The August bank holiday means one thing for us horror fans: Arrow Video FrightFest! Things may look a little different this year, with FrightFest having a virtual edition over the weekend of Friday 28 August to Monday 31 August, but the most important element hasn’t changed at all: its excellent line-up of horror films to thrill and delight!
This year’s FrightFest includes seven world premieres and sixteen UK premieres, with ten countries represented from four continents in a deadly, daring and diverse programme exclusively presented to UK audiences.
Here’s a run-down on what you can expect from FrightFest, as well as screens, dates and timings…
Thursday 27 August
19:00 THE EVOLUTION OF HORROR FRIGHTFEST QUIZ (EVENT)
The Evolution of Horror FrightFest live pub quiz will be live streaming and putting your horror knowledge to the test.
21:15 SKY SHARKS (UK Premiere)
In order to conquer the world, the Nazis created modified sharks, which were able to fly and whose riders were genetically mutated, undead superhumans. So a military task force is put together to prevent the universe from facing the jawsome menace again…
Friday 28 August
Arrow Video Screen
18:00 THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS VAMPIRES (World Premiere)
Stranger heroes, Joshua and Ariel, literally crash into each other along a dark road in the dead of night… and before long find themselves pursued across North America, the target of an unstoppable supernatural force.
20:45 12 HOUR SHIFT (UK Premiere)
Junky nurse Mandy is in the organ trafficking business with her erratic cousin Regina. But the kidney she is supposed to deliver gets misplaced, and Mandy must find another source, or else she’s toast. Then her brother and a convicted killer are brought into the ER…
Horror Channel Screen
19:00 I AM LISA (World Premiere)
A vicious and corrupt small-town sheriff and her deputies brutalise Lisa and leave her for dead in the nearby woods. There she is bitten by a werewolf and bestowed with supernatural abilities. Can Lisa retain her humanity as she exacts revenge and cedes herself more and more to the wolf side of her personality?
21:30 TRIGGERED (UK Premiere)
After a wild night of partying in the woods, nine friends they wake up with Suicide Vests strapped onto their chests. All have varying times on their countdown clocks. Soon they discover they can ‘take’ one another’s time by killing each other…
Saturday 29 August
Arrow Video Screen
12:00 THE COLUMNIST (UK Premiere)
Newspaper columnist Femke Boot is suddenly flooded with anonymous nasty messages and death threats on her social media pages. Who is responsible and why? When she finds out her revenge is swift and unfortunately deadly…
15:00 THE HORROR CROWD (World Premiere)
A revealing, intimate documentary from veteran actor insider Ruben Pla spotlighting the Hollywood horror community
18:00 BLIND (UK Premiere)
Former actress Faye has lost her vision, and career, due to botched laser eye surgery. Living alone in her dream house, she’s supported by her visually impaired friend Sophia, and her mute physical trainer, Luke. However, what none of them are aware of is the infatuated stranger secretly living in her basement…
20:45 DON’T CLICK (World Premiere)
Josh’s college roommate, Zane, has gone missing. All that remains is his laptop with the screen flashing on a graphic pornography website. As the flashing intensifies, Josh too blacks out, only to suddenly wake up beside Zane in a dank, surreal cellar with no apparent way out…
Horror Channel Screen
13:00 THE HONEYMOON PHASE (UK Premiere)
Tom and Eve enter ‘The Millennium Project’ – for a fee of $50,000, the study analyses couples while they reside in secluded smart homes. However, the experiment leads Eve into a violent descent of madness. Is Eve suffering from cabin fever? Or is it just part of the study Tom’s in on? For he might not be the man she thinks he is…
14:00 PLAYHOUSE (World Premiere) FIRST BLOOD
As horror writer Jack Travis obsesses over creating a new theatre show set in a haunted Scottish castle, demonic disturbances begin to prey on his troubled daughter. When the supernatural forces start to close in on him too, Jack is forced to reckon with the terrifying consequences of creating such a dark and macabre play.
19:00 THEY’RE OUTSIDE (World Premiere) FIRST BLOOD
YouTube celebrity psychologist, Max Spencer, sets himself the challenge of getting an intensely agoraphobic woman to leave her home in just ten days. However, as the time counts down, a creepy local legend about the black magic practicing Green Eyes that holds the town in its grip, starts to become a horrifying reality…
21:30 DARK PLACE (UK Premiere)
A ground-breaking anthology feature that approaches post-colonial Aboriginal Australian history through the though-provoking lenses of historical parallels, horror, gore and fantasy…
Sunday 30 August
Arrow Video Screen
12:00 SKULL: THE MASK (UK Premiere)
In 1944 a barbaric Nazi experiment with the South American artifact, the Mask of Anhangá, failed and now the cursed mask has turned up in Sao Paulo to possess victims who commit visceral sacrifices and shocking bloodbaths…
15:00 HAIL TO THE DEADITES (International Premiere)
An entertaining and informative documentary about The Evil Dead and the 1981 cult classic shocker’s continuing cultural impact.
18:00 HALL (World Premiere)
When a hotel hallway is ravaged by a dreadful airborne virus, pregnant Japanese runaway wife Naomi and Val, a mother trapped in a toxic marriage, are thrust into the fight of their lives. Will these two women avoid the debilitating sickness and get out alive?
20:45 A GHOST WAITS (English Premiere)
Jack’s job is to fix up the house. Spectral agent Muriel’s eternal task is to haunt it. They should be enemies, but they become fascinated by one another and eventually smitten, leading them to question everything about their work, lives, and decisions.
Horror Channel Screen
13:00 CLAPBOARD JUNGLE: SURVIVING THE INDEPENDENT FILM BUSINESS (European Premiere)
Following five years in the life and career of independent filmmaker Justin McConnell, this documentary aims to understand the struggles of financing, attracting the right talent, working with practical effects and selling the finished product in the hope of turning a profit.
16:00 TWO HEADS CREEK (UK Premiere)
After the death of their adoptive Polish mother, a timid butcher and his drama queen twin sister leave post Brexit UK and take an adventure into the Australian outback in search of their biological mother. But the seemingly tolerant townsfolk of the sleepy Two Heads Creek backwater are hiding a sinister, meaty secret…
19:00 PANEL: HORROR IN LOCKDOWN (EVENT)
Hosted by Rosie Fletcher, UK Editor of Den Of Geek a panel of special guests from the industry will discuss how the horror genre has been affected by the global pandemic.
21:30 AQUASLASH (UK Premiere)
The Wet Valley Water Park welcomes high school students celebrating their graduation in all their unleashed libido glory. However, in the midst of the ribald romping revels, a black-gloved murderer is tinkering with the water slides and sabotaging the swimming pools…
Monday 31 August
Arrow Video Screen
12:00 ARROW VIDEO PODCAST (EVENT)
Join illustrious co-hosts – filmmaker and journalist Sam Ashurst (Frankenstein’s Creature) and SFX guru Dan Martin (Lords Of Chaos, The Girl On The Third Floor) – for a live recording of an upcoming episode of Arrow Video Podcast.
15:00 AV THE HUNT (UK Premiere)
A young couple are making love when suddenly a cop barges in. Young and athletic Ayse escapes but her lover is murdered. Now all the men in her strict family are chasing her around the city and the countryside to kill her in order to avenge their honour. Ayse’s only key for endurance is to become as ruthless as those pursuing her.
18:00 DARK STORIES (UK Premiere)
Dark Stories tells five tales of gripping terror in a fantastic anthology where horror, suspense and humor intertwine with stark reality to make us shiver with fear!
Horror Channel Screen
13:00 ENHANCED (UK Premiere)
George belongs to a secret unit dedicated to hunting down illegal mutants. David, an ‘Enhanced’, claiming vengeance against the government who used him, tracks down similar mutants to join his mission. But when he starts to eliminate them, getting stronger each time, his true psychopathic plans are revealed. Now George must join forces with an unlikely partner, Anna, a mutant he captured to end David’s killing spree.
16:00 BLINDERS (UK Premiere)
Andy Escobedo, starting fresh after a messy break-up, has relocated from Austin to Los Angeles. Eager to make new connections, he befriends Roger, an unusual rideshare driver. But when Roger’s behaviour gets strange, Andy dumps him. But Roger has no intention of being ditched that easily…
19:00 THE SWERVE (UK Premiere)
Holly’s psychosis starts to crumble after she’s part of a deadly car accident. But did that actually happen or not? Just one of many things on her disintegrating mind, along with her difficult two sons, her distant husband, a student in class who shows inappropriate interest and her ‘perfect’ sister who returns to the fold.
FrightFest will be running from Friday 28 August to Monday 31 August. For full programme details head on over to the FrightFest website.
