Fright Night Horror

By Jon Donnis London's FrightFest 2024 certainly had a highlight last year with the premiere of Saint Clare. This blood-soaked thriller didn't just have critics singing its praises; it had audience's blood pressure practically rising in real time. Now, this much-anticipated film is set for its UK release on July 21, 2025, courtesy of 101 Films. Bella Thorne, known for her roles in Blended and Midnight Sun, really delivers here. She plays the titular lead with an intensity that's caught everyone's attention in this spiritually charged, small-town story, a blend that's been called a powerful mix, like "American Psycho meets Joan of Arc." The film itself is based on a novel by Don Roff and was expertly brought to life by award-winning Italian director Mitzi Peirone, who you might know from Braid. Peirone also teamed up with Guinevere Turner, a writer on American Psycho, to pen the screenplay. And what a cast! We're talking about Ryan Philippe from Cra...

  A Haunting Fairytale Turned Body Horror Masterpiece The Ugly Stepsister, the feature debut from Norwegian writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt, is a fearless and ferocious deconstruction of beauty myths. Taking the bones of Cinderella and twisting them into a grim body horror satire, Blichfeldt strips away fantasy to expose the cruelty beneath. The result is a raw, razor-sharp tale about control, trauma and the violent cost of perfection. From its unsettling first scene, the film sets out to disturb. Lea Myren delivers a transformative performance as Elvira, the forgotten daughter disfigured by her mother’s relentless pursuit of beauty and status. Blichfeldt refuses to look away, showing in graphic detail the invasive procedures, forced starvation and self-harm that Elvira endures. These scenes are brutal but never gratuitous. Each one reinforces the central theme: beauty is not natural, it is inflicted. Visually, the film is as striking as it is harrowing. Fairytale finery is paire...

A sinister trailer park in the Deep South is the setting for Bogieville, a twisted new vampire flick from actor-director Sean Cronin, known for Drained and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. The film lands on UK digital platforms on 9 June, courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films, and promises a blood-soaked clash between rival immortals. After screening at both Cannes and FrightFest, Bogieville now invites UK audiences to take the plunge into its unnerving world. At the centre of it all are Ham and Jody, played by Arifin Putra (The Raid 2) and Eloise Lovell Anderson (Villian), a young couple who find themselves lost and desperate. What they stumble upon is no safe haven. It's an eerie trailer park called Bogieville, seemingly forgotten by the world and watched over by the unsettling caretaker, Crawford, played by Jonathan Hansler (Axed). He warns them not to leave at night. Of course, they do. And that’s when the horror truly begins. The park isn't deserted at all. It's home to a c...

  A Beautifully Crafted Fantasy That Struggles to Stay Afloat Isaiah Saxon's The Legend of Ochi is a visually enchanting yet narratively uneven debut that blends old-school fantasy charm with a modern emotional undercurrent. Brimming with atmosphere and anchored by handmade artistry, the film has a distinctive voice. But despite flashes of magic and menace, it struggles to maintain momentum, particularly in its slow-moving middle. Set on the wintry island of Carpathia, the story follows Yuri (Helena Zengel), a young girl raised in a brutal, male-dominated village. Her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe), is a hard-edged patriarch who trains children to hunt down the elusive, goblin-like creatures known as the Ochi. When Yuri discovers and befriends an injured baby Ochi, she turns her back on her upbringing and sets out to return the creature to its kin. Her journey becomes a quiet rebellion as she seeks her estranged mother (Emily Watson) and tries to stay one step ahead of her relentless...

There are horror films. Then there are public domain fever dreams where a beloved cartoon sailor turns into a gore-splattered vigilante with forearms that could pulp a man’s skull. Popeye the Slayer Man, a horror reimagining that’s as bloody as it is bizarre, belongs to the latter camp. And standing tall at the centre of the madness is Jason Robert Stephens, a former real-life cop turned screen slayer. As the film launches in the UK on Amazon and Apple, Stephens sat down with Masters of Horror to talk through the physical demands of becoming Popeye, improvising emotional beats between kills, and yes, who he’d like to slaughter in a potential sequel. This version of Popeye is definitely not your grandpa’s sailor, how did you prepare to embody such a gritty, slayer-style version of this iconic character? Mentally, it was pretty easy to get into the character. Once you have all that makeup on, the costume, etc., you kind of have to become that character. It was actually really fun to play...

  A Bizarre, Mythical Collision of Satire and Fantasy Death of a Unicorn is a rare breed in modern cinema. It presents a completely original story that blends absurd comedy, biting satire and eerie folklore into a surprisingly emotional experience. Written and directed by Alex Scharfman in his feature debut, the film takes a concept that sounds absurd and transforms it into something oddly grounded and occasionally profound. The plot follows Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) as they travel to the countryside estate of Elliot’s boss. During the drive, they accidentally hit a unicorn. What starts as a freak accident quickly spirals into a strange and dangerous situation. The unicorn’s mystical properties spark a frenzy among a wealthy and powerful family, who see it not as a creature of wonder but as an opportunity to exploit. As the situation escalates, Elliot and Ridley find themselves hunted by two vengeful parent unicorns while trapped in a house f...