Britgeek here.
Just confirmed in their latest newsletter, the four stooges behind Film4 FrightFest, the UK's premier (but I say Europe's) fantasy and horror film festival, have announced the opening and closing films for this year's event in London. Last year we saw Guillermo del Toro's DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK kick off the blood-spattered proceedings and the tense and taut British film A LONELY PLACE TO DIE brought the festival to a close. This year, however, to mark the 13th year of FrightFest, home-grown horrors are book-ending the five days in August with world premieres.
FrightFest will open with THE SEASONING HOUSE, the directorial debut of renowned make-up and prosthetics maestro Paul Hyett, who has worked on such films as EDEN LAKE, THE WOMAN IN BLACK and THE DESCENT. Dozens of films later, we're set to see suspense thriller TOWER BLOCK, penned by James Moran and co-directed by Ronnie Thompson and James Nunn.
It will be interesting to see if Moran has two films in this year's line-up as last year we were treated to a couple of hilarious scenes from his gross-out comedy COCKNEYS VS. ZOMBIES.
This summer's festival will also mark the first time that three screens will be in operation at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square. The main attractions will play in the massive Screen One, smaller genre gems will enjoy exhibition in the Discovery Screen, and some of FrightFest's “greatest hits” will be shown in the new Re-Discovery Screen.
The full line-up will be announced on June 29, but it has also been revealed that [REC] 3: GENESIS will be somewhere in the mix for its UK premiere, and both the director Paco Plaza and his leading lady Leticia Dolera may just be making their way over from Spain to attend.
You can expect an incredible range of special guests as always. Festival organiser Alan Jones has already hinted at some Italian names who are set to fly over and this year sees the launch of the new edition of his FAB Press Book on his good friend Dario Argento, so could we see the man himself in attendance?
I think it's a no-brainer that Argento's DRACULA 3D will be part of the main line-up, so let's speculate. Jones has teased that 'there's the anthology you want to see, the best Halloween 2012 release, the greatest serial killer thriller since HENRY and this year's AMER.' I would put my money on V/H/S/, which I am dying to see, being the aforementioned anthology flick, but then THE ABCS OF DEATH popped into my head. Could we be seeing both? I sure hope so.
Film4 FrightFest 2012 will run from August 23-27 at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square. Festival passes are £160, which is the same price as last year and this time round you're getting more bang for your buck with a whole new screen opening up. Single film tickets are £12 and the price for day passes has yet to be announced. Both passes will be available from 11am on June 30 for those who attend the overnight Sleepy Q at the Empire, and those particular die-hards will be treated to a free screening of THE AGGRESSION SCALE. For everyone else, passes go on sale at noon and can be purchased online or via telephone.
If that wasn't enough, FrightFest will be hosting a free preview screening of F director Johannes Roberts' new film STORAGE 24 on June 24. Visit the official FrightFest website for more information on that next week, plus all you need to know (so far) about this year's festival.
Oh, and they have one more hint for us in the form of a question: 'What’s the one controversial monster movie you’d love to see the complete version of?' I'm drawing a blank right now, so help me out.
TTFN
