Tubi FrightFest 2026: The Complete Movieversalfilm Preview Guide

For five days, central London becomes a home for premieres, cult discoveries, restorations, short-form shocks and genre conversations. Movieversalfilm has assembled a complete route through Tubi FrightFest 2026, covering every feature, every programmed short and the festival’s special presentations.

Festival at a Glance

• Dates: Thursday 27 to Monday 31 August 2026
• Venues: ODEON LUXE Leicester Square and ODEON LUXE West End
• Scale: 82 feature films across five screens, plus short-film showcases and special events
• Opening film: Nervous
• Closing film: Species (Sanguine)
• Audience: Festival screenings are for people aged 18 and over

Ticket Prices for 2026

• Festival Pass — Stalls & Royal Circle: £265
• Festival Pass — Balcony: £225
• Thursday Day Pass: £36
• Friday and Saturday Day Pass: £72
• Sunday and Monday Day Pass: £60
• Single Tickets: £14.99

Why This Edition Stands Out

The 27th edition balances major international premieres with independently minded discoveries. South Korean genre cinema has a particularly strong presence, while British filmmaking, documentary, creature features, found footage, body horror, horror-comedy and cult retrospectives all receive room to breathe.

Restorations and Retrospective Events

Restoration enthusiasts should prioritise the 4K world-premiere restoration of The Abominable Snowman, the UK premiere of the 4K restoration of Ghostkeeper, and the 30th-anniversary 4K presentation of Michael Dougherty’s animated short Season’s Greetings. The programme also brings Alien back to the cinema, marks ten years of Train to Busan, and revisits its animated prequel Seoul Station.

The Complete Feature-Film Guide

Thursday 27 August — Opening Night

NERVOUS

• Festival slot: Thursday 27 5:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Abner Pastoll
• Starring: Sarah Bolger, Sungsoo Yune, Asung Ko, Yoo-hyun Song
• Production: South Korea 2026. 100 mins.

Preview: Sarah and her husband Sungsoo move to the Korean countryside in the hope of saving their crumbling marriage. But their new home hides a strange secret – an unmarked vinyl record that plays nothing but silence. After listening to it, Sarah slowly begins to lose the ability to hear men’s voices, and her grip on reality starts to fracture. Isolated from her husband, she is drawn to their enigmatic neighbour whose raw, erotic presence entices. As Sarah’s obsessions deepen, paranoia, hallucinations, and dangerous desires spiral out of control and she must confront whether the horrors are psychological, or something more sinister.

COLONY

• Festival slot: Thursday 27 8:15 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Yeon Sang-ho
• Starring: Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Shin-rok
• Production: South Korea 2026. 122 mins.

Preview: Direct from the Cannes Film Festival, the highly anticipated zombie shocker sensation from Yeon Sang-ho, director of SEOUL STATION, TRAIN TO BUSAN and PENINSULA. Professor Se Jeong attends a biotech conference-only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is accidentally unleashed, infecting attendees within minutes. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to undergo disturbing physical transformations the authorities seal off the entire facility. But a small group of survivors struggle to navigate the confined spaces overrun by evolving threats. And as tension rises among the trapped, a desperate race against contamination and time begins.

BIG BABY

• Festival slot: Thursday 27 11:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Spider One
• Starring: Krsy Fox, Brandon Scott, Adam Marcinowski, Catherine Corcoran
• Production: USA 2026. 103 mins.

Preview: From the team behind LITTLE BITES and produced by Cher, a nightmare involving a maniac killer in a baby mask inspires horror screenwriter Adam Lewis's new script. As more nightmares, visions, and real life terror begin to challenge Adam's sanity, he finds himself in a desperate struggle to control his writing, his reality, and who will be Big Baby's next victim. Director Spider One turns the slasher genre inside out to craft a meta script about creation and those creations coming to life, a terrifying premise about an impossible task with deadly consequences.

GRIN

• Festival slot: Thursday 27 8:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Lawrence Fowler
• Starring: Gareth Tidball, Simon Davies, Lucas Edwards, Virginia Gilchrist
• Production: UK 2026. 81 mins.

Preview: Welsh-born Lawrence Fowler and his father, Geoff, have been steadily turning out evil doll shockers since 2018, with THE CURSE OF THE WITCH’S DOLL, followed by assorted marionette menaces in their JACK IN THE BOX (2019) trilogy. Now comes another franchise possibility with GRIN. Following a horrific crime committed when they were young, a group of four friends think it will remain a secret forever until they discover and play a vintage board game. When the game unwittingly summons the grotesque clown demon ‘Grin’, it soon becomes clear that the evil entity targets those who have committed terrible sins.

BOWELS OF HELL

• Festival slot: Thursday 27 10:50 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Gurcius Gewdner, Gustavo Vinagre
• Starring: Martha Nowill, Benjamin Damini, Majeca Angelucci, Rodrigo Apresentador
• Production: Brazil 2026. 111 mins.

Preview: Get ready for faecal fear and scatalogical splatter in a heart-felt gross-out shocker to scare you shitless! Malu is cracking up due to the weight of past trauma that leaves her with a strong aversion to toilets. She’s also unwilling to use her rebellious teenage child’s preferred pronouns and adopted name, Genesis. But then a strange curse turns toilets into deadly monsters, and she is hurled into a surreal nightmare where motherhood, grief, and existential terror can’t simply be flushed away. Gagging Grand Guignol in a midnight madness mix of lunatic lavatories and close encounters of the turd kind.

SLAY

• Festival slot: Thursday 27 8:20 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Kyra Elise Gardner
• Starring: Zoey Luna, Aya Cash, Malina Pauli Weissman, Shawnee Smith
• Production: USA 2026. 89 mins.

Preview: Seventeen-year-old Chloe Cruz appears to have it all – social media fame, a devoted boyfriend, and a tightly curated circle of friends. But when one of them is murdered, her carefully constructed world begins to unravel. Hoping to escape the fallout, Chloe and her friends retreat to a secluded, disco-themed cabin in the mountains. As paranoia sets in and tensions rise, it becomes clear they are not alone – and that the killer may be closer than they think. To survive, Chloe must confront the shifting dynamics of her friendships and the fragile identity she’s built online before it’s too late.

BLOOD SECRET

• Festival slot: Thursday 27 10:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Cameron Francis
• Starring: Katherine Lozon, Tiana Akers, Garin Jones, Cory Stark
• Production: USA 2026. 81 mins.

Preview: From Cameron Francis, director of last year’s FrightFest-acclaimed breakout hit, COVER. Secrets… Lies… Bodies… Nothing stays buried forever. While visiting her best friend, a woman starts to question reality when she's confronted by seemingly supernatural events. As her sanity unravels, she comes to the terrifying realisation that she might not survive the night. Set in one location but given an epic look in John Carpenter-inspired wide-screen, claustrophobia, both mentally and physically, is the overwhelming mood of Francis’ latest miniature gem, exploring the universal themes of regret, remorse, and ultimately searching for forgiveness.

Friday 28 August

IMPOSTERS

• Festival slot: Friday 28 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Caleb Phillips
• Starring: Jessica Rothe, Charlie Barnett, Yul Vazquez, Bates Wilden
• Production: USA 2026. 102 mins.

Preview: Paul and Marie’s infant son Theo disappears during a housewarming party. One fateful night, a stranger knocks at their door telling the grieving parents about a cave that can return their child to them. While Paul is sceptical, Marie heads to the cave solo. She returns, covered in blood and holding a baby, who appears to be Theo. A shocked Paul fails to get any answers from her since she can’t seem to remember what happened. He soon begins to realise the baby his wife brought back may not be their son and that she may also know it.

FROSTBITE

• Festival slot: Friday 28 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Lukas Rinker
• Starring: Zoe Boyle, Kris Hitchen, Andrew Scarborough, Lily Curley
• Production: Denmark/Germany 2026. 82 mins.

Preview: HOLY SHIT! director Lukas Rinker returns to FrightFest with an Irwin Allen-style disaster movie combined with a seat-edged survival thriller. On the foggy summit of Canada’s Mount Killgore, high-ranking investors want proof that the area can become a prestigious Winter Sports destination. But when a controlled avalanche blast goes wrong, former skating pro Charles, geologist Martia and her daughter Billy are trapped in a crashed cable car beneath the ice. Battling life-threatening injuries, environmental dangers, freezing cold and inner demons, they learn that as desperately as they want out of the collapsed ski lift, something wants in.

PONDEROSA

• Festival slot: Friday 28 3:25 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Rob Rice
• Starring: Bill Camp, Jack Dylan Grazer, Alexis Bledel
• Production: USA 2026. 88 mins.

Preview: When the buffet where his mother works closes, Zeke is forced to entertain the advances of a rich regular who seems weirdly obsessed with becoming his dad. Or is it something far more sinister? Fresh from its sensational Tribeca Festival launch comes a hilarious, creepy and surreal Bunuelian nightmare about two American generations and their colliding vision for the future. The older one is desperate to reproduce itself, flailing around for relevance, begging the younger one to take up the mantle of its ideas. But maybe to keep hope alive something of the past has to die.

THE PITCHFORK RETREAT

• Festival slot: Friday 28 6:20 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Gregory Van Voorhis, Nicole Van Voorhis
• Starring: Tony Todd, Danielle Harris, Dee Wallace, Adrienne Barbeau
• Production: USA 2026. 94 mins.

Preview: We all take secrets to the grave! Three genre writers, Matt, Mandy and Nikolai, journey to a secluded island for a life-changing competition at the high-stakes horror Jigsaw retreat. But the top prize comes with a price as they realise there is nowhere to hide when the darkness from within comes to light. For they must tap into their inner demons on the spiral into a vortex of terror if they are to win. From the producers of the TERRIFIER franchise comes a unique anthology featuring a host of genre legends, including the last appearance of CANDYMAN star Tony Todd.

DRAG

• Festival slot: Friday 28 8:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Raviv, Ullman, Greg Yagointzer
• Starring: Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito, John Stamos, Christine Ko
• Production: USA 2026. 86 mins.

Preview: Co-produced by Danny DeVito, a fun horror comedy of errors where nothing is what it seems, and events snowball into a dark, twisting mystery. Two sisters with a contentious relationship decide to rob a rural home in upstate New York. The simple robbery turns into a nightmare when one of them throws out her back and becomes immobilised on the second floor. As the clock ticks and pain sets in, the chaotic night spirals further out of control as they embark on an agonising journey to make it out before the shady homeowner returns.

HUNGRY

• Festival slot: Friday 28 10:55 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: James Nunn
• Starring: Madison Davenport, Tracey Bonner, Michael Curiel, Joaquim de Almeida
• Production: UK 2026. 92 mins.

Preview: Set in the mysterious landscape of the Louisiana swamplands, a group of holidaymakers embark on Gator Joe’s airboat tour. Unaware of the dangers of the bayou, they venture off the beaten path, lured by the promise of an exclusive sighting of Big Ben, an alligator legend. Little do they know that a century before, the US government attempted to introduce hippopotamuses into the area as a new source of meat. And a survivor of that experiment now turns its attention to those invading its territorial space. Let the impossible and desperate struggle against one of man’s most lethal adversaries begin.

TERRESTRIAL

• Festival slot: Friday 28 10:45 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Steve Pink
• Starring: Jermaine Fowler, Pauline Chalamet, Edy Modica, Brendan Hunt
• Production: USA 2025. 90 mins.

Preview: Four college friends hold a weekend reunion at a beautiful, incredibly expensive Los Angeles mansion belonging to Allen, a rising science fiction author. Painting his life as idyllic, Allen’s envious and then suspicious friends soon start finding cracks in his supposedly fabulous existence, career and lifestyle. As Allen’s story slowly unravels, strange events begin to blur the lines between reality and imagination, and his three friends soon learn they are involved in something they never signed up for. An unusual thriller with GALAXY QUEST-style elements from HOT TUB TIME MACHINE director Steve Pink.

ELECTRIC MEAT

• Festival slot: Friday 28 1:15 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Dan Schaffer
• Starring: Caspian Faye, Emily Booth, Nina Courson, Sylvia Soska
• Production: UK 2026. 95 mins.

Preview: A photographer's world unravels when a murdered model he's adopted as his muse decides she doesn't want to stay dead. A failed artist-turned-butcher discovers one of his models murdered and, being comfortable around dead meat, decides to keep her body. But he becomes convinced that, like Schrödinger's cat, she is both alive and dead, changing from victim to vengeful revenant. As his inspiration curdles into fear, a faded ex-model closes in on him, eager to become his new subject. Caught between two muses, he descends into a nightmare of conflicting obsessions that sends his work spiralling into insanity and violence.

STARSUCKERS

• Festival slot: Friday 28 3:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Jason Butler, Brett Butler
• Starring: James Alex, Manon Ens-Lapointe, Jeremy Anderson, Jacob Stickles
• Production: Canada 2026. 86 mins.

Preview: What happens when admiration curdles into devotion, and that fidelity becomes currency? An influencer couple invites their most loyal superfan couple to an intimate weekend retreat, secretly planning to use them as the centrepiece of their next viral reinvention. However, the curated weekend unravels into psychological warfare when each couple’s vision for the weekend congeals into something feral, where the desperate need to be seen turns deadly. A razor-sharp, candy-coated, gory satire of celebrity worship culture inspired by the anarchic irreverence of ‘Monty Python’, the stylised menace of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and the deadly consumerism of AMERICAN PSYCHO.

FACES OF DEATH

• Festival slot: Friday 28 6:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Daniel Goldhaber
• Starring: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, Charli XCX
• Production: USA 2026. 97 mins.

Preview: The meta-slasher retooling of the cult 1978 mondo classic that sparked a controversial moral panic. Margot Romero works as a content moderator for the Kino video-hosting website, where she decides whether to pass or flag the clips that fly onto the platform at speed. Even though mostly detached from the shocking imagery she has to view, she raises concerns over a series of murder videos that appear alarmingly real. Her fears brushed aside, Margot begins a personal investigation and, with the help of her horror-fan roommate, discovers that the demises are modelled on those from the original Video Nasty tape.

WRATH OF THE GODS

• Festival slot: Friday 28 8:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Justin Hardy
• Starring: Francis Magee, Christiane Schaldemose, Lynsey Rendall, Martha Robertson
• Production: UK 2026. 94 mins.

Preview: From the director of CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN, a folk tale based on Norse mythology. The North Sea island of Hel is cloaked in mystery, myth and misogyny. Isolated because the local community despise her, Anna is torn between the ghosts of the past and the gods of the present as an ill wind blows through, and young girls vanish. These missing children, her husband’s death and her own trauma become inextricably linked as Anna is haunted by unsettling flashbacks, forcing her to confront dark family secrets lurking in the shadows before they can devour her daughter too.

TRAUMA OR MONSTERS ALL

• Festival slot: Friday 28 1:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Larry Fessenden
• Starring: Larry Fessenden, Alex Breaux, Alex Hurt, Laetitia Hollard
• Production: USA 2026. 118 mins.

Preview: A Trieste Science+Fiction Presentation – Horror icon Larry Fessenden returns with his eighth indie genre film and it’s a monster mash destined to be a graveyard smash. Serving as a sequel to three other films he has written and directed: 1995’s vampire tale HABIT, his 2019 Frankenstein Monster riff DEPRAVED and the 2023 werewolf repurposing BLACKOUT. Placing his trio of ghouls under one humanist and uncanny roof, a writer investigating the dark past of the town of Talbot Falls for a newspaper article stirs up fears about the lurking monsters. Fessenden's final chapter of his quadrilogy works as a standalone event and a series finale.

DEAD EYES

• Festival slot: Friday 28 11:00 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Richard Williams
• Starring: Ana Thu Nguyen, Charles Cottier, Mischa heywood, Stephen Phillips
• Production: Australia 2025. 82 mins.

Preview: A completely first person film. Sean and his fiancée Grace venture into a remote forest with two friends to search for Sean’s missing father, Paul, who vanished after the death of his young daughter, Lilly. Returning to the place of tragedy, Sean is forced to face his inner demons when they uncover Paul’s horrifying secret… he’s been cloning Lilly in a desperate attempt to bring her back. The forest now crawls with cannibalistic mutant girls, each battling to prove their identity as the real Lilly.

THE LATCHER

• Festival slot: Friday 28 10:50 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: James Hunter
• Starring: Lucy Lovegrove, Darcy Kent, Monique Fisher, Alex Sarafini
• Production: Australia 2026. 80 mins.

Preview: Alice, a dedicated midwife and bereaved mother, is put on leave and forced to process her grief in the remote bushland house where she lost everything. But her attempts to move on are disrupted by the creeping presence of a nightmarish entity. As Alice’s reality begins to unravel, the boundaries between memory, nature, and the supernatural blur. Drawn into a liminal space where life and death entwine, she must confront the shadowy spectre that both torments and beckons her – a presence that threatens to overtake her entirely and submit to the dark promise of reunion with her lost child.

ANOTHER

• Festival slot: Friday 28 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Andy Chen
• Starring: Bob Morley, India de Beaufort, Doug Jones, Heather Langenkamp
• Production: USA 2026. 93 mins.

Preview: Joey is a grief-stricken author haunted by the death of her husband Ben, a brilliant physicist. When he inexplicably appears one morning, alive and well, making breakfast in their kitchen, Joey is thrust into a waking nightmare where grief, memory, and her reality begin to unravel. A genre-blending mashup of science fiction, mystery and horror, brought to life with practical effects and a lot of twists and turns, ANOTHER is an atmospheric and emotional meditation on grief, love, and fractured reality with inspiration pulled from such creative storytellers as M. Night Shyamalan, Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve.

OUR EFFED UP WORLD

• Festival slot: Friday 28 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Alice Maio Mackay
• Starring: Sara Thompson, Jess McLeod, Annapurna Sriram, Scott Major
• Production: Australia 2026. 69 mins.

Preview: FrightFest continues its enthusiastic support of diverse and distinctive voices in contemporary genre filmmaking by showcasing the latest mindbender from director Alice Maio Mackay, whose T-BLOCKERS, CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS and THE SERPENT’S SKIN became firm audience favourites. Alice’s latest unique vision pushes into new sub-genre territory by focusing on Sheri, a woman grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother. When a meteor shower heralds the arrival of a mysterious entity crashlanding in the woods near her home, suddenly Sheri and her video store friends become the first line of defence against an insatiable intergalactic hunger.

THE BARN PART III

• Festival slot: Friday 28 10:55 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Justin M
• Starring: Courtney Gains, Kelli Maroney, William Ragsdale, Felissa Rose
• Production: USA 2026. 95 mins.

Preview: In 2016 director Justin M. Seaman unfolded the legend of a haunted barn in Weary Falls, home to an assortment of evil entities that plagued graduates Sam and Josh on their final Devil’s Night celebrations when they detoured from a rock concert. Then in 2022 he continued the saga with escapee Michelle still questioning what exactly happened on that fateful Halloween night. Now comes the blood-spattered end of the creature feature trilogy THE BARN PART III which finds the group still left in fear that the evil three might come back to finish the harvest once and for all.

BUDDY

• Festival slot: Friday 28 8:50 p.m. Monday 31 11:10 a.m.; Friday 28 8:50 p.m. Monday 31. 11:00 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Casper Kelly
• Starring: Cristin Miloti, Topher Grace, Michael Shannon, Patton Oswalt
• Production: USA 2026. 95 mins.

Preview: Imagine your favourite cuddly kids’ TV character growing up – not getting any wiser, but turning into an axe-wielding nightmare! Meet Buddy, a bright orange unicorn, the cheerleading star of a children’s television show designed to teach kindness, sharing and simple morals. With its wholesome tone and sing-song vocals, it’s the perfect kiddie entertainment. Until Buddy snaps and transforms into a terrifying monster and young Freddy must escape from the show she’s trapped inside. Grotesque, funny and genuinely creepy, and definitely not for children; it’s trippy and disorienting, but also unexpectedly emotional, finding moments of sadness and tenderness amid the carnage.

SALMOKJI: WHISPERING WATER

• Festival slot: Friday 28 11:00 a.m. Sunday 30 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Lee Sang-min
• Starring: Kim Hye-yoon, Lee Jong-won, Kim June-han, KIm Young Sang
• Production: South Korea 2026. 95 mins.

Preview: The highest-grossing Korean horror film of all time arrives at FrightFest. A road-view filming crew is sent to a remote reservoir to reshoot footage previously deemed unusable due to unexplained visual distortions. Led by Su-in, the team documents the surrounding roads and landscape, but during a routine review of the recordings, they notice unfamiliar figures and unsettling details that none of them recall encountering while filming. Investigating further, they learn the reservoir is linked to a past crime and that something dreadful is rumoured to lurk beneath the surface. For once you enter Salmokji, you may never get out alive…

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT

• Festival slot: Friday 28 1:30 p.m. Sunday 30 9:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Josh Lobo
• Starring: Scott Poythress, Johnny Sibilly, AJ Bowen, Alexis Louder
• Production: USA 2026. 88 mins.

Preview: From Josh Lobo, the rising star director of I TRAPPED THE DEVIL, a unique sci-fi shocker inspired by J-Horror, acclaimed novelist Kobo Abe, sci-fi icon J.G. Ballard and the satirical black comedy OFFICE SPACE. The contrasting lives of two overnight security guards at a private university snap into focus as their grip on reality begins to unnervingly unravel after the appearance of a mysterious mute figure who returns each and every night without any explanation. Body Horror with a startling twist starring a host of genre luminaries and featuring a score by Simon Waskow of CUCKOO and LUZ fame.

REMANENCE: A VOLTAGE COSMIC HORROR

• Festival slot: Friday 28 6:45 p.m. Sunday 30 10:45 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Kapel Furman
• Starring: Ricardo Gelli, Ricardo Oliveira, Clarissa Kiste, Cecilia Guedes
• Production: Brazil 2026. 80 mins.

Preview: A high voltage cosmic tale from Kapel Furman, director of the 2020 FrightFest attraction SKULL: THE MASK. Two paramedics in Novo Hamburgo stumble upon treasure in an old basement. They accidentally open a dimensional portal, unleashing The Engineer, a creature who can travel between multiverses, now determined to reclaim its gold at any cost. Influenced by classic monster movies from the Universal catalogue and Hammer Studios, Furman describes REMANENCE as a combo of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Amazing Stories’ and Martin Scorsese’s BRINGING OUT THE DEAD.

TRAIN TO BUSAN

• Festival slot: Friday 28 8:30 p.m. Sunday 30 1:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Retrospective or special screening
• Director: Yeon Sang-ho
• Starring: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Choi Woo-sik
• Production: South Korea 2016. 118 mins.

Preview: Considered the finest Closing Night Film Event in FrightFest’s 27-year history, it’s all aboard the horror express again to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the zombie shocker that became an instant cult classic sensation. A non-stop thrill-ride with social bite, a mysterious viral outbreak pushes Korea into a state of emergency. The government declares martial law just as divorced Seok-wwo and his daughter catch the KTX from Seoul Station to Busan to see her mother. Relive once more all the spectacle, splatter action and emotion as the living dead transform their voyage into a nightmare excursion and fight for survival.

RUBBERHEAD THE LIFE & MONSTERS OF STEVE JOHNSON

• Festival slot: Friday 28 3:45 p.m. Sunday 30 8:45 p.m.; Friday 28 3:45 p.m. Sunday 30 8:450 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Nick Taylor
• Starring: Steve Johnson, Linnea Quigley, Tom Holland, Rick Baker
• Production: USA 2026. 104 mins.

Preview: Known for his intense work ethic, perfectionism, and obsession with breaking new ground, Steve Johnson has created iconic creature effects for some of the most beloved horror and sci-fi movies in cinema history. A deeply personal documentary/memoir providing an educational portrait of the golden age of special effects makeup, including AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, PREDATOR and GHOSTBUSTERS. Steve shares endless, outrageous anecdotes about his freewheeling adventures in Hollywood while also telling the inspirational yet tragic story of his meteoric rise and subsequent fall from grace. A humorous and heartfelt portrait of one of Hollywood’s most prolific monster makers.

CRAZY LIPS

• Festival slot: Friday 28 6:30 p.m. Sunday 30 3:20 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Hirohisa Sasaki
• Starring: Hitomi Miwa, Kazuma Suzuki, Ren Ôsugi, Hiroshi Abe
• Production: Japan 2000. 85 mins.

Preview: Omega Project, the Japanese company behind ICHI THE KILLER and AUDITION, also made two cult movies produced by Takashige Ichise (the JUON/DARK WATER franchises), written by Hiroshi Takahashi (the RING series) and now remastered from original negatives by director Hiroshi Takahashi. After her brother is accused of murdering four people, his sister, desperate to prove his innocence, goes to a psychic for help in CRAZY LIPS. The price asked is far more than she expected, and the answers are nothing she could ever have imagined. And what is the FBI doing investigating a murder in Japan?

INVOKING SCREAM

• Festival slot: Friday 28 8:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Patricio Valladares
• Starring: María Jesús Marcone, Luna Martínez, Teresita Rios, Matías López
• Production: Chile 2026. 90 mins.

Preview: Following a successful festival run and Shudder premiere, Chilean found-footage heavy metal horror INVOKING YELL now has a sequel, exploring the dark intersections of the supernatural and extreme music. After uncovering a buried box containing a VHS tape and a mysterious book of witchcraft at the gravesite of Invoking Yell lead singer Andrea Fernandez, a trio of metalheads unwittingly unleash a dark force. What begins as a documentary about Andrea's disappearance and the 1998 murders of her ill-fated bandmates quickly spirals into a waking nightmare where the past doesn't just haunt those connected to it… it demands a sacrifice.

Saturday 29 August

LABYRINTH

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
• Starring: Mekhi Pifer, Chris Lein, Shane West, Tommy Flanagan
• Production: USA 2026. 94 mins.

Preview: “Do not be afraid. Our fate cannot be taken from us. It is a gift” – poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri, Inferno. From FrightFest favourite Ryuhei Kitamura, director of THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, NO ONE LIVES and NIGHTMARE CINEMA, comes a game-changing shocker in the SAW tradition. A group of strangers are brought together under mysterious circumstances by a nefarious leader to be judged for their past transgressions in a facility designed to test their mettle against a gauntlet of deadly challenges. Most will fall while others will find redemption in an action-packed descent into Hell.

DEAD RESET

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 1:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Stewart Sparke
• Starring: Daniel Thrace, Lyndsey Craine, Dennis Rasaq, Andrina Carroll
• Production: UK 2026. 98 mins.
• Screening: World premiere

Preview: Trapped in an underwater research facility, surgeon Cole Mason is forced to operate on a mutating, parasitic creature. The catch? He’s trapped in a brutal, blood-soaked time loop and must relive his own violent demise over and over again. To survive, Cole must embrace death and find a way to kill the creature and stop the loop before he becomes trapped in a never ending spiral of horror. Based on the popular video game of the same name, welcome to a practical effects-driven gore fest that delivers a fresh, new twist on the time travel genre.

ITHAQUA

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 3:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Casey Walker
• Starring: Luke Hemsworth, Kevin Durand, Michael Pitt, Presley Allard
• Production: Canada 2026. 110 mins.

Preview: Hammer returns with a gripping survival horror. Canada, the 1800s. American mercenary Cole Franklin is recruited as a hired gun at the remote outpost of Fort William, struggling to survive the decline of the fur trade. With dwindling supplies, the keepers of the Fort blackmail Cole into leading a trading party to a nearby Indigenous village, where they discover a massacre and encounter the remaining half-crazed inhabitants for the bloodshed. Though the trading party survives with minimal losses and returns to the Fort with a bonanza of food and furs, the supernatural force responsible for the carnage follows them back.

GRIND

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Ed Dougherty, Brea Grant, Chelsea Stardust
• Starring: Mercedes Mason, Barbara Crampton, Rob Huebel, Christopher Rodriguez Marquette
• Production: USA 2026. 103 mins.

Preview: A unique horror anthology tackling the modern work landscape through four timely perspectives – the constant hustle culture of a multi-level marketing campaign, the endless repetitiveness of being a gig economy food delivery driver, the online horrors of content moderation and the unionisation of a high street coffee shop franchise. What does it mean to be an employee in a world defined by wealth inequality, ruled by endlessly greedy oligarchs, one not so far removed from our own. Find out in a movie for anyone who's ever hated their job, had a bad boss, or felt taken advantage of at work.

THE NAMELESS BALLAD

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 9:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Federico Zampaglione
• Starring: Jamie Ward, Alana Boden, Fabrizio Ferracane, Seaumas Sargent
• Production: Italy 2026. 87 mins.

Preview: Death is a powerful muse. Under pressure from his record label, a young musician in crisis takes refuge in an isolated Italian villa to find inspiration for his next album. But the discovery of an ancient piano and a forgotten diary drags him into a spiral of twisted obsessions, supernatural visions and ghostly presences that finally push him to the brink of madness. The latest genre treat from FrightFest favourite, multi-tasking entertainer Federico Zampaglione, director of SHADOW and THE WELL.

GHOST IN THE CELL

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 11:10 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Joko Anwar
• Starring: Abimana Aryasatya, Endy Arfian, Bront Palarae, Morgan Oey
• Production: Indonesia 2026. 106 mins.

Preview: A high-security prison run by a tyrannical warden is rocked by a spate of gruesome murders with bodies put on morbidly spectacular display. Who is the perpetrator, and who will be next? Between spontaneous dance-offs, sudden prayers, political statements, ecological issues and balletic fistfights, the inmates must overcome internal gang rivalry to decipher the motive behind the killings and pacify their otherworldly enemy. A sensation at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival, Indonesian genre wizard Joko Anwar crafts a gleefully grotesque yet disarming horror-comedy that balances levity with graphic brutality for the year’s most irreverent genre fireworks.

THE DEATH OF US

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Annabella Richinda Rich
• Starring: Nicholas Vince, Marta Svetek, Annabella Rich, Chris Mills
• Production: UK 2026. 88 mins.

Preview: Explore the complexity of grief through a loving couple in a healthy relationship, shattered by the loss of their child during a violent home invasion at the hands of a cult. As they struggle to come to terms with their loss and its devastating impact, Casey, haunted by visions of a supernatural entity connected to their tragedy, and her partner, Danny, become entangled in the actions of the cult responsible for their devastating nightmare. Can their bond endure such unimaginable trauma? Or will their overwhelming agonised sorrow and otherworldly forces destroy them completely?

THE BROOK

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 3:40 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Paul Stainthorpe
• Starring: Connor Lawson, Helen Chong, Kylie Ann Ford, Jill Dellow
• Production: UK 2026. 93 mins.

Preview: Moving to the village of his mother’s youth, art student Jacob discovers his grandad’s old video camera shows one hour into the past. In Elmbrook, a place steeped in strange folklore and whispered legends, the community believe their village is protected by a puma that watches over the “good.” But when one of the good locals mysteriously vanishes, Jacob and his friends, armed with the video camera, uncover clues that pull them deeper into Elmbrook’s bizarre secrets. Soon, the search for answers spirals into a dangerous mystery as they uncover a vengeful serial killer with a connection to the past.

THE ALICE PARADOX

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: William Brooke
• Starring: Jessica Kinsey, Gwithian Evans, Madeline Smith, Jeffery Kissoon
• Production: UK 2026. 85 mins.
• Screening: First Blood world premiere

Preview: Depicting a famous thought experiment in Quantum Mechanics, Alice travels back in time and is transported into an alternate version of the recent past. Trapped in a world which prizes collectivism over individuality, Alice is forced to confront her life choices, grappling with profound questions about identity, fate, and the search for meaning. Philosophical science fiction grounded in real-world physics and inspired by the stylistic tones of directors Orson Welles and Ridley Scott, this new perspective on the genre explores the cosmic and spiritual feelings stirred in scientists as they study nature at the grandest scale.

BINDING EVA

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 8:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Conscian Morgan
• Starring: Ryan Ralph Gerrard, Catherine Deevy, Darcey Wood
• Production: UK 2026. 76 mins.

Preview: A stunning feature debut from award-winning short film director Conscian Morgan. Deep in the Forest of Dean, Felix, a small-time criminal on the run, returns again and again to the same moment of judgement, and the same impossible choice. Because Felix’s journey leads to a shocking realisation that love and self-sacrifice are everything, as he discovers what it means to care beyond himself. Shot with a minimal crew for long days and nights in the mud and rain, the double bass and cello score mirrors the unsettling melancholy regarding the cost of a redemption that comes too late.

HERALDRY PARANORMAL

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 10:55 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Ashley Nashville
• Starring: Jimmy Roberts, Parker Paige, Tara Buranakul, Lance J
• Production: UK 2026. 93 mins.

Preview: Four paranormal investigators want to find definitive proof of ghosts within Yorkshire, but soon find themselves at odds with conmen, an internet backlash, and terror beyond their expectations. A unique take on the classic paranormal investigation horror, this comedy shocker blends the found footage styles of classics such as REC and GRAVE ENCOUNTERS with modern social media and Vlog-style content. A boisterous, fast paced, enjoyable ride that has had heaps of passion poured into it, with loveable individuals you instantly engage with, it also stands as a vital representation for queer voices, featuring many characters from LGTBQ+ backgrounds.

TURN IT UP!

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 10:45 a.m.; Saturday 29 10:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Sam Scott
• Starring: Justine Nelson, Gwen Cumyn, Xavier Lopez, Jonathan Craig
• Production: Canada 2026. 91 mins.

Preview: When a struggling rock band plays the final gig on a failed tour, songwriter A.C. discovers a cursed frequency that opens a cosmic rift. Now the group’s meteoric rise pulls them into a world of otherworldly horrors, evil band managers and intergalactic goo, and A.C. will either blow up or burn out. As the stakes rise, AC faces a choice: chase the dream, or confess how she feels to her bandmate crush. Penniless rockers rule in an axe-shredding, unhinged, offbeat gem featuring an ensemble cast of Canadian horror and comedy royalty along with Toronto’s rising young stars.

HOARDER

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 6:10 p.m.; Saturday 6:10 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: James Owen
• Starring: Daisy Jelley, Paul Casar, David Sterne, Annabella Lanyon, Terry Bamberger
• Production: UK 2026. 90 mins.

Preview: WORLD PREMIERE – From James Owen, the director of FrightFest 2022 entry Bite, comes his latest horror thriller. Medical student Melissa Knowles and her reluctant colleague Eric are making routine house calls to administer flu vaccines. When they step into Fred Hunt’s decaying, junk-crammed home, something immediately feels wrong. Fred seems like a harmless old recluse, but when Eric vanishes, Melissa’s search pulls her deeper into the house’s chaotic mess, revealing a labyrinth of tunnels carved through the piles of junk, twisting into suffocating darkness. And beneath it all, below the creaking floorboards, something stirs. Watching. Waiting.

RECLUSE

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 1:15 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Henry Chaisson
• Starring: Sasha Frolova, Xander Berkeley, Toby Poser, Mia Vallet
• Production: USA 2026. 102 mins.

Preview: Working as a movie audio engineer for movies, Joan is obsessed with sounds. This fascination becomes vital when she is summoned to her family’s New England mansion to tend to her severely burned and bedridden father. While reconnecting with her dad’s hired help, Joan can’t shake the ghosts of her past, largely tied to her mother’s long-unsolved disappearance. But something else isn’t right. Initially just figurative, those ghosts may in fact be literal and are possibly connected to her father’s dabbling in the occult. As Joan is about to find out, the truth is much scarier than she could’ve imagined.

LESIONS

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 3:45 p.m.; Saturday 3:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Codey S
• Starring: Elsa Ames, Alexander McPherson, Audrey Deitz, Jeremy Fogt
• Production: USA 2026. 99 mins.

Preview: Houston and Lise are caught up in a messy divorce when the former collapses, unable to feel his legs and learns he has multiple sclerosis. Deciding to accept an experimental treatment from neurologist Dr. Nelson, he and Lise retreat to his grandfather’s isolated cabin for rest and recovery. But as Houston’s condition deteriorates and conflicted Lise struggles to care for him, one of her social media accounts catches the eye of some particularly unsavoury characters. And soon their secluded existence spirals into a night of violence, transformation and a love that refuses to die.

HOME BODIES

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 8:35 p.m.; Saturday 8:35 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Casey Walker
• Starring: Ess Hödlmoser, Ian Ho, Emma Ho
• Production: Canada 2026. 92 mins.

Preview: While finishing extensive post-production on the FrightFest Hammer selection ITHAQUA, director Casey Walker (producer of THE VOID and IN A VIOLENT NATURE) helmed this intriguing miniature gem. HOME BODIES is a Christmas movie unlike any you’ve seen before as it follows the daily routine of two children, Red and Blue, who are being raised in isolation by an automated house. Instructed by the enigmatic voice of Papa, one Noel they find an unexpected Christmas present by the tree, a stranger named Pal. And Pal’s arrival signifies a new household dynamic as they begin to question their universal existence.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 11:00 a.m. Monday 31 3:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Retrospective or special screening
• Director: Val Guest
• Starring: Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker, Maureen Connell, Richard Wattis
• Production: UK 1957. 83 mins.
• Presentation: 4K world-premiere restoration

Preview: Based on Nigel (Quatermass) Kneale’s television play ‘The Creature’, this subtle Hammer Horror classic from the iconic British studio’s Golden Age follows two men with opposing views going on a Yeti expedition in the Himalayas. Gunrunner Forrest Tucker plans to capture and exploit the legendary creature, while botanist Peter Cushing thinks research is more important. But the highly evolved man-beast surprises both in this gripping slice of monster macabre, tensely directed by Hammer journeyman Val Guest. Eerie claustrophobia conveys a taut paranoid atmosphere in this restored version of the original UK cut complete with original title sequence.

THE FRIGHT STUFF

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 1:15 p.m. Monday 31 6:15 p.m.; Saturday 29 1:15 p.m. Monday 31 3:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Mike Meyer
• Starring: John Laflamboy
• Production: USA 2025. 71 mins.

Preview: An all-access documentary that takes the viewer behind the scenes of the haunted house industry in America. A fascinating exploration into the beginnings of haunted houses and the 365-day pursuit to give people the fright of their lives, every aspect of the business is detailed from its amazing origins to where the culture is now. Producer and main interviewee John Laflamboy ran the Statesville Haunting Prison in Joliet, Illinois, and his reminiscences of his ups and downs will amaze non-Americans especially with regard to the haunted house construct that sunk in a storm!

SYNTHESIZED

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 3:30 p.m. Sunday 30 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Chris Green
• Starring: Thomas Turgoose, Kiran Landa, Sacha Parkinson, Chris Coghill
• Production: UK 2025. 100 mins.

Preview: Computer repairman Martyn is also an adept musician and plays 1980s synth pop in the local bars to unappreciative audiences. He loves his wife Valkyrie as much as he does his computers. After some harrowing events disrupt his life, his marriage crumbles and he retreats to music for solace hoping it will calm his inner turmoil. But music can summon the darkness as well as soothe the soul and his dark emotions lead to a violent murderous rage. Soon it’s not long before Martyn is hitting more than just the keys on his synthesizer keyboard.

SWEET VIOLENCE

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 6:10 p.m. Monday 31 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Jeremías Segovia
• Starring: Esteban Bigliardi, Javier Chávez, Eduardo Miglionico, Mirella Pascual
• Production: Uruguay 2026. 93 mins.

Preview: In the tradition of such past FrightFest favourites as BIG BAD WOLVES and RABIES come the feature debut of the most exciting talent in South America. After cutting his teeth on the short film festival circuit with LA MUJER ROTA (2012), TOOTH FAIRY (2017) and LA HORA AZUL (2022), Jermias Segovia now bursts onto the international scene with a gritty shocker. A family plans to murder their daughter’s killer after he is released from a twenty-year prison sentence. Still pleading innocence, the ex-convict tries to rebuild his life until the ghosts of the past return to haunt him

SEOUL STATION

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 8:35 p.m. Monday 31 11:00 a.m.
• Programme type: Retrospective or special screening
• Director: Yeon Sang-ho
• Starring: Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung, Lee Joon, Lee Sang-hee
• Production: South Korea 2016. 92 mins.

Preview: Go back to where it all began in the award-winning animated prequel to that made director Yeon Sang-ho famous. One day before events in that rip-roaring zombie shocker, amid busy passers-by, a homeless man with a bleeding neck-wound finds refuge in bustling Seoul Station. Ignored by everyone, the bitten vagabond slowly succumbs to his lethal trauma and dies, only to become a ravenous reanimated corpse, attacking and spreading his virulent disease. Is all hope lost? Are the walking dead the only monsters? A teenage runaway, her layabout boyfriend and desperate father will soon find out.

FRESH MEAT

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 1:00 p.m. Monday 31 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Daniel Turres
• Starring: Joelle Farrow, Hannah Galway, Mika Amonson, Tyson Wong
• Production: Canada 2025. 100 mins.

Preview: A group of Internet influencers venture into an abandoned prison to create content unaware that one deranged inmate never left. Inadvertently unleashing the ravenous sole survivor they're now trapped, fighting for survival while trying to capture every terrifying moment in the hope it all goes viral. A wild, blood-soaked survival horror that throws a group of strangers into a deadly situation. Packed with inventive splatter kills, over-the-top practical effects, and non-stop tension, it’s designed to shock, scare, and entertain from start to finish. A film for horror fans who love to scream, laugh, and cheer.

GORE FROM OUTER SPACE

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 3:45 p.m. Sunday 30 6:15 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Hirohisa Sasaki
• Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Sadao Abe, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Tomomi Kuribayashi
• Production: Japan 2001. 85 mins.

Preview: Omega Project, the Japanese company behind ICHI THE KILLER and AUDITION, also made two cult movies produced by Takashige Ichise (the JUON/DARK WATER franchises), written by Hiroshi Takahashi (the RING series) and now remastered from original negatives by director Hiroshi Takahashi. The continuation of CRAZY LIPS finds a woman sent to execution for the murder of her daughter believing she has been kidnapped. Telling her story to a nun, we learn her story through a series of encounters with a psychic, a dirty politician, and two FBI agents who love Jell-O . Are aliens responsible for bewildering the woman?

THE FLESH ITSELF

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 6:00 p.m. Monday 31 1:30 p.m.; Saturday 29 3:45 p.m. Sunday 30 3:20 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Ian SBF
• Starring: Jorge Guerreiro, George Sauma, Pierri Baitelli, Jade Mascarenhas
• Production: Brazil 2025. 97 mins.

Preview: Three deserter soldiers from the South American Paraguayan War in 1870 struggle to survive as they cross a desolate border region. Stumbling upon an isolated house inhabited only by a mysterious farmer and a silent young woman, it seems like they have found a safe haven. But the place soon reveals disturbing secrets and as night falls, the desperate soldiers realize they may have escaped the horrors of war only to step into something far more sinister. A psychological horror thriller in the tradition of THE INNOCENTS, in which shadows and layers of sounds suggest alternate truths and sensual apprehension.

GHOSTKEEPER

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 8:25 p.m. Monday 31 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Retrospective or special screening
• Director: Jim Makichuk
• Starring: Riva Spier, Murray Ord, Sheri McFadden, Georgia Collins
• Production: Canada 1981. 87 mins.
• Presentation: 4K restoration (UK premiere)

Preview: Long-regarded as the Canadian answer to Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING, the 4K restoration of the Canuxploitation supernatural slasher classic based on the Wendigo legend. During a New Year’s Eve snowmobiling trip, three friends veer off the path to explore a private property. Stranded by a heavy snowfall, they stumble upon an abandoned hotel and seek refuge for the night. But before long, they meet a menacing woman who shares the building with her knife-wielding son and a mysterious creature who feeds on human flesh. Wintry isolation and madness rule in an essential entry in the New Year’s Eve horror canon.

Sunday 30 August

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 11:00 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Jenn Wexler
• Starring: Lulu Wilson, Neil Patrick Harris, Kate Siegel, James Urbaniak
• Production: USA 2026. 89 mins.

Preview: The third in the breakout indie action-thriller franchise starring Lulu Wilson as Becky Hooper, a teenage girl who repeatedly winds up in the path of violent criminals, yet turns out to be far more dangerous herself. After first confronting escaped neo-Nazi convicts, then facing far-right extremists, Becky is now a CIA field agent going undercover in Poland to infiltrate a family running an inn at The Wolf's Lair, one of Hitler's WWII bunkers, planning to spark the Fourth Reich. In the biggest, bloodiest and most unhinged instalment yet, Becky must take matters into her own capable hands to stop them.

THE GLORIOUS DEAD

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 1:20 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Toby Poser, John Adams
• Starring: Toby Poser, Lulu Adams, Zelda Adams, John Adams
• Production: USA 2026. 80 mins.

Preview: FrightFest welcomes back the Adams family, who have won the bloody hearts of genre enthusiasts worldwide for their extraordinary work ethic, inspiration, passion and love of horror. Now comes the shocking fable of a small-town sheriff and her deputy who awaken to a changed world where blood drips from taps, people and pets vanish, fleshy creatures roam the woods, and the hamlet descends into chaos. By noon, the skies turn white with snow, and the dirt cannot keep the dead down as the shattered community buckles under the pressure, and as the sun sets, all hell has frozen over.

ALIEN

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 3:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Retrospective or special screening
• Director: Ridley Scott
• Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt
• Production: USA/UK 1979. 116 mins.

Preview: What better way to celebrate the announce of SEGA’s hugely anticipated ALIEN: ISOLATION 2 game than with a screening of Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi shocker. This ‘haunted house in space’ horror featured top-notch acting, a star-making performance from astronaut Sigourney Weaver and Swiss Artist HR Giger’s unique and innovative bio-mechanoid creature design. Scott’s eye for detail and brilliant way of alternating false scares with genuine jolts creates a seamless blend of gothic Grand Guignol and harrowing dread. One of the all-time terrifying thrill-rides returns to the big screen where it all began back in 1979.

GATOR FACE

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 6:40 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Padraig Reynolds
• Starring: Tabitha Brownstone, Amariah Dionne, Nikolas Kolasinski, Kiara Mitjans
• Production: USA 2026. 80 mins.

Preview: FrightFest loves Padraig Reynolds, director of RITES OF SPRING, WORRY DOLLS, OPEN 24 HOURS and DARK LIGHT. Now we welcome him back with GATOR FACE, an unapologetic, lip-smacking homage to 1970s creature-feature exploitation, featuring real alligators, gallons of practical gore and zero CGI or AI. A group of friends’ sun-drenched Florida vacation curdles into a nightmare after they stumble upon a remote cult devoted to an ancient alligator deity. What begins as a carefree getaway mutates into a swamp-soaked fight for survival – a fever dream of bloody sacrifice, hissing madness and snapping reptilian terror.

SPIDER ISLAND

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 8:50 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Christopher Smith
• Starring: Rose Williams, Andy Nyman, Tim McInnerney, Avani Gregg
• Production: UK 2026. 95 mins.

Preview: FrightFest welcomes back Christopher Smith, director of such noted past favourite choices as CREEP, BLACK DEATH, TRIANGLE and SEVERANCE, with his latest comedy horror, an eight-legged nightmare creature feature. On a secluded private tropical island, The Oceania Pearl Hotel invites a group of famous social media influencers to its opening party to help solidify its place as the world’s most luxurious new resort destination. But beneath its glossy exterior, the hotel hides a nightmarish secret… the subterranean caves disturbed during construction have awakened a horde of deadly spiders, ready to reclaim their island paradise.

ZIP WIRE

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 11:05 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Howard J
• Starring: MyAnna Buring, Joseph Millson, Saffron Burrows, Silvia Presente
• Production: UK 2026. 88 mins.

Preview: Hang on tight! When Amy Watson was 13 years old, she watched her mother die from an incurable disease. Determined to find a cure, Amy becomes a dedicated researcher at a high-security pharmaceutical company. When her groundbreaking discovery is stolen and her partner murdered, she’s thrust into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse high in the Dolomite mountains. With no escape, her only salvation being across a treacherous aerial runway, Amy must outsmart the mysterious enemy, face her debilitating fear of heights and summon every ounce of courage to protect the world-changing research – and herself – before it’s too late.

INFIRMARY

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 6:50 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Nicholas Pineda
• Starring: Paul Syre Lee, Mark Anthony Williams, Danielle Kennedy, Corinna Wagner-Smith
• Production: USA 2026. 87 mins.

Preview: On his first shift as a security guard at an abandoned Wilshire Hospital, Edward is plunged into a night of terror. The facility was once notorious for unorthodox experimental practices on its mentally ill inmates, and paired with Lester, a retiring guard whose behaviour feels odd, Edward finds the ambience instantly disturbing. As unexplained intruders and unseen forces close in, he must fight to escape the rundown psychiatric hospital before its dark past claims him forever. But when the CCTV security camera footage and his own bodycam footage are finally viewed, they reveal inexplicable incidents that continue to baffle investigators.

DRACULA: THE NIGHT AROUND US

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 9:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Chris Schwab
• Starring: Eric Toms, Marlene Mc’Cohen, Spencer Weitzel, Brent Jones
• Production: USA 2026. 71 mins.

Preview: Thought you’d seen every variation on Bram Stoker’s Dracula myth? Think again as visual effects artist Chris Schwab puts a stake through the heart of every other classic take on the vampire legend with this perfectly grafted miniature gem full of fabulous ideas, fantastic imagery and a structure to die for. Here, a disillusioned Dr. John Seward regains his faith in humanity from a bond with Mina and her daughter Lucy only to be hunted by the legendary evil force that thrives on their destruction. A refreshing and different angle on the well-known tale of flesh, fangs, forgiveness and funerals.

MEAT KILLS

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 11:20 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Martijn Smits
• Starring: Caro Derkx, Emma Josten, Sweder de Sitter, Sem Ben Yakar
• Production: Netherlands 2025. 86 mins.

Preview: 133 million pigs suffer in cruel European livestock farms. For Mirthe, this is unbearable. To prove herself worthy to ‘Animal Army’ a radical activist group led by the fearless Nasha, she secretly films the horrors of a local pig farm, earning her a mission to free the pigs, but when they return at night the cages are empty, the pigs already slaughtered. Enraged, Nasha shifts her focus to revenge, targeting and torturing the farmer’s children. As the farm becomes a bloody battleground, Mirthe must navigate between Nasha’s vengeance and the farmer’s fury if she wants to get out alive.

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 3:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Nick Lyon
• Starring: Quinn Aune, Maxwell Mushallo, G
• Production: USA 2026. 94 mins.

Preview: When American high school student Emily plays with an Ouija board at a party, she becomes the unwilling host for a sadistic killer’s soul who held Westlake in a grip of gruesome terror. Its cause is an Ouija app programmed by the charismatic Owen, a rich kid obsessed with the supernatural. Now Emily’s boyfriend Tommy must team up with Owen, his rival for her affections and ex-best friend – and a defrocked Jesuit priest turned occult expert – to perform a dangerous, ad-hoc exorcism before Emily is consumed by evil and the demonic infection spreads through the school.

WELCOME TO G-TOWN

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Nathan & Ben McQuaid
• Starring: Danny McAllen, Mark Dallas, Stan Ross, Ruben Ross
• Production: UK 2026. 85 mins.

Preview: Aliens invade Glasgow in a splatter-comedy from upstart twins Nathan and Ben McQuaid. Inspired by the early Peter Jackson cult items BAD TASTE and MEET THE FEEBLES, Bill is a media studies graduate struggling to get a job. His search for employment sees him stumble upon an office filled with strange characters clad in kilts and Jimmy hats who talk in a peculiar manner. They are a group of shape-shifting aliens, and when their leader sends one of them to spy on him, Bill and best friends Pete and Ronnie find themselves embroiled in the aliens’ plans for world domination.

BAD KARAOKE

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 8:55 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Robert J
• Starring: Lexi Underwood, Case Walker, Kat Cunning, Kate Miner
• Production: USA 2026. 83 mins.

Preview: Emily, Noah and Hannah have long come to terms with the fact they’ll never make it as successful musicians and singers. Happy to make a living as a cover band, they take a wedding gig in California. But on their journey from Oregon they discover an abandoned karaoke machine in the back of a dive bar. What they don't realize is that the karaoke machine is cursed, and they must find a way to battle the sinister device before it finishes them all off. It’s the spooky singalong killer karaoke comedy you never knew you wanted… until now!

FROGMAN

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 11:00 a.m.; Sunday 30. 11:00 a.m.
• Programme type: Retrospective or special screening
• Director: Anthony Cousins
• Starring: Nathan Tymoshuk, Chelsey Grant, Benny Barrett, Ali Daniels
• Production: USA 2023. 81 mins.

Preview: Return to where the FROGMAN urban legend started. Three friends go back to one of their home towns, Loveland, many years after the mythic creature was first spotted. Since then the town has commercialised and cashed-in on the cryptid craze, but where there’s mysterious croaks is there a hoax? Adrift researcher Dallas is desperate to prove what he once saw as a child was real and so begins his own last chance saloon journey of self discovery. A slow-burn, body horror that reviewers called a fresh take on the found footage genre and created a whole fan base.

FROGMAN RETURNS

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 1:10 p.m.; Sunday 1:10 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Anthony Cousins
• Starring: Nathan Tymoshuk, Natalie Tran, Chelsey Grant, Alexis Alotta
• Production: USA 2026. 77 mins.

Preview: FROGMAN became a cult sensation in 2023 following a trio of childhood friends trying to find the truth about the urban legend of the Frogman in the small Ohio town of Loveland. But as they got deeper into their investigation, they realized the hoax was anything but. Now director Anthony Cousins returns with the even wackier cryptid sequel because there’s unfinished business in Loveland and Dallas, Amy, and Frogman are back to settle the score. If you’re late to the FROGMAN party, time to hop aboard the amphibian shock express with another found footage curio delivering surreality in spades.

Monday 31 August — Closing Day

ODDITIES

• Festival slot: Monday 31 10:45 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Tyler Savage
• Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Xander Berkeley, Lovie Simone, Lilimar
• Production: USA 2026. 91 mins.

Preview: An expansion of director Tyler Savage’s 2023 award-winning short, a genre-bending horror thriller following the fates of two self-destructive best friends who accidentally kill their drug dealer. With no other recourse than to flee town, they stop at a seemingly sleepy roadside antique shop run by genre royalty Adrienne Barbeau (star of THE FOG and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK). But the duo quickly discover that the owner isn't quite as sweet as she seems when she offers to help them out. And soon it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire as events take the darkest of turns.

VALLEY VIEW HOTEL

• Festival slot: Monday 31 1:10 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Kevin Ignatius, Nick Psinakis
• Starring: Kevin Ignatius, Nick Psinakis, Melissa Collins, Laura Im
• Production: USA 2026. 93 mins.

Preview: From Kevin Ignatius and Nick Psinakis, the co-directors of the acclaimed 2023 FrightFest attraction CHEAT, comes a noir chiller in the tradition of early Coen Brothers. It’s 1977, and after a diamond heist goes seriously awry with multiple slaughters, two small-time crooks attempt to flee the wrath of the hitman put on their tail. Seeking refuge at a motel in the remote foothills of Pennsylvania run by a very peculiar owner and his sister, they have no idea what even grimmer hot mess they have stumbled into and soon must figure out a way to survive the night.

YOU ARE THE FILM

• Festival slot: Monday 31 3:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Makoto Ueda
• Starring: Riko Fujitani, Takafumi Imai, Kai Inowaki, Gôta Ishida
• Production: Japan 2026. 68 mins.

Preview: The long-awaited directorial debut of Makoto Ueda, writer of BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES and RIVER. THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO goes wacky Sci-Fi as Shimokitazawa native playwright Madoka and Sangenjaya-based band member Kazuma separately go and see a movie at the Tollywood independent cinema. But in the film, they each see the other person on screen – Madoka is in the film Kazuma is watching, and vice versa. In this impossible multiverse, incidents occur within each other’s stories as both communicate through the screen and work hard to solve the problems that arise in each other’s narratives.

HYENA

• Festival slot: Monday 31 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Matthew John Ninaber
• Starring: Storm Steenson, Kristen Kaster, Matthew John Rene Ninaber, Jeremy Benjamin Ninaber
• Production: Canada 2026. 84 mins.

Preview: After a brutal breakup, Nicole finds herself drawn into a dangerous world of online sex work where money is the driving force for extreme fantasy. Under the influence of the charismatic Rachel, her life takes a darker turn when she becomes the target of a serial killer. Detectives Dan and Hugh discover Nicole and Rachel at a gruesome car crash scene, with two dead bodies. One being Nicole's lover and the other an unidentified victim. Racing against time, the detectives must protect Nicole and unravel the mystery of the serial killer, while confronting their own demons.

SPECIES (SANGUINE)

• Festival slot: Monday 31 8:55 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Marion Le Corroller
• Starring: Mara Taquin, Karin Viard, Kim Higelin, Sami Outalbali
• Production: France/Belgium 2026. 103 mins.

Preview: A junior doctor falls victim to a mysterious, life-threatening sickness in French writer-director Marion Le Corroller’s debut feature, a darkly comic sci-fi body-horror thriller with a deeper allegorical message about workplace burn-out in high-pressure capitalist societies. Margot Loiseau (Mara Taquin), a young intern at the most competitive Emergency Room in the country, has trouble keeping up in this exhausting and anxiety-ridden environment. With stand-out and unique body-mutation sequences created by special make-up effects designer Pierre-Olivier Persin, who won an Oscar for THE SUBSTANCE, SPECIES is an exciting and exhilarating Gen Z shocker and your next obsession.

COMPLIANCE

• Festival slot: Monday 31 10:30 a.m.; Monday 31 10:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Kyle Mangione-Smith
• Starring: Megan Wilcox, Lindsey Normington, Charlie Wood, Neil Wachs
• Production: USA 2026. 104 mins.
• Screening: UK premiere

Preview: Sam Cornell, a young crisis manager for tech start up UVisit, has been tasked with cleaning up the fallout from a sexual assault scandal that threatens to undo a multi-million dollar deal. As she tries her best to contain the story while still supporting the uncooperative victim of a horrific crime, Sam unwittingly becomes a pawn in a deadly game set by a shadowy, all-powerful organization with vast resources. Trapped between a dark past and increasingly uncertain future, Sam has no choice but to take part in a wide-reaching, violent conspiracy to bring down UVisit and its investors.

FULL MOON RISING THE CHARLES BAND STORY

• Festival slot: Monday 31 3:45 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Sarah Appleton
• Starring: Charles Band, Richard Band, Dennis Paoli, John Carpenter
• Production: UK 2026. 97 mins.

Preview: A new feature documentary about the truly incredible life and career of Charles Band, prolific producer/director of such genre classics as RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, TRANCERS, CASTLE FREAK, the PUPPETMASTER and EVIL BONG franchises and much, much more. Take a deep dive into his early career (discovering John Carpenter who edited the sex comedy LAST FOXTROT IN BURBANK), the Empire Pictures debacle and his Full Moon features success story, along with the Media and Wizard labels that were instrumental in ushering in the home video boom of the 1980s, told in his own words and those closest to him.

BUNNY RABBIT

• Festival slot: Monday 31 10:50 a.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: James Branson
• Starring: Kate Wilson, Andy Golledge, Saxon Cook, Ontrei
• Production: Australia 2025. 89 mins.

Preview: In the aftermath of a climate-collapsed 2030 Australia, young Bunny roams the ruins of the post-apocalyptic world she never got to grow up in. Raised by her deceased father on old books and B-movies, she now lives alone in the shack they once shared. Supplies are scarce and food is running out. There is nothing left to hunt… Except other people! Inspired by MAD MAXploitation movies, this incredible feature debut by musician/advertising creative James Branson is a deeply engrossing character study brimming with visceral dread and unforgettable imagery and is the genre breakout of the year.

BLOOM

• Festival slot: Monday 31 1:25 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Stefan Colson
• Starring: Megan Carrasquillo, Robert Craighead, Jadon Cal Fitzpatrick, Cara Leoni
• Production: USA 2026. 82 mins.

Preview: In desperate straits Lily is surprised when she is contacted about a last will and testament made by her great aunt. With no love lost between this distant relative due to a past dark incident, she learns she has inherited a struggling desert nursery. It seems to be just the answer to her financial woes and she devotes herself to bringing it back to life. But as her garden flourishes with her prize bloom, the Scarlet Widow, her need to sustain the business becomes something she can no longer control as she’s possessed by the inescapable spectre of the past.

THE PERIL AT PINCER POINT

• Festival slot: Monday 31 4:00 p.m.; Monday 31 1:25 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Noah Stratton-Twine, Jake Kuhn
• Starring: Jack Redmayne, Alyth Ross, Os Leanse, Jason Hogan
• Production: UK 2026. 82 mins.

Preview: A warm homage to classic British cinema, Jim Baitte is a layabout sound designer desperate to prove himself working on a new horror flick from the tyrannical B-movie director P.W. Griffin. Accused of lacking vision and creative courage, Jim is sent to the remote island where the film was shot to capture a sound powerful enough to elevate the film's finale. Once there, eerie local fables surface regarding a soul-sucking ghostly sea captain and his spectral crew. As Jim entangles himself further into the bizarre prophecy, recording the legend might just cost him more than his career.

MOTHER AND ME

• Festival slot: Monday 31 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Carson McKinnon
• Starring: Caylee Cowan, Tara Janae Smith, Brady Noon, Isaac Akers
• Production: USA 2026. 100 mins.

Preview: From award-winning cinematographer Carson McKinnon comes a strikingly visual and emotionally-driven shocker graced by two fantastic central performances from Caylee Cowan and Tara Janae Smith. Living under the shadow of her late father's renowned literary legacy, aspiring artist Casey struggles to pen an original horror novel while sharing a home with her increasingly erratic mother. As a budding friendship with the boy down the street, Steven, offers a glimpse beyond the walls of her isolated upbringing, long-buried tensions begin to surface, unravelling the fabric of her suffocated world and sharpening the complicated relationship she has with her mother.

SNAPSHOT

• Festival slot: Monday 31 6:30 p.m.
• Programme type: Feature film
• Director: Joseph Archer
• Starring: Cathy Wippell, Lydia Helen, Nadia Lamin, Hazel Rodgers
• Production: UK 2026. 85 mins.

Preview: 1888: the Jack the Ripper killings begin. An amateur inventor creates the first moving image machine to follow the work of an all-ladies ghost-hunting society who believe the gruesome murders across East London are not being carried out by a man, but a monster. Welcome to the Victorian world of misinformation, fake news and the sensationalist journalism of the era when fabricated stories helped to sell more papers. A mixture of ‘horror documentary’ and ‘gothic noir’, in which we witness a fragmented, manipulated 'reality' that makes this found-footage film the first of its kind with a unique pinhole camera aesthetic.

Every Short Film

FrightFest’s four showcases make room for 38 compact genre stories, with two additional shorts paired with feature presentations. Each entry below has its own Movieversalfilm visual card so the complete programme remains easy to scan.

Short Film Showcase 1

GOODBYE, MONSTER

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Luke Barnett
• Production: USA

Preview: A Fangoria-presented monster story selected to open the first short-film showcase.

PRIORITY RIDE

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Noah Lang
• Production: USA

Preview: A tightly wound short built around a ride where urgency and danger rapidly collide.

LEOPARD

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Dan Abramovici
• Production: Canada

Preview: A Canadian blend of live action and animation with an uncanny, shape-shifting edge.

TLSM

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Filip Momirovski
• Production: North Macedonia

Preview: A striking genre short from North Macedonia, programmed for discovery and surprise.

THE SHIRT OFF YOUR BACK

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: David Robinson-Smith
• Production: Australia

Preview: An Australian short that promises something deliberately dark, confrontational and unpleasant.

SOUNDS GOOD

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Richard Mulock
• Production: USA

Preview: An audio-minded horror short where what sounds right may prove dangerously wrong.

BOOK U CAN ASK ???'S

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Casimir Nozkowski
• Production: USA

Preview: An intriguingly cryptic short whose unconventional title sets the tone for the mystery.

FEED THE DARK

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Rob Himebaugh
• Production: USA

Preview: A compact descent into darkness with a title that suggests a threat made stronger by attention.

SATURDAY MORNING COFFEE

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Erick Freitas
• Production: USA

Preview: A dark comedy that turns an everyday weekend ritual into something far less comforting.

IN A ROOM, SITTING STILL

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Adrián Nassar
• Production: South Korea/Spain

Preview: A South Korea-Spain collaboration built around stillness, confinement and creeping unease.

BAIT

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Martha G. Ayerbe
• Production: Spain

Preview: A fantastical Spanish short that invites the audience towards a lure with hidden consequences.

Short Film Showcase 2

PRETEND WITH PIBBLE

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Cheryl Bayliss
• Production: UK

Preview: Julia Davis leads a mischievous short where make-believe is unlikely to remain harmless.

FUCK FACE

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Dean Puckett
• Production: UK

Preview: Director and star Dean Puckett brings a bluntly titled jolt of provocative genre filmmaking.

JAMMY

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Lainya Craig
• Production: UK

Preview: A British short with a deceptively playful title and the promise of a sticky predicament.

BENEATH THE SHEETS

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Matthew Bulley
• Production: UK

Preview: A bedroom-set premise that looks beneath familiar comforts for something more disturbing.

THE CURE

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Seán Connolly
• Production: Ireland

Preview: An Irish directorial debut asking what the price of a cure might really be.

VIOLENT DELIGHT

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Leila Murton Poole
• Production: UK

Preview: A sharp collision of pleasure and brutality designed to leave a lasting sting.

IT ALWAYS COMES BACK

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Nick Arthurs
• Production: UK

Preview: Ian Burfield stars in a story built around the dreadful certainty of an unwanted return.

HUSH LITTLE ONE

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 August, 10:30 a.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Syd Heather
• Production: UK

Preview: A lullaby-like title introduces a short where silence may be anything but reassuring.

Short Film Showcase 3

GRÝLU SKER: AN ICELANDIC GHOST STORY

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Kevin McTurk
• Production: USA/Iceland

Preview: A US-Iceland animated ghost story drawing on wintry folklore and handcrafted atmosphere.

THE CANDLE

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Ren Ariel Sano
• Production: USA

Preview: A small flame becomes the focus of a supernatural short steeped in shadow and ritual.

VAPE GLOW

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Steven Schloss
• Production: USA

Preview: A contemporary vice takes on a sinister light in a short featuring stunt work coordinated by Thomas Lorber.

INHERITOR

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Ryan Lilienfield
• Production: USA

Preview: A compact horror story about what is passed down, claimed or impossible to escape.

THE CHOSEN

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Brady Richards
• Production: USA

Preview: Produced by and starring Toby Poser, this short points towards selection, sacrifice and dread.

DREAD

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Leonardo Benericetti
• Production: Norway

Preview: A Norwegian production focused on fear in its purest and most oppressive form.

UDDERS!

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Michael Spencer
• Production: USA

Preview: An emphatically titled slice of offbeat genre filmmaking with a knowingly absurd streak.

SKINNED

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Alee Ruggieri
• Production: USA

Preview: A visceral title promises body horror, vulnerability and the danger of losing one's protective layer.

MAN EATING PUSSY

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Emily Lawson
• Production: Canada

Preview: Julian Richings appears in a short whose outrageous title signals transgressive horror-comedy.

NO.3

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 August, 4:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Joe Heath
• Production: USA

Preview: Michael X. Sommers stars in an enigmatic short where the number itself becomes part of the hook.

Short Film Showcase 4

CALL CENTRE SHIVA

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Dylan Delaney
• Production: Ireland

Preview: A workplace setting collides with the many-armed force suggested by its title.

DECORUM

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Quentin Beroud
• Production: UK

Preview: A polished title masks a story likely to test how long social restraint can survive.

CRAK HACK

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Brendan Cleaves
• Production: UK

Preview: Johnny Vivash features in a punchy short with a fractured, technology-tinged identity.

THE TEST

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Grattan Aikins
• Production: Ireland

Preview: A simple assessment becomes a pressure chamber in which the real rules may be hidden.

I SPY

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: David Yorke
• Production: UK

Preview: A familiar game is repurposed as a compact exercise in watching and being watched.

HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Ben Valentine Ngondo-Cooke
• Production: UK

Preview: The language of polite correspondence opens the door to something more uncomfortable.

BAXTER HAMMOND: P.I.

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Scott McCartney
• Production: UK

Preview: A private-eye premise brings mystery and genre wit to the final short-film showcase.

SUNDOWNING

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Aimie Willemse
• Production: Scotland

Preview: A loaded title evokes fading light, disorientation and the unease of a day slipping away.

THE SORROWS OF YOUNG CHARLOTTE

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, 1:05 p.m.
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Shir Ariya
• Production: UK/Thailand

Preview: A UK-Thailand production promising melancholy, psychological strain and a distinctly international voice.

Short Film Special short

SEASON'S GREETINGS

• Festival slot: Friday 28 August, before Ponderosa
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Michael Dougherty
• Production: USA 1996. 4 mins.
• Presentation: 30th-anniversary 4K restoration with 5.1 sound

Preview: The restored 1996 animated short that introduced Sam returns in 4K with a 5.1 mix for its 30th anniversary.

HOODSTEPS

• Festival slot: Monday 31 August, with You Are the Film
• Programme type: Short film
• Director: Programme credit not listed
• Production: Not listed in the official festival programme

Preview: A programme-paired short screening alongside You Are the Film; its mystery is best preserved until the lights go down.

Festival Events and Conversations

DUKE MITCHELL CLUB

• Festival slot: Saturday 29 11:00 p.m.
• Programme type: Late-night film party

Preview: The Duke Mitchell team are back once more to help celebrate the 27th edition of FrightFest with a film party that will bring together the festival audience, the festival guests, the festival organisers and anyone else you can think of in a loving in of cinema never before seen or experienced! Having spent the last 12 months looking for more bizarro, gonzo, eye-ball popping, mind melding content, THE DUKE MITCHELL FILM PARTY will be THE only place to be late night Saturday at FrightFest. If you want to lose your sanity in a maelstrom of celluloid tinged madness, expect trailers, trains, scary PSE's, delightful discoveries but most importantly, utter chaos. You have been warned.

CLAIMING YOUR NON-DEPENDENCE

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 1:20 p.m.; Sunday 30 1:40 p.m.
• Programme type: Festival panel

Preview: Join Producer / Director Jen Handorf and a panel of independent filmmakers for a frank discussion on getting your film made without waiting for permission. From funding workarounds to building your own audience, this session digs into the practical realities of self-reliant filmmaking and self-distribution. Whether you're stuck on your first short or ready to take your finished film directly to audiences, come away with ideas, actionable plans, and the confidence to find your own route to getting seen.

PERFECT ORGANISM, PERFECT HORROR

• Festival slot: Sunday 30 1:30 p.m.; Sunday 30 1:30 pm
• Programme type: Festival panel

Preview: Join us as we welcome the developers of the critically acclaimed Alien: Isolation™, and its upcoming sequel Alien: Isolation 2™, to the stage. This exclusive free FrightFest panel session will be a deep dive into the creation of this compelling survival horror video game series, and the pivotal role that the 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien played in inspiring its creation.

Ticket Prices for 2026

• Festival Pass — Stalls & Royal Circle: £265
• Festival Pass — Balcony: £225
• Thursday Day Pass: £36
• Friday and Saturday Day Pass: £72
• Sunday and Monday Day Pass: £60
• Single Tickets: £14.99

Which premiere, restoration or short-film showcase would be at the top of your FrightFest schedule?

Tubi FrightFest 2026 runs from August 27th – 31st at Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and Odeon LUXE West End. For full programme details & tickets: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/