DVD Review: Rabid
Looking Back: Spider-man 2 (2004)
Arrow Video Frightfest preview: The Ranger
Editor's Choice, Film4 Frightfest, London Previews
Last year's Cult Of Chucky certainly got Frightfest up and running with a crowd-pleasing bang, and no doubt genre fans heading to London are expecting the same from this slice of retro 80s splatter.
The film marks the feature-length directorial debut of Jenn Wexler, already known to horror audiences thanks to her producer duties on the likes of Psychopaths, Darling and even a segment of ABCs Of Death 2.
Heading up the cast is Chloe Levine (who has popped up in the likes of The Transfiguration and The Defenders over recent years) while we also have the great Larry Fessenden in a supporting role.
Here's the synopsis:
It's the 1980s and a group of punks get busted selling drugs. Because a police officer gets fatally wounded in the showdown, Chelsea offers up her uncle's cabin in a nearby national park as a hideout. There they cross paths with an officious ranger who has a weird connection to Chelsea's past and will stop at nothing to enforce every single safety regulation even if it means resorting to the deadliest of means. Emulating slasher classics with sly élan and featuring a kick-ass punk soundtrack, Jenn Wexler's debut feature is a post-modern splatter flick carrying the FrightFest seal of approval.
The Ranger kicks off the marathon five-day horror shindig on Thursday, August 23 – and here's a trailer for you (courtesy of the SXSW festival):
Simon is a journalism tutor in London, who also just happens to be a movie fanatic, with a craving for the darker side of cinema. He has written three books - on the horror films of director Bob Clark (2014), the history of the character Norman Bates (2015) and the work of British exploitation director Pete Walker (2017). He is currently working with director Richard Loncraine to explore all avenues in a bid to orchestrate the re-release of 1978 Mia Farrow chiller Full Circle