Come cani arrabbiati – Camera Obscura Blu-ray (First Look)

Come cani arrabbiati (Mario Imperoli, 1976)

Three vicious, robbing, raping, scumbags lead by Rico (Cesare Barro) and his twisted girlfriend Germana (Annarita Grapputo) stick two fingers up at the law as they evade capture at every turn. Determined cop Tony (Jean Pierre Sabagh) tries as he might to find the masked maniacs even resorting to having his girlfriend and fellow police officer Silvia (Paola Senatore) pose undercover as a lady of the night. The trap pays off, almost. She’s stripped naked and almost knifed before the approaching law alert the troublesome trio who make good their escape…

Mario Imperoli directed a handful of films but none of them match this one for sheer outrageousness of content. Kidnapping, misogynistic humiliation, homophobic beatings, point blank head shots and a good old tyre screeching Alfa Romeo car chase keep this juggernaut of euro trash barrelling down the highway of political incorrectness.

Grapputo pulls out all the stops and pretty much steals the show with her penchant for brutality equal if not higher than her male compatriots, plus the fact that she frequently strolls around buck naked helps one keep focused on the screen when the action takes a rest.

A sadly under-appreciated sleazy gem that deserves to be sat up there with Euro-cult sleaze royalty such as Night Train Murders and Terror Express, it may even stick a shotgun in their face and tell them to take a seat elsewhere… (Italian Film Review)

The above review was written a few years back when the only copy of this film available was from a beaten up Greek VHS that had no English track and a far from ideal aspect ratio. Fast forward to 2014 and Camera Obscura are set to unleash a pristine, high definition transfer that is, simply put, a revelation.

 (Click images for FULL SIZE versions)

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Perfectly framed you can now see all of the original Techniscope image in perfect clarity, Camera Obscura have really done this one justice revealing detail you could never have imagined via the previously available VHS version.

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Audio is Italian language only (dub tracks were never made for this film in any other language other than the native Italian) so subtitles are provided for non-Italian speakers in either English or German.

Extras: Featurettes with Romano Albani and Fabio Claudio Bernabei and Melelli (Blu-ray exclusive) Audio Commentary with Marcus Stiglegger and Christian Kessler (German language with English subs), image gallery, trailers, booklet (German / English) by Kai Naumann

Pre-order at: DIABOLIK DVD

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Halloween Competition: Win a Blood: The Last Vampire Poster

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From the World to Your Wall, quite – that’s the strapline for what’s becoming Britain’s premier poster specialist, Film Poster Art.

The Overlook Movie Store has teamed up with the awesome chaps from Film Poster Art to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a 2000 Blood: The Last Vampire Film Poster worth £45.00. It comes framed and mounted, ready for your wall!

Here are the details:

Blood: The Last Vampire

2000: Original Japanese Chirashi Film Poster

Framed and Mounted

Condition: Grade C9

Size 10 x 7 inches

All you have to do to have a chance of winning is click on the link below and tell the Film Poster Art guys the name of the scariest movie you’ve ever seen. It’ll take one minute and it’s completely FREE!

You can enter the competition here. The winner will be picked on 31st October.

Good luck.

Fantastiq news! Derby to host new fantasy film festival

Facebook Page at THIS LINK please head on over and ‘Like’

Fantastiq news! Derby to host new fantasy film festival

Summer 2013 slot confirmed at one of the UK’s leading indie cinemas

QUAD and Reel Solutions are proud to announce FANTASTIQ, a new three-day film and TV festival focusing on fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Fans of the genre will be thrilled and chilled to learn that this exciting new venture is born of a dynamic partnership between QUAD, one of the best independent cinemas in the country, and Reel Solutions, the respected Yorkshire-based film bureau known for its work on an array of festivals across the UK.

The first edition of FANTASTIQ will take place on the weekend of August 9-11 2013 at Derby QUAD, the vibrant three-screen complex in the centre of Derby that enjoys a reputation for intelligent film programming. FANTASTIQ will form part of an acclaimed annual programme that already includes iDFest, Whooverville, and Edge-Lit making Derby one of the strongest hubs for genre film programming in the country.

As its name suggests FANTASTIQ will be heavily rooted in “films fantastique”. Fantasy film fans can look forward to the best of the gory, glory days of Universal, AIP, Hammer and Amicus as well as European shockers, forgotten gems from the vaults and an array of cult figures on the guest list.

Plans for 2013 include a 50th anniversary celebration of Doctor Who and centenary screenings dedicated to the late, great master of fantastic cinema Peter Cushing (1913-1994).

Programming will be led by Reel Solutions’ Tony Earnshaw and QUAD’s Adam J Marsh

Adam J Marsh, Cinema Programmer at QUAD says: “It is great to be able to bring Fantastiq to Derby. Fantasy, science-fiction and horror play a strong part in the British film industry, in its past, present and future, so it is an honour to be able to represent genre cinema with this wonderful three-day festival.”

Tony Earnshaw, Programming & Festivals Director at Reel Solutions says: “We are delighted to be working with QUAD. We wanted to do something different to the standard genre film festival and we were thrilled that our partners at QUAD shared our enthusiasm and vision. We look forward to making Fantastiq a unique and must-attend annual fixture on the festival calendar.”

Tony Earnshaw has a reputation as one of the UK’s leading genre film programmers having organised the popular Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford for 10 years. He was previously Head of Film Programming at the National Media Museum in Bradford and artistic director of Bradford International Film Festival for 12 years. He was part of the project team that helped deliver Bradford’s designation as the world’s first UNESCO City of Film and has programmed for the National Film Theatre in London. He is also a journalist, broadcaster and award-winning author specialising in the cinema.

Adam J Marsh has more than10 years’ experience in independent cinema culminating in his current position as QUAD’s cinema programmer and Director of iDFest. He has overseen QUAD’s growth in commerce and reputation over the past three years. He is also a screenwriter – whose debut feature film Devil’s Tower is currently in post production – and a freelance lecturer on Sheffield Hallam’s Screenwriting BA course”

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES hits DVD UNCUT from Nucleus!

One of the original banned video nasties of the 1980s, now issued UNCUT for the first time!

The mother of all Mexploitation finally arrives in the UK uncut for the very first time!

Featured on the Director of Public Prosecution’s original 39-title ‘video nasties’ list, at last you can see what all the fuss is about in this gore-geous new 16:9 transfer.

René Cardona Sr – patriarch of Mexico’s number one genre film-making dynasty – delivers this wonderfully silly tale of a dying young man given the heart of a gorilla to keep him alive. Unfortunately the man transforms into a murderous ape-like monster and goes on a girly hunt. Not one to be put-off, the surgeon (his father) tries again – this time with the heart of a female wrestler. This medical-horror-sci-fi masterpiece was written by René and his son René (who, incidentally, had a son called René), neither of whom had even a cursory knowledge of either medicine or science. This makes it w-a-a-y-yy more enjoyable….

No surprise then that this was filmed in just three weeks (in May 1968), largely in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park. While already chock full of gratuitous nudity and femmes-in-peril, US film-maker Jerald Intrator (“Orgy at Lil’s Place”, “Satan in High Heels”) decided to improve on things by adding close-up, super-gory footage of open-heart surgery. He even filmed some new material to spice up the monster’s attacks with sanguinary make-up effects and even more nudity. He did the same thing with Emilio Vieyra’s “The Curious Case of Dr. Humpp “ around the same time. Ah, those were the days…

See!

  • –  a nice young man “transmutated” into an ugly beast
  • –  same beast wearing a horrifying mask made of… chocolate Angel Delight
  • –  an eye popped out of a head in stomach-churning detail 

     

    DVD features…

    Video Nasties Introduction
    Two TV Spots
    Theatrical Trailer
    Image Gallery
    Hidden “Easter Egg”
    Optional English/Spanish Audio & Subtitles for Both

    Certificate 18

    Street date 8th October 2012

    For more info visit…

    http://www.nucleusfilms.com

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nucleus-Films/157065734315301

Hammer’s THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN – Blu-ray in October

From the Hammer Films website HERE

Hammer, Icon Film Distribution and Lionsgate are proud to present Terence Fisher’s Gothic classic The Curse of Frankenstein fully restored in High Definition and for the first time in its original Academy ratio of 1.37:1.

Available 15th October in the UK & Ireland on 3-disc Double Play, the pack includes 1 x Blu-ray and 2 x DVD packed full of brand new content. Featuring new documentaries and bonus extras, and including the infamous “eyeball” scene, which was originally banned but has now been fully restored.

The Curse of Frankenstein

Double Play: 1 x BD & 2 x DVD
Cert: 15 (TBC)
Released: 15th October 2012
Region B/2

Single Blu-ray 50 disc

HD Main Feature – Never before released “Academy” ratio 1.37:1 – 83 mins – DTS MA 2.0

HD The Curse of Frankenstein (1.66:1 version) – alternate aspect ratio – 83mins – DTS MA 2.0

New audio commentary with Marcus Hearn & Jonathan Rigby
Frankenstein Reborn: The Making of a Hammer Classic (new & exclusive)
Life With Sir (new & exclusive Peter Cushing documentary)
Four Sided Triangle (bonus feature film) 80 mins
Tales of Frankenstein (bonus TV pilot) 25 mins
The Tale of Tales of Frankenstein (new & exclusive Ted Newsom documentary)
World Of Hammer: The Curse of Frankenstein 25 mins
Stills show
English HOH subtitles for Main Feature

Double DVD

DISC #1:
Main Feature – Never before released “Academy” ratio 1.37:1 – 83 mins – DD 2.0 – English HOH subtitles
The Curse of Frankenstein (1.66:1 version) – alternate aspect ratio – 83mins – DD 2.0
New audio commentary with Marcus Hearn & Jonathan Rigby

DISC #2:
Frankenstein Reborn: The Making of a Hammer Classic (new & exclusive)
Life With Sir (new & exclusive Peter Cushing documentary)
Four Sided Triangle (bonus feature film) 80 mins
Tales of Frankenstein (bonus TV pilot) 25 mins
The Tale of Tales of Frankenstein (new & exclusive Ted Newsom documentary)
World Of Hammer: The Curse of Frankenstein 25 mins
Stills show
PDF Original shooting script
PDF all-new booklet “The Creator’s Spark: Hammer’s Frankenstein Begins” with text by Hammer archivist Robert J. E. Simpson

Pre-order the Blu-ray at Amazon.co.uk HERE

MUCHAS GRACIAS SEÑOR LOBO – Paul Naschy book from Creepy Images

Pre-orders are now being taken for what looks like an amazing book from Creepy Images. Check out the specs below…

MUCHAS GRACIAS SEÑOR LOBO deals with the advertising material from the movie of one of the true icons of (European) horror movies: Paul Naschy and contains the largest collection of posters, lobby cards and other promotional items from his movies ever published.
MUCHAS GRACIAS SEÑOR LOBO focuses on Paul Naschy‘s horror movies of the late 1960s until the 1980s. 30 movies of this period will be featured in form of seperated chapters in the main part of the book while advertising material from his non-horror-movies and his newer films will be compiled in an additional chapter.
Besides high quality reproduction of movie posters, lobby cards and other memorabilia items, the book contains details insight into the distribution history of the movies and we are sure that some facts will even surprise the most dedicated fans of the Spanish Lon Chaney.
Important facts:

  • Limited hardcover edition
  • approx. 370 pagescompletely in color,measuring 21 x 29,7 cm
    (approx. 8.3 x 11.7 inches)
  • more than 1.200 pictures, including more than 160 movie posters, almost 750 lobby cards, over 100 press stills, a large part of which have never been published yet, more than 100 reproductions of admats, rare sales material that was only handed out to distribution companies and much more from more than 20 different countries.
  • Introduction by Paul Naschy‘s son 
    Sergio Molina
  • Complete Text in German and English
  • Besides the countless images the book also contains detailed information about distribution history of the movies
  • It took more than 18 years to put together the collection that serves as a basis for this book

Pre-order now!

The official streetprice will be 39,50 Euro, but until September 25th 2012 you can pre-order the book for only 34,50 Euros.

Everybody who pre-orders the book will get a small, but nice gift that is only available during the pre-order period.

Pre-order this book via the Creepy Images site at THIS LINK

Interview with Nicholas McCarthy – Director of THE PACT

THE PACT is one of those low budget horror success stories that comes along every so often and manages to strike a chord and cross over into the mainstream. Shot on an extremely low budget, director Nicholas MCarthy’s film was given a wide release in the UK when it opened at the beginning of last month.  

Nicholas very kindly agreed for us to interview him and, as you’re about to see, Euro Cult films (and their makers) occupy a very special place in his heart…

I would automatically assume that you’re something of a film buff. Please can you elaborate on the films that formed a significant part of your education as a filmmaker? 

I’ve always liked all kinds of movies.  When I was a little kid ANYTHING was worth seeing, even movies that were way over my head.  But horror got its grips in me early.  I grew up in New Hampshire and we had a black and white TV set that got about 6 channels and used a rotating antennae on top of the house.  Occasionally I could catch Godzilla movies playing and the concept of monster movies began to obsess me.  I used to pour through the TV listings to find evidence of anything horror-related.  There was this mysterious channel that we didn’t receive, out of Boston–Channel 56–they were always airing films on Saturday afternoons with titles like IT!  THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE or DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.  What were these things?  I could only imagine.  Then one day all of a sudden we were able to get Channel 56 over our set — they must’ve boosted their signal.  I waited all week to see the two movies they were showing, which I soon learned was their programming block called “Creature Double Feature.”  That weekend they showed a Toho monster movie I now can’t remember followed by the completely bizarre FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER.  Viewing that second movie was a life-changing experience.  It was “bad,” but at age 8 I had no measurement of bad.  It was shot in Puerto Rico and there was no Frankenstein monster.  Most of it was post-dubbed.  I could hardly make sense of it.  It had a scene where a robot, who was running amuck, threw an axe in someone’s face.  Those 90 minutes changed my life forever.

As I got older I started to watch all kinds of films in the genre and outside of it.  But the dark and strange always stuck with me, and that’s always the stuff I liked best.

I think you’ve just described how many of us became so enamoured with film, Nick! We had only four channels when most of us were growing up here in the UK, so we had far less horror on our screens, with the notable exception of the double bills that were screened over weekends and Alex Cox’s excellent Moviedrome series. The advent of rental VHS opened things up a lot wider and horror became far more accessible (until the introduction of Britain’s draconian Video Recordings Act!). Do you have any fond memories or standout experiences from the time when you were introduced to video?

Video was so important to me growing up.  I saved up my own money to buy a VCR.  It was a used, giant top-loading JVC model.  Like so many other horror fans, an entire world of the genre was opened up to me with that machine  It was all the more exciting back then because there was so much less context for what was out there — the video shelves were like a wild west, “respectable” studio product right alongside the sleaziest no-budget horror movies imaginable.  I started to program all night marathons for my friends and we would watch both the stuff I wanted them to see, along with cult and horror movies I had read about and thought might be great – sometimes they were, sometimes they weren’t.   I also began taping things off late night TV back then, which is how I caught favorites like SHOCK WAVES or ZONTAR: THE THING FROM VENUS.  That old VCR was how I saw so many of the great and awful films that I still love.

I’ll also say this about watching movies on home video — it’s STILL something I’m amazed and grateful for, because I remember when I was first introduced to this concept — that just because you’re thinking of a movie could now mean you could choose to watch it, then and there.  That is an amazing luxury.  The other luxury is the huge mine of cinema history that opened up with the ability to cheaply acquire and watch older movies.  In the Euro Cult world I’m always impressed how we can pour over these films that never really were meant to stand some kind of test of time – but that’s one of the qualities that make them so special.   These films were made with an urgency because there was a market that was just hungry for more and more movies, coming at a time of real inventiveness in cinema.  When I made my own movie, that urgency was something I kept in mind–THE PACT was not made after 10 years of developing it–it was written in six weeks and shot in 18 days!  But with the budget so low the financier was basically like “just go do it” and I had no time to think too much about anything beyond trying to make this weird little movie I had imagined in my head just weeks before.  Some might criticize that approach, but I wouldn’t have traded that freshness for anything.  The whole thing was just full throttle, the same way that guys like Enzo Castellari operated, back in the day.

Did reading about the way in which Italian filmmakers made their films or even watching the special features on the DVDs have any impact on how you’ve honed your skills as a filmmaker? You mention Castellari, but did he or any of the other prolific filmmakers of the period make an impression on the way you made your film on such a tight schedule?

One of the things that I’ve come to really admire about many of the directors from back then was how prolific they were.  I mean, a guy like Castellari had a film coming out every 6 months in the 70s!  And in all different genres — westerns, crime films, comedies…  As I said earlier, I think there’s strength in making things quickly, to attack a script and move on.  It can produce all kinds of films — some terrible, but also some that are masterpieces.  And that’s not limited to exploitation — many of the titans of the “art film” did the same thing — Bunuel, Bergman, Fassbinder… they just made film after film after film.  That’s something I aspire to do.

The circumstances of the Italian film industry in the 70s are exceptional, there’s no going back to that time economically or culturally.  But the more of the films from the period that I watch the more in tune I feel to that urgency that went into making them, and it in turn, that inspires me to create something.  Their energy is contagious.

Are you a big fan of Euro Cult cinema? If so, please can you touch upon the genres, films and filmmakers that have inspired you as an artist? 

The first Euro Cult films I saw were, like a lot of other fans, viewed on cropped VHS tapes. Probably the first Euro genre title I ever saw was Fulci’s GATES OF HELL aka CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD.  I was about 13 and probably read about it in Fangoria, which obsessed over how much blood was in a movie, therefore it paid special attention to this title.  It was a little boring at that age, but strangely fascinating.  It came from another world, outside of American cinema.  It had a whole different cinematic language.  And it was disgusting.  I was interested.

It wasn’t until a few years later, at age 16, that I truly “discovered” Euro Cult, when I went to see a 35mm screening of SUSPIRIA.  I knew next to nothing about this movie going in, maybe just that it was an Italian horror movie.  I was nearly all alone in the theater, by myself, mid-week, during a hot summer.  The sound was LOUD.  When the film finished my mind was shattered.  I had never seen anything so scary, so cinematic, so strange.  I wanted more. Since then I’ve watched Italian, French, and Spanish genre movies non-stop.  My next obsession after Argento, of course, was Mario Bava — his work blew me away, I loved exploring film after film of his, each one so different and amazing.  As I got older I developed a soft spot for gialli and the whole spectrum of crime films.  Probably my favorite giallo is STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, but I’ve seen dozens and loved many of them, from the beautiful ones like LE ORME to the cruddy insanity of Umerto Lenzi’s EYEBALL.

Crime films it’s the same thing — I’ve been enthusiastic about the classier examples, like MACHINE GUN MCCAIN, but also loved the trashiest of the trash, like the movie I first saw on a double bill with MCCAIN — ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON aka ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH.   That movie is batshit crazy.

SUSPIRIA seems to be an entry level title for many EuroCult fans, it was one of the first Italian horror films I saw too. You mention ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH, again this was one of the first poliziotteschi films I caught and, like my friend who introduced me to them, I stumbled upon the genre because I found myself seeking out the work of the directors of Italian horror movies – was this the case with you? Looking at the work of directors such as Umberto Lenzi and Sergio Martino in particular as both dabbled in many different genres, do you have a preference to a particular type of film that they made?

Yeah, horror was my entry point and I think it’s true for a lot of fans.  What I discovered was that really there are so many more interesting European thrillers and crime films than horror movies.  It’s fun to trace the careers of a lot of these directors because you see their strengths and weaknesses, but I also have learned that the strength of the work often has a lot to do with the circumstances of both when the movies were made and how well they were produced.   When Sergio Martino made STRANGE VICE… it was at the very beginning of the giallo flood and for me it feels like the quintessential movie that defined the cycle after Bava and Argento put the elements together.  For that reason it seems like everything falls into place for Martino on that movie and I’ve watched it many times.   In the same way, with Lenzi’s films, I first heard about him because of the notorious, sloppily made horror movies from the later part of his career, but when I saw his late 60s giallo ORGASMO with him working with a stronger budget and just at a different pop cultural moment I was like “wow!”  That film is one of the all-time classic Euro Cult titles to me.  Then I started seeing his crime movies in between and I was like “holy shit, this guy is crazy!  Who knew he could do that too?”

Have you paid homage to any of your favourite films or directors in THE PACT?  

Well there’s a lot of different genre films that influenced the movie, and there’s a lot of Euro Cult in there.  There’s a shot at the beginning that is a direct reference to SUSPIRIA, where the camera rises up and peers down at the actress through a hanging lamp.  In Argento’s film they’re on some crazy crane, while we just used the boom arm on the dolly, but it was a total homage.  I showed my director of photography Bridger Nielson sequences from SUSPIRIA to give him an idea of how we wanted to establish camera movement.  It was funny, the film is like a sacred text to me, and Bridger thought it was cool, but he kept pointing out how bumpy Argento’s dolly shots were!

The mystery plotting of the movie was inspired completely by the Italian giallo film.  There’s a kind of fetishy attention to detail in those movies that I tried to get in THE PACT, with lots of close ups of clues.  There’s also a murder sequence in the movie where all you see is a hand with a knife and the audience doesn’t see who’s holding the knife.  The concept for the scene came from the classic giallo template, and for reference I actually showed our makeup FX guy and my DoP a murder in Argento’s OPERA. There are tons of dolly shots in the movie following people around.  Part of it was inspired by the classic, poetic horror movies of Val Lewton, but the look and size of the shots came from the park sequence in FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET.

Finally, there’s a long daylight sequence in my movie that is entirely modeled on the look and feel of Antonioni’s BLOW-UP.  I was watching that movie again a few years ago and realized how much Argento took from it for BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE – the movie that kicked off the wonderful wave of all those gialli.  So it’s a kind of Euro Cult reference in a more oblique way.

BLOW-UP is a wonderful film and one that gets better with each subsequent viewing. Were you aware of the importance of creating a work that stands up to the scrutiny of repeated viewings and did you deliberately make choices that would allow for things to go unnoticed when the viewer watches THE PACT for the first time?

I was just concerned with trying to create the movie in my head, which on our budget meant trying to get as many different shots as we could every day.  I really feel like you can’t think about the future when you create something like this, you never know how it will be received or who will like it.  One of the things that’s been cool about getting the film out there is some of the people who I respect, horror fans with blogs, genre savvy writers like Kim Newman in particular, have given the movie props.  But in no way did I ever try to calculate or predict that sort of response.  I was just trying to make my first movie.  I hope that some people will return to it.  Lord knows there are a lot of films that I’ve watched again and again where the creators never imagined people would see it more than once, like so many of the Euro Cult titles we love.

Thank you, Nick, it’s been great chatting with you.

UK Premiere! Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films that Ruled the ’70s

FRIGHTFEST 13: EMPIRE CINEMA, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON.

SATURDAY 25TH AUGUST – UK PREMIERE – EUROCRIME! THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE ‘70S

 


Directed by Mike Malloy. Starring Franco Nero, Enzo G. Castellari, Henry Silva, Richard Harrison and John Saxon. USA 2012, 127 mins.

ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH, MILAN CALIBRE 9, CRY OF A PROSTITUTE, HOW TO KILL A JUDGE… just four of the hundreds of ‘poliziotteschi’ movies the Italian Film Industry churned out during the turbulent 1970s once the Spaghetti Western and Giallo trends subsided. First they aped the American crime hits of the day DIRTY HARRY and THE GODFATHER. But soon they addressed typically Italian issues like the Mafia, Camorra, Red Brigade and even ‘scippo’ – Vespa bag-snatching. And rushed production methods meant ‘poliziotteschi’ superstars Franco Nero, Richard Harrison, Luc Merenda and Maurizio Merli performing their own stunts, directors stealing shots, no live sound recording and a rapid bleed-over between real crime torn from newspaper headlines and violent movie action. Here those once involved in the genre paint a brilliant picture of all that madness and mayhem in this lucidly explained visually dynamic documentary packed with fabulous clips and poster artwork.

Full festival passes are on sale now and single performance tickets go on sale 28th July – Check the Frightfest website for further details