FrightFest Discovery Screen Line-up 2012

• 29th Jun 2012

PROGRAMME – DISCOVERY SCREEN

Friday 24th August

Guinea Pigs (English Premiere)
10 August 2010. Seven volunteers arrive at the isolated and high-tech Limebrook Clinic to take part in a clinical trial for ProStasia Pharmaceuticals’ new drug – PRO-9. Initially, everything seems innocuous enough , But shortly after midnight the guinea pigs are awoken by the anguished screams of the first of their number to have been injected. He’s is quickly removed from the ward for close observation, leaving the rest of the volunteers wondering what might be in store for each of them. So begins the horror fraught night for the seven volunteers as one by one, in the order the Pro-9 was administered, they succumb to the drug’s terrible consequences.

90 mins   Director: Ian Clark   UK 2011

Alex Reid – Joni

Aneurin Barnard – Adam

Nia Roberts – Katie

Steve Evets – Morty

Skye Lourie – Carmen

The Victim  (UK Premiere)

Michael Biehn makes his directorial debut with this ode to sleazy 70s grindhouse exploitation. When her best friend Mary is brutally raped and killed in the woods by high-ranking crooked cops, stripper Annie finds her own life in jeopardy. Fleeing from the two attackers she seeks refuge from reclusive ex-convict Kyle. As Annie’s assailants encroach, a battle of wits ensues, blood is shed, and an irreparable truth is exposed when two entirely different worlds collide. A sharply focused psychological thriller, suspense is pushed to the farthest limits of heart-stopping endurance as writer, star and director Biehn forces you to question your trust in mankind.

83 mins   Director: Michael Biehn  US 2011

Michael Biehn – Kyle

Jennifer Blanc – Annie

Ryan Honey – Harrison

Danielle Harris – Mary

Denny Kirkwood – Cooger
Elevator (UK Premiere)

It’s the night of a gala cocktail party for the Barton Investment Company at their swanky Manhattan high-rise offices. Nine people enter the lift headed for the penthouse including VIP Henry Barton himself. But, on the way up a stupid practical joke stalls the elevator fifty floors above ground. Suspenseful twists and turns suddenly reveal one of the occupants is carrying a bomb. It can’t be disarmed and could go off at any moment. Tapping into our innermost fears and visiting the darkest corners of the human psyche, the brakes come off for a blood-soaked shock climax in a deftly written white-knuckle thriller.

84 mins   Director: Stig Svendsen   2011 USA

Christopher Backus – Don Handley

John Getz – Henry Barton

Shirley Knight – Jane Redding

Joey Slotnik – George Axelrod

Anita Briem – Celine Fouquet
A Night Of Nightmares (European Premiere)

Internet DJ Mark Lighthouse hosts the ‘Mind Mutation’ website supporting indie artists. One such act is Ginger and Mark is delighted when the singer/songwriter invites him to her cabin in the Californian woods for an interview. On his arrival Ginger seems on edge, explaining she’s only just moved out west from New York because of a stalker problem. Then strange things begin happening. FrightFest welcomes the bravura return of acclaimed director Buddy Giovinazzo to the surrealist sick suspense realms of his signature classic Combat Shock. Starring Marc Senter and featuring a breakout performance from cult actress Elissa Dowling.

84 mins   Director: Buddy Giovinazzo   USA 2012

Marc Senter – Mark Lighthouse

Elissa Dowling – Ginger

Richard Portnow – Cliff Tanner

Margaux Lancaster – Ruthie Le Mans

Beau Nelson – Huey
Sawney: Flesh Of Man  (World Premiere)

Religious psychopath Sawney stalks Scotland abducting unholy souls for his communion of sacrifices. With his insane family of inbred killers they rape, torture and eat their victims saving the best morsels for a shadowy chained-up figure in their cavernous Highlands lair. As the Missing Persons list rises crime journalist Hamish MacDonald starts investigating.  After his fiancée Wendy is kidnapped by the cannibal clan, Hamish decides to investigate the heinous crimes on his own with disastrous results. For there’s something he doesn’t know about the case that’s crucial to solving it. And he too must face the beast in the cellar seeking retribution.

89 mins   Director: Ricky Wood Jr   UK 2012

David Hayman – Sawney

Samuel Feeney – Hamish MacDonald

Gavin Mitchell – Bill Munro

William Houston – Charlie McGuire

Elizabeth Brown – Wendy McIntyre

Errors Of The Human Body  (UK Premiere)

Best known as co-writer of Xavier Gens’ apocalyptic horror The Divide, Eron Sheean makes his feature directorial debut with this eerie serving of body horror. Scientist Dr Geoff Burton takes up a position at a new institute in Dresden, Germany. His contribution to their most important project researching random embryonic abnormalities – a human regeneration gene – has the potential to make something miraculous out of a personal tragedy that has haunted him for years. But what’s really going on in the shadowy basement of the research clinic? This provocative and startling exploration into the new flesh takes on chilling shapes of rage.

100 mins   Director: Eron Sheean Germany 2012

Michael Eklund – Geoffrey Burton

Karoline  Herfurth – Rebekka Fiedler

Tomas Lemarquis – Jarek Novak

Rik Mayall – Samuel Mead

Caroline Gerdolle – Sarah Burton

We Are The Night

Saturday 25th August

May I Kill U?  (World Premiere)

Barry Vartis is one of Britain’s new breed of policeman, a cycle cop. Although he appears to be a figure of fun, a freak accident turns him into a psychopath. As riots break out in London, Baz embarks on a campaign of ‘lawful killing’, which are recorded on Baz’s helmet-cam and posted anonymously on social networks. Soon his followers are legion thanks to dispensing justice to scumbags and cleaning up society like a deadly Robin Hood. Then Baz is captured by an enraged relative of his presumed ‘kills’ and faces slaughter, or even worse – exposure. Death Wish goes Ealing in a pitch black comedy of misadventures.

90 mins   Director: Stuart Urban   UK 2012

Kevin Bishop – Barry Vartis

Jack Doolan – Seth

Frances Barber – Bernice

Hayley-Marie Axe – Val

Kasia Koleczek – Maya

Kill Zombie!  (UK Premiere)

Shaun Of The Dead hits Amsterdam in the Dutch treat that zombie fans will eat up! After a night in jail, four hung-over friends and one female cop emerge to discover their city has been ravaged by a zombie outbreak. When they receive a cry for help from a sole survivor they are all forced to embark on a reluctant rescue mission, Prepare for violent living dead mayhem galore, with big sci-fi visual effects, a guy with a humongous gatling gun taking out zombies, lots of decapitation, and everything else you could wish for in a bizarre and insane Euro comedy horror.

90 mins    Directors: Martjin Smits & Erwin van den Eshof   Netherlands 2012

Yahya Gaier – Aziz

Gigi Ravelli – Kim

Mimoun Ouled Radi – Mo

Sergio Hasselbaink – Jeffrey

Uriah Arnhem – Nolan

Nightmare Factory  (English Premiere)

In 1989 Greg Nicotero quit medical school and headed for Hollywood to pursue a dream of making monsters. Together with splatter maestros Howard Berger and Robert Kurtzman, Nicotero created the KNB EFX Group, one of the most prolific make-up effects studios in the world. See that universe through Nicotero’s eyes in this gore-soaked illuminating documentary featuring exclusive behind the scenes footage of the most revered horrors of the past two decades, and anecdotes from John Carpenter, George A Romero, Frank Darabont and Quentin Tarantino.

90 mins   Director: Donna Davies   Canada 2011

George A Romero

Quentin Tarantino

John Carpenter

Frank Darabont

Robert Rodriguez

Before Dawn (World Premiere)

Dominic Brunt, better known as veterinarian Paddy Kirk in Emmerdale, has written and directed a zombie horror that puts the gory in allegory. Veteran Emmerdale scripter Mark Illis and co-star Joanne Mitchell are also along for the ride. The result is the sweet but deadly rom zom Before Dawn. Alex and Meg go for a weekend in the Yorkshire countryside in an effort to save their troubled relationship. Unfortunately the picturesque holiday area chosen comes under attack from the walking dead and Meg is soon going to find out the depth of Alex’s unconditional love in a horror with so much heart it isn’t surprising so much of it gets ripped out!

90 mins   Director: Dominic Brunt   UK 2012

Dominic Brunt – Alex

Joanne Mitchell – Meg

Nicky Evans – Stephen

Eileen O’Brien – Eileen

Holly Illis – Sarah

Remnants  (World Premiere)

World War III has happened and the USA is in meltdown. Nine strangers find themselves holed up together in a farmhouse cellar in rural Texas. Young Dr Hunter survived the nuclear attack and is thrown together by chance with a group of wounded and frightened victims. Hunter and his slowly dying companions wait for news from the government while fending off hunger, claustrophobia, conflicting personalities, radiation sickness and hordes of terrified, dying refugees as they attempt to endure the devastating holocaust. Peter Engert’s haunting, moving and remarkably assured chronicle of final catastrophe

92 mins   Director: Peter Engert   USA 2012

Edward Furlong – Brad

Monica Keena – Elizabeth

C J Thomason – Hunter

Christine Kelly – Angie

Andre Royo – Rob

Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings  (UK Premiere)

From Declan O’Brien, the director of Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead, comes the shocking prequel. Back in 1974 that terrifying trio of disfigured mutants were locked away in the Glenville Sanatorium as mere lads before making their violent escape into the West Virginia wilds. Fast forward to winter 2003; a group of college friends from Weston University are riding their snowmobiles to a friend’s cabin in the woods. Unfortunately they get lost in a storm and take a wrong turn to the now abandoned asylum. Seeking shelter they discover to their horror that some of the former inmates have returned to the scene of their gory cannibal crimes.

93 mins   Director: Declan O’Brien   USA/Germany 2011

Sean Skene – Three Finger

Dan Skene – One Eye

Scott Johnson – Saw Tooth

Jennifer Pudavick – Kenia

Tenika Davis – Sara

Sunday 26th August

We Are The Night  (Preview)

Near Dark goes to decadent Berlin in a sexy, flashy, super-stylish slick ball of gory vampire energy. Leader of the pack Louise has been searching through the centuries for her lost love while Charlotte misses the daughter she last saw in 1923. Then Louise spots small-time pickpocket Lena on the run and knows she’s found The One! But after being seduced and bitten in a nightclub Lena can’t come to terms with her undead transformation. A matinee-style comic book mix of Twilight and James Bond, We Are The Night is unapologetic vampire pulp fiction of the coolest, sleekest variety.

100 mins   Director: Dennis Gansel   Germany 2010

Karoline Herfurth – Lena

Nina Hoss – Louise

Jennifer Ulrich – Charlotte

Anna Fischer – Nora

Max Riemelt – Tom

The Inside  (World Premiere)

You’ve seen him as Sir Gawaine in the hit BBC TV series Merlin. Now Eoin Macken steps behind the camera to direct the horror thriller The Inside and has rounded up his friends from Hollyoaks, Charlie Casanova and The Clinic to help out.  All the group of girls wanted was to celebrate one of their mates’ birthdays in an abandoned Dublin warehouse. But as the party swings out of control they come under frightening attack by a supernatural horror that has no compunction between good or evil. Escape soon proves hopeless and they are trapped in the labyrinthine building.

93 mins   Director: Eoin Macken   Ireland 2012

Emmett Scanlan – Hughie

Tereza Srbova – Cara

Karl Argue – Scat

Kellie Blaise – Sienna

Siobhan Cullen – Corina

Community  (World Premiere)

The Draymen Estate has become an urban legend. Amongst the sinister stories of strange locals and brutal violence, many people have gone missing there. Two student film makers visit the desolate estate in the hope their proposed documentary on the anti-social place will land them a lucrative career. But they quickly discover that behind the awkward smiles, the estate is a breeding ground for the darker side of society – a society which is about to present the students with material of unimaginable horror, Welcome to The Wicker Man for the Harry Brown generation.

90 mins   Director: Jason Ford   UK 2012

Elliott Jordan – Will

Terry Bird – Dumpy

Ian Ralph – Clifford

Oliver Stark – Pack Leader

Cyrus Trafford – Hoody

Guinea Pigs

The Victim

Monday 27th August

Remnants

Before Dawn 

A Night Of Nightmares

Elevator