GFF 2013: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Returning to its Caledonian holiday home at the GFT for some goo drenched, macabre fun, that legendary horror extravaganza FrightFest offers a couple of days to die for at the back end of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. Well… a couple days watching a shit-ton of other folk die for stuff, at the very least. With a line-up comprising eleven films, nine of which are UK premieres, those hardy Glesga gorehounds will once again get an eyeful over 22 and 23 February.

The prospect of new work from genre favourites Rob Zombie and Eli Roth will no doubt have fans salivating all down their Evil Dead t-shirts. Zombie’s The Lords of Salem (22 Feb), a mysterious tale of witchcraft and Satanism, looks to be a welcome departure from the scuzzy brutality of Halloween and The Devil’s Rejects. A spooky, artful aesthetic and tone more than a little suggestive of Argento promise much. Conversely, the Roth co-written and starring disaster-flick-cum-slasher-romp Aftershock (23 Feb) looks set to continue his alliance of awkward laughs and bloodshed as the locals go a bit loco following an earthquake in Chile. Comic director Nicolás López takes the reins for this one, both his horror and English language debut.

Other, more established filmmakers are also dipping their toes into somewhat unfamiliar waters. Neil Jordan returns to the genre nearly twenty years after his Interview with the Vampire with Byzantium (22 Feb), a highly anticipated tale of mother and daughter bloodsuckers dealing with the pitfalls of eternal life. Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan are the bitey gals, and the assumption of slightly less silly haircuts than Jordan’s previous night-stalker epic seems reasonable. More surprising is Oscar winner Barry Levinson’s involvement in found footage (yup, another one) schlock-fest The Bay (23 Feb), where a community is terrorised by a particularly icky parasitic infection. Reviews have been strong, so there’s hope this might inject some vim into that most banal of subgenres.

Local interest comes in the form of Sawney: Flesh of Man (22 Feb), a frankly pretty ropey-looking Scottish re-tread of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Going by the four-minute trailer, what it appears to lack in originality or flair, it’s set to make up for with lots and lots of nastiness. From slightly farther afield, we have Argentina’s Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman (23 Feb), a delirious homage to exploitation cinema with a badass, if perpetually impractically dressed heroine. Grimy, bloody and reassuringly cheap, it looks to be oodles of fun. A lighter tone will also be present in Detention of the Dead (22 Feb), a sort of John Hughes/early Peter Jackson mash-up where some high school kids face-off against a zombie apocalypse. That’ll learn ‘em.

The biggest draw for many hardened terror aficionados, however, will be portmanteau The ABCs of Death (23 Feb), an ambitious collection of shorts from 26 (in)famous directors including Srdjan Spasojevic, Ti West, Xavier Gens, Jason Eisener and Ben Wheatley. Compendiums are always tricky, but with a good chance of more hits than misses, this rapid-fire approach might just produce a classic. Promotional footage says prepare for two hours of absolute carnage.

With the promise of some special guests and surprise events to go along with all the teeming cinematic treats, FrightFest could be set for its most successful foray north of the border yet. It’s a unique experience, delivering splatter catnip to one of the most fervent, cine-literate and good-natured crowds there is. An atmosphere that demands to be experienced, even if just the once. So buy your tickets, pack your lunch, and let’s get on with the slaughter.

Top three picks:

1. The ABCs of Death
2. Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman
3. The Lords of Salem