Loads of docs, true crime and a passport to hell – Day 4 of FrightFest (Discovery Screens)

More screens and more choice

James Whittington
August 27, 2023

Another packed day over on the Discovery Screens so we’ll start with Screen 1 where you’ll begin with the celebration of a classic, [REC] Terror Without Pause. This stunning doc comes fifteen years after the release of the seminal Spanish horror classic [REC], the main protagonists, directors, stars, producers, fans and critics analyze the keys to the film's global success. Another superb documentary is Enter The Clones Of Bruce which charts the rise of Bruceploitation as every Asian film industry got Kung Fu Fighting after the tragic death of Bruce Lee with their own pretenders to the Lee throne starring in cash-in titles using variations of the words Enter, Dragon, Fist, Fury and Boss.

Over on Screen 2 and Devanny Pinn’s emotional telling of a brutal true crime, The Black Mass is showing. Based on events in Florida during the winter of 1978, it unfolds over a 24-hour period and centres on a serial killer in the lead-up to his ultimate, deranged killing spree. Presenting a harrowing and unsettling portrayal of the twisted mind of a notorious murderer, more importantly Pinn explores the devastating consequences of his violent actions on the victims and survivors alike. This is then followed by an authentic Australian trans horror film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Alice Maio Mackay, T-Blockers. When ancient parasites that thrive on hatred rise from beneath a small town, taking the most fearful and susceptible as hosts, a young trans filmmaker struggling to transition in these increasingly hostile times for LGBTQ+ people, finds herself the only one who can sense the possessed, and rally the resistance before the horror escapes and spreads.

The Ghost Station, showing on Screen 3 is a chilling tale from South Korea. A worker at Oksu Station witnesses a shocking incident and recruits his friend to help uncover the truth behind the station's mysterious happenings first reported on by a journalist trying to make sense of a murder case. Could the location of the station be the key to the numerous strange events occurring in a fright night hybrid of Korean and Japanese eerie atmospherics. Eight Eyes which follows is another international tale but totally different. A mysterious local crashes a couple's vacation through the former Yugoslavia, pulling them deeper into his web of psychic rituals in this unique shocker which mixes 1970s Euro cinema, exploitation and American regional horrors of the 1970s.