Scary line-up at FrightFest

Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, will, for the first time, present its five-day extravaganza at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, taking over all seven screens, including the two Odeon Luxe West End screens. Running from August 22 – 26 August, the fest will showcase 69 features from across the world, including 25 main screen premieres and 45 Discovery Screen titles, embracing the famed First Blood’ strand, the latest genre documentaries, and some exciting restorations and retrospectives. Plus, there’s the regular short-film showcase (to be announced later), panels, and some surprise 25th edition extras. This year there are 28 world premieres, with eleven countries represented, spanning four continents. Co-director Alan Jones said: “FrightFest, the Dark Heart of Cinema, has been beating loud and proud now for an amazing 25 years that have seen major challenges and transformations to the global film industry that FrightFest has embodied, embraced and emblazoned.“ The festival opens with the World premiere of Broken Bird, the directorial debut feature from actress/filmmaker Joanne Mitchell. Based on an original story by Tracey Sheals and Mitchell’s subsequent award-winning short Sybil, this is an absorbing and disturbing tale about a mortician (played brilliantly by Rebecca Calder), whose dark desires are becoming more insatiable and progressively out of control. The closing night film is the English premiere of The Substance, the second thrilling shocker (after Revenge) from French writer/director Coralie Fargeat. The Cannes 2024 award-winning sensation is a Visionary Feminist Body Horror, starring a fearless Demi Moore as fading celebrity Elizabeth Sparkle who uses a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.