Tag: FrightFest

Late-stage capitalism is killing us. Look at the world, especially in the United States, where billionaires get richer and the poor get poorer. Out of FrightFest, co-directors Ed Dougherty and Brea Grant’s anthology film, Grind, takes gasoline and a lighted match to hustle culture. Greedy companies such as Amazon, DoorDash, and Facebook propel humanity hurtling…

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Out of FrightFest, Stewart Sparke’s Dead Reset rises as a solid video game adaptation. Based on the 2025 game of the same name, the film brings the tone, style, and aesthetic to a time-loop journey in a similar vein to Tubi’s Kill Me Again (2025). Sparke, who co-wrote the script with Paul Butler, brings far…

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Haunted Objects might be the most undervalued horror subgenre. Rubber, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Killdozer, Killer Sofa, and Death Bed: The Bed That Eats are pure cinema. Out of FrightFest, Chris Lightbody and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr. throw their proverbial hats into the ring with their new feature, Bad Karaoke, about a killer karaoke…

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Out of FrightFest, Chris Schwab’s Dracula: The Night Around Us offers a thrilling new interpretation of Bram Stoker’s groundbreaking 1897 novel. It’s a career-making piece with classic vintage camera shots (e.g., the light falling perfectly over a character’s eyes) and moody, skin-shredding images that delight and perfectly horrify. In a crowded marketplace of mediocre vampire…

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Out of FrightFest, Ian SBF’s The Flesh Itself emerges as the festival’s best offering this year. The film, co-written with Deive Pazos and Alexandre Ottoni, examines the ravages of wartime, harbored biases, and the bigger picture at play in our everyday lives. Human beings have been and continue to be the most savage beasts we…

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Out of FrightFest, Joko Anwar’s Ghost in the Cell explores the discovery of profound peace in faith, art, or oneself. In the face of a society riddled by anger, the journey to enlightenment can be difficult, impossible even. But uncovered harmony works as the perfect anecdote. With his latest film, the writer/director achieves a thoughtful…

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Writer/director Richard E. Williams swings for the fences with his latest feature, Dead Eyes. Out of FrightFest, the first-person POV film lies within the same ambitious realm as Johannes Grenzfurthner’s experimental Solvent. Where Grenzfurthner tinkers with broken static and sound, Williams delights with a slicker approach, with the feeling of a hyper-stylized video game. Dead…

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Writers and directors Brett and Jason Butler slice and dice parasocial relationships with Starsuckers. Out of FrightFest, the Influencer Horror film destroys the barriers between who celebrities are online and who they are in real life. Blood sprays; body parts; and a taut, thorny script sink pierces like daggers to the heart. Especially in recent…

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Out of FrightFest, writer/director Cameron Francis’ Blood Secret walks the line between paranormal and slasher with acrobatic precision. Francis sets the bloody events in a single location over the course of one night. Bold creative decisions fuel the flames of his story of deception, regret, shame, and fear. The filmmaker exercises his artistic muscles with…

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Horror has always been queer. Since the early cinematic days of filmmaker James Whale, an openly gay man who crafted such queer classics as The Old Dark House (1932) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), horror has always been about society othering the LGBTQ+ community. Queer people have often been relegated to being monsters and strange…

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