just who is being deprogrammed?
OPEN WINDOWS (UK Premiere)
(Times: 11:15, 12:45 & 15:15)
Director: Nacho Vigalondo. Cast: Elijah Wood, Neil Maskell, Sasha Grey, Ivan Gonzalez, Nacho Vigalondo. US 2014. 100 mins
Computer chills, tablet terror and smartphone shocks are the emerging genre trends as multi-screen technology moves swiftly into even more unknown and baffling areas. Leader of the pack in presenting multi-platform storytelling as dizzying style is Nacho Vigalondo’s quite brilliant OPEN WINDOWS, in which Elijah Wood plays Nick Chambers, the webmaster of a site devoted to movie star Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey) in FantasticFest Austin to promote her new fantasy as winner of an online competition. Unfortunately his prize is a hoax; it’s all an elaborate scam set up by mysterious superfan.
HOME (UK Premiere)
(Times: 18:10, 20:45 & 23:15)
Director: Nicolas McCarthy. Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Naya Rivera, Ashley Ricklands, Ava Acres, Wyatt Russell. US 2014. 93 mins.
From Nicholas McCarthy, director of THE PACT. comes a starkly suspenseful, grippingly atmospheric demonic horror. When real estate agent Leigh goes to asses a new property in the highly sought after Greenville area, little does she know the appalling impact it will have on her entire existence. For the house was once connected to a series of mysterious incidents ending in teenage tearaway Hannah White committing suicide unwittingly welcomed the devil into her life The problem is, Satan is still looking for a new home in this twisting tale of nerve-jangling and bone-shivering terror.
THE SAMURAI (UK Premiere)
(Times: 18:20, 20:30 & 23:00)
Director: Till Kleinert. Cast: Michel Diercks, Pit Bukowski, Uwe Preuss, Kaja Blachnik, Christopher Kane. Germany 2014. 80 mins.
A unique delve into German small-town mores and sexual funny games, THE SAMURAI is the fantasy festival discovery of 2014. A package arrives at the home of young police officer Jakob (a remarkable Michel Diercks) addressed to Lone Wolf. The phone rings, it’s a guy asking if his package is there, and could it be delivered immediately. Intrigued, Jakob goes to a house in the woods and finds a man wearing a dress waiting for the ancient samurai sword hidden in the parcel so he can cut a bloody swathe through the local village population. Who is this debauched maniac and what does he want? Pit Bukowski’s incredible performance as the wild-eyed psycho a revelation.
STAGE FRIGHT (UK Premiere)
(Times: 18:30, 21:00 & 22:45)
Director: Jerome Sable. Cast: Minnie Driver, Meat Loaf, Allie MacDonald, Douglas Smith, Kent Nolan. Canada 2014. 89 mins.
If you loved director Jerome Sable’s singalonga short THE LEGEND OF BEAVER DAM, you’ll adore this hilarious musical combo of FRIDAY THE 13th and ‘Glee’ as Kylie Swanson (Minnie Driver) is brutally murdered after her star-making performance in the Broadway-bound musical ‘The Haunting of the Opera’. Ten years later, her producer Roger McCall (Meat Loaf) is running a musical theatre summer camp where Kylie’s twins, Camilla and Buddy help out. When Roger decides to revive ‘The Haunting of the Opera’ kabuki style for the end of term entertainment, the masked Opera Ghost returns…
MONDAY AUG 25
X MOOR (World Premiere)
(Times: 10:45, 13:15 & 16:00)
Director: Luke Hyams. Cast: Melia Kreiling, Nick Blood, Mark Bonnar, Olivia Popica, James Lecky. UK 2014. 76 mins.
With their sights set on a £25,000 reward promoted by a local newspaper, American documentarians Georgia and Matt head to Exmoor in North Devon to film the fabled beast supposedly slinking through the remote terrain. Setting up a forest camp with an old acquaintance, the trio fix cameras to the trees and rocks, linked back to a computer nerve centre where nothing should go unnoticed. But then they discover some putrefying body parts all neatly tied up and before long they realise they are in the lair of a beast right enough, but certainly not one of the four-legged variety.
NYMPH (UK Premiere)
(Times: 11:00, 13:30 & 15:30)
Director: Milan Todorovic. Cast: Kristina Klebe, Franco Nero, Natalie Burn, Dragan Micanovic, Miodrag Krstovic. Serbia 2014. 90 mins.
This is a Serbian film from celebrated ZONE OF THE DEAD director Milan Todorovic. Featuring Franco Nero, the original Italian DJANGO, as Niko, a fisherman with a haunted past and HALLOWEEN and PROXY star Kristine Klebe, who is on vacation in Montenegro with a group of friends. They decide to visit an abandoned military fortress on the remote island of Mamula. But what they discover there goes beyond all frightening insanity. For it’s the home of a Siren, a mermaid creature of Greek myth, lying in wait to lure men to their death with her enchanting beauty, entrancing song and razor-sharp teeth.
ALLELUIA (UK Premiere)
(Times: 11:15, 13:00 & 15:45)
Director: Fabrice du Welz. Cast: Lola Duenas, Laurent Lucas, Anne-Marie Loop, Edit Lemerdy, Helena Noguerra. Belgium/France 2014. 92 mins.
Fabrice du Welz makes an arresting return to the genre with the second opus in his Ardennes trilogy, which began with CALVAIRE. Deeply rooted in the hostile Belgian landscapes of his childhood, this serial killer chiller is a quirky take on the real exploits of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez (dubbed ‘The Honeymoon Killers’). Crazy crook Michel (Laurent Lucas) meets his murderous match when he hooks up with damaged single mother Gloria. (Lola Duenas). Duenas shines as needy Gloria who will stop at nothing to get what she wants and there is an equally stunning turn from CALVAIRE’s Laurent Lucas.
I SURVIVED A ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST (UK Premiere)
(Times: 18:00, 18:15, 18:30)
Director: Guy Pigden. Cast: Harley Neville, Jocelyn Christian, Ben Baker, Mike Edward, Andrew Laing. New Zealand 2014. 100 mins.
From the land of early Peter Jackson comes another Braindead movie in bad taste. It’s the third day of shooting the low budget horror ‘Tonight They Come’ on location in the wilds of New Zealand and a new runner joins the set – wannabe screenwriter Wesley Pennington, who falls head over heels for Susan, the set caterer. But something nasty has entered the local water supply and suddenly the zombie extras start acting like genuine members of the living dead, gore stunts looks even more authentic and actual severed limbs fly. Reel life turns real as Wesley attempts to save the day while ensuring his latest script will get made.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM – THE SIGNAL (UK Premiere)
(Times: 21:00 across all three screens)
Director: William Eubank. Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Laurence Fishburne, Beau Knapp, Lin Shaye. US 2014. 96 mins.
Get ready for the cult movie of the year with this inventive and stylish sci-fi fantasy head-trip, ensuring director William Eubank’s step up to stardom. Nic and Jonah are MIT students engaged in an online altercation with the mysterious hacker ‘Nomad’. They get a lead on Nomad’s whereabouts and, with Nic’s girlfriend Haley, investigate, an abandoned desert shack. Suddenly everyone loses consciousness, and Nic awakes in what seems a secret hospital, What’s going on? Where are Jonah and Haley? And what is this ‘Extraterrestrial Biological Entity’ he’s being told about?
DISCOVERY SCREEN
FRIDAY AUG 22
10:45 HONEYMOON (English Premiere)
Director: Leigh Janiak. Cast: Rose Leslie, Harry Treadaway, Ben Huber, Hanna Brown. US 2014. 87 mins.
Young newlyweds Paul and Bea travel to remote lake country for their honeymoon, where the promise of private romance awaits them in seclusion. Shortly after arriving though, Paul finds Bea wandering in the forest for no apparent reason. As her behaviour gets increasingly peculiar, Paul begins to suspect something more sinister than sleepwalking took place deep in the woods. Harry Treadaway (CONTROL) and Rose Leslie (GAME OF THRONES) give captivating performances as a couple taking new love to disturbing depths. Director Leigh Janiak’s first feature is garnering extensive critical acclaim on the world’s festival circuit.
13:00 PRESERVATION (UK Premiere)
Director: Christopher Denham. Cast: Wren Schmidt, Aaron Staton, Pablo Schreiber, Nick Saso, Michael Chacon. US 2014. 90 mins.
SHUTTER ISLAND/ARGO actor Christopher Denham takes his second turn in the director’s chair after HOME MOVIE (2008) with this beautifully crafted horror thriller. Ex-marine Sean Neary and his brother Mike, along with Mike’s wife Wit, head out on a hunting trip doubling as a distraction from their personal problems. When their gear is stolen they discover local hunters stalking them. But prey can only survive so long and Wit must unleash her own animal instincts or else end up a trophy. PRESERVATION twists into a sharp and startling take on what it takes to survive the great outdoors in our tech-obsessed age.
15:15 JULIA (World Premiere)
Director: Matthew A. Brown. Cast: Ashley C. Williams, Jack Noseworthy, Tahyna Tozzi-MacManus, Brad Koed, Joel de la Fuente. US 2014. 95 mins.
Julia Shames (THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE) star Ashley C. Williams), is a meek and mild clinician at a thriving plastic surgery business, who dates the wrong guy and ends up being drugged and gang-raped by his friends. Catatonic after suffering such brutal trauma she hears about a new kind of therapy practised by the mysterious Dr. Sgundud. What the restorative cure entails takes Julia into a whole new shadowy area of her personality, one that transforms her into an empowered Angel of Vengeance. This is a neon drenched film noir thriller in the post-modern LADY SNOWBLOOD tradition.
18:15 THE FORGOTTEN (World Premiere)
Director: Oliver Frampton. Cast: Shaun Dingwall, Clem Tibber, Elarica Gallacher, Lyndsey Marshal, James Doherty. UK 2014. 90 mins.
When his mother suffers a nervous breakdown teenage Tommy is sent to live with his father in a tower block squat gripped by poverty and violence. In his rundown bedroom Tommy is woken each night by strange noises coming from the boarded-up flat next-door. Is someone – or something – trying to get his attention? Who – or what – is his neighbour? Confounded by increasing terror, Tommy has to confront not only Mark’s growing disturbed behaviour but also an unseen raging force about to change his life forever. From the producer of THE BORDERLANDS, a tensely plotted, superbly acted, gritty urban supernatural horror.
20:45 THE CANAL (English Premiere)
Director: Ivan Kavanagh. Cast: Rupert Evans, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Steve Oram, Hannah Hoekstra, Calum Heath. Ireland 2014. 92 mins.
Film Archivist David Williams and his wife, Alice, move into a beautiful period house by a scenic canal with their small son. But it turns out the house was the scene of a ghastly turn-of-the-19th century murder. David then discovers actual news footage of the chilling events just as he suspects Alice is cheating on him and having a torrid affair. Soon David starts to have nightmarish visions of an evil presence he believes inhabits his home. And in his drive to unveil the shadows hidden in the walls, David begins to descend into madness. This Irish ghost story is dark, disturbing and scary and the midnight hit at Tribeca.
23:15 WOLFCOP (UK Premiere)
Director: Lowell Dean. Cast: Leo Fafard, Amy Matysio, Jonathan Cherry, Sarah Lind, Aidan Devine. Canada 2014. 86 mins.
There’s a new lycanthropic hero in town and he’s determined to become a better policeman…one full moon transformation at a time. Destined for midnight movie cult status, this high-end blend of black comedy, sexy horror and practical special effects was so successful sales-wise at this year’s Cannes market a sequel had already been green-lit. Lou Garou is a lazy small-town cop by day, a violent rage-fuelled crime-fighting werewolf by night. Good cop and bad cop in one fur-filled beastly package, and addicted to women and booze,.
SATURDAY AUG 23
10:30 DEAD WITHIN (World Premiere)
Director: Ben Wagner. Cast: Amy Cale Petersen, Dean Chekvala. US 2014. 91 mins.
Kim and Mike have survived a mysterious pandemic through routine and isolation. Their world is a cabin n the middle of nowhere. Mike ventures out to scavenge for supplies, but any time they open the door or make a noise they invite ravenous assailants. Kim remains in the cabin alone, armed only with kitchen knives and garden tools. She is tormented by images of the dead and her life that was and will never be. Soon her increasing paranoia will cause trust issues and her mind will no longer separate the real from the unreal…
12:45 WHITE SETTLERS (World Premiere)
Director: Simeon Halligan. Cast: Pollyanna Mcintosh, Lee Williams, Joanne Mitchell, James McCreadie, Dominic Kay. UK 2014. 80 mins.
Young couple Ed and Sarah are set to begin a new life when they move from London into an isolated borders Scottish farmhouse. In bed on their first night Sarah thinks she can hear noises in the darkness but Ed is disbelieving. Persisting in her fear they are not alone in the house, she forces Ed to investigate. When he doesn’t return, she investigates, only to be confronted by a welcoming committee of masked intruders. As she desperately searches for Ed, a terrifying game of cat and mouse ensues with the mysterious assailants. But what do they want and what horrors do they have planned for the two newcomers?
15:15 SHOW PIECES (World Premiere)
Directors: Alan Moore & Mitch Jenkins. Cast: Darrell D’Silva, Siobhan Hewlett, Robert Goodman, Andrew Buckley, Alan Moore. UK 2014. 71 mins.
Alan Moore, the genius 2000 AD writer behind WATCHMEN, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, FROM HELL, CONSTANTINE and V FOR VENDETTA invites you into his extraordinary world with a new motion picture experience. While several of Moore’s stories have become Hollywood blockbusters, he has never previously written specifically for the screen. Until now. Created with his close friend and internationally acclaimed photographer Mitch Jenkins, comes an interconnected trilogy of terror. ‘Act of Faith’ finds a young woman looking for the next step in sexual excitement and unfortunately finding it. ‘Jimmy’s End’ tails a serial philanderer down a dark alley into a very unusual club where the top-billed attraction is The Bad Brides and their Danse Macabre and ‘His Heavy Heart’ reveals the horrifying price paid for his adultery. Alan Moore will be our special guest at this prestigious world premiere event.
20:45 DIGGING UP THE MARROW (World Premiere)
Director: Adam Green. Cast: Ray Wise, Adam Green, Tom Holland, Kane Hodder, Mick Garris. US 2014. 88 mins.
FrightFest favourite Adam Green gives us a documentary exploring genre-based monster art which then takes an odd turn into the blurring of fantasy and reality. As he and cinematographer Will Barratt are contacted by former policeman William Dekker who claims he can prove that monsters are indeed real. That they live in world just below our own named The Marrow and he knows where one of the entrances to this dark hidden universe is. Green of course is intrigued and so the monster hunting expedition begins… to become something else far more frightening than he ever imagined.
23:15 CREEP (European Premiere)
Director: Patrick Brice. Cast: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass. US 2014. 81 mins.
After accepting an offer from Craigslist, Aaron (director Patrick Brice) drives to the house of a complete stranger offering $1,000 to film him for the day. Josef (Mark Duplass) explains to Aaron that he has cancer and wants to shoot a regular day in his life to show his unborn child. Fair enough, but then Josef starts making strange requests of what he wants filmed, from bath time to an exploratory hike in the woods for a naked swim to admitting their biggest regrets. Entirely improvised from a ten-page outline, the SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED duo of Brice and Duplass excel in a mumblecore masterpiece that will make you jump, make you cry and scare the hell out of you.
SUNDAY AUG 24
10:30 THE EXPEDITION (World Premiere)
Director: Adam Spinks. Cast: Sarah MacDonnell, Ben Loyd-Holmes, Daniel Caren, Neil Newbon, Simon Burbage. UK 2014. 100 mins.
In the heart of the rainforest, a team of researchers led by the respected Professor John Howson strived to protect endangered and vulnerable species from extinction. But their guides abandoned them after a series of strange and unexplainable events and the team soon got hopelessly lost in the jungle. When events took a horrifying turn, the team realized that they were in the hunting grounds of an apex predator. And now they were the ones on the endangered species list.
13:15 DREW: THE MAN BEHIND THE POSTER (UK Premiere)
Director: Erik Sharkey. Cast: Harrison Ford, Michael J. Fox, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro. US 2013. 97 mins.
An in-depth, absorbing and touching account of the life and art of the recently retired Drew Struzan, whose amazing poster work from the 1970s onwards still delights cineastes and fanboys. After starting his career in album cover art for megastars like Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, Struzan painted some of the most famous movie images ever for the blockbuster STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES and BACK TO THE FUTURE series. It’s all here; the impoverished early days, his first movie assignment for THE BLACK BIRD, his original art being stolen by unscrupulous partners and his long overdue lionisation at the San Diego Comic Con in a wonderful heart-felt celebration.
15:30 DOC OF THE DEAD (UK Premiere)
Director: Alexandre O. Philippe. Cast: George A. Romero, Bruce Campbell, Simon Pegg, Max Brooks, Alex Cox. USA 2014, 82 mins.
Why are the living dead so popular in movies, on television, in video games and on the streets of every major city in the world which stages an annual Zombie Walk? And how did the whole genre get kick-started in the first place? Everything you ever wanted to know about the walking, shambling, brain-eating dead is here in this definitive zombie culture documentary packed with clips and a host of celebrities from horror legend George A. Romero, Simon Pegg and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD icon Judith O’Dea to WORLD WAR Z creator Max Brooks, gore guru Tom Savini and RE-ANIMATOR man Stuart Gordon.
18:10 LOST SOUL – THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (World Premiere)
Director: David Gregory. Cast: Richard Stanley, Fairuza Balk, Rob Morroe, Robert Shaye, Ed Pressman. USA 2014. 100 mins.
We’ve heard all the insane rumours and scandals attached to the ill-fated 1996 remake of H.G. Wells’ THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project only to be fired after four days of shooting and replaced by John Frankenheimer and how headliner Marlon Brando impacted on that decision. Now for the first time the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong. Stanley spills the juicy beans, stars Fairuza Balk and Rob Morrow give revealing interviews,
20:45 THE HOUSE AT THE END OF TIME (UK Premiere)
Director: Alejandro Hidalgo. Cast: Ruddy Rodriguez, Rosmel Bustamante, Adriana Calzadilla, Gonzalo Cubero. Guillermo Garcia. Venezuela 2013. 100 mins.
The first ever horror film produced in Venezuela to reach an international audience, director Alejandro Hidalgo’s heady mix of THE OTHERS, H.P. Lovecraft and old school Mario Bava was a big box-office hit in its home country. Thirty years after being put in prison for murdering her family, Dulce (Ruddy Rodriguez, a former Miss Venezuela) returns to the old dark house to try and understand the mysteries and tragedies that have tormented her life, This sci-fi tinged chiller has solid direction, convincing performances, wonderful cinematography and a unique South American style.
MONDAY AUG 25
10:30 ALTERGEIST (UK Premiere)
Director: Tedi Sarafian. Cast: Kristina Anapau, Mark Hapka, David Weidoff, Linsey Godfrey, Brendan Fletcher. US 2014. 90 mins.
Tedi Sarafian, writer of TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES and TANK GIRL makes his feature directorial debut with this horror/sci-fi thriller based on true events. King’s Ransom Winery is known as one of the most haunted places in North America. Gruesome suicides and murders, have occurred with disturbing frequency throughout the dark history of the estate, all linked back to a past shocking slaughter where the victim was stabbed thirteen times. Now a group of six paranormal investigators have been given 48-hour weekend access to the winery to conduct a search for evidence of the other side.
13:15 LEMON TREE PASSAGE (UK Premiere)
Director: David Campbell. Cast: Jessica Tovey, Nicholas Gunn, Pippa Black, Tim Phillipps, Andrew Ryan. Australia 2014. 84 mins.
An Australian urban legend comes screaming on the Ozploitation scene. It’s said that if you drive down the creepy road of Lemon Tree Passage, and witness a sudden flash of light in the trees, you’ll be forever haunted by the tormented spirit of a man killed by thrill speeding teenagers. Wanting to put this to the test, a car-load of non-believers take the supposedly cursed journey and do indeed see a strange manifestation. But it’s not the one of popular myth – this sudden possession of one of their number involves another altogether more shocking crime. That of a young girl raped and murdered on the same stretch of highway.
15:30 TRUTH OR DARE (UK Premiere)
Director: Jessica Cameron. Cast: Jessica Cameron, Ryan Kiser, Heather Dorff, Shelby Stehlin, Devanny Pinn. USA 2013. 89 mins.
Six college kids find Internet stardom when they make a ‘Truth or Dare’ reality video with a violent twist. After their ‘fatal shooting’ broadcast goes viral, they reveal on a talk show the filming was a complete hoax. Basking in their 15 minutes of fame, none of the Truth or Daredevils takes the waspish comments of a particularly impassioned audience member that seriously. To their cost, Get ready for the most realistically confessional, brutal and extreme ‘Truth or Dare’ game you have ever seen played.
18:10 THE REMAINING (UK Premiere)
Director: Casey La Scala. Cast: Alexa Vega, Shaun Sipos, Italia Ricci, Johnny Pacar, Bryan Dechart. US 2014. 88 mins.
It’s the day the Earth exploded as trumpets blow and the wrath of God unleashes the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The first of a series of religious-slanted horror movies aimed at devout audiences, THE REMAINING is a surprisingly effective disaster shocker based on the Book of Revelations, produced by the makers of DONNIE DARKO and URBAN LEGEND. When a group of close-knit friends assemble for the marriage of Skylar and Dan, they have no idea they will witness The Rapture and face a series of catastrophic events turning the celebration into a life-or-death struggle.
• SCREEN 8 – DISCOVERY SCREEN 2
FRIDAY AUG 22
10:45 WOLF CREEK 2 (English Premiere)
Director: Greg McLean. Cast: John Jarratt, Ryan Corr, Shannon Ashlyn, Philippe Klaus, Chloe Boreham. Australia 2013. 107 mins.
The gravel-voiced, sneering maniac Mick Taylor is back with a few more days to kill! Bolder. Gorier and placed on a far bigger canvas than the original Ozploitation classic, star John Jarratt and director Greg McLean return with an even more twisted shocker .maintains the original’s savagery and nerve-jangling tension, while dazzling further with a spectacular and surprising use of Down Under landscapes and creatures. Two arrogant cops, two unwitting German backpackers and a Good Samaritan British tourist become the prey for the crazed pig-shooting psycho as the outback is drenched in rivers of blood.
13:15 WRONG TURN 6 (UK Premiere)
Director: Valeri Milev. Cast: Anthony Ilott, Aqueela Zoll, Rollo Skinner, Sadie Katz, Roxanne Pallett. US 2014. 90 mins.
Hillbilly horror returns in the sixth instalment of the hugely successful outback slasher franchise from Valeri Milev, director of CODE RED and RE-KILL. So get ready for more backwoods gory mayhem as a sudden and mysterious inheritance brings Danny (Anthony Ilott) and his friends to Hobb Springs, a forgotten resort deep in the West Virginia hills. Hobb Springs is being looked after under the watchful care of Jackson and Sally, a socially awkward couple who introduce Danny to the long lost family he’s never known. Soon, Danny is forced to choose between his friends and his bloodline.
15:30 R100 (UK Premiere)
Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto. Cast: Nao Ômori, Lindsay Hayward, Mao Daichi, Hairi Katagiri, Gin Maeda. Japan 2013. 100 mins.
Bondage in the Bond Age! With his wife in a coma and his department store assistant job boring in the extreme, Takafumi Katayama (ICHI THE KILLER’s Nao Ômori) joins a mysterious gentleman’s club. Membership lasts for one year only and cannot be cancelled under any circumstance. Soon Takafumi has entered a whole new world of kinkiness and dumbfounded ecstasy he’s never before experienced. Welcome to the hit of Toronto’s Midnight Madness strand, the wildest, wackiest and weirdest ‘meta’ film noir from cult director Hitoshi Matsumoto..
18:10 EXISTS (UK Premiere)
Director: Eduardo Sánchez. Cast: Dora Madison Burge, Brian Steele, Denise Williamson, Samuel Davis, Roger Edwards. US 2014. 86 mins.
Eduardo Sánchez, one of the key architects of the ‘found footage’ format he popularised with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, makes an astonishingly bravura returns to the genre. Five friends head to a relative’s remote cabin in the woods with their Go-Pros, dashboard cams and handhelds ready to record a fun weekend. But they find their party plans going up in smoke when they realise the area houses the lair of the legendary Bigfoot. Soon the mythical fearsome beast has destroyed their car, sabotaged their generator and trapped them in the dark forest.
20:30 THE DEN (UK Premiere)
Director: Zachary Donohue. Cast: Melanie Papalia, David Schlachtenhaufen, Matt Riedy, Adam Shapiro, Lily Holleman. USA 2013. 81 mins.
A provocative and compelling REAR WINDOW for the Internet generation, this enjoyably creepy and sobering horror is recounted entirely via computer screen images. Graduate student Elizabeth has received a college grant to study the habits of webcam chat users from the apparent safety of her apartment. The website she chooses to scrutinize is ‘The Den’ and surfing through she is shocked to hit on footage of a woman being tortured and killed. It soon becomes apparent the killer is on to his witness as he hacks into Elizabeth’s computer. Soon the unwitting student and her loved ones are targeted for grisly fates.
23.00 THE DROWNSMAN (UK Premiere)
Director: Chad Archibald. Cast: Michelle Mylett, Caroline Korycki, Gemma Bird Matheson, Sydney Kondruss, Clare Bastable. Canada 2014. 87 mins.
In the tradition of JEEPERS CREEPERS, REEKER and HATCHET, make way for a totally different supernatural villain and new franchise maniac. After almost drowning in a lake, Madison (ANTISOCIAL star Michelle Mylett) finds herself scared to death of water Her dread intensifies when she’s continually haunted by a rancid ghostly entity trying to pull her into his dark aqua world. After watching her struggle for a year with the debilitating hydrophobia and nightmare visions, Madison’s four best girlfriends attempt an unconventional intervention in which they accidentally open a floodgate to a sodden universe.
SATURDAY AUG 23
10.45 BAD MILO! (UK Premiere)
Director: Jacob Vaughan. Cast: Ken Marino, Patrick Warburton, Peter Stormare, Gillian Jacobs, Mary Kay Place. USA 2013. 85 mins.
Duncan Hayslip leads a pretty normal life. But trying to start a family with his wife and being demoted at his job have led to severe stomach pains. His doctor diagnoses acute stress and tells him to relax. However as his anxiety mounts, he decides to consult a New Age hypnotherapist who immediately discovers the cause of his problem. A cute bloodthirsty creature is living in his lower intestines Fans of such 1980s creature features as GREMLINS, CRITTERS and GHOULIES will find plenty to enjoy in this laugh-out-loud comedy horror blending sharp social satire with copious amounts of slimy gore.
12:45 SHORT FILM SHOWCASE 1
(To be announced)
15.30 THE SLEEPING ROOM (World Premiere)
Director: John Shackleton. Cast: Leila Mimmack, Joseph Beattie, David Sibley, Julie Graham, Christopher Adamson. UK 2014. 75 mins.
From the producers of the FrightFest 2011 favourite PANIC BUTTON comes a supernatural tale of ghostly Victorian revenge. When 19 year-old Brighton call-girl Blue (Leila Mimmack) meets her latest punter Bill, little does she know the horrifying impact it will have on her wayward life. For the seaside house he’s renovating once used to be an infamous Victorian brothel with a murderous history, with a connection to Blue herself. Now the chilling closet space thy discover is about to unleash terrible occult forces and nobody will escape its monstrous power unless a score for a heinous felony is settled.
PLUS SHORTCUTS TO HELL 2 COMPETITION
Following the success of 666 SHORTCUTS TO HELL, Horror Channel, FrightFest and Movie Mogul have teamed up again, with new partner Wildseed Studios, to create a nationwide search for new filmmaking talent who are primed and ready to make their first horror feature film. The three finalists will show their film and try to persuade th frightFest crowd why they should be the ‘chosen one’. The winning filmmaker will have their film produced by Movie Mogul and Wildseed Studios, entering production early 2015, The completed feature film will receive its world premiere at Film4 FrightFest 2015 and a broadcast premiere on Horror Channel.
18:10 THE MIRROR (World Premiere)
Director: Edward Boase. Cast: Jemma Dallender, Joshua Dickinson, Nate Fallows. UK 2014. 88 mins.
There is a long-held belief that mirrors act as gateways to another dimension and play host to a world filled with evil spirits. And one tale about a supposedly haunted mirror was picked up by the media in 2012. Both the Daily Mail and Huffington Post reported on how the owners of a recently purchased antique mirror left them dogged by bad luck, financial misery, strange sightings and death-defying illness. Now writer/director Edward Boase brings that horrifying story to the screen starring Jemma Dallender (I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 2).
20:30 THE DUKE @ FILM4 FRIGHTFEST – COHERENCE (London Premiere)
When the power goes out during a dinner party on the same night a comet passes near Earth, a group of friends find themselves forced to search for help, only to discover that the single neighbouring house with the power still on holds many dark and chilling secrets. Starring Nicholas Brendon (Xander in ‘Buffy) ‘Coherence’ is THE mind-bending, horror/science-fiction masterpiece of 2014 that will have you pondering the climax and asking questions for days!
Director: James Ward Byrkit. Cast: Nicholas Brendon, Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Elizabeth Gracen, Alex Manugian. US 2013. 89 mins.
22:30 THE DUKE @ FILM4 FRIGHTFEST – FILM PARTY
Who says the only party can happen at The Phoenix after hours? Come and join The Duke Mitchell Film Club in their first Film4 FrightFest outing as they bring their own brand of insanity fresh from to the Discovery Screen at Vue Leicester Square. Expect special guests including directors and actors choosing their favourite moments in horror, the weirdest horror music videos in the universe, shorts, rare trailers and plenty of freebie giveaways to fire up the screen. This off-the-cuff one-in-a-kind show will be a hot ticket for Saturday night – trust us; you do not want to miss what will be one of the talking points of this year’s FrightFest!
The Duke Mitchell Film Club has been bringing London the best in obscure and intriguing films since 2007. Called ‘The Best Film Club in London’ by Time Out and ‘Coolest Film Club’ by author Christopher Fowler, The Duke Mitchell Film Club will be taking over The Discovery Screen at Film4 FrightFest to bring you the most unusual and unexpected programming including the premiere of one this year’s hottest horror titles!
SUNDAY AUG 24
10:45 THE VISITOR (Retrospective)
Director: Giulio Paradisi. Cast: Mel Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Glenn Ford, John Huston, Sam Peckinpah. US/Italy 1979. 108 mins.
How did the Italian exploitation industry respond to the post STAR WARS intergalactic culture shock? The astounding answer lies in this bizarre, fascinating and hilarious sci-fi genre-bender starring a gobsmacking array of cameo-for-a-pay-check Americans including Mel Ferrer, Sam Peckinpah, Shelley Winters, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and director John Huston as an intergalactic warrior who joins cosmic Christ Franco Nero in a battle against a demonic 8-year-old girl, and her pet hawk, while the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. You’ll have a blast with this restored melange of outer space fantasy, Satanic shocks and nutty psychedelics.
13:15 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (Retrospective)
Director: Wes Craven. Cast: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon Ronee Blakley, Johnny Depp. US 1984. 92 min
Film4 FrightFest is proud to launch the 30th Anniversary restored print of maestro director Wes Craven’s seminal shocker that launched the wonderful Robert Englund as dream demon Freddy Krueger, with his red and green striped jersey, ratty fedora and one-liners as razor-sharp as his steel fingertips. This “bastard son of a hundred maniacs” haunts the nightmares of four Springwood teenagers because their lynch mob parents hunted him down and flamed him for his sick crimes. Can Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) draw the vicious sadist into her own reality to stop his warped vengeance? Craven expertly delivers the chills with this topflight terror flick that epitomized all that was great about 1980s horror.
15:30 NEKROMANTIC (Preview)
Director: Jorg Buttgereit. Cast: Daktari Lorenz, Beatrice Manowski, Harald Lundt, Suza Kohlstedt, Heike Surban. Germany 1988. 75 mins.
Banned in Germany, Jorg Buttgereit’s notorious in-your-face outrage has now been granted a BBFC certificate. So it is with great pride we unveil this art-house horror classic, Robert and his girlfriend Betty are obsessed by death. They bathe in blood red water and their house is adorned with pictures of murderers, autopsies and assorted decaying body parts collected from road accidents, thanks to Robert’s job at a street-cleaning agency. It’s when Robert finds a complete male cadaver that the duo finally experiences the intense sensations of necrophile sexual fulfilment.
18:10 THE SHINING (Preview)
Director: Stanley Kubrick. Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson. UK 1980. 146 mins.
Regularly topping critical lists as a masterpiece of modern horror, Stanley Kubrick’s carefully nurtured ghost story based on the bestseller by Stephen King focuses on the primal fear of murderous family breakdown. Failed schoolteacher and would-be writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson in an iconic turn) is offered the winter caretaker job at the luxurious Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Mountains. Seeing it as an opportunity to work on his novel in an isolated environment, he moves into the snow-bound edifice with his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd). But his son has a special mental power – ‘the shining’ – to see things that no one else can and has visions of the previous murders and premonitions of his father’s homicidal tendencies in this scary and resonant classic.
21:30 ANOTHER (European Premiere)
Director: Jason Bognacki. Cast: Ana Paula Redding, David Landry, Lillian Pennypacker, Michael St. Michaels, Nancy Wolfe. US 2014. 80 mins
On her 18th birthday Jordyn learns a hideous secret about her past, her bloodline and her family when her Aunt Ruth (Nancy Wolfe) stabs herself at the party. It turns out Ruth has been keeping secrets and one of them is that Jordyn’s mother may not be as dead as everyone has been led to believe. As Jordyn she tries to unravel the mysteries of her new nightmarish existence, more past secrets are revealed through demonic possession, witchcraft desire and extreme indulgences, and it becomes clear her legacy is fraught with danger. Who is Jordyn really and why does everything seem to be going to hell?
MONDAY AUG 25
10.45 DEADLY VIRTUES (UK Premiere)
Director: Ate De Jong. Cast: Edward Akrout, Matt Barber, Megan Maczko, Helen Bradbury, Sadie Frost. UK/Netherlands 2014. 87 mins.
In the dead of night a stranger walks down a residential street. Gaining entry into his chosen house, psychopathic Aaron makes his way to the upper floor where sounds of lovemaking emanate. Aaron injures the man and knocks the woman out. When Alison awakes, she’s strapped to the kitchen ceiling in a bizarre web of ropes that hold her fast. For Aaron is an expert in Kinbaku, the Japanese fetish art of tying knots. What follows is an experience that will reveal the transgressions in the couple’s relationship and ultimately act as a catalyst for extreme liberation.
13:00 BLOOD MOON (World Premiere)
Director: Jeremy Wooding. Cast: Shaun Dooley, George Blagden, Corey Johnson, Anna Skellern, Ian Whyte. UK 2014. 90 mins.
It’s 1887, Colorado, and a deserted border town is lit by the burnished glow of a reddish full moon. A stagecoach full of passengers and an enigmatic gunslinger Calhoun (Shaun Dooley, star of THE WOMAN IN BLACK) find themselves prisoners of two desperate outlaws on the run. As the prairie travellers attempt to outwit the outlaws in any way they can it soon becomes apparent that a bigger menace lurks outside on the plains; an otherworldly mythical beast that only appears on the night of a blood red moon. From Jeremy Wooding, comes a western unlike any other – packed with the good, the bad and the ugly.
15:30 EXTRATERRESTRIAL (London Preview)
Director: Nacho Vigalondo. Cast: Julián Villagrán, Michelle Jenner, Carlos Areces, Raúl Cimas, Miguel Noguera. Spain 2011. 95 mins.
After TIMECRIMES and before his episodes for THE ABCs OF DEATH, OPEN WINDOWS and V/H/S: VIRAL, Nacho Vigalondo directed this charming and wry sci-fi romantic comedy. See why Vigalondo is dubbed ‘The Edgar Wright of Spain’ as hung-over Julio wakes up in the apartment of Julia, a woman he doesn’t recognise. Julia is similarly disconcerted as they notice the streets are strangely empty, the TV channels are blank and there’s an enormous spaceship hovering outside the window. But an impending invasion of shape-shifting aliens is nothing compared to the jealously of neighbour Angel who has a stalker crush on Julia.