Haddonfield Horror Vs. Film4 FrightFest: What we’re looking forward to
So it’s that wonderful time of the year again! When all the children gather round and buy tickets for Film4 FrightFest. Day Passes went on sale a couple of weeks ago, but we still have the single tickets to go on sale (27th July). If, like us, you can’t make every single day and you don’t know what to see, we can help you! Here is a top ten list of our most anticipated horror films for this years FrightFest (in no particular order).
1) Curse of Chucky – MAIN SCREEN, Thursday 22nd Aug, 9:00PM
The serial killer who’s such a doll returns for more murderous mayhem. Chucky arrives to wreak havoc within a dysfunctional family that’s regrouped for a funeral. In the wake of her mother’s passing, Nica – in a wheelchair since birth – is forced to put up with her sister, Barb, brother-in-law Ian, 5 year-old niece Alice and her stern nanny as they say their tearful goodbyes. When the people she loathes start turning up dead, the fearless Nica is horrified to discovers the culprit might be the weird doll she was sent a couple of days earlier. But will they become the greatest friends to the end? Picking up events from the finale of CHILD’S PLAY 3, with creator and SEED OF CHUCKY helmer Don Mancini back in the director’s chair, and showcasing the chilling vocal styling of the legendary Brad Dourif (the original Lakeshore Strangler Charles Lee Ray), look who’s stalking again!
Why are we excited? Well, it’s Chucky! The killer doll! This feels a lot like a “Requel” from the trailer, so we’re extremely intrigued. The only worry at the moment is… is that a CGI face? No… Surely not…
2) You’re Next – MAIN SCREEN, Thursday 22nd Aug, 11:30PM
It’s the genre phenomenon everybody has been talking about for ages and now you can finally see director Adam (A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE) Wingard’s home invasion horror slaked with survival suspense, pitch black comedy and body count splatter. A roller-coaster frightener that practically raises the roof, join a family reunion from hell. The dysfunctional Davison family are getting together to celebrate a wedding anniversary. And while Crispian warns his new girlfriend Erin that things could get tense around the dinner table, nothing prepares her or any of the oblivious family for what lies in store. For when a crossbow bolt smashes through the window into a party guest’s eye, the dazed family come under attack by unknown assailants who want them dead. But the assassins didn’t count on kick-ass Erin! Full of fun kills, fabulous twists and never a dull moment, YOU’RE NEXT is a rafter rocker of a shocker.
Why are we excited? Adam Wingard’s work on V/H/S 1 and 2 was enough to get us excited for this one. Home invasion films can always be frightening, as they’re corrupting the place you feel most safe, but ‘You’re Next’ seems to be so much more. So far critics have advised people not to look up anything about the film and to just go in blind; sounds like this year’s ‘Cabin In The Woods’… and yes… we loved ‘Cabin In The Woods’. (Read our review here)
3) The Dyatlov Pass Incident – MAIN SCREEN, Friday 23rd Aug, 10:15AM
In February, 1959, nine Russians hikers ventured into the Ural Mountains on a trip that should have been manageable for a group with their vast experience. Two weeks later, all nine were discovered dead. A search party found the hikers’ tents ripped open from the inside and all seemed to have died from hypothermia. ·Aside from a few fractures and broken bones, there appeared to be indication of foul play. With no compelling evidence or witnesses to account for the puzzling night, the case quickly fell into legendary infamy. Many have theorized that a small avalanche caught them off guard, forced them to cut through their tents and make an escape into their snowy surroundings where they froze. The riddle has baffled investigators, researchers and authorities ever since. Now five young filmmakers retrace the steps of the doomed hikers in pursuit of the unsolvable mystery. What will they find?Why are we excited? Quite simple really, we’re a sucker for Found Footage. Yes, the genre has been milked so much now that it’s just a pile of crumbling bones, but this could be fun! Put all nausea from the shaky cam aside, and we might have ourselves a decent little flick. (Read our review here)
4) Hatchet III – MAIN SCREEN, Friday 23rd Aug, 4:15PM
Some legends never die! In the third gore-gantuan instalment of Adam Green’s modern slasher franchise, Marybeth uncovers the true secret to stopping the voodoo curse that has left the ghost of deformed maniac Victor Crowley haunting and stalking the Honey Island swamplands in the New Orleans bayou for decades. An entire police department, paramedic response team and heavily armed SWAT unit face off with the infamous slaughter-machine in this action-packed, explosive sequel full of splatter stunts (all adhering to Green’s strict no-CGI rule) and jaw-dropping violence that raises both the bar and the blood-soaked body count of the previous two episodes to new levels of lip-smacking hilarity and delirious mayhem. The first of the series to be filmed almost entirely on location in New Orleans, this marks the directing debut of ace cameraman B J McDonnell (‘The Walking Dead’, THE LORDS OF SALEM, THE COLLECTION), actor Leif (STRAIT-JACKET) Erickson’s grandson.Why are we excited? The Hatchet films are bad. But they know they’re bad. So that’s okay… right? Hatchet III is on here because, well, where else are we going to see hilarious gore-splattered special effects along with classic cliche after cliche? It will no doubt be a laugh. (Read our review here)
5) V/H/S 2 – MAIN SCREEN, Friday 23rd Aug, 9:15PM
In the far superior sequel to V/H/S, two private investigators break into the abandoned house of a missing college student, uncovering a collection of mysterious videotapes. They reveal four horrifying films, trafficked by an underground tape sharing community, which lead the pair to a shocking resolution to their case and the terrifying motives behind the disappearance. The horrific contents of each cassette come from such genre visionaries responsible for an array of notable shockers like YOU’RE NEXT, A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, THE RAID, HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN and THE ABCs OF DEATH and involve robotic eyeball transplants, subjective zombie attacks, sinister Indonesian religious cults and slumber party alien abduction. This time around the scares are more intense, the gore flows more freely, the imagination is on overdrive and the creative filmmaking tightly controlled. So step onto this haunted found-footage roller coaster ride for unlimited funhouse screams.
Why are we excited? Well, a few of us at Haddonfield have already seen ‘V/H/S 2’. Ultimately, it is far more superior to the first film, and a lot of fun can be had with it! (Read our review here). The segments in ‘V/H/S 2’ are better than those in the first film, with some really imaginative ideas. A lot of fun can be had with this film, so if you can, GO SEE IT.
6) For Elisa – DISCOVERY SCREEN 1, Friday 23rd Aug, 10:40AM + DISCOVERY SCREEN 2, Sunday 25th Aug, 11:00PM
Recalling such vintage Spanish shockers as THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED and THE BELL OF HELL, this terrifying story finds its basis in an innocent children’s game. Something that looks naive and harmless turns into the worst nightmare, into the struggle to escape a tragic and expected end, into an explicit and inevitable horror. Desperate to earn some money student Ana answers a job advert asking for occasional nanny duties. Arriving at apartment 3B in the town square for the job interview, things couldn’t have gone better either… tea, biscuits, nursery rhymes and a healthy hourly rate. But before long Ana realises she has entered a terrifying dark world of obsession and misery. Kept prisoner in a creepy residence full of antique toys, she must try and overcome the deranged diva Diamantina and her strange daughter Elisa to prevent herself from becoming just another possession in the house of 1000 dolls.Why are we excited? This film just sounds sounds bat-shit crazy! The Spanish do horror so well, it’s hard not to get excited! Oh… and children’s dolls… *shivers*
7) R.I.P.D – 3D – MAIN SCREEN, Saturday 24th Aug, 8:55PM
MEN IN BLACK meets GHOSTBUSTERS in an epic blockbuster crime comedy fantasy by RED director Robert Schwentke. Based on the comic book ‘Rest In Peace Department’ by Peter M. Lenkov published by Dark Horse Entertainment, veteran sheriff Roy Pulsifer has spent his career with the legendary R.I.P.D. force tracking monstrous spirits who are cleverly disguised as ordinary people. His mission: To arrest and bring to justice a special brand of criminals trying to escape final judgment by hiding among the unsuspecting on Earth. Once the wisecracking Roy is assigned former rising-star detective Nick Walker as his junior officer, the new partners have to turn grudging respect into top-notch teamwork. For when they uncover a plot that could end life as this world knows it, two of R.I.P.D.’s finest must miraculously restore the cosmic balance…or watch the eternal time tunnel to the afterlife begin sending angry souls the very wrong way.Why are we excited? This film can either be really fun or just really really bad. It’s not exactly a horror, so it feels rather out of place, put Jeff Bridges… come on… you can’t say no to him.
8) In Fear – MAIN SCREEN, Sunday 25th Aug, 12:40PM
In Jeremy Lovering’s chilling feature debut, a young couple fights to survive one night-turned-nightmare. Driving to a music festival Tom and Lucy have plans to cement their burgeoning relationship at a countryside hotel. But with hotel signs leading them in ever-decreasing circles through the rural terrain and darkness falling they soon become lost in a maze of dirt tracks and dead ends… and the target of an unknown tormentor. With the lead performances by Alice Englert (Jane Campion’s daughter) and Iain De Caestecker given an added edge by the fact Lovering withheld the script and often concealed what was about to happen to their characters as the story developed, this uniquely produced white-knuckle horror revels in its sense of unsettling claustrophobic style. Tackling primal fears of what might be lurking in the deep darkness, its chilling visual style is enhanced by shrewd sound design keeping everything edgy, tense and visceral.Why are we excited? Real fear in real time? Yes please! Instead of having every scare laid out for the actor, the majority of the film was improvised (much like The Blair Witch Project), so the screams and the fear in it? Yeah… they’re real, and that just makes the film a whole lot more interesting, it really puts you in their shoes. Along with ‘You’re Next’, this is up there as one of THE MOST anticipated. (Read our review here)
9) We Are What We Are – MAIN SCREEN, Monday 26th Aug, 6:30PM
A brilliant re-imaging of Jorge Michel Grau’s Mexican art-house fantasy from Jim Mickle, director of STAKE LAND, as chilling American Gothic that takes the mainstream genre to new artistic heights. Following the unexpected death of their mother, teenage daughters Iris and Rose Parker are ordered by their stern father to carry on a macabre ancestral ritual at all costs. But when a torrential storm hits their upstate New York region, the town’s river overflows and the local authorities start uncovering long-buried clues that lead them closer to the Parker family’s cannibalistic secret. Seasoned with unexpected bursts of visceral poetry, Mickle and screenwriting partner Nick Damici take the bones of the 2010 FrightFest selection and refashion them into a masterwork of polished suspense. Stunning performances from the top-notch cast add enormous weight to this major career step forward for Mickle in terms of directorial maturity, superb film craft and subtle horror nuance.Why are we excited? The original ‘We Are What We Are’ was great, and I mean really great; it did for cannibals what ‘Let The Right One In’ did for vampires. The end result was a darkly humorous and violent family drama. ‘Stake Land’ is another great film, a depressing post-apocalyptic road movie, with that director on board you can’t NOT be excited. Early feedback has said that this remake is better than the original, hopefully we’ll find out for ourselves soon enough.
10) Nosferatu – DISCOVERY SCREEN 2, Sunday 25th Aug, 6:30PM
Few films have had a more profound and lasting impact on the horror genre than Murnau’s prime example of German Expressionism, directed with determination to evoke unsettling chills with a strong visual appeal. This unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ – the reason why it was originally shown in butchered form due to Stoker’s widow taking legal action – features symphonic lighting, rhythmic editing and horror imagery that has been copied endlessly ever since. During the Bremen plague in 1838 estate agent Hutter is sent to the Carpathian Mountains to arrange a property sale for the mysterious Count Orlock (the magnificent Max Schreck). When Hutter falls under his blood-sucking master’s thrall, it’s left to his wife Ellen to banish the evil creature back to the hell he came from. The most celebrated sequence – Orlock climbing stairs to Ellen’s boudoir, his menacing outline casting terrifying wall shadows – remains unparalleled in the horror hall of fame.Why are we excited? This is the original Nosferatu! To this day it still scares me. The thought of that shadows going up the stairs still sends a chill down my spine. If there’s a chance to see this on the big screen, you leap at it! It is, and always will be, one of the best vampire films ever made.
There are plenty of other great looking films at this years FrightFest! An honorable mention goes to ‘Willow Creek’, ‘Antisocial’ and ‘100 Bloody Acres’ (Review Here).
We hope to see you there!
For more information on this years FrightFest, click the image below.
Leave a Reply