FrightFest 2009

For those of you who are (in spirit) dead, undead, a mindless murderer, stalker, etc.. ‘Frightfest’ is the Horror Festival in the Capital of the World – London – which makes it probably the best Horror review on the planet. It takes place each year for four/five days /nights at the back end of August around the same time as The Notting Hill Carnival/back end of Edinburgh Fringe. This year it ran between Thursday 27^th – Monday 31^st August, finishing on a free and sunny Bank Holiday Monday.

This is its tenth year. For the last nine it has been held at that loveliest of exploitation venues The Prince Charles Cinema – but the ‘Fest is too big for the PCC now, even if the two remain close in ideas and spirit. So, for capacities sake it has moved to a larger venue on Leicester Square: Empire, where West End premieres take place.

A good job too. The merchandising table alone filled half the auditorium’s foyer space and the way the films were presented suited the multi – screened facility Empire can provide. The cinema was packed out. The infamy of the festival is growing. There were 128 films on show, some bound to attract bigger audiences than others (An American Werewolf in London/Dead Snow/Giallo/Vampire vs. Frankenstein Girl/The Human Centipede), and the small screens were best placed to hold the writing seminar and the smaller outings – such as Colin (which was sold out for both showings, long before show times). The main cinema screen is lovely – ideal for UK premieres in its sweeping red-seated opulence. It has a Kodak Theatre feel with plush carpeting and chairs that you can snuggle into. They give with movement without hitting the person behind which is great for Horror as it limits the knock on effect of bodily jerks. The legroom is nice too. Tight genre watched in cosy luxury. Mmmmmm. Yummy.

There was a great little A5 guide to go with the itinery available for any passer by to pick up both outside the venue on the square, and inside the Empire. The booklet was packed full of info and ads which helped the fan pick and chose from the massive amounts on offer.

As for event atmospherics – what is wonderful about this festival is that it is not established enough to be up itself and far too young and genre to be anything other than truly fringe. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival (which is supposedly cutting edge) stopped really being anything other than mainstream decades ago. This baby, strictly for Horror buffs only, falls somewhere in the middle of the well and little known which makes its atmosphere buzzy but accessible. The crowd are not autograph seekers or star stuck nightmares. I have found the nicest most appealing fans of Horror the most tolerable of film buffs. Sci-fi can be a little too geeky whereas Horror fans are just cool people. This was evident in the air at the ‘Fest. The audience was predominantly male which reiterates something said at the writer’s seminar: Horror fans are mostly male – and low incomers. Although, the wonderful magazine The Word reviewed Frightfest contending that Horror fans were split across the gender divide: girls loved vampires – boys, zombies. Check out issue 79 pp34-35 ‘Division of the Dead.’

The girls that were there though were with their boyfriends or were involved in the production of something that was being shown. I feel as though I was the only woman alone there, but this is true of cinema attending in any event. The crowd was mixed in terms of age and better in this respect than I had imagined: I had thought that there would be a very young emphasis – but put an average age at 30 amongst the attendees I saw which is good considering many of the Horror Directors whose films I grew up with are now in their sixties and seventies. So, if you are in your thirties/forties/fifties – do not be scared that this is a festival for the young. What was overwhelming was pure enthusiasm: this was the core key element at the heart of all proceedings.

The sub genres were well represented: zombies, exploitation, vampire, stalk and slash, low budget – all had their place and none was looked at as better than the other. Only a couple were given two viewings: ‘It’s Alive’ and ‘Colin.’ Colin had a lot of outside publicity: everyone in my office had heard of this movie and its low, low, budget rep as I reeled off to colleagues what items I was reviewing, which says a lot. UK and Horror aren’t something that historically go naturally hand in hand – we have a right to be duly proud of this outing and this will be the first of four reviews (with some chat about the writing seminar), offered by this site on FrightFest. Read. Love. Sharpen. Next year will soon be here…..