FrightFest does Brighton

Front row (L-R): Rachel, Graham, Rich, Mike and Russ
(photo from www.frightfest.co.uk)

I had such a good laugh on Saturday night with the FrightFest crowd in town as part of Brighton's Cine-City festival at the Duke Of York's cinema. Mike and Russ from Eat My Brains came down for the weekend, and we met up with Rich and Graham - who'd driven down from Romford - in Circus Circus at the start of the evening. FrightFest organisers Ian and Paul soon joined us, Ian regaling us with tales of falling asleep on public transport after too many beers, Paul mainly occupied with his new girlfriend, Honey. Director Jake West introduced himself and proved to be a friendly, jovial chap, which made me feel bad for dissing Evil Aliens so much - but at least I was able to praise his work on the excellent Anchor Bay Phantasm documentary. With a few more FrightFest regulars travelling down, including Rachel from Guildford who we took under our wing after her other friends abandoned her, there was a real feeling of 'extended family' in the pub and this transferred over to the cinema where the audience clapped and cheered their way through the three films on offer. District 13 was the most popular with its mad French stuntmen jumping over buildings without the use of wires or CGI proving to be a big hit. After a specially written message from Dario Argento, his Masters Of Horror episode Jenifer was a little disappointing - delivering more laughs than scares, but it was funny hearing the shocked reactions of the girls sat in the row behind us. In between films Ian and Paul were on hand to give out t-shirts, posters plus the latest Killing Time fanzine, and they also dragged fan Sian onto the stage to display her new FrightFest tattoo. The final film was Boo! which was originally due to play at August's event - it had some good visuals but was let down by wooden acting and dire dialogue, although after a few pints this was all quite amusing. After the last film Mike, Russ and I cracked open some more bottles of beer back at home and wound down watching Hell Comes To Frogtown on video, a dead cert for a future Zombie Club session. All in all, a great evening!