The current guest list for this year’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest has been revealed alongside an extra film that will screen on Friday, August 23rd at 8.30pm
The movie is the new 4K remaster of the classic, much-loved The Hitcher (1986). The cult film is directed by Robert Harmon and stars C. Thomas Howell, Rutger Hauer, Jennnifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey DeMunn. The screening heralds the 4K UHD release by Studiocanal.
As always, there will be a fabulous array of guests from all over the world attending, including some returning friends of the festival. Director Joanne Mitchell will be there for the opening film Broken Bird alongside cast members Rebecca Calder and James Fleet. Saint Clare director Mitzi Peirone and FrightFest favourite Graham Skipper will be introducing his new movie The Lonely Man with the Ghost Machine, as well as hosting FrightFest’s annual quiz.
Other international directors attending include Joshua Erkman for A Desert, Cutter Hodierne for Cold Wallet, Parker Brennon for Hauntology, Tim Cruz for Ladybug, alongside cast including Anthony Del Negro, Chris Struckman for Selby Oaks, alongside lead actor Camille Sullivan, Elric Kane for The Dead Thing, Loic Tanson for The Last Ashes, Pierre Tsigardis for Traumatika, Mike Capes for The Invisible Raptor, Aurelia Mengin for Scarlet Blue, Rye Levey for Boutique: To Preserve And Collect, J.D Phillips for Cursed In Baja, Arro Stefansson for Delirium, Philip da Silva for From Darkness, Ludvig Gür for In The Name Of God, Buddy Cooper for Mutilator 2, Vivieno Caldinelli for Scared Shitless, Michael Felker for Things Will Be Different, Michael Turney for Video Vision, and David Yohe and Matt Devino for The Daemon. Also, we are pleased that John Farrelly, the director of An Hiabhse (The Ghost), the first Irish Language horror film ever made, will be joining us with the main cast.
Other returning FrightFest alumni are Jake West, who, on its 25th year anniversary, will be hosting a special 4K Restoration screening of Razor Blade Smile, Neil Marshall and Chris Smith, who are contributors for Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott’s documentary Generation Terror, director Micky Keating for Invader, director Jill Gevargizian for Ghost Game, alongside lead actor Kia Dorsey, and director Brian Hanson for The Bunker, alongside lead actor Chelsea Edmundson.
Homegrown talent will be present in abundance this year. We have director Marc Coleman for Members Club, alongside cast including Steve Oram, director Sean Cronin for Bogieville, alongside cast including Sarah Alexandra Marks, Ayvianna Snow, Andrew Lee Potts, and Sarina Taylor, attending with Queen’s Roger Taylor, director Jon Spiro for The Life And Deaths Of Christopher Lee, alongside Jonathan Rigby, (Lee’s biographer), directors Justin Hardy, Dominic Hardy, and Chris Nunn for Children Of The Wicker Man, director Louisa Warren plus cast for Cinderella’s Curse, director Warren Dudley plus cast for Fright, director Jonathan Zaurin plus cast for Derelict, director and actor Georgia Conlan for Charlotte, with lead actor Dean Kilbey (who also stars in Members Club and Derelict), director Hayden Hewitt with Cara, alongside cast including Johnny Vivash and Laurence R. Harvey, and director Elliott Léon with The Freaks Of Fancy.
The First Blood strand goes from strength to strength and all the helmers will be around, supported by their cast and crews. We have The Monster Beneath Us director Sophie Osbourne, Scopophobia director Alec Owen, Touchdown director Josephine Rose, YEAR 10 director Benjamin Goodger, Protein director Tony Burke and 7 Keys director Joy Wilkinson. Another ‘discovery’ is Damon Rickard, a FrightFest regular turned film director, who will be presenting his debut feature Never Have I Ever.
This year sees the return of the Duke Mitchell team, back to help celebrate the 25th edition of the festival with a film party where guests will lose their sanity in a maelstrom of celluloid-tinged madness. Expect trailers, trains, scary PSEs, delightful discoveries, and, most importantly, utter chaos.
Also, Film Sussex, run by FrightFest stalwart Chris Collier, presents From Figment To Finance, A Case Study, a presentation hosted by film producer Jen Handoff (Prevenge, The Borderlands). This free event will demystify the complexities of film finance through an in-depth case study of an award-winning horror film currently in development.
In an event sure to be hotly debated, Tom Paton, head of FrightFest’s headline sponsor, Pigeon Shrine, will host an open forum entitled AI: For You? Tom will invite a discussion on the future of entertainment production and the role that AI technology will play. This is a free event.
There will also be a closed caption screening of The Last Voyage of the Demeter, courtesy of Lionsgate.
Pigeon Shrine FrightFest takes place from August 22nd to 26th at The Odeon Luxe Leicester Square and The Odeon Luxe West End. For full programme details, head over to http://www.frightfest.co.uk/
