Following the success of its spectacular 26th year August five-day event, the UK’s most popular genre film festival returns to the ODEON Luxe West End in Leicester Square to present its annual 2-day Halloween event. Taking over both screens on Friday 31st October and Saturday 1st November, this spine-chilling line-up heralds nine premieres from five countries, spanning Europe, North America, Australia/Oceania and Asia. Each film will be screened twice.
So be prepared as Frightfest takes you on a nerve-jangling journey featuring crazed animals, electrifying J-Horror, Heavy Metal mayhem, Turkish family terror, ancient Filipino monsters, maniac doll fetishists, timeless paranoia, and psychedelic serial killer thrills.
Opening the seasonal gates to ‘Helloween’ is the UK premiere of Paramount’s killer chimp horror PRIMATE, in which a group of friends’ tropical vacation turns into a terrifying, primal tale of horror and survival. Directed and co-written by FrightFest favourite Johannes Roberts, it stars Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander and Oscar winner Troy Kotsur. Following the screening there will be a specially recorded interview with Johannes hosted by Alan Jones.
Be prepared for ‘Battle of the Bands’ carnage as Friday’s line-up continues with the UK premiere of DEATHGASM II: GOREMAGEDDON, the eagerly awaited sequel, directed by Jason Lei Howden, in which the fiery furnaces of Satan’s anus have brought forth nothing short of a ‘goremageddon’.
The first day closes with the UK premiere of Mickey Reece’s EVERY HEAVY THING, a trippy comedic thriller revolving around a high-tech serial killer, which boasts an eclectic cast including Vera Drew, Barbara Crampton and Josh Fadem.
Saturday kicks off with the UK premiere of DOLLY, Rod Blackhurst’s twisted, woodland fairytale, which blends New French Extremity and 1970s American horror. The film introduces current NWA TV Champion Max The Impaler, aka The Non-Binary Nightmare, in the titular role of ‘Dolly’.
Then we have the UK premiere of AFFECTION, in which Happy Death Day franchise Scream Queen Jessica Rothe star in B T Meza’s gripping, intriguing and ultimately devastating dark science fiction tale of terror.
Up next is the World premiere of POSTHOUSE, an assured debut feature by editor and co-writer Nikolas Red, which is based on his own personal experience while editing his brother Mikhail Red’s 2018 shocker Eerie.
This is followed by the UK premiere THE TURKISH COFFEE TABLE. One of the most unique movie-going experiences of 2022 was The Coffee Table, which became a festival sensation. Now comes the equally shocking Turkish remake by FrightFest alumnus Can Evrenol, director of Baskin and Housewife. Can and lead actor are planning to attend.
Another FrightFest favourite is Colin Minihan (What Keeps You Alive, It Stains The Sand Red) who is back with the UK premiere of Signature’s COYOTES, a bite-filled fun eco-horror, which has a terrific cast including Justin Long, Kate Bosworth, Brittany Allen and Mila Harris.
Completing the line-up is the UK premiere of supernatural chiller MAG MAG, the first film from K2 Pictures, founded by directors Takashi Miike, Hirokazu Koreeda and Miwa Nishikawa. This is a debut feature by Yuriyan Retriever, Japan’s most popular comedian, and destined to reinterpret the J-horror genre with a fresh perspective.
Alan Jones, FrightFest co-director, said today: “FrightFest has become a dependable vanguard of the increasingly popular genre movement, it’s a position we take very seriously as our August and Halloween programmes reflect, and we are proud to play our part in the ever-burgeoning respect being shown to the genre. At long last!”
Passes and tickets go on sale at noon on Saturday 4th October. Tickets
Prices: Two-day pass – £80 | Friday 31 Oct Day pass – £35 | Saturday 1 Nov Day pass – £60
Single tickets – £15
All tickets costs may incur booking fee.
FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER
OPENING FILM: PRIMATE (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 6.00pm, Screen 2: 6.30pm)
Director: Johannes Roberts. Cast: Johnny Sequoyah, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Benjamin Cheng. USA 2025. 89 mins.
Synopsis: Returning home to Hawaii for summer break with two friends, Lucy is reunited with her family and their pet chimpanzee Ben. Deciding to take advantage of her father leaving for a work assignment they throw a pool party and invite over two boys they met on their flight. But Ben has been bitten by a rabid mongoose, and their gentle pet is transforming into a vicious animal with a killer instinct. Forced to barricade themselves in the pool, with no means of calling for help, they must work together to figure out how to outsmart the ferocious Ben and survive.
DEATHGASM II: GOREMAGEDDON (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 8.25pm, Screen 2: 8.55pm)
Director Jason Lei Howden. Cast: Milo Cawthorne, Kimberley Crossman, James Joshua Blake, Sam Berkely. New Zealand 2025. 102 mins.
Synopsis: It’s a few years after Brodie survived the last hilarious demon apocalypse, but he’s still wallowing in his own self-pity, jobless, loveless, hopeless and reckless. After seeing an ad on TV for Metal Quest, the local battle of the bands, Brodie picks himself up, wipes the vomit off his chin, and heads to the graveyard to put the Deathgasm band back together. With some familiar black magic, Brodie and his freshly risen rock zombies are destined for victorious metal mayhem with nothing standing in their way besides an insatiable hunger for human entrails and a lactose-intolerant emo band.
EVERY HEAVY THING (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 10.35pm, Screen 2: 11.00pm)
Director: Mickey Reece. Cast: Josh Fadem, Vera Drew, John Ennis, Barbara Crampton. USA 2025. 89 mins.
Synopsis: Mickey Reece’s distinctively absurdist humour left its imprint through such cult favourites as COUNTRY GOLD and AGNES. Now he returns with a pitch-black comedy set against the unsettling backdrop of a string of local Oklahoma women vanishing without a trace. Online periodical office worker Joe becomes entangled in a conspiracy after witnessing a murder. As a colleague begins to investigate, Joe struggles to conceal the truth, as his carefully constructed life falls apart in a surreal comedy thriller, amplifying the mood of paranoia in an offbeat take on the classic trope of the ordinary man pulled into extraordinary circumstances.
SATURDAY 1 NOVEMBER
DOLLY (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 11.25pm, Screen 2: 11.55pm)
Director: Rod Blackhurst. Cast: Fabienne Therese, Max the Impaler, Seann William Scott, Ethan Suplee. USA 2025. 84 mins.
Synopsis: Chase and Macy drop off his daughter and hike to a nearby overlook where he intends to propose. Those plans are soon forgotten when they discover a weird ‘art installation’ of dirty, broken dolls. Unfortunately, the dolls are actually more of an altar to the victims of Dolly – a violent, hulking, child-like maniac in a tattered dress and a porcelain doll mask – who arrives to bury the decapitated corpse of the latest plaything. When Macy becomes the next target for the dollhouse, she must navigate her captor’s delusions and family trauma to have any hope of surviving the demented nightmare.
AFFECTION (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 1.40pm, Screen 2: 2.10pm)
Director: BT Meza. Cast: Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross, Julianna Layne. USA 2025. 90 mins.
Synopsis: Ellie is stuck in a cyclical nightmare grappling with a medical condition that erratically resets her memory. Left unable to remember her loving husband or young daughter, each reset leaves her disoriented and haunted with vivid memories and scattered recollections of an unfamiliar life she’s never lived. What is the cause of her rare illness, can her husband really help cope with her affliction? The nightmare answers are a complete shock to the nervous system.
POSTHOUSE World Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 3.50pm, Screen 2: 4.20pm)
Director: Nikolas Red. Cast: Sid Lucero, Bea Binene, Andrea Del Rosario, Ryza Cenon. Philippines 2025. 94 mins.
Synopsis: A troubled film editor and his distant daughter release an ancient monster while working to restore an incomplete silent horror movie from the forgotten Filipino horror past. Red’s exploration into the grief over a vanished cultural era is a love letter to the lost ghosts of every cinematic heritage and a potent supernatural chiller in its own right.
THE TURKISH COFFEE TABLE (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 6.10pm, Screen 2: 6.40pm)
Director: Can Evrenol. Cast: Alper Kul, Algi Eke, Hatice Aslan, Asli Bankoglu, Ece Su Uckan, Elif Sevinç, Özgür Emre Yildirim. Turkey 2025. 90 mins.
Synopsis: A couple’s argument over a coffee table spirals into chaos when a simple mistake turns into a desperate web of lies, panic, deception, and the terrifying consequences of trying to cover up the truth. Time to remind you of the darkness underlying everything, one that forces you to look into the void with elegance, wit and sympathy.
COYOTES (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 8.30pm, Screen 2: 9.00pm)
Director: Colin Minihan. Cast: Justin Long, Kate Bosworth, Brittany Allen, Mila Harris. USA 2025. 91 mins.
Synopsis: When wildfire hits the Hollywood Hills, a family is stranded as their neighbourhood is destroyed and their home becomes a blazing prison. An intimate domestic drama quickly escalates into a pulse-pounding survival thriller as a pack of predatory coyotes disoriented by the fires tighten their perimeter around the house. Rendered powerless by collapsing roads and no electricity, the family must rely on their courage, resilience, and love for one another to survive the inferno and the snarling threat outdoors.
MAG MAG (UK Premiere)
(Times: Screen 1: 10.30pm, Screen 2: 10.55pm)
Director: Yuriyan Retriever. Cast: Sara Minami, Takumi Saioto, Aoi Yamada. Japan 2025. 113 mins.
Synopsis: “If you see her, it’s too late. If she falls in love with you, the only escape is death.” After her beloved is killed by the Mag Mag ghost, Sanae vows revenge, but soon discovers the true identity of the person she truly owes her retribution in a twisted love story combining horror and humour, delivering a powerful blow to the world.
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