50 Greatest FrightFest Movies Of All Time

The Woman (2011)

The Movie : One of Total Film ’s favourites at last year’s FrightFest, The Woman features a fantastic performance from Pollyanna McIntosh as the feral female of the title, who’s taken in by a family who aren’t what they seem.

Why It's Great: Punishing, brutal and often hard to stomach, The Woman was easily one of the best horror films of 2011.

Let The Right One In (2008)

The Movie : Swedish chiller based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's vampire tale – the haunting story of a young boy who befriends a vampire.

Why It's Great: This was the little film that could. From here, LTROI became one of the most talked about horrors of the year, and boosted the popularity of Scando crime thrillers. Not bad going, really.

An American Werewolf In London (1980)

The Movie : Horror icon John Landis brought a remastered copy of An American Werewolf In London to FrightFest 2009, providing a high benchmark for new films showing there.

Why It's Great: It’s An American Werewolf In London . Remastered. Which meant better sound, better picture… and all on a giant cinema canvas. Horror heaven.

Battle Royale (2000)

The Movie : Way before The Hunger Games did it (yes, we went there), Battle Royale gave us flying body parts and screaming kids as school-goers tore each other apart in this modern Japanese classic.

Why It's Great: Did we mention the flying body parts and screaming kids? Massively controversial and genuinely thrilling, this is what films are all about.

The Devils Backbone (2001)

The Movie : Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece, set during the final years of the Spanish Civil War, where a young orphan's haunted by a mournful phantom.

Why It's Great: Not only is it the brainchild of del Toro, it got backing from Pedro Almodóvar himself.

Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

The Movie : George A. Romero’s ravenous undead classic. It made an appearance at FF2005 alongside the other five films in the franchise, with the director debuting his latest entry, Land Of The Dead.

Why It's Great: This is how the films should be seen – in a slathering marathon on the big screen. The addition of Land Of The Dead was just the icing on the cake.

The Innkeepers (2011)

The Movie : We awarded director Ti West our Best Director trophy at last year’s FrightFest, and when he came with The Innkeepers it’s not hard to see why.

Why It's Great: So great that we gave it five stars in our official review, The Innkeepers trades in jump scares and cheese for a taut, nuanced ghost movie that explodes to thrilling effect in its final act.

John Carpenter Tribute

The Movie s: Five short films, all from British horror directors, paying tribute to John Carpenter’s tremendous back catalogue.

Why It's Great: With Ben Wheatley tackling Assault On Precinct 13 , Marc Price reviving They Live , James Moran spooking with Halloween , Jake West Escaping From New York and Seth Hogen braving The Thing , this was a stellar showcase and a timely tribute to the master of horror.

Kill List (2011)

The Movie: Ben Wheatley’s shattering sophomore feature is a massive departure from his debut Down Terrace , and a terrifying oddity that went down a storm at FF2011.

Why It's Great: There’s a reason we sponsored this as Total Film ’s pick of the Fest – dizzyingly violent and mysterious, Kill List is destined for cult classicdom.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The Movie : Tobe Hooper was Total Film ’s guest of honour at FrightFest 2010, and the director chatted about Texas Chain Saw Massacre before it screened at the Fest for the very first time.

Why It's Great: Two thousand TCM- lovers attended the screening of the film, proving it’s still as effective (and adored) today as it was back then.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.  

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