Good Morning Snakebiters! It is that time of year again as the boys of Film4 FrightFest takes the first steps on the road to the 13th annual Film4 FrightFest. The boys are on their way to Glasgow Friday Feb 24 to Saturday Feb 25 for what us FrightFesters call the warm up for this years event and there are some interesting titles here this year.
Friday 24th
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13:30 CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL (Scottish Premiere)
Roger Corman was the true Godfather of independent filmmaking and this multi-era defining documentary tracks the triumphant rise of the legendary writer, director, producer and distributor, widely known for his high camp, low budget, rapid fire exploitation movies of the 1950s and 60s.Corman is also a well-respected maverick, rabble-rouser and producer. He created his own production and distribution company and discovered the nextgeneration of film greats including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, James Cameron and even Ron Howard From Corman’s first 1955 feature THE MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR through the Edgar Allan Poe/Vincent Price horrors and Hell’s Angels flicks to his latest production DINOSHARK, all the blood and guts of his lurid and fascinating brilliance on a budget career is here illustrated by great clips and with insights from his contemporaries, students, stars - and a Jack Nicholson like you’ve never seen him before.
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16:00 TAPE 407: THE MESA RESERVE INCIDENT (UK Premiere)
Gore and confusion abound when a US passenger plane crashes in a mysteriously remote and unknown area. As the handful of disbelieving survivors emerge, scared, bloody and disoriented, they soon realise their nightmare has only just begun. Subtly slipping from disaster movie to eerie horror adventure and political conspiracy theory, the frantic documentary style camerawork places you at the heart of the unfolding horror. When the plot thickens further, monstrous mayhem continues into completely unexplored areas and becomes a whirlwind ride through the strangely uninhabited Mesa Reserve compound with a twist ending to leave you breathless.
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18:30 CRAWL(UK Premiere)
Claustrophobic heat and brooding tension seep from the screen in this character-driven hi-tone chiller set in an unknown rural town. Seedy bar owner Slim Walding hires a mysterious Croatian hit man to murder a local garage owner over a shady business deal gone bad. The crime is indeed carried out by the stone-faced stranger but a planned double-crossing backfires when an innocent waitress (Georgina Haig) becomes involved. Much of what makes this study in slow-burning terror so nail-bitingly effective is the silence that director China employs for long periods, coupled with the deep, shadowy corners of the picture frame – and minds of the captivating lead characters.
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21:00 THE DAY(UK Premiere)
Apocalypse has arrived and the world is a brutally dangerous place in the impressive debut feature from writer Luke Passmore. Directed by Doug Aarniokoski this mutant hunt follows a group of five survivors who are heading to greener pastures to try and find a place to plant some rare vegetable seed. They're low on ammunition and food and one of the group is extremely sick. So they break from their usual protocol and hole up in an abandoned two-story farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.Soon, the cannibals, their mortal enemy, will come looking for prey…Visually stark as its environment, and delivering splatter kills, seat-edged suspense and visceral action, this blockade shocker is the middle instalment of a projected trilogy, THE DAY and marks the arrival of a host of new talent and an anticipated much larger holocaust hellhole vision.
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23:15 WAR OF THE DEAD(UK premiere)
In 1939 ‘anti-death’ medical experiments were performed on captured Russian soldiers by Gestapo officers in the opening salvos of World War II. Two years later allied Finnish and American forces are on a mission to seize an underground enemy bunker on the Soviet border – but they must face attack by a far deadlier force - the flesh-hungry victims of those SS experiments. Thankfully this barrage of bullets, bombs and brains is all refreshingly free of the irony and winking that has become all too common in the modern zombie flick. With a stirring soundtrack by Joel Goldsmith (son of Jerry), WAR OF THE DEAD solely concentrates on delivering wave after wave of highly satisfying, action-packed, war punk cool living dead mayhem.
Sat 25th
_11:00 EVIDENCE (UK Premiere)
Ryan decides to make a documentary on his friend Brett about camping in the Los Angeles canyons. Keeping them company are girlfriends Abi and Ashley and it all starts off well around the campfire with a few drinks. But then the noises start, weird carvings are glimpsed on trees, a naked person is seen running away and something seems to be following them... It’s then the full horror is thrown at you relentlessly, until the very last frame of the incredible end credits sequence. Harrowing and uncompromising, forget everything you think that you know about the ‘found footage’ genre. None of it is applicable here. Just take the chill ride, let your mind be blown and try and catch your breath.
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13:15 PENUMBRA(UK premiere)
Film 4 FrightFest included Adrián García Bogliano’s unique chiller COLD SWEAT in their 2011 All-Nighter programme. Now they are proud to present the director’s latest bold experiment into creeping paranoia with a nasty twist. Marga, an arrogant businesswoman from Spain is on a business assignment in Buenos Aires - she must find a new tenant for her family’s decrepit apartment. But what’s behind the décor signals a startling fate worse than death. PENUMBRA (or GLOOM in direct translation) is a superbly realized horror entry from the Argentine talent rapidly becoming a genre powerhouse all to himself.
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15:30 RITES OF SPRING (UK premiere)
In the spring of 1984 five teenagers went missing Then suddenly, the disappearances stopped. But the following spring it began again with the vanishing of a string of young girls, For the next 24 years the disappearances continued. No bodies were ever recovered. However in 2008 something happened to halt the catalogue of terror and this glossy, gruesome and gory urban legend tells that story. But as a murderous lunatic goes about the seasonal business of selecting victims for the monster housed in his cellar, four sleazy criminals are planning an audacious kidnap from a nearby estate. As one-to-watch first-time writer/director director Padraig Reynolds intercuts both stories, giving away more shocking details in each phase, it’s only a matter of time before the two collide and all hell breaks loose.
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18:30 L’ARRIVO DI WANG/ WANG’S ARRIVAL (UK Premiere)
It’s another dull film subtitling job day for Chinese-language interpreter Gaia when she’s suddenly called up out of the blue by the Italian authorities to translate the interrogation of a mysterious captive alien from another world. called Mr Wang.What happens next will change Gaia’s life forever and the entire destiny of planet Earth. A devious and sinister modern-day morality tale, this award-winning science-fiction chiller comes from latest potent creative force on the Mondo Italiano art scene, Marco and Antonio Manetti, collectively known as the Manetti bros.
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21:00CASSADAGA(UK Premiere)
From Anthony DiBlasi, the writer/producer/director of the 2009 Film4 Frightfest attraction CLIVE BARKER’S DREAD, comes a uniquely twisted disturbing nightmare. Devastated by the death of her younger sister, deaf art teacher Lily Morel seeks solace at the Florida based spiritualist community of Cassadaga. But instead of finding closure, she contacts something else - the vengeful ghost of a murdered young woman. Part Southern Gothic horror, part giallo, this shocker gains enormous atmosphere from being located in the real Cassadaga known as ‘the Psychic Capital of the World’. Get ready for oppressive tension and terror in a slasher ghost story unlike any you’ve ever seen before.
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23:15 THE RAID(UK Premiere)
Director Gareth Evans reunites with his MERANTAU star Iko Uwais for this hi-octane skull-smashing adrenaline-pumping cult film of the year. Everyone in Djakarta knows that in the city’s poorest neighborhood there is a 15-storey building that is a refuge for the most dangerous criminals in Indonesia. Despite all the inherent problems involved, an elite SWAT force led by hard-ass cop Rama tries to bring down its defences and penetrate its core. But the operation doesn’t go according to plan and the team, wind up trapped inside the labyrinth tenement block with no discernable way out – surrounded by Asia’s deadliest martial artists, kingpin gangsters, major drug barons and hardened killers.
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