Back to Blog

DANIEL ISN’T REAL - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written by Brian DeLeeuw & Adam Egypt Mortimer; adapted from Brian DeLeeuw’s novel IN THIS WAY I WAS SAVED Directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer When Luke was six years-old, he escaped the shouts and smashing crockery of his bickering parents to wander the calm midtown Manhattan streets near his home. Unfortunately, this innocent child inadvertently witnesses the aftermath of a mass shooting in a café. Staring into the dead eyes of a blood soaked victim flopped out on the street, he meets Daniel, a...

SPIRAL - Arrow Video Frightfest Review.

Written by Colin Minihan & John PoliquinDirected by Kurtis David HarderSPIRAL starts with a – literal – cold opening of a queer-bashing scene in a 1985 snowy parking lot before leaping ten years into the future. In 1995 it’s the gentle drive in to small town USA by gay dads – Aaron and Malik - and their sixteen year old daughter Kayla. Malik, played by Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, is the former big city, club kid, drag queen, who has stole the heart of much older Aaron – the natur...

HAPPY FACE - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written by Joelle Bourjoy, Alexandre Franchi Directed by Alexandre Franchi Overweight Vanessa heads up a group therapy session for people with extreme and visual facial/medical scars – the kind that, sadly, make too many people stop and stare. Among them is Augustine, his hood up, face contorted behind bandages pulled taut across his face. Everyone is worried about leaving their comfort zone. Every day tasks like walking into a bar and ordering a round of drinks are mountains to climb for thes...

VOLITION - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written by Tony Dean Smith, Ryan W Smith Directed by Tony Dean Smith VOLITION throws you into the nightmare world of James. His gift of clairvoyance is more of a curse given he discovered his magic powers when he had a vision of his mother’s death and did nothing about it - that’s naturally led to a lifetime of regret. He’s cooped up in his apartment, one wall, inexplicably covered in notes and reminders like Guy Pierce’s body in MEMENTO. He’s late with his rent and his landlord is bus...

THE DRONE - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written by Al Kaplan, Jon Kaplan and Jordan Rubin Directed by Jordan Rubin THE DRONE is a weird, tongue-in-cheek film from ZOMBEAVERS director, Jordan Rubin. It’s full of ridiculous contrivances that just about enable the film to chug on like a rusty jeep with three flat tyres, but lets be honest, no one is coming here for the subtext or raw emotion, are they? It’s a film where a drone propeller lacerates an old man’s arse in the bath. You’re watching THE DRONE for the laughs. A newlywed...

FEEDBACK - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written by Pedro C Alonso and Alberto Marini Directed by Pedro C Alonso Jarvis Dolan is a popular, but notorious talk radio show host. He’s championed for being the foe of the right wing and the bigots a la LBC’s James O’Brien. His job does come at considerable cost to his welfare. You join him as he’s returning to the mic after surviving a kidnapping and his car being torched. Jarvis, played by Eddie Marson is dead behind the eyes in terms of fear – he has a calling and no scare tacti...

DEATH OF A VLOGGER - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written and directed by Graham Hughes. Graham Hughes’s debut feature film is on the surface a spooky mockumentary investigation into a haunting at his namesakes apartment. Any seasoned viewer of this style of film will know this means apparitions and weird happenings occurring in frame for the audience’s benefit as the hapless protagonist blithely talks into the lens about nothing happening. However, just beneath that veneer of our expectations DEATH OF A VLOGGER reveals itself to be a reall...

I TRAPPED THE DEVIL - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written and directed by Josh Lobo The title tells you everything you need to know, but to unravel the presupposition, writer/director Josh Lobo first takes an estranged brother, Matt, egged on by his well-meaning wife, Karen. They turn up, unannounced, at Steve’s home to celebrate the holidays together. Rather than be pleased to see his brother and sister-in-law, Steve point blank tells them they can’t stay. Matt refuses to leave and over dinner you discover this is more a mercy mission to b...

FINGERS - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review & Teaser Trailer.

Written and directed by Juan Ortiz Office manager Amanda goes on a perverse road to recovery of her hang-ups about other people’s body imperfections when one of her team, Walter, arrives in work with his pinky missing. Naturally, it freaks her out, but when he comes in the next day, seemingly accepting of his other pinky being lopped off, she’s more curious than appalled. Sabina Friedman-Seitz’s portrayal of Amanda’s irrational fear is A1. Her search for answers sees her wander into the ...

DARK ENCOUNTER - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written and directed by Carl Strathie Following a family memorial for an eight year old girl who mysteriously vanished twelve months ago, strange lights appear in the night sky as the first of many unexplainable phenomena that serve to destabilise a small town group of kin. Whoever took their girl has come back for the rest of them, maybe? True enough, their search for answers as to what’s coming from the skies leads to more of them going missing. Amid the chaos, communication lines open up th...

THE WIND - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written by Teresa Sutherland Directed by Emma Tammi This horror/western starts with Lizzy Mackin, played to absolute perfection by Caitlin Gerard, shuffling out of her isolated homestead, white dress stained in blood, handing a baby over to the distraught, waiting father. This cold opening is a culmination of many tragic events and sets off a back and forth through a time that eventually unpicks the horrifying truth of Lizzy’s circumstances. Director Emma Tammi, with her cinematographer Lyn Mo...

CUT OFF - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written and director by Christian Alvart Following the success of 2005’s serial killer puzzle movie, ANTIBODIES, German director, Christian Alvart, has flourished in both TV and film. CUT OFF is a return to that murky, murderous storytelling world. The central narrative concerns fastidious pathologist who stumbles upon a clue in a corpse that sends him on a race against time to save his teenage daughter from a psychopath. Leading man Moritz Bleibtreu (RUN LOLA RUN) excels as Paul Herzfeld, the...

KNIVES AND SKIN - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written and directed by Jennifer Reeder Set in the rural Midwest, KNIVES AND SKIN centres on the disappearance of a young girl, Caroline Harper. From the ripples that emanate from this unprovoked, grim tragedy Jennifer Reeder resists the need to dive into a singular tale of finding the girl and solving the crime. Instead she takes a looking glass to the whole town. Surviving friends and the mother get the most attention, but KNIVES AND SKIN’s story reach reveals a cold-hearted truth no one wan...

SADISTIC INTENTIONS - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written and directed by Eric Pennycoff Outliers of music drift into the mainstream unnoticed by those who never knew the form when it was drifting in obscurity. Grindcore and extreme metal are not something I’d ever associated with Christina Applegate. Now DEAD TO ME has aired on Netflix, she will be forever be the grieving character of Jen Harding seeking solace from a cruel world to the oblique, hard sounds of blast beats and guttural screaming. Stu, played by Jeremy Gardner, is a man who tr...

KINDRED SPIRITS - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written by Chris Sivertson Directed by Lucky McKee Nicole is a kookie, head-strong high school kid on the brink of graduation. She’s a responsible young woman and is fast growing apart form her mother, Chloe. When her Aunt Sadie makes a surprise return, her teenage heart almost skips a beat she’s so thrilled to see her. She’s much younger than her sister Chloe, but at almost 25, she’s much older than her niece. Here the story subverts expectations when the natural pairing, akin to the gi...

THE DEEPER YOU DIG - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written by Toby Poser & John Adams Directed by Toby Poser, John Adams & Zelda Adams Kurt has had a few too many drinks with dinner and he’s driving home as the snow falls. Echo is a teenage girl who disobeys her mother to go sledging after dark. She skids out onto the road into the path of Kurt’s truck. What he does next is unforgivable. Ivy, the mother, lost her gift of second sight years ago, but is naturally grief stricken, like the customers she cons with fake tarot readings and séances...

PORNO - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written by Matt Black & Laurence Vannicelli Directed by Keola Racela In a deeply Christian corner of 1992 USA is a mom and pop movie theatre showing FIELD OF DREAMS and ENCINO MAN. It’s run by the kind-hearted, but God-fearing manager Mr Pike. He leaves his Bible loving quintet of employees to have the run of the place after closing time, but a drunk hobo spoils their fun and in the eschewing chaos reveals a secret flea pit porno cinema beneath the one they work in. Down there the walls are li...

MUTANT BLAST - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review.

Written and directed by Fernando Alle Other writing by: Adrián Cardona and Alex Duda Those who caught the short BANANA MOTHERFUCKER back in 2011 will be primed for the kaleidoscopic, blood soaked imagination of Portuguese writer/director Fernando Alle’s debut feature MUTANT BLAST.  The Troma Movie branding alone will always excite a niche cinema crowd looking for a certain trash aesthetic too. But Mutant Blast is much more than crazy and anarchic for the sake of it. It’s a zombie film ...

Kaleidoscope Entertainment Drop Trailer For Barnaby Southcombe’s Illicit Love Story SCARBOROUGH.

Kaleidoscope Entertainment have announced that Barnaby Southcombe's illicit love story SCARBOROUGH, will be released in selected UK Cinemas from Friday 6th September, with the UK Premier taking place at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. TICKETS...

CRAWL - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written by Michael Rasmussen, Shaun Rasmussen Directed by Alaxandre Aja Alexandra Aja started out his directorial journey into horror filmmaking with 2003’s showstopper HAUTE TENSION. Since then, he turned up the gore in THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006) and made Harry Potter atone for the sins of his flesh in HORNS (2013). His latest is a demolition derby of ascending thrills, spills and tantalising scares you know are coming but are helpless in avoiding. Haley i...

ROCK, PAPER AND SCISSORS (Piedra, Papel Y Tijera) - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written and directed by Macarena Garcia Lenzi and Martín Blousson Adapted from a stage play by Macarena Garcia Lenzi Following the death of her father, the prodigal daughter returns to Argentina from Spain to sort out the family estate with her somewhat cosseted and eccentric half-brother and half-sister. It’s been a long while since they last spoke or seen each other. Unsurprisingly, the half siblings don’t take too kindly to someone they barely recognise, t...

COME TO DADDY - Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 Film Review

Written by Toby Hardvard, based on Ant Timpson’s idea Directed by Ant Timpson Elijah Wood plays Norval, a man in his thirties who receives a letter requesting he visit his estranged father at a remote, beach house. He’s a sensitive soul, dressed in designer black threads, owns a limited edition of 20 gold cellphone and considers himself an artist. Despite having not seen his son since he walked out when the kid was five, none of this impresses dad much. W...

Director Christian Alvart Talks CUT OFF Ahead Of Arrow Video FrightFest UK Premiere.

BritFlicks Podcast host Stuart Wright talks CUT OFF (aka Abgeschnitten) with director Christian Alvart....

Co-Writer/Director Brett Pierce Talks THE WRETCHED Ahead Of Arrow Video FrightFest European Premiere.

BritFlicks Podcast host Stuart Wright talks with co-writer/director Brett Pierce about his horror THE WRETCHED....

Adam Egypt Mortimer Talks DANIEL ISN'T REAL Ahead Of Arrow Video FrightFest UK Premiere.

BritFlicks Podcast host Stuart Wright talks DANIEL ISN'T REAL with director Adam Egypt Mortimer....