Expect FrightFest reviews popping up here on HORRORSCRIBER as we catch premieres and special screenings from FrightFest’s strongest ever line-up. 84 films across the five days across five screens. Legs, eyes, fingers and pens will be worn out, but it’s worth it! Here are nine films we’re most looking forward to during the mighty horror fest.

Colony

Thursday | Main Screen

First there was some kind of trip on a Train to Busan? Then a step back to adult animation with Seoul Station, then a trip around the Peninsula. Now there’s a new zombie virus unleashed by horror legend Yeon Sang-ho. It’s a desperate race against contamination in this year’s South Korean tentpole. Expect tech anxieties to counterbalance the undead horror.

The PitchFork Retreat

Friday | Main Screen

That’s a title, but more than that, that’s a last stand for one of horror’s greats. Tony Todd’s (Candyman! Final Destination!) final role comes in this great, old horror staple: the anthology movie. It’s a safe bet that genre writers Matt, Mandy and Nikolai chose unwisely when they checked into a competition at something called the Jigsaw retreat. The producers behind The Terrifier movies are at it again, and you best have your glasses ready to raise for Tony.

 Ithaqua

Saturday | Main Screen

Hammer roars back once again with… A period Canadian piece? Lovecraftian woes fall on a remote fur trading outpost in the 19th-century tundra, promising an elevated hybrid horror. Casey Walker (the VOid) takes the reins for this punchy step in the footsteps of, well, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning. But there’s something about this desolate, Elder God-straddled horror that I think is going to be pretty special. 

The Glorious Dead

Thursday | Main Screen

You can’t keep a good Adams Family down. The festival favourites always deliver and anticipation is high for the international premiere of another snow-smattered horror (yes, there’s a distinctly chilly theme this year). The Glorious Dead promises an unsettling alternative reality of taps dripping blood and creatures stalking the woods. It sounds like Hell itself, and we’re going to be there for it. 

The Peril at Pincer Point

Sunday | Discovery 2

This stylish film ticks meta boxes as it arrives at FrightFest for its English premiere. Desperate to impress his tyrannical director, a sound designer heads to a remote island to capture the sounds a film’s finale desperately needs. Quirky British madness and ancient fables await him. We’re expecting The Peril at Pincer Point to deliver the laughs and the haunting.

Crazy Lips / Gore From Outer Space

Friday to Sunday | Discovery 4

Hirohisa Sasaki’s loose absurdist horrors receive their UK premiere. Mad at the height of J-Horror, don’t expect The Grudge or Ring. Instead, slapstick, a bit of kung fu, alien abduction, musical numbers and a lot of humour around toilets and sexual assault. Test those funny bones by watching both!

Dracula: The Night Around Us

Sunday | Discovery 1

Just what we all need: another Dracula. Well, actually, if VFX-specialist Chris Schwab’s lean reinterpretation lives up to its promise, that’s exactly what audiences on Sunday night will be needing. Concentrating on a specific splinter of the story and making some vital changes as he relocates the tale to modern Los Angeles, Schwab’s take could be the perfect antidote to Eggers and Besson excess. 

You are the Film

Monday | Main Screen

FrightFest isn’t just about horror–always some mind-melting, reality- and time-twisting films there is too. This year, You are the Film takes the crown, ready to spin audiences around on Monday afternoon. Just hope Makoto Ueda doesn’t feel too familiar as two strangers start observing each other on a cinema screen. 

Wrath of the Gods

Friday | Discovery 1

The Wicker Man series often looms from nowhere, but can’t escape its bittersweet legacy. This, the last of a loose trilogy, was completed by director Justin Hardy from notes left by his late father, only for him to pass himself just a month before this world premiere. Wicker-fans will likely be pleased to know this instalment is set to can the mis-hit comedy of The Wicker Tree in favour of something far more ominous. Can lightning hit the Wicker Man twice?

Tubi FrightFest 2026 runs from Thursday 27th to Monday 31st August in London’s Leicester Square.