Stream queens: Top 20 FrightFest 2015 films coming soon to UK VOD
James R | On 20, Aug 2015
There’s just one week to go until FrightFest 2015 and the line-up is as scarily enticing as ever. The event, now in its 16th year, is a dream for horror lovers, giving audiences and filmmakers alike the chance to screech their lungs out in a room full of fellow fans. There are few better places to watch a horror movie.
For some, though, London’s Leicester Square is a little too far to make the pilgrimage. Even for those who do make it, a record 76 films lined up over five days makes it difficult to see everything. Luckily, though, horror and VOD are best buddies: digital distribution means that it is easier than ever for genre titles to reach a wide audience, even when theatrical deals prove elusive. Only last month, the fantastic Creep, starring Mark Duplass, made its UK debut via Netflix. This week, meanwhile, FrightFest and Icon announced their first slate of horror movies to be released on digital platform under a new “FrightFest Presents” banner.
Indeed, as well as the communal experience, FrightFest offers a valuable chance for smaller films to build a following and spread word of mouth – there are several Discovery Screens at the event devoted to doing just that. So we picked our way through this year’s catalogue to find the most promising films soon available to stream. Whether you’re looking to catch up on an unseen gem or relive a crowd favourite, here are 20 screamers coming soon to VOD (and DVD) in the UK.
Information about where you can watch the films will be added as and when it becomes available, along with reviews.
Body – Monday 31st August
An idyllic Christmas holiday turns deadly when best friends Holly, Cali and Mel break into a local mansion they believe to be unoccupied. But they quickly realise they’re not alone and, a grisly murder later, have to work out what to do with the dead body in the living room.
Read our review – and where to watch Body online.
Zombie Fight Club – Monday 31st August
While the zombie apocalypse brings Taipei to the brink of collapse, an apartment block in the corner of the city becomes riddled with crime. Surrounded by zombies and with no way out but down, the last remaining survivors Andy (Andy On) and Jenny (Jessica C) soon find themselves trapped in an underground arena of the undead. Can they battle their way through?
Read our review – and where to watch Zombie Fight Club online.
Final Girl – Monday 31st August
Abigail Breslin and Wes Bentley star in this survival thriller about Veronica, who is lured into the worse by four boys as part of a brutal hunting tradition – but she’s no ordinary prey…
Screening at FrightFest at 8.50pm on Friday 28th August
Another Me – Monday 31st August
Rhys Ifans and Jonathan Rhys Meyers co-star alongside Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner in this film about a girl whose life begins to unravel, as her friends mention conversations she doesn’t recall having with them, or say they’ve seen her when she knows it’s not possible. She soon starts to believe that she is being pursued by a mysterious double, who is out not just to steal her identity, but her life. Will she uncover the truth behind her sinister Doppelgänger?
Read our review – and where to watch Another Me online.
James Wan’s Demonic – Monday 7th September
Found footage gets a twist in this horror produced by James Wan. It follows Detective Lewis (Frank Grillo), who is called to a local house and finds the bodies of three slaughtered college students. The only survivor, John (Dustin Milligan), claims they held a séance to summon ghosts of people killed in the house years earlier. But what really happened?
Read our review – and where to watch Demonic online.
Awaiting – Monday 7th September
The second feature from director Mark Murphy (The Crypt) follows Morris (Tony Curran), a recluse with psychotic tendencies, whose life changes when his innocent daughter, Lauren (Diana Vickers), rescues one of his victims and befriends him.
Screening at FrightFest at 4pm on Monday 31st August
Wind Walkers – Friday 25th September
A group of friends and family descend into the swamp lands of the Everglades for their annual hunting trip, only to discover that they are the ones being hunted. As a malevolent entity tracks them, they begin to realise that one of their party, Sean (Zane Holtz), may be possessed by something he has brought home from a tour of duty in the Middle East…
Read our review – and where to watch Wind Walkers online.
The Lazarus Effect – Monday 5th October
Fresh from directing Netflix’s documentary series, Chef’s Table, David Gelb turns his hand to horror with this tale of a group of researchers – led by Frank (Mark Duplass) and Zoe (Olivia Wilde) – who’ve achieved the unimaginable: bringing the dead back to life. But when their university shuts the project down, they take matters into their own hands.
Screening at FrightFest at 10.45am on Monday 31st August
Turbo Kid – Monday 12th October
From the company that brought you Hobo with a Shotgun, Turbo Kid is an action/sci-fi/comedy set in the post-apocalyptic future… of 1997. Munro Chambers stars as The Kid, who is scavenging for relics when he befriends a mysterious girl (Laurence Leboeuf). After she is kidnapped by Zeus (Michael Ironside), the tyrannical leader of the Wasteland who murdered his parents, The Kid must face his ultimate destiny: to rid the Wasteland of evil.
Screening at FrightFest at 8.40pm on Thursday 27th August
We Are Still Here – Monday 19th October
After the death of their college age son, Anne and Paul Sacchetti (Barbara Crampton and Andrew Sensenig) relocate to the snowswept New England hamlet of Aylesbury, a sleepy village where all is most certainly not as it seems. When strange sounds and eerie feelings convince Anne that her son’s spirit is still with them, they invite an eccentric, New Age couple (Larry Fessenden and Lisa Marie) to help them get to the bottom of the mystery.
Screening at FrightFest at 6.45pm on Friday 28th August
Stung – Monday 26th October
Lance Henriksen and Clifton Collins Jr. star in this horror-comedy, which sees a swarm of giant mutant wasps attack a society garden party.
Read our review – and where to watch Stung online.
Howl – Monday 26th October
Returning to FrightFest after opening years ago with The Seasoning House , Paul Hyett’s film sees young ambitious ticket collector Joe on the last train out of London on a dark and stormy night, only for the vehicle to hit something on the tracks. The driver goes to investigate – and never returns. The passengers must work together to survive the hairy enemy pursuing them…
Screening at FrightFest at 1.15pm on Monday 31st August
Hellions – Monday 26th October
Canadian director Bruce McDonald helms this horror about teenager Dora (Chloe Rose), who discovers she’s pregnant. With her boyfriend dead, she must face a mysterious group of trick-or-treating children – and the uncomfortable fact that her baby is growing unnaturally quickly…
Screening at FrightFest at 11am on Monday 31st August
A Christmas Horror Story – Monday 9th November
A year ago on Christmas Eve, two high school students were slaughtered in the basement of their school. With the crime still unsolved, three friends decide to get to the bottom of the mystery. But what they uncover is proof of the existence of Krampus, the Anti-Santa, who hunts down the wicked to give them what they deserve. That’s just one of three stories in this horror anthology, featuring none other than William Shatner.
Screening at FrightFest at 8.20pm on Sunday 30th August
A Moment of Horror (Shorts) – 1st September
Following their screenings during the festival, FrightFest is teaming up with All 4 to release six horror shorts online for people to view for free. The collection, titled A Moment of Horror, includes: Night Feed (Dir. Christian James), Bath Time (Dir. Rose Glass), The Doorkeeper (Dir. Weronika Tofilska), Behind You (Dir. Lee Lennox), What the Dog Saw (Dir. Andrew Brand) and Killing Time (Dir. Michelle Fox). For more information on each, click here.
Got a favourite from the festival you’d recommend? Have a film screening at FrightFest heading to VOD that you’d like us to spread the word about? Let us know below!