The full line-up for Film4 FrightFest in Glasgow has quite literally just been announced, and my God, if you're a horror fan, you're in for quite a treat come February 25 and 26. Over the years, we've come to expect big things from FrightFest, whether it's the main attraction during the August bank holiday weekend, or indeed the winter chillerthon in Scotland. And have we ever been disappointed? Nope.
No less than two world, one European and four UK premieres will take place at the sixth annual Glasgow FrightFest, which is run in conjunction with the Glasgow Film Festival. The exciting line-up includes such highly-anticipated horrors as Kim Ji-woon's merciless I Saw the Devil; Darren Lynn Bousman's Mother's Day, the new re-imagining of the Troma cult classic; Machete Maidens Unleashed, the follow-up to Mark Hartley's documentary on Ozploitation movies Not Quite Hollywood, which sees the director exploring the wacky world of Filipino genre flicks from the '70s and '80s; and... wait for it... Hobo With a Shotgun! Yes, Rutger Hauer is homeless and hardcore as he cleans up the streets with his trusty weapon of choice. Quivering with excitement? We thought so, and and so are we – because we're going up to Glasgow for the weekend to bring you all the blow-by-blow action!
Here's the full run-down of films ...
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25
6.30pm LITTLE DEATHS (World Premiere)
One killer anthology from the UK’s most promising horror filmmakers, Andrew Parkinson (I, ZOMBIE), Simon Rumley (RED, WHITE & BLUE), and Sean Hogan (ISLE OF DOGS), composed of three disturbingly sensual and terrifying tales unified by the twin themes of sex and death. In Sean Hogan’s ‘House and Home’, a couple pose as concerned religious do-gooders to lure homeless girls back to their home for perverted sex games. But then they choose the wrong victim… In Simon Rumley’s ‘Bitch’, Claire and Pete derive strange sexual pleasure from an unspoken sadomasochistic role-playing game. But then Claire goes one step too far…In Andrew Parkinson’s ‘Mutant Tool’, a former prostitute and recovering drug addict undergoes therapy. But her shady therapist is involved with a bizarre black market narcotics trade, in which semen from human mutations created during WWII Nazi experiments is harvested and processed for its psychic effects on the human brain.
90 mins Directors: Sean Hogan, Simon Rumley, Andrew Parkinson UK 2011
Amy Joyce Hastings – Lucy
Luke de Lacey - Richard
Kate Braithwaite – Claire
Tom Sawyer – Pete
Jodie Jameson – Jen
9pm I SAW THE DEVIL (Scottish Premiere)
Dark, disturbing, and exceedingly graphic, Kim Ji-woon’s hypnotic serial killer thriller is the best since THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and SE7EN. The fiancée of a secret service agent, (Byung-Hyun Lee), is savagely murdered by a vicious psychopath, (OLDBOY’s Min-Sik Choy). But once he’s tracked the killer down, he’s not content with exacting a simple revenge...FrightFest will be showing the fully uncut version of Ji-woon’s epic and ambiguous masterpiece.
144 mins Director: Kim Ji-woon South Korea – 2010
Byung-Hyun Lee – Joo-yeon
Min-Sik Choy – Kyun Chul
11.45pm MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED (UK Premiere)
The overlooked world of Filipino genre movies of the 70s & 80s gets the terrific Mark (NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD) Hartley treatment in the ultimate insiders' account of drive-in filler from Manila. All the key players are interviewed from producer Roger Corman, directors Eddie Romero, Steve Carver and Jack Hill and stars Pam Grier, Celeste Yarnall, Colleen Camp and Dick Miller. Wry comments come from John Landis and Joe Dante as fabulous clips from MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE, BIG DOLL HOUSE and much, much more turn the jaw-dropping spotlight on the ultimate no-budget B movie feast from the far, far east.
90 mins Director: Mark Hartley Australia – 2010
Roger Corman – Himself
Joe Dante – Himself
John Landis – Himself
Pam Grier – Herself
Eddie Romero – Himself
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 26
2pm RUBBER (UK Premiere)
Move over Jason, Freddy and Michael Myers. There’s a new killer on the stalk-and-slash block – Robert the psychic tyre! Born from the desert sand, this rubber circle of pent up fury is out to telekinetically destroy everything and everyone in his way. Meanwhile, who are that crowd of tourists watching the gory mayhem through binoculars and commenting on the action? It’s wacky, wild, funny, bloody, absurd and weird, welcome to THE cult fantasy of 2011.
89 mins Director: Quentin Dupieux France 2010
Thomas F. Duffy – Deputy Xavier
Roxane Mesquida -Sheila
Stephen Spinella - Chad
Wings Hauser – Man in Wheelchair
Daniel Quinn – Dad
4pm TERRITORIES (World Premiere)
From Raphael Rocher, producer of THE HORDE, come the new FRONTIERS in terror. Five friends driving home from a wedding are stopped by the Border Police. The suspicious officers check their IDs and their questioning slowly intensifies. But they've done nothing wrong... As the situation turns crudely intrusive, viciously nasty and then spirals completely out of control, the group is formally arrested and sent to a ‘special’ prison camp in the heart of the forest. It’s then the kidnap victims realise the gravity of their situation...A controversial backwoods survival horror in which director Olivier Abbou pulls no political punches or contemporary detainment allegories.
110 mins Director: Olivier Abbou France/Canada 2011
Roc LaFortune – Samuel Torrence
Sean Devine – Walter Sotos
Nicole Leroux - Leslie
Cristina Rosato - Michelle
Michael Mando - Jalil
7pm THE SHRINE (UK Premiere)
From the creative team behind the 2008 FrightFest favourite JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER comes one of the most unusual and scariest horrors of the year. After an American backpacker goes missing in Europe a trio of journalists link his disappearance to Alvaina, a remote village in Poland. But when they arrive to unravel the mystery they uncover a hostile community and an ancient cult who must indulge in ritualistic sacrifice to hide even darker secrets…. Shock-full of supernatural twists and horrifying turns, director Jon Knautz brings stark-staring fear back to the genre in his knowing homage to such classic underground gems as LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH and MESSIAH OF EVIL.
85 mins Director: Jon Knautz Canada 2010
Aaron Ashmore – Marcus
Cindy Sampson – Carmen
Meghan Heffern – Sara
Trevor Matthews – Henryk
Vieslav Krystyan – Arkadiusz
9pm MOTHER’S DAY (UK Premiere)
Hot on the heels of the I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE remake comes the next timely and terrifying reimagining of a classic grindhouse title. Fleeing a botched bank robbery three distressed and injured brothers head for home. Except they’ve forgotten their mother’s home was recently snapped up in a recent foreclosure by a yuppie couple now celebrating their housewarming. Taking the partygoers hostage in the basement the brothers begin their casual humiliation and torture until mama (played by Rebecca De Mornay) arrives. Only then do the guests realise she’s the family’s most dangerous member. THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE star delights and intimidates in a delicious performance of wicked bloodlust and wanton cruelty.
106 mins Director: Darren Lynn Bousman USA 2010
Rebecca De Mornay – Mother
Jaime King – Beth
Shawn Ashmore – George
Deborah Ann Woll – Lydia
Patrick Flueger – Ike
11.15pm HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (European Premiere)
Get ready to be blown away by pistol-packing Rutger Hauer as the HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN determined to clean the mean streets of trash – with a flash. Filmmaker Jason Eisener won the SxSW Festival’s GRINDHOUSE competition with the original HOBO fake trailer. His prize was its inclusion in the Canadian prints of the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez exploitation extravaganza. Now the director of the stupendous short TREEVENGE has gone the MACHETE route and turned it into a roaring rampage of riotous revenge as vigilante homeless man Hauer pulls into a new city and finds himself trapped in a mire of criminal chaos.
90 mins Director: Jason Eisener Canada/USA 2011
Rutger Hauer – Hobo
Gregory Smith – Slick
Brian Downey – Drake
Nick Bateman – Ivan
Molly Dunsworth – Abby