FrightFest
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FrightFest 2014: ‘The Shining’ review
★★★★★ Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece The Shining (1980) is one of those rare films that has found itself submerged into the public consciousness across several generations. Continually parodied in popular culture, from The Simpsons to Family Guy, even those yet to have seen Jack Nicholson’s maniacal lead performance as Jack Torrance may well feel like…
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FrightFest 2014: ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ review
★★★★☆ Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt, as has clearly become the case with the Nightmare on Elm Street cycle. There have been nine entries in the iconic series to date (each increasingly weaker as time has progressed), to the extent that it’s remarkably easy to forget how groundbreaking the original film – screening at this…
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FrightFest 2014: ‘The Mirror’ review
★★☆☆☆ It’s films like The Mirror (2014) which make one despair about the current state of films in general, and more specifically those which try to pass themselves off as horror. This new chiller by British writer and director Edward Boase has all the finesse of an amateur dramatics production without any of the appeal…
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FrightFest 2014: ‘Extraterrestrial’ review
★★☆☆☆ Four years after making a respectable impact with his debut Timecrimes (2007), Nacho Vigalondo returns with Extraterrestrial (2011), a low-budget Spanish science fiction drama that’s unlikely to have the same impact. The film centres on Julio (Julián Villagrán) and Julia (Michelle Jenner), two people who wake up together with no memory of the night…
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FrightFest 2014: ‘Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead’ review
★★★★☆ What two more distasteful subjects could there be than Nazis and zombies – neither of which could usually be mistaken as the basis for a humorous film. Combine them however (with the addition of the remnants of a Russian army), under the guidance of director Tommy Wirkola, and what you get is Dead Snow…
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FrightFest 2014: ‘All Cheerleaders Die’ review
★★★☆☆ Devoted horror fans Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson combine for knowing FrightFest 2014 offering All Cheerleaders Die (2013), a jocular genre piece that subverts the popular high school movie template in favour of a more menacingly comic – and bloody – offering. A rollercoaster ride of tongue-in-cheek cliché, there’s plenty of fun to be…
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FrightFest 2013: ‘Yellow’ review
★★★★☆ Pulled into this year’s Film4 FrightFest shorts programme at the last minute after impressing the powers that be, Yellow (2012) is a strange, seductive and visually striking short by young director Ryan Haysom. Shot in Berlin, Yellow not only showcases the talent of Haysom and his cinematographer Jon Britt, but also proves that even…
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FrightFest 2013: ‘Daylight’ review
★★★☆☆ Not to be confused with the 1996 Stallone film, Daylight (2013) is something of a team effort, boasting a trio of directors – David McCracken, Joel Townsend and Kaidan Tremain – who also divvy up a number of additional production credits as well. Taking pace in the titular town of Daylight, this low budget horror…
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FrightFest 2013: ‘In Fear’ review
★★★☆☆ A low-concept, micro-budget British horror may not be the most enticing of premises, but thanks to two standout performances from rising stars Alice Englert (Ginger & Rosa) and Iain De Caestecker (most recently seen in Scott Graham’s feature debut Shell) Jeremy Lovering’s In Fear (2013) is a far more rewarding experience than its disconcerting…
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FrightFest 2012: ‘Sinister’ review
★★★☆☆ As mainstream US horrors go, Scott Derrickson’s latest twist on the found footage formula, Sinister (2012), provides an enjoyable ride of bumps-in-the-night thrills and spills. The traditionally solid Ethan Hawke stars as a true-crime writer (a clear link to his turn earlier this year in French psychological drama The Woman in the Fifth), who…
