FrightFest 2024 Line Up Will Be ‘Mythical, Shocking and Unholy’
25th Edition of the legendary festival Closing with Coralie Fargeat award winning The Substance
A certain football tournament might be grabbing the attention of part of the nation, August it will be all about FrightFest. The UK’s biggest horror fantasy festival will return Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, is turning 25! Our hearts turning dark with a line up that promises to be ‘Mythical, shocking and Unholy’
2024 the festival got a new sponsor, 2025 it’s a new venue with the five day extravaganza at The Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, including the two Odeon Luxe West End screens.
Running from Thursday 22nd August until 25th August. Showcasing sixty-nine features from across the world, across seven screens. Including twenty-five main screen premieres and forty-five Discovery Screen titles. This year there are twenty-eight world premieres, with eleven countries represented, spanning four continents. All coming with the regular short-film showcase, s, and some surprise 25th edition extras.
This year’s festival will open with the directorial debut feature from actress/filmmaker Joanne Mitchell, Broken Bird. Based on an original story by Tracey Sheals and Mitchell’s subsequent award-winning short Sybil, When a mortician’s dark desires get out of control. The festival will close with the feminist body horror, The Substance starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. Coralie Fargeat‘s film award winning film (making it’s UK premiere in Edinburgh week before), is all about a fading celebrity Elizabeth Sparkle (Moore) who uses a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
Bella Thorne will have her directorial short and feature film debut at FrightFest. Shining as the serial-killing teenager in the UK premiere of Sant Clare. It’s followed by Unsettled her directorial short debut also with it’s UK premiere. This year’s line up will have genre alumni presenting there latest scares. From Come To Daddy‘s Ant Thompson’s Bookworm reuniting with Elijah Woods. Cheap Thrills filmmaker E.L Katz‘s creature feature with Azrael: Angel Of Death. True crime horror Invader from Mikey Keating, ed by haunted house thriller from Jill Gervargizian (The Stylist). Finally André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) The Last Voyage Of The Demeter finally getting a screening in the UK.
Other attractions include the International premieres of the first Irish Language horror film ever made
An Taibhse (THE GHOST).The Dead Thing, is neo-realist take on ‘The Invisible Man’ for the online dating era. Then there are European premieres for JT Mollner’s twisty serial-killer chiller Strange Darling. A Desert, the powerful feature debut from Joshua Erkman and Steven Soderbergh presents Cold Wallet, a witty, cyber suspense thriller. Plus, there is a World premiere for sci-fi high of the year Test Screening, and UK premieres for the twisty, engrossing Dead Mail, gripping Luxembourgish drama The Last Ashes and post-apocalyptic thriller Survive.
Tales of supernatural terror are given contemporary twists this year with the dread-filled Traumatika , the hilarious male stripper caper Member’s Club, with Steve Oram and Peter Andre, queer ghost story anthology Hauntology, the visually haunting paranormal thriller Shelby Oaks and Ladybug, where a gay artist (Anthony Del Negro) is haunted by a homophobic serial-killer. Then there is DW Medoff’s I Will Never Leave You Alone which explores personal mental health themes, and Dark Match, stars wrestling legend Chris Jericho, comes up against some pretty hefty demons in the latest from Wolfcop director Lowell Dean.
One of this year’s favourite Glasgow FrightFest films The Invisible Raptor gets a re-run this time in London Plus genre icon Christopher Lee is intimately brought back to life in the World premiere of innovative documentary The Life And Deaths Of Christopher Lee.
Emerging voices in our favourite genre, will get there voice again in the Discovery Strand. Graham Skipper is back with his heart-felt post-apocalyptic tale The Lonely Man With The Ghost Machine. Carnage For Christmas is another signature fun, gory shocker from 19-year-old, transgender filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay. Brian Hanson, director of The Black String, returns with The Bunker, an alien invasion shocker, which stars horror icons Tobin Bell and Tony Todd.
The UK as always represented well at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, Damon Rickard’s cat-and-mouse horror Never Have I Ever, A regular attendee to the festival living his dream, a film on the big screen. vampire road movie Bogieville, Sophie Osbourn’s The Monster Beneath Us, Aled Owen’s Scopophobia , Joy Wilkinson’s 7 Keys, are some of the other delights.
The Discovery strand will also showcase the talents from around the world. These include the unique experimental Agatha, wild creature feature Scared Shitless, from Iceland the mythical haunter From Darkness, from Sweden the unholy In The Name Of God.
It’s not all about the new and established from the horror and fantasy genre. The classic will be represented with the likes of the 40th Anniversary of The Nightmare On Elm Street and Japanese time altering A Samurai In Time.
“FrightFest, the Dark Heart of Cinema, has been beating loud and proud now for an amazing 25 years” commented co director Alan Jones. “An incredible quarter of a century that has seen major challenges and transformations to the global film industry that FrightFest has embodied, embraced and emblazoned. Our past 25 glorious years have shown FrightFest in a state of continuous evolution, something we are determined will never, ever stop. So let the 25th Anniversary FrightFest begin”.
Head over to Pigeon Shrine FrightFest for the full details of the programme and to buy tickets head over to the festival website. es on sale from Saturday 13th July, noon. Single tickets on sale from Saturday 20th July, noon
Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024 will take from 22nd August until 25th August.
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