The best & worst of FrightFest over the years

By Stephanie Scaife

Oftentimes when people ask me what I’m doing for the August bank holiday weekend and I say that I’m going to FrightFest, I get a puzzled look; then when I actually explain what it is, the look of bafflement is replaced with one of disdain. Essentially this is because most people would not want to sit in a cinema for five days straight watching film after film, especially when what they are seeing is a line-up solely made up of genre films – which in the eyes of the mainstream are oft-considered little more than the bottom of the veritable barrel, there to be scraped by the socially awkward and unwashed.

To the casual observer it may be easy to overlook the fact that FrightFest has been privy to some of the best films released over the past fourteen years. Of course, that is not to say that through attending the festival I’ve also been exposed to some of the most diabolically awful genre offerings over the years too! But that’s actually part of what I enjoy so much about the festival; you never know what you’re going to get when you walk into that auditorium, and more often than not the surprises come when you least expect them.

I think one of the best things about seeing films at a festival is that your reaction is, for the most part, completely fresh and unhindered by reviews and prior expectations; you are part of an audience seeing something for the first time. You also have no idea what will become of the films; something you saw through bleary eyes at an afternoon screening may go on to become a massive success (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), or something that came out all guns blaring in a prime time slot may go down like a knackered lift (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). Obviously I haven’t seen everything ever screened as there were times I was only able to see a handful of films, but hopefully for the uninitiated this will give an insight into why exactly I spend my main summer vacation holed up in a dark room, fuelling my lack of sleep with an excessive caffeine intake, and emerge the other side much like one of the many zombies I’ve born witness to over the years up on that big screen.

So, in preparation for tomorrow which sees the start of the fourteenth year of FrightFest, here is my run down of the ten best and five worst films that I have seen there over the years.

Editor’s note: look out for Steph’s coverage of FrightFest 2013 in the week ahead.

The Best:

1. Let the Right One In (2008)