FrightFest 2010 will open with Hatchet II

Film 4’s FrightFest 2010 will launch this year with Adam Green’s slasher sequel Hatchet II .

Director Green is chuffed to bits:

"Having the World Premiere of Hatchet II as the opening night of FrightFest is really a homecoming for my monster Victor Crowley and I.

"It’s important to me that the first audience to see this should be the very audience that breathed life into Hatchet and turned it into a franchise. While the first film was a love letter to the films I grew up on, this film is my love letter to the fans - the original ‘Hatchet Army’."

The blood-soaked sequel to the 2006 cult hit brings back Victor Crowley, who no doubt has a bit of an axe to grind. We're sure he'll wreak all kinds of havoc all over again – yes, with a hatchet.

Meanwhile director Eli Roth, whose Hostel and Cabin Fever both opened FrightFest in their time, will have the honour of closing the festivities with The Last Exorcism on Monday 30 August.

"Finally, I get to attend FrightFest in person," says the Roth-man, who produced the film. "It’s a festival I have always admired and supported from afar and I can’t think of a better place for The Last Exorcism to make its UK debut."

Film4 FrightFest 210 will run from 26 – 30 August at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square. The full gory line up will be nailed to a hangman's grave on 2 July, with festival and day tickets on sale the day after.

Is Hatchet II a good festival opener?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.