By Stuart Barr

FrightFest 2011 opened with the first of a series of short film tributes to John Carpenter that are to be screened over the next few days. This was a tribute to Escape From New York by director Jake West, and featuring some of the festival regulars in its cast. A great example of the "we are family" vibe that the fest prides itself on. The short played to the amusement of the hardened FrightFesters with their prized weekend passes of lanyards, and the bemusement of the more general audience in the tiered seats that were there for opening film Don't Be Afraid of The Dark alone.

Preceded by a video introduction by producer/writer, and superstar of fandom Guillermo del Toro, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark was a good choice of opener - not too extreme, good but not great, it was both satisfying but also did not set the bar so high as to be the best film of the weekend.

Before the next film the audience was treated to some preview footage from in production UK zombie comedy Cockney vs Zombies from Severance writer James Moran. The film sees zombies threaten an East End Lahndan old people's home. Despite the fact that the film's title leads to to expect the worst bargain bin DTV trash, the clips were amusing and ended on thunderous applause from the audience, but really how could a film featuring Richard Briers toting an Uzi garner any other reaction? Whether the final film can sustain itself for a full 90 mins remains to be seen.

This was followed by the screening of crowd-pleasing Final Destination 5, pretty much a comforting white bread jam sandwich for gore fans – instantly gratifying but lacking any nutritional value. FD5 is possibly the best of the franchise sequels, but contains no real surprises. An opening large-scale disaster is played through, followed by the lead character waking from a vision and then saving a group of people from certain doom (classic having your cake and eating it from the filmmakers who get to show the carnage then reset the film and have some of the same characters who have just met a messy oblivion live to die another day). However death will not be cheated and one by one the survivors meet with a series of spectacularly gory accidents (It's The Omen without the old time religion). In this instalment the gore is again in 3D, but whatever my misgivings about the technology, the 3D works pretty well especially in a film that opts for maximum gimmickry.

In truth this is a pretty poor film – characters you don't care about, perfunctory plotting, no real scares, and played broadly for sadistic comedy – but it delivers the goods as a Final Destination sequel with a series of spectacular and messy death scenes. Cinematic fast food it may be, but it is entertaining enough. Unfortunately the 3D left me with such eyestrain I bailed on the night's final film, the anthology The Theatre Bizarre, opting for a few pints in festival watering hole the Phoenix.