FrightFest have announced the line-up for this year's horror-fest, and it's pretty special.
In fact, we'd argue it's the best selection in the festivals long (and great) history.
Here's the official press release:
Are you ready for a monstrous and memorable mayhem of killer claws, cannibalism, cult classics, murderous musicals, chiller thrillers, graphic novel action and sick celluloid masterpieces? Then prepare yourself for the biggest, strongest and most eclectic must-see programme in Film4 FrightFest’s history.
From the opening night turbo-driven thrill-ride THE GUEST to the UK premiere of the closing night mesmeric sci-fi fantasy THE SIGNAL, FrightFest has netted the latest works from genre big-hitters such as Eli Roth (THE GREEN INFERNO), Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins (SHOW PIECES), Tommy Wirkola (DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS. DEAD), Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR), Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (AMONG THE LIVING), Fabrice Du Welz (ALLELUIA), Nacho Vigalondo (OPEN WINDOWS and EXTRATERRESTRIAL), John McNaughton (THE HARVEST), Adam Green (DIGGING UP THE MARROW), Nicolas McCarthy’ (HOME), Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson (ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE), Adrian Garcia Bogliano (LATE PHASES), Greg Mclean (WOLF CREEK 2), Eduardo Sanchez (EXISTS) and Milan Todorovic (NYMPH).
Plenty of genre movies have been garnering massive critical attention from other signature festivals which FrightFest has embraced, including: the moving and charming LIFE AFTER BETH, the laugh-out-loud crowd-pleaser ZOMBEAVERS, Jennifer Kent’s utterly beguiling THE BABADOOK, the extraordinary German slasher THE SAMURAI, the ‘Glee’-ful STAGE FRIGHT, the Hollywood rags to witches STARRY EYES, the hugely entertaining HOUSEBOUND, the unique R100, the cult of the damned FAULTS, the Kiwi corker I SURVIVED A ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST and Jay Weisman’s sci-fi mindbender SHOCKWAVE DARKSIDE 3D
Film4 FrightFest has always shone a spotlight on British talent and this year is no exception - sharply spearheaded by Luke Hyams’ unusual X MOOR, Phil Hawkins’ THE LAST SHOWING, featuring horror icon Robert Englund in his best starring role in years, Adam Spinks’ creature feature THE EXPEDITION, John Shackleton’s supernatural horror THE SLEEPING ROOM, Ivan Kavanagh’s sinister THE CANAL, Oliver Frampton’s urban nightmare THE FORGOTTEN, Jeremy Wooding’s wild western BLOOD MOON, Edward Boase’s spooky THE MIRROR and Simeon Halligan’s truly shocking WHITE SETTLERS.
Discovering and nurturing new talent from across the globe has always at the heart of FrightFest’s manifesto and this year’s ever-popular Discovery Strand is testament to this, boasting thirty-eight films which includes THE HOUSE AT THE END OF TIME, the first ever horror movie from Venezuela, Matthew, A. Brown’s startling neo-noir revenge thriller JULIA, Casey La Scala’s rapture survival THE REMAINING, Chad Archibald’s maniac-franchise-in-the-making THE DROWNSMAN, the mumblecore insidious CREEP, the intestinal gag-filled BAD MILO!, the shattering TRUTH OR DARE, the surprising ALTERGEIST, the king of the hill PRESERVATION, the bodysnatching HONEYMOON, Lowell Dean’s hilarious midnight movie WOLFCOP, the cyber chiller THE DEN, the Australian urban legend LEMON TREE PASSAGE, Ben Wagner’s intimate DEAD WITHIN, the giallo-infused ANOTHER, the inevitable WRONG TURN 6 and Ate de Jong’s psycho-sexual horror DEADLY VIRTUES.
Plus there some brilliant documentaries receiving their UK premieres: Alexandre O. Philippe’s Zombie culture reveal, DOC OF THE DEAD and Erik Sharkey’s touching portrait of Drew Struzan, DREW: THE MAN BEHIND THE POSTER. There is also the World Premiere of David Gregory’s LOST SOUL – THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU.
The retrospective selection this year includes restored versions of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING, Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Jorg Buttgereit’s NEKROMANTIK and Giulio Paradisi’s cult exploiter THE VISITOR, each with significant talent attachment and presented by writer, critic, broadcaster Kim Newman.
Plus there is a special presentation of James Ward’s mind-bending horror-sci-fi COHERENCE by THE DUKE MITCHELL FAN CLUB @ FILM4 FRIGHTFEST plus their in-house party.
With a record number of female directors showing their work this year in both the main sections and in the short film showcases, the return of the ‘Shortcuts To Hell’ competition in association with Horror Channel and Movie Mogul, the ‘Turn Off Your Bloody Phone!’ entries and the usual bloody red carpet gathering of stars, directors and surprise guests, Film4FrightFest continues to be the single most important event of 2014 in the UK genre calendar.
This year’s guest list and the Short Film Showcase entries will be announced soon.
Alan Jones, Festival co-director, said today: “Everything genre-wise you’ve been hearing about - and a whole lot you haven’t yet - has been included in the programme to ensure our move to the Vue will be the most exciting and game-changing genre event of the year. Humbly, we cannot overestimate how much work has been done by Team FrightFest in planning this move in every detail to ensure your complete satisfaction with the venue arrangements, the operating duties and the comprehensive multi-levelled programming. While everything looks to be changing, nothing is fundamentally changing in terms of retaining our unique, all-inclusive atmosphere and the wellbeing of everyone who attends.”
Julia Wrigley, Head of Film4 Channel, added: “It’s fantastic to be back for our eighth year of fear as headline sponsors of Film4 FrightFest. For us, it’s still a great place to get reacquainted with favourite filmmakers and make exciting discoveries, many of which end up on the channel. We can’t wait to settle into a new venue to see what the team has in store for us, while our FrightFest fortnight on Film4 allows viewers to invite the horror and excitement into their own home.”
Festival & day passes go on sale from 28 June. Tickets for Individual films are on sale from 19 July.
Bookings: http://ift.tt/1mlUBus
08712 240 240 (24 hour booking line)
Screens 5, 6 & 7 will house the main event while the Discovery strands will play in Screens 3 & 8.
For full programme details go to: www.frightfest.co.uk
Cool, right? And that's not the end of the announcements - stay tuned to Total Film for some future surprises!
Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice continues to add to its impressive ensemble, with Scoot McNairy the latest name to join the cast.
Deadline reports that the talented character actor is definitely joining the production, although admits to drawing a blank in attempting to find out who he will be playing.
Given that we know that Batman vs. Superman will lead into Justice League , its tempting to interpret Warner's silence as an indication that McNairy's role will be more than just a throwaway supporting character.
Online speculation has already proposed McNairy as a re-cast Green Lantern, with others suggesting he might make for an effective Robin, or Nightwing. A guessing game, then, but a fun one!
Directed by Zack Snyder and co-starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck and Jesse Eisenberg, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice will open in the UK on 29 April 2016.
Pacific Rim 2 is officially happening, with Legendary confirming a 2017 release date for Guillermo del Toro's sci-fi sequel.
Del Toro himself has always said he is open to directing a second film, and sure enough, the Mexican auteur has officially signed on to re-occupy the director's chair.
While the first film performed underwhelmingly in the US, barely limping past the $100 million mark, its international take was far more impressive, with a worldwide total of around $411 million.
It's that latter figure that will have convinced Legendary to give the sequel the green light, with del Toro, Travis Beacham and Zak Penn currently working on a script.
Pacific Rim 2 will arrive in the US on 7 April 2017, with a new animated series also in the pipeline to tide fans over until then. Long live the Kaiju!
In the meantime, check out what Guillermo del Toro and the cast had to tell us about what they wanted to see in a Pacific Rim sequel:
And here's GdT's video message announcing a sequel:
Mark Ruffalo has confirmed that the cast of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron will be heading to Comic-Con in just under a month's time, which should herald a look at some first footage of the forthcoming sequel.
"Yeah, we’re gonna go out there," confirms Ruffalo. "We’re all flying, we’re flying from London. We’re working. We’re shooting. We’re gonna stop and get on a plane and go to Comic-Con together. It’s gonna be amazing."
Meanwhile, Ruffalo has also been weighing up the possibility of a Hulk solo film, and the challenges such a production would potentially pose.
"He’s the one person who doesn’t want to do the very thing that all of us are dying to see him do, and he’s the one person who doesn’t want to be there, and so it can get very maudlin," explains Ruffalo.
"It could get very boring to watch the guy who’s moping around who doesn’t want to do the very thing that we’re all dying to see him do. But I do feel like we’ve gained some ground on this new version of him."
"I think the relationship between Banner and The Hulk as a conscious conflict… it could be really interesting. The one thing that I think The Hulk is terrified of is Banner, and that’s never really been mined."
That's certainly a dynamic we'd be keen to see explored further… in the meantime, Avengers: Age Of Ultron opens in the UK on 24 April 2015.
With the USA battling through to the last sixteen, our friends across the pond are fully in the grip of World Cup fever, which might go some way towards explaining this morning's revealtion that Warner is planning to remake Escape To Victory.
According to THR the studio is moving forward with a new version of the classic (and frankly ludicrous) saga of a team of Allied POW's using a football match against the Germans to plan their escape.
Starring the likes of Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone and Pelé, the original is a cult classic, and one that Warner clearly thinks is ripe for an update.
According to the report, Doug Liman is currently in discussions with the studio to direct the film, with Gavin O'Connor already hard at work on a script.
The original film was studded with bona fide professional footballers, with Ipswich Town players making up many of the numbers. A cameo for Pelé second time around? Let's hope so...
