PIGEON SHRINE FRIGHTFEST HALLOWEEN 2024
Celebrate Halloween in grand style this year as FrightFest once again takes over the Odeon Luxe West End to showcase an enticing selection of nine premiere horror titles over Friday 1st November and Saturday 2nd November. With a diverse selection plucked from around the globe, this truly spine-chilling display of global horror proves further why FrightFest is considered the UK’s most popular genre film festival.
The event kicks off with the UK premiere of Sam Yates’s MAGPIE, starring Daisy Ridley. She delivers a tour de force performance of a neglected wife on the edge in this neo-noir thriller filled with tension. Daisy Ridley will be in attendance along with her husband Tom Bateman who also wrote and produced.
This is followed by the UK premiere of PARVULOS, a thought-provoking, zombie ‘Lord of the Flies’, helmed by Mexican director Isaac Ezban, whose fantastic eye for gothic tableaux makes for a powerful and shocking treat.
Friday night comes to a close with ADVENT, directed by Airell Hayes. Inspired by the terrifying true story of the blue whale game, this charts one woman’s countdown descent into a festive supernatural hell. This world premiere screening will have Airell Hayes in attendance along with the film’s stars including Nicholas Vince.
Saturday kicks off with another UK premiere. Guido Tolke’s outlandish tale of the undead THE BITTER TASTE. Watch out for full-bore gore, chainsaws, eye-grazing stunts and one of the best OTT scores in years by Clemens Damerau.
This is followed by the UK premiere of ALIEN COUNTRY, a balls-to-the-wall, extraterrestrial invasion comedy, directed by popular Youtubers Boston McConnaughey and Renny Grames, who are also planning to attend.
Yet another UK premiere is on hand with THE DRAFT! This Indonesian horror features a high body count laced with an unknown terror. Director Yusron Fuadi honours horror cliches while subverting them into a totally gruesome gore-fest.
TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS receives its UK premiere with a large amount of its acclaimed cast in attendance attending; including Jane Horrocks, Brian Blessed, Laura Aikman, Guy Henry, Brian Bovell, Ruth Syratt, Tom Lenk and Simon Killick, alongside director Chris Reading and producers Hillary and Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare. Touted as the Meta-universe comedy fantasy of the year, the film features even more British comedy legends including Johnny Vegas, Sophie Thompson, and Mark Heap, with Stephen Fry providing narration.
Next up is the international premiere of CATCH A KILLER. Director Teddy Grennan will be in attendance to present his exciting neo-noir serial killer thriller featuring breakout performances from Sam Brooks and Tu Morrow.
Bringing the curtain down on this year’s event is Emma Benestan’s ANIMALE which also brought Cannes Critics Week to a close earlier this year. Now receiving its UK premiere this shape-shifting horror drama grabs toxic masculinity by the horns and completes the line-up.
Paul McEvoy, FrightFest co-director, said today: ““What a perfect Halloween Treat we have lined-up for everyone this year. A wonderful movie mix-tape of nine exciting, exceptional, new and varied genre titles. There is something for every film fan along with an incredible list of guest attendees. This will be a sensational end to our 25th Anniversary banner year and we hope you all enjoy.”
Passes and tickets go on sale at noon on Saturday 5th October.
Prices:
Two-day pass - £79
Friday 1st November Day pass - £33
Saturday 2nd November Day pass - £59
Single tickets - £14.99
All tickets are subject to fees, and please note that FrightFest tickets are NOT REFUNDABLE
LINE UP
FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER
OPENING FILM: MAGPIE (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 6.00pm, Screen 2: 6.30pm)
Director: Sam Yates. With: Daisy Ridley, Shazad Latif, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Alistair Petrie, Hiba Ahmed. UK 2023. 90 mins.
Synopsis: When Ben and Anette’s daughter is cast in a film alongside glamorous movie star, Alicia, Ben is quickly drawn into the actress's glamourous world. As he becomes more intoxicated with Alicia and their affair intensifies, Anette is left at home with the baby, pushed to her emotional limits and on the brink of psychosis.
PARVULOS (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 8.25pm, Screen 2: 8.50pm)
Director Isaac Ezban. With: Felix Farid Escalante, Leonardo Cervantes, Mateo Ortega Casillas, Carla Adell. Mexico 2024. 118 mins.
Synopsis: A thought-provoking, slick and visually striking story about the lives of three young brothers tackling life in a post-apocalyptic, infected world, shot largely in monochrome tones, with flashes of colour for special moments. Living in a cabin in the middle of the woods the trio hide a dark, disturbing secret in their basement.
ADVENT (World Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 11.00pm, Screen 2: 11.25pm)
Director: Airell Anthony Hayles. With: Nicholas Vince, Mark Arnold, Rasina Pavlova, Cian Lorcan. UK 20224. 77 mins
Synopsis: When a young girl into urban legends unearths a supposed cursed advent calendar, she seeks to find out if the dark stories behind it are true as she opens a door each day in the build up to Christmas. Behind every door is a challenge that grows more disturbing as she starts to lose sight of who she is. As realities collapse, it seems she may. have also brought her mother back from the dead.
SATURDAY 2 NOVEMBER
THE BITTER TASTE (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 11.10am, Screen 2: 11.35am)
Director: Guido Tolke. With: Julia Dordel, Nicolo Pasetti, Anne Alexander Sieder, Christiane Ostermayer. Germany 2024. 125 mins.
Synopsis: Five ways to die - one way to survive. After being captured by an undead countess and her cursed followers, Marcia, a retired pentathlete, must rely on her outdated and rusty athletic abilities to endure a terrifying hunt for human prey. Reluctantly she teams up with a mysterious, yet charming fisherman and an irritable cop in a suspicious alliance to increase her chances of survival against all the odds.
ALIEN COUNTRY (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 1.45pm, Screen 2: 2.10pm)
Directors: Boston McConnaughey, Renny Grames. With: K.C. Clyde, Renny Grames, Charan Prabhakar, Rachel Brooke Smith. USA 2024. 96 mins.
Synopsis: Reeling from the news of an unexpected pregnancy, Jimmy, a wild and reckless demolition derby mechanic, and Everly unknowingly release an alien invasion in their small town. Now they must learn to work together in order to save each other, their town and evidently, the entire galaxy.
THE DRAFT! (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 4.10pm, Screen 2: 4.15pm)
Director: Yusron Fuadi. With: Adhin Abdul Hakim, Winner Wijaya, Ibrahim Alhami, Putri Anggie. Indonesia 2023. 84 mins.
Synopsis: Fight for your fate! Five college students embark on a weekend trip to an isolated cabin. Upon their arrival, a mysterious older man gives them a cryptic warning about staying there, and later, strange and weird events begin happening around them. Soon they learn they must survive a dizzying battle of wits against an all-powerful dark force that is seemingly undefeated.
TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 6.20pm, Screen 2: 6.45pm)
Director: Chris Reading. With: Johnny Vegas, Sophie Thompson, Jane Horrocks, Mark Heap, and narrated by Stephen Fry, 2024 UK, 99 mins.
Synopsis: Real-life best friends Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson run a vintage bric-a-brac shop in Muswell Hill, London. Stumbling across a time machine, they embark on trips to the past to stock their emporium with quirky artefacts with no idea of the irreparable damage they are causing to the fabric of the universe. After one excursion too many, an interdimensional fissure appears and Ruth must free Megan from The Unreason, a monstrous netherworld where convoluted gaming is played for all eternity.
CATCH A KILLER (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 8.45pm, Screen 2: 9.10pm)
Director: Teddy Grennan. With: Sam Brooks, Tu Morrow. USA 2024. 74 mins.
Synopsis: Otto and Lex are a pair of star-crossed lovers, who do the right thing but make the wrong decision and it costs them everything. When Otto is derailed on his way to becoming the city’s youngest detective, he stays in the police business as a bioremediation specialist cleaning up after a serial killer. With an uncanny knowledge of horror films and his natural born instincts, Otto and Lex crack the code to where the killer is going to strike next…now they have just got to catch him.
ANIMALE (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 10.40pm, Screen 2: 11.05pm)
Director: Emma Benestan. With: Oulaya Amamra, Claude Chaballier, Elies-Morgan Admi- Bensellam, Vivien Rodriguez. France 2024.
Synopsis: Nejma works at a farm where bulls are raised for sport. Against her mother’s wishes, Nejma wants to become the first female bull-runner, a dangerous ambition as many end up wounded or permanently disabled. After one bullfighting dare, she wakes up with a weird, enhanced ability to know what the bulls feel. Shortly afterwards a mysterious rogue bull appears at night to stalk and kill. To save the tourist season and dispel any rumours, all farms unite for a bull-hunt. But as her powers of perception grow, Nejma fears there may be a more supernatural angle to what is happening…
