FrightFest 2010:10 Festival Picks

Hatchet II

The original Hatchet was a love-letter to ‘80s slasher splatter flicks hand-scrawled in human blood. The sequel doubles the body-count, dumping buckets of blood into the laps of horror geeks who like laughs alongside their lumps of flesh.

See It If... You like old-school gore and gags, and you recognise the names Tony Todd, Kane Hodder and Danielle Harris (and if you don’t, shame on you).

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Total Icon Retrospective

Tobe Hooper fans, prepare to rejoice.

Not only will Total Film be bringing Tobe Hooper’s little-seen debut feature, Eggshells (a rarity described as a mixture of Andy Warhol’s Trash and Disney’s Fantasia ) to FrightFest, we’ll also be screening his glorious Texas Chain Saw Massacre .

Oh, and we’ll be bringing Tobe to the UK for the first time in 18 years, for a 45-minute Total Icon chat.

So, you can see Tobe’s debut for the first time, catch Texas Chain Saw on the big screen, then see the true terror icon talking about the lot.

See It If... You want to be in the presence of genius.

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Monsters

Essentially District 9 taking a road trip through The Mist , Monsters mixes heart-felt romance, creature-feature scares and epic apocalyptic landscapes to dazzling effect.

Director Gareth Edwards has belied his insanely small budget for this film, which sees alien lifeforms spreading their way across America after having arrived on a NASA probe. Half of Mexico has been quarantined, the military are struggling to deal with the problem, and journalist Andrew (Scoot McNairy) is tasked with travelling across the 'infected zone' to save his boss's daughter.

This one comes sponsored by Total Film , and we thoroughly recommend you catch it early so you can rave about it to your friends before it becomes the next breakout hit.

See It If... You want to see a British director show Hollywood how it's done.

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Red White & Blue

FrightFest has bagged the UK premiere of director Simon Rumley's follow-up to The Living and the Dead .

Red White & Blue is set in Austin, Texas, and follows Erica (Amanda Fuller), a directionless (and promiscuous) young woman who finds a kindred spirit in mysterious Iraq vet Nate (Noah Taylor), though it's not long before one of her previous sexual encounters comes back to haunt her.

With plenty of suspenseful chills, and an unflinching look at moral crises, Red White & Blue is likely to stimulate your brain as much as your fear glands.

See It If… You like your scares intelligent and thought-provoking (without scrimping on the sex and violence).

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The Last Exorcism

We all know that exorcisms are perfect fodder for cinematic scares, and FrightFest closes with this Eli Roth-produced horror.

It's set up with a neat little premise: disillusioned preacher Marcus (Patrick Fabian) sets out to debunk the con that is the exorcism business by fronting a documentary, only to come across the genuinely disturbing case of a southern farmer's daughter who is apparently actually possessed.

This found-footage thriller owes as much of a debt to The Blair Witch Project as it does to William Friedkin.

See It If… You believe in the devil.

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Fanboys

If the scares get a bit too much for you, you can always check out long-awaited geek-com Fanboys at FrightFest, where it makes its UK debut.

Fanboys is set in 1998, and it follows four friends so desperate to see The Phantom Menace that they decide to go on a cross-country mission to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal an early print of the prequel.

There are cameos aplenty, and there's also the opportunity see Kristen Bell in a Princess Leia bikini. Ideal for anyone who knows what it's like to reall y anticipate a movie, this has the thumbs up from Kevin Smith and the Star Wars head honcho himself, George Lucas.

See It If… You need some laughs (and Kristen Bell in a Princess Leia bikini) after all the blood and guts of the Fest.

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Isle of Dogs

You can catch the world premiere of Brit thriller Isle of Dogs at FrightFest.

The film stars Edward Hogg (of Bunny and the Bull fame) as Riley, a small-time crook who finds himself in deep trouble when he's discovered sleeping with the bride of deadly gang boss Darius (Andrew Howard).

Riley has the uneasy choice of kill or be killed, and he soon learns what he's capable of doing in the interests of his own survival. The body count quickly escalates in this taut Brit-flick.

See It If.. You're after a fresh spin on the Landan gangster movie.

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Red Hill

This Aussie horror-western stars True Blood 's Ryan Kwanten as police officer Shane Cooper, who moves to the remote village of the title in an attempt to reduce his stress levels.

That's unlikely to happen any time soon though, as a prison break means that Shane's first day is a pretty hectic one, not least because he has to contend with Jimmy Conway (Tom E. Lewis), an escaped murderer with vengeance on his mind, who happens to be heading straight for the (usually) sleepy town.

The actions unfolds over a 24-hour period, and this lean thriller wears its influences on its sleeve. Another worthy entrant into the Australian horror canon.

See It If… You wish High Noon was just a little scarier.

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F (2010)

For fans of hoodie horror comes this school-set thriller, in which a group of murderous schoolkids attack a group of teachers after hours.

Scandalised teacher Robert Anderson (David Schofield) leads the effort to fend off the unwholesome extra-curricular assault. Tackling a contentious subject with balls-to-the-wall horror guarantees F will attract plenty of controversy when it's released.

After seeing a school converted into a tense battleground, your own educational institute won't look so bad after all…

See It If… You need to unwind after some exam results stress.

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We Are What We Are

This indie horror, directed by Jorge Michael Grau, was dubbed 'the Mexican Let the Right One In ' when it was shown at Cannes earlier this year.

The disturbing, uncompromising thriller looks at the daily rituals of a Latin American family who have turned to cannibalism as a means to survive their poverty stricken lifestyle. When the father, the 'breadwinner' of the family, dies, the onus is on eldest son Alfredo to provide the food supply.

For those with a strong stomach for gut-churning concepts and ethical 'what ifs'.

See It If… You've already eaten.

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