Frightfest 2023 – CINEWORLD SCREEN 2 (76)
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DISCOVERY SCREEN 2
FRIDAY AUGUST 25
12:55 BLACK MOLD (International Premiere)
Director: John Pata. With: Agnes Albright, Andrew Bailes, Jeremy Holm, Caito Aase. USA 2023. 92 mins.
In his feature debut, writer/director John Pata introduces the pitfalls of urban exploration with hallucinogenic psychological horror. Photographer Brooke and her pal Tanner sneak into abandoned, off-limits buildings for the sake of their art and also the adrenaline rush. But when the daredevil pair break into their holy grail – Franklin Hill, a large facility with a history – they encounter a volatile threat that holds them captive. The longer their attacker keeps them there, the more it becomes clear there’s something else profoundly wrong with the place as dangers surface at the intersection of artistic pursuits and internal sabotage.
15:20 SHORT FILM SHOWCASE 1 (Line-up to be announced)
18:20 WHAT YOU WISH FOR (European Premiere)
Director: Nicholas Tomnay. With: Nick Stahl, Tamsin Topolski, Randy Vasquez, Penelope Mitchell. USA 2023. 102 mins.
A chef with gambling problems flees to a Latin American villa where he assumes another man’s identity in an edgy horror noir thriller from Nicholas Tomnay, director of the Sundance hit THE PERFECT HOST. A morality tale about omnipresent greed in the post President Donald Trump years, Tomnay looks at how the rich and powerful in America have become completely uninterested in the world as a community, in particular the inaction concerning climate change. Taking current issues and folding them into a genre movie with bite, WHAT YOU WISH FOR is exactly what you’ll wish for.
20:50 POUNDCAKE (International Premiere)
Director: Onur Tukel. With: Ron Brice, Eva Dorrepaal, Pia Paez, Onur Tukel. USA 2023. 90 mins
A savage serial killer is murdering straight white men in New York City. No one cares. Late at night the hulking brute, wielding heavy chains, cruises the mean streets of Manhattan looking for victims to punish in the most unspeakable ways. As podcasters, social influencers and the concerned population at large discuss the killings in socio-political, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and other current issue terms, the executioner relentlessly continues his slaughter spree. Inspired by 1980s slashers, maniac icons Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, and Spike Lee’s SUMMER OF SAM, POUNDCAKE is a horror satire mixing stalk-and-slash with on-trend political discourse.
22:45 WEREWOLF SANTA (World Premiere)
Director: Airell Anthony Hayles. With: Emily Booth, Joe Bob Briggs, Mark Arnold, Katherine Rodden. UK 2023. 70 mins.
Lucy has a social media channel where she hunts evidence of actual monsters, but it’s not doing so great with just a few viewers following her disappointing posts. Everything changes on Christmas Eve, when her camera witnesses Santa getting bitten by a werewolf before he turns lycanthrope himself! As Werewolf Santa starts wreaking bloody havoc in their seaside town, Lucy and her bickering family set off on a madcap adventure armed with a rusty skate and a vague understanding of how to kill werewolves gained from her collection of horror comics. The Beast must die to save Christmas!
SATURDAY AUGUST 26
10:50 RIVER (UK Premiere)
Director: Junta Yamaguchi. With: Saori, Riko Fujitani, Kazunari Tosa, Shiori Kubo. Japan 2023. 86 mins.
It’s déjà vu all over again in the new quirky fantasy from Junta Yamaguchi, director of BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES. At the Japanese Fujiya Inn, staff and guests are suddenly thrown into a time loop where everything reverts to the way it was two minutes before. But while time rewinds, and everyone returns to where they were, their memories continue. Some want to leave the loop and get on with their lives. Others like the calming status quo and want to stay forever. Yet all have unresolved issues as they join forces to investigate the cause of the phenomenon.
13:00 SPOOKT (World Premiere)
Director: Tony Reames. With: Christen Sharice, Hayley Leary, Erin Brown, Eric Roberts. USA 2023. 80 mins.
Director Tony Reames was a huge hit at FrightFest Glasgow 2019 with his acclaimed short film PLAYTIME’S OVER. Now he’s back with a terrific feature where the long buried secrets of small town Greenville, Pennsylvania, are shockingly revealed. When paranormal investigator Claire and skeptic Rachel join forces to discover the truth behind a missing girl and the infamous Dr. Byler, beliefs are tested when unexplained occurrences begin to happen, centering around the notorious Gibson house. Sins of the past come back to terrorise the living when Claire and Rachel’s reality gets horrifyingly turned upside down.
15:10 HEADLINE SPONSOR PRESENTATION (Details tbc)
18:00 TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST (European Premiere)
Director: Sean Hogan. With: Mark Carlisle, James Swanton, Harry Roebuck, Richard Rowden. UK 2023. 43 mins.
An eerie folk horror mini-feature and an atmospheric homage to the great tradition of British supernatural television from the 1970s. In rural 17th century England, a group of men gather to carry a coffin on the long walk to the local graveyard for burial. A great deal of ancient folklore and superstition surrounds the pathway to the church, and several of the party are afraid to walk it after dark. Squire Marlow, the grieving father of the dead man, promises to double their wages if they agree to make the mysterious journey full of unexpected revelations.
20:45 THORNS (World Premiere)
Director: Douglas Schulze. With: Doug Bradley, Cassandra Schomer, Jon Bennett, Bob Shumaker. USA 2023. 91 mins.
An audacious meld of religion and science inspired by the classic horrors HELLRAISER, THE THING, ALIEN and THE EXORCIST. An ex-priest working for NASA is sent to investigate a remote observatory that went silent after receiving a mysterious radio signal from deep space. Upon arrival, he discovers the signal has opened a portal unleashing a thorned monster. The former priest must now summon his lost faith to stop the signal from spreading hell on earth and jumpstarting the end of the world. With gruesome gut ripping, tormented nuns, a biblical apocalypse and Pinhead icon Doug Bradley playing a mysterious archbishop.
20:45 TOPAAK/TRIGGER (UK Premiere)
Director: Richard Somes. With: Arjo Atayde, Julia Montes, Sid Lucero, Kokoy De Santos. The Philippines 2023. 112 mins.
A Special Forces operative suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is discharged from the army due to his extreme medical condition. Finding employment as a security guard his world is turned upside down when he finds himself embroiled in a different kind of urban war after a young woman seeks his protection from a corrupt police death squad working for one of the most brutal drug cartels. As the pair continues to fight for their lives, the man must confront his inner demons and earn the redemption he so desperately craves in a turbo-charged high-octane action thriller.
SUNDAY AUGUST 27
11:20 I AM MONSTERS! (World Premiere)
Director: Nick Vince. With: Nick Vince. UK 2023. 71 mins.
A FrightFest favorite guest and one of the UK’s shining beacons in the queer horror scene is actor/director Nicholas Vince. Most well known for his debut role as the Chatterer in Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER, and Kinski (Moon Face) in the cult shocker NIGHTBREED, Vince took to the stage in 2019 with his autobiographical one-man-show ‘I Am Monsters!’ Both a resoundingly nostalgic and relatable tale of growing up in love with horror, and an essential discourse on the turmoil of ‘growing up gay’ under draconian Thatcherian rule where the closet was always safest, this is the superb movie adaptation.
13:40 THE BLACK MASS (International Premiere)
Director: Devanny Pinn. With: Jeremy London, Kathleen Kinmont, Lisa Wilcox, Jennifer Wenger. USA 2023. 85 mins.
The highly anticipated directorial debut of genre staple Devanny Pinn who has appeared in over eighty horror movies sharing the screen with such icons as Linda Blair, Danny Trejo and Sid Haig. A true-crime thriller based on actual events that took place in Florida during the winter of 1978, it unfolds over a 24-hour period and centres on a serial killer in the lead-up to his ultimate, deranged killing spree. Presenting a harrowing and unsettling portrayal of the twisted mind of a notorious murderer, Pinn also explores the devastating consequences of his violent actions on the victims and survivors alike.
16:00 ALLIGATOR (Retrospective)
Director: Lewis Teague. With: Robert Forster, Robin Riker, Henry Silva, Dean Jagger. USA 1980. 91 mins.
The cult monster movie is back!. Brilliantly scripted by B movie maestro John Sayles (BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, PIRANHA, THE HOWLING), the urban legend about baby alligators being flushed in New York sewers and flourishing becomes a highly polished horror gem. Brilliant Robert Forster is the cop haunted by his ‘history’ of losing partners, a tragedy repeated when his latest sidekick ends up in giant jaws, and Henry Silva is wonderful as the great hunter summoned to stalk the monstrous gator. A beloved classic of shock, terror and queasy humor leading to a finale of riotous suspense.
18:40 T BLOCKERS (European Premiere)
Director: Alice Maio Mackay. With: Lauren Last, Lewi Dawson, Etcetera Etcetera, Lisa Fanto. Australia 2023. 74 mins.
An authentic Australian trans horror film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Alice Maio Mackay (SO VAM, BAD GIRL BOOGEY), an18 year-old trans and neuro-divergent woman. Shot with a predominantly queer, non-binary, and trans cast and crew. When ancient parasites that thrive on hatred rise from beneath a small town, taking the most fearful and susceptible as hosts, a young trans filmmaker struggling to transition in these increasingly hostile times for LGBTQ+ people, finds herself the only one who can sense the possessed, and rally the resistance before the horror escapes and spreads.
20:50 KIM’S VIDEO (International Premiere)
Directors: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin. With: Yongman Kim, Isabel Gillies, Robert Greene, Eric Hynes. USA 2022. 88 mins.
For two decades, Manhattan cinephiles could access a treasure trove of movies through Kim’s Video store. Run by Yongman Kim, he amassed 55,000 rental titles. In 2008, facing a changing industry, Kim offered to give away his collection provided it stay intact and be available to members. To revitalize tourism, the Italian village of Salemi, Sicily, became home to the archive. But after the initial publicity faded, so too did any sign of the collection… A playful documentary embracing various filmic forms on the quest to track down what happened to the legendary collection and to free it from purgatory.
MONDAY AUGUST 28
13:20 GOOD BOY (UK Premiere)
Director: Viljar Bøe. With: Gard Løkke, Katrine Lovise Øpstad Fredriksen, Nicolai Narvesen Lied, Viljar Bøe. Norway 2022. 76 mins.
Millionaire heir Christian meets student Sigrid on a dating app. Meeting up at his mansion, she’s shocked after their liaison to encounter his dog, Frank. Problem is Frank is a man dressed and acting like a dog – therapy Christian says for his friend with a traumatic past to cope with stress. Concerned at first, Sigrid gradually comes round to the pet ‘puppy’ antics and starts dating Christian properly. Then he asks her to spend a weekend at his country cabin where events take a completely unexpected turn and their whimsical romance lurches into shocking horror.
15:45 DEPARTING SENIORS (World Premiere)
Director: Clare Cooney. With: Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, Yani Gellman, Ireon Roach, Maisie Merlock. USA 2023. 85 mins.
After an act of bullying sends kind but awkward high school senior Javier to the hospital, he begins having psychic visions that reveal the horrifying truth behind a rash of supposed suicides at his school. It is now up to him and his sarcastic best friend Bianca to unmask a serial killer who’s targeting his classmates before it’s too late. As fiercely anarchic as it is genuinely heartfelt, director Clare Cooney’s TRAGEDY GIRLS meets DETENTION wonder is SCREAM for the next generation, deftly melding true terror with coming-of-age pathos inside the horrors of high school.
