FILM NEWS (UK): Horror Channel FrightFest celebrates 12th year at Glasgow Film Festival with record-breaking fourteen titles
Brittany Allen in IT STAINS THE SANDS RED
Monstrous stories, unspeakable urban legends, brutal acts and fearsome folktales dominate as the UK’s favourite horror fantasy event returns to the Glasgow Film Festival with a record fourteen films, including ten UK premieres, screening from Thurs 23 Feb to Sat 25 Feb 2017 at the iconic Glasgow Film Theatre.
Kicking off with a special screening of A CURE FOR WELLNESS, an intense psychological ride from Gore Verbinski, the visionary director of THE RING. and ending in sex and blood-drenched frenzy with the UK premiere of Roberto San Sebastián’s THE NIGHT OF THE VIRGIN, the 2017 line-up Is a shivering selection of the finest and wildest new fear-stokers the genre has to offer.
This year there are two films screening on the Thursday night. Following the 9pm showing of A CURE FOR WELLNESS is an exclusive unveiling of PHANTASM: REMASTERED, a new 4K restoration of the never forgotten fantasy horror masterpiece.
Friday’s line-up springs into high-octane action with the UK premiere of Matthias Hoene’s blockbusting $50 million fantasy epic THE WARRIOR’S GATE. This is followed by the UK Premiere of IT STAINS THE SANDS RED, a thrilling and unexpectedly heart-felt zombie road movie. Director Colin Minihan and lead actress Brittany Allen will be in attendance. Next up is THE TRANSFIGURATION, Michael O’Shea’s nihilistic meditation on millennial angst that took Cannes 2016 by storm. We’re pleased to say that Michael will be joining us to discuss the film.
Our 9pm presentation unleashes monster mash fury with the original Gangsta Lizard wreaking fabulous havoc in the UK Premiere of SHIN GODZILLA and rounding off the evening in visually stunning style is the first UK showing of Joe Dietsch & Louie Gibson’s award-winning HAPPY HUNTING, a dark and dangerous unfolding of desert death games.
Getting the Saturday programme started with considerable bite is the UK premiere of CAGE DIVE, Gerald Rascionato’s well-received take on survivor reality TV. This is followed by the hotly anticipated UK premiere of FASHIONISTA, Simon Rumley’s shockingly hypnotic exploration of addiction, body image and transformation. Considered by US critics to be his best film to date, Simon will be in attendance to discuss the film.
Also in attendance is Steven Kastrissios, director of BLOODLANDS. the first ever collaboration between Australia and Albania and the Balkan country’s first foray into horror cinema. Kastrissios’ passion project invites you to explore the mind-set of modern Albania while embarking on a spellbinding journey into terror. This is the World Premiere and Steven will be joined on stage by the main cast.
Make sure you’re strapped in for the UK premiere of our next presentation - Christopher Smith’s twisted revenge road move DETOUR. We’re thrilled that Chris will be joining us.
Matt Smith & Stanley Tucci in PATIENT ZERO
Saturday evening unfolds in adrenaline-fueled style with the UK premiere of Stefan Ruzowitzky’s PATIENT ZERO, starring Matt Smith, Stanley Tucci and Natalie Dormer battling super-fit, highly intelligent undead killers! This is followed by the UK premiere of Ben Young’s powerfully disturbing debut HOUNDS OF LOVE, a unique three-way study of a serial-killing couple and their latest female victim.
To end this year’s global feast of fear is the UK premiere of an extreme horror comedy pushing ALL the boundaries. Roberto San Sebastián’s THE NIGHT OF THE VIRGIN is disgusting, offensive, hilarious and totally brilliant!
In addition, there is a sneak preview of Dominic Brunt’s ADULT BABIES, with the popular actor / director in attendance and let’s not forget those great give-aways!
Alan Jones, co-director, said today: “What a privilege for Horror Channel FrightFest to return to the open arms of the Glasgow Film Festival. Each of our forensically assembled line-up has been chosen on the basis it has something new and unique to offer, something we feel worth championing to our discerning Scottish audiences. So join us as we step beyond the pale together into the safe darkness of sinister cinema where genre transcends all and unites us as one chilled community.”
FrightFest Passes are £70 and available from noon on Mon Jan 16, 2016. Passes cover all films on Fri 24 & Sat 25 Feb ONLY.
Tickets for ‘A Cure for Wellness’ and ‘Phantasm: Remastered’ ’ plus individual tickets for the Fri/Sat films are on sale Mon Jan 23 from 10am. Price: £10.00. £8 concession.
To book tickets:
+44 (0)141 332 6535 / boxoffice@glasgowfilm.org / www.glasgowfilm.org/festival
Programme details
THURS 23 FEB – GFT Screen 1
21:00 A CURE FOR WELLNESS (Special screening)
An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company’s CEO from an idyllic but mysterious “wellness centre” at a remote location in the Swiss Alps. He soon suspects that the spa’s miraculous treatments are not what they seem. When he begins to unravel its terrifying secrets, his sanity is tested, as he finds himself diagnosed with the same curious illness that keeps all the guests here longing for the cure.
Director: Gore Verbinski. Cast: Dane DeHaan, Mia Goth, Jason Isaacs, Celia Imrie. USA 2017. 18. 126 mins, Thanks to 20th Century Fox.
23:40 PHANTASM: REMASTERED (Scottish Premiere)
Set to introduce a new generation to the deranged charms of the cult classic, meet horror icon Angus Scrimm as a malevolent mortician sending bizarre murder victims into another dimension where they become slave dwarves. A macabre funhouse of shock that weaves a powerful primal spell, the unforgettable silver sphere that drills out brains is back in a phantasmagorical fusion of surreal imagery, outlandish thrills and super scares.
Director: Don Coscarelli. Cast: Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Angus Scrimm. USA 1979. 84 mins. 18. Thanks to Arrow Films.
FRI 24 FEB – GFT Screen 1
13:30 THE WARRIOR’S GATE (UK Premiere)
Produced and written by Luc Besson and long-time collaborator Robert Mark Kamen (THE FIFTH ELEMENT) and directed by COCKNEYS VS. ZOMBIES maestro Matthias Hoene, the rip-roaring spectacular adventure finds hapless teenager Jack magically transported to ancient China where he must learn to convert his awesome video gaming skills into those of a Kung Fu warrior to bring peace to the warring kingdom. THE LAST STARFIGHTER goes CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON in an enthralling fable opening up a whole innovative East meets West universe of wonder and imagination.
Director: Matthias Hoene. Cast: David Bautista, Sienna Guillory, Uriah Shelton. France/China 2016. 90 mins. 15. Thanks to Europacorp.
16:00 IT STAINS THE SANDS RED (UK Premiere)
First came the massive hit GRAVE ENCOUNTERS and the sci-fi shocker EXTRATERRESTRIAL and now director Colin Minihan and co-writer Stuart Ortiz, aka The Vicious Brothers have fashioned an unusual. ‘walking dead’ movie. After a horrendous flesh-eating apocalypse, Las Vegas wild child Molly finds herself stranded in the desert with a ravenously relentless zombie hot on her high heels. Forever trying to give it the ingenious slip, the lone stalker has no need of rest and soon it becomes her only physical contact in a world gone mad haunted by her dark past.
Director: Colin Minihan. Cast: Brittany Allen, Juan Riedinger, Merwin Mondesir. USA 2016. 92 mins. 18. Thanks to Digital Interference Productions and Grasswood Media.
18:30 THE TRANSFIGURATION (UK Premiere)
Orphaned African-American teen Milo thinks he’s undead in director Michael O’Shea’s fiercely independent first feature. To escape his depressing life, Milo has drenched himself in vampire lore gleaned from such horror classics as NOSFERATU, MARTIN, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, THE LOST BOYS and NEAR DARK and has taken to sublimating his morbid fantasies bloodsucking on strangers. It’s when he befriends the equally troubled Sophie that a clear course of action presents itself providing liberation and tragic redemption.
Director: Michael O’Shea. Cast: Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine, Aaron Moten. USA 2016. 97 mins. 18. Thanks to Soda Pictures.
21:00 SHIN GODZILLA (European Premiere)
Godzilla, the King of the Monsters, is back for a record-breaking box-office reboot of Toho’s kaiju classic. Present-day Japan, and an unexplained seismic event has occurred off the coast of Shinagawa, causing ripple effects all the way to the capital. Ministers scramble to figure out what’s going on but only cabinet secretary Rando Yaguchi knows what the audience already does. That Godzilla has majestically returned and has his fire-breathing, stomping sights on Tokyo once more.
Directors: Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi. Cast: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara. Japan 2016. 120 mins. 18. Thanks to Altitude Films.
23:15 HAPPY HUNTING (UK Premiere)
Warren is a degenerate drifter. On his way down to Mexico he finds himself stranded in Bedford Flats a one-horse town deep in the American desert. Unfortunately for him the town’s pastime is rounding up drifters and hunting them as part of an elaborate sporting event. This most dangerous and deadly game and bloody fight for survival is about to begin!
Directors: Joe Dietsch and Louie Gibson. Cast: Martin Dingle Wall, Ken Lally, Kenny Wormald, Connor Willimas. USA 2016. 91 mins.18.Thanks to WTFilms
SAT 25 FEB – GFT Screen 1
10:00 CAGE DIVE (UK Premiere)
CAGE DIVE follows three friends from California who set out to film an audition tape for submission to an extreme reality game show. To ensure they stand out, they decide to travel to Australia where they will be documenting themselves taking part in a most extreme activity…Shark Cage Diving. While on the dive, a catastrophic turn of events leaves them in baited water full of hungry Great White Sharks and turns there audition tape into a survival diary.
Director: Gerald Rascionato. Cast: Joel Hogan, Josh Potthoff, Magan Peta Hill, Suzanne Dervish-Ali. Australia 2017. 80 mins. 18. Thanks to Lionsgate Films.
11:45 FASHIONISTA (UK Premiere)
After RED, WHITE AND BLUE and JOHNNY FRANK GARRET’S LAST WORD comes uber-eccentric director Simon Rumley’s third distinctive Austin, Texas, based shocker., this sleekly demented De Palma-esque nightmare is set in the vintage clothing world where hipster shop owners April and Eric find their marriage tested when she begins to suspect her husband of having an affair. Her suspicions confirmed, April seeks sexual validation with the very mysterious and kinky Randall setting off a chain reaction of stylish fever dream madness, vogue fantasy role-playing and chic ultra-shriek.
Director: Simon Rumley. Cast: Amanda Fuller, Ethan Embry, Eric Balfour. USA 2016. 110 mins. 18. Thanks to Simon Rumley.
14:20 BLOODLANDS (World Premiere)
Fear the Shtriga! Written and directed by Steven Kastrissios who made his intense debut with THE HORSEMAN comes Albania’s first ever break-out genre film. Rooted in the very real phenomenon of blood feuds still plaguing the land, a struggling Albanian family, wrestling with traditions and superstition, must unite against another mysterious mountain clan's aggressions. A surreal, remarkable and highly unusual voyage through the fantasy lens of whispered local mythologies,
Director: Steven Kastrissios. Cast: Gëzim Rudi, Emiljano Palali, Suela Bako. Australia/Albania 2016. 82 mins. 18. Thanks to Steven Kastrissios.
16:30 DETOUR (UK Premiere)
A tense, deftly constructed noir thriller from Christopher Smith, director of CREEP, SEVERANCE, BLACK DEATH and TRIANGLE. Law student Harper suspects his stepdad Vincent of causing the car crash that landed his mother in a coma. A chance meeting in a bar with a tough redneck and his girlfriend leads to a road trip of revenge and spiralling violence.
Director : Christopher Smith. Cast: Tye Sheridan, Emory Cohen, Bel Powley, Stephen Moyer. UK 2016. 97 mins. 18. Thanks to Dan Films.
18:55 PATIENT ZERO (UK Premiere)
Humanity is battling intelligent creatures born from a viral super-strain. After being bitten human survivor Morgan (Matt Smith) realises he is asymptomatic and can communicate with the infected, leading the last survivors on a hunt for Patient Zero and a cure. From Stefan Ruzowitzky director of ANATOMY, ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN and THE COUNTERFEITERS.
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky. Cast: Matt Smith, Natalie Dormer, Stanley Tucci, Clive Standen, Agness Deyn. UK 2017. R/T TBA. 18. Thanks to Sony Pictures
21:10 HOUNDS OF LOVE (UK Premiere)
In the mid 1980’s seventeen year old Vicki Maloney is randomly abducted from a suburban street by a disturbed serial-killing couple. As she observes the dynamic between her captors she quickly realises she must drive a wedge between them if she is to survive. Inspired by real life crimes, A superbly acted and powerful debut feature.
Director: Ben Young. Cast: Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings, Stephen Curry, Susie Porter. Australia 2016. 108 mins. 18. Thanks to Arrow Films
23:20 THE NIGHT OF THE VIRGIN (UK Premiere)
At a New Year's Eve party, nerdy and naïve Nico sets out to lose his virginity. After striking out with drunken babes, his gaze crosses to Medea, an attractive if mature woman. Before he knows what’s happening he’s whisked to Medea’s filthy apartment where sinister Asian artefacts adorn the shelves, cockroaches crawl the floors and an ancient prophecy rears its head along with the rowdy gay neighbours and a very jealous ex-boyfriend.
Director: Roberto San Sebastián. Cast: Javier Bódalo, Miriam Martín, Víctor Amilibia. Spain 2016. 117 mins. 18. Thanks to Kevin I. Rodríguez/Platanobolígrafo.
For further information: www.frightfest.co.uk
