Returning to its Leicester Square home after a quick detour to Shepherds Bush last year, Frightfest 2017 is bringing its biggest lineup ever to the dark heart of London’s West End for a spectacular 18th year of fun and frights. The world-renowned horror and fantasy film festival is set to take over the Cineworld Leicester Square and The Prince Charles Cinema from Aug 24 – Aug 28 2017, taking over five screens to present 64 films including 20 World, 22 European and 18 UK Premieres. Fourteen countries are represented spanning five continents, reflecting the current global popularity of the genre. And Wicked Horror will be there once again, to share everything with you, in all its gory glory.
Kicking things off on opening night is the hugely-anticipated world premiere of Cult Of Chucky, for which a trailer just dropped yesterday, inciting major fan drooling across the globe. Attending Frightfest in support of the movie are writer-director and series creator Don Mancini, along with stars Jennifer Tilly and Fiona Dourif. Chucky himself will, naturally, also be making an appearance (eek).
Elsewhere, Leatherface, another massively anticipated installment in a huge horror franchise, will be unveiled alongside a never-before-seen version of Adam Green’s Hatchet, to celebrate its tenth anniversary (Frightfest alum Green will also be making an appearance alongside it). The closing night film, on the other hand, is Tragedy Girls, which is tantalisingly described as “Heathers meets Scream”, from director Tyler McIntyre and starring Alexandra Shipp (Straight Outta Compton) and Brianna Hildebrand (Deadpool).
Leatherface
Genre hero Adam Wingard will be making his long-awaited return to Frightfest with his Netflix movie, the live action adaptation of hugely popular manga, Death Note, along with several other major horror nerds including Joe Lynch, whose Mayhem will see its European premiere at the festival, Mickey Keating, also premiering his movie, Psychopaths, to Euro audiences, Graham Skipper with his debut Sequence Break and Horror Icon Barbara Crampton, who’ll be making an appearance in service of Norbert Kell’s Replace.
Other notable must-sees include The Villainness, which made waves at Cannes this past year, Miguel Angel Vivas’ remake of French extreme thriller Inside and Royce Gorsuch’s “kaleidoscopic mindbender” Mindhack. As usual, Frightfest remains committed to showcasing homegrown talent, with Christian James’s prison-set vampire comedy (nice) Fanged Up set to appear, alongside Dominic Bridge’s debut feature, the dark morality tale Freehold.
Elsewhere, we can expect to see an “extreme slasher” in the form of Preston De Francis’ Ruin Me, a sci-fi fantasy with Natasha Kermani’s Imitation Girl and a supernatural detective thriller in Clay Staub’s Devil’s Gate. Documentary fans will find much to enjoy with a trio of must-sees; King Cohen: The Wild World Of Filmmaker Larry Cohen is premiering at the fest alongside Horror Icon Kane Hodder’s To Hell And Back: The Kane Hodder Story and Mansfield 66/67, “a super Hollywood Babylon-style whisk through the final years of movie goddess Jayne Mansfield’s life and untimely, possibly Satanic, death.”
You can also catch notable Brit actress Emilia Clarke in Voice From The Stone, Freddy Krueger himself Robert Englund in Nightworld, Aussie chiller Killing Ground and “outrageous gore-fest” Meatball Machine Kodoku along with many, many others. As always, there are some must-watch retrospectives on offer this year, too, including fan favourite Return Of The Living Dead III and Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb.
Mayhem
Speaking about the whopper 18th year of the festival, Alan Jones, co-director of Frightfest said:
“The whole cinema landscape is changing and Horror Channel FrightFest is listening. We know the fans want to see the films first, see them fast and see them in an environment that is second to none. That’s why we have what we believe is the finest line-up ever assembled and are showcasing the superlative selection in premium surroundings”
Jones also promised it’s going to be a hell of party this year (of course). We’re going to be there to bring it all to you, so keep your eyes peeled once August rolls around (it cannot come quick enough).
Stay tuned to the site for more in the week’s leading up to Frightfest 2017, too.
The full festival line-up of films for Frightfest 2017 can be located on their official site, where all ticketing information can also be found. Festival and day passes for this year’s event go on sale Saturday, 1st July at 9AM GMT. Single tickets will go on sale from Saturday, 29th July at 9AM GMT. Wicked Horror will once again be there, to bring you all the must-read reviews and exclusive interviews from this year’s festival. So stay tuned.
