The Horror Calendar is back with a vengeance this month with FrightFest Glasgow celebrating its 11th year with a very fitting ‘13’ titles and of course with Horror Channel providing the scares for those not able to head to Scotland, there’s a healthy splattering of the dark stuff to keep us Horror fans sated!
So, a whirlwind tour of what to look out for in FrightFest Glasgow this month. For all those (me included) who’ve fallen under the spell of the beguiling Natalie Dormer (classy strumpet in “Game of Thrones” and “The Tudors”) she’s now getting lost in Japan’s infamous Suicide Forest in her latest horror movie The Forest which gets a special screening with the beautiful star in attendance! (Don’t bulldoze the poor girl though, G.O.T. fans) The festival finishes in a racy rock fuelled style with Sean Bryne’s (The Loved Ones) instant cult classic The Devil’s Candy. In between these bloody bookends you can catch a sneak preview of Paul Hyett’s (The Seasoning House) latest flick Heretiks with Hyett in attendance too. Plus the UK premiere of the sure to be controversial American remake of Martyrs! There’s so much more on offer click here to find out.
On the subject of Paul Hyett, Horror Channel is proud to have the network premiere of his debut horror, one that really made the industry and fans stand up and take note of a new talent; The Seasoning House.
THE SEASONING HOUSE NETWORK PREMIERE SATURDAY 27th 10.45pm
On a personal note, I remember watching this for the first time on my laptop in preparation for my interview with Hyett at FrightFest about a year after I’d given birth to my daughter Betty. Well, I must say, with my emotions now more intensified by my natural urge to protect, this film had me both weeping and fuming in sheer shock that what I was seeing was actually based on fact. I called Paul up (we are now friends!) saying that he’d made a very powerful film but that I could never watch it again and that he’d made me cry! To which he laughed and apologized! This is powerful stuff and it WILL affect you. But then, it’s very refreshing to find a film that is incredibly emotive. The film follows a young girl during the Balkan war who is both deaf and mute, recently orphaned and sold as a sex slave to a grim brothel run by Viktor (Kevin Howarth). Spared the fate of the other girls, she’s enlisted instead to help out around them. Our unlikely heroine is small and unheard, and soon finds passageways within the walls of this ramshackle hellhole, turning her prison into her advantage.
SECRET WINDOW NETWORK PREMIERE SATURDAY 20th FEBRUARY 9.00pm
Next up in a Horror Channel first Johnny Depp graces our screens in the network premiere of the Stephen King adaptation Secret Window. Yes, the master of quirks lends his dark side to the genre playing a tormented yet successful novelist (typical King) who retreats to his woodland house for some inspiration. However, when a stranger accuses him of plagiarism, a mystery unfolds surrounding who this stranger really is, who copied whom and what the writer’s inner demons really are.
SCREAMERS NETWORK PREMIERE FRIDAY 5th FEBRUARY 10.55pm
Fans of Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report take note. The famous sci-fi novelist who penned these classics (Philip K. Dick) is also behind the network premiere of Screamers, our first film premiere of the month. Following similar themes to Blade Runner, Screamers refers to a kind of self-evolving robot, a weapon designed to kill anything with a pulse, nicknamed as such due to the chilling high pitched noise they make as they attack. The droids, however, are out of control, having begun to mimic human beings, calling in to question what is real and what is not. We all knew the machines would get us in the end!
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS NETWORK PREMIERE SATURDAY 13th FEBRUARY 10.50pm
A good urban legend should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and this one’s a classic! Many fans will remember the 1979 classic that had America’s babysitters wetting their pants in fear. A bored babysitter begins to receive nasty phone calls asking her “Have you checked the children…?” Scared witless she eventually asks the police to trace the call and when they do… well I won’t spoil it just in case! Here we have the 2006 remake from the director of Con Air and Tomb Raider.
TRUTH OR DARE NETWORK PREMIERE FRIDAY 19th FEBRUARY 10.50pm
Next up a British chiller that takes a classic teenage game and turns it into a living nightmare. Get ready to spin the bottle and play Truth or Dare! Five friends are invited to a large mansion to celebrate the birthday of a boy they once humiliated and bullied. On arrival, however, it’s the boy’s brother leading the proceedings and, as we find out, has one hell of an ulterior motive. Bound and gagged the five friends are forced to confess their guilty sins or pay the price with increasingly grim tests of endurance and survival.
DARKNESS FALLS NETWORK PREMIERE SAT 6th FEBRUARY 9.00pm
Ah one of my favourite kinds of horror is one that delves deep into childhood fears, active imaginations and fairytale myth. In this case it’s the Tooth Fairy. Not a creature you often see in the genre, it’s refreshing to see an adult twist on this innocent myth. You see, in this case, the tooth fairy is not a tiny ethereal being collecting milk teeth in return for a congratulatory coin, no. She was once a kindly lady who paid a horrific price for a crime she was innocent of. But now she’s come back to her small town to wreak vengeance.
THE COVENANT NETWORK PREMIERE FRIDAY 26th FEBRUARY 9.00pm
Testosterone and supernatural powers combined make for a dangerous concoction in this mildly homo-erotic horror that boldly states; witchcraft ain’t just for girls! Four teenage warlocks from an exclusive lineage of witches keep an ancient pact of silence to hide their powers. But it seems that conducting magic itself can be addictive, use them too much and your powers will fade. Try telling that to a randy 17-year-old with the power to literally put the wind up girls’ skirts whenever he pleases.
THE APPEARING UK TV PREMIERE FRIDAY 12th FEBRUARY 9.00pm
Blending the haunted house with the possession movie comes this mystery thriller starring Dean Cain. Grieving parents move to a small town (don’t they always?) where ex detective Michael becomes embroiled in a teenage disappearance, while the wife is repeatedly drawn to a creepy, seemingly haunted mansion and begins to suffer disturbing visions. But what is her connection to the house, her past and the town’s secret?
Remember to tune in on time to catch my cheeky yet informative links for each film premiere! Let the nightmare begin….
