Out of the many films shown at the festival, Adam Green’s Hatchet trilogy, The Soska Twins American Mary and Alex Chandon’s Inbred, all stood out in their own particular ways, in relation to FrightFest helping their success. Green always mentions the festival in a positive way, in interviews (Hall 2007) across the globe[i], not just limited to the UK. What stands out most in Green’s interviews, is the way he talks about the fans, and how much they actually contribute to his success.
‘As much as FrightFest may have not been the actual world premiere of HATCHET, it has always been where I consider HATCHET and "Victor Crowley" to have truly been born. The screening at FrightFest was comparable to a rock concert with fans screaming, cheering, applauding, and laughing so loudly that often times they missed the next few lines or jokes because they couldn't hear them. From that point forward every genre festival on the planet came calling asking for permission to program the film. I've joking called it "the screening heard around the world" since after that night in August 2006 HATCHET became a juggernaut worldwide on the festival circuit’. (Green 2013)
There are two reasons why the film had this kind of reaction at the festival, first being that it’s okay to scream and shout during a film’s screening (as long as it’s an actual reaction, and not in a negative way), it’s all part of the FrightFest experience (Dickinson. 2013). And secondly, the film has the appeal to a wide range of horror fans. There’s a clear division between fans of modern horror films, and classic b-movie type horror films (A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss. 2010), and Hatchet is most definitely the best of both worlds (Young, R. 2013). The festival co-directors cleverly programmed Hatchet (and its two sequels) at times where it would get this kind of reaction. As the festival shows all types of genre films, including serious ones that require a lot of thought about, the co-directors have to make sure that all of the films are shown at times that would capture the audience correctly. Hatchet premiered in the penultimate slot on the Friday evening in 2006, which is well known as the one that has the best audience attendance, as after a long day of watching films, they want something that’s not only good, but light-hearted and doesn’t take much effort to entertain them. Normally the last slot of the day is the one that would have most suited those needs, but considering that it wouldn’t start until almost midnight, and the festival started at 9am on the same day, most fans would have retired back to their hotel or pub for the night. Hatchet II opened the festival in 2010, which is a big deal at any festival, as it’s the one that starts everything off and creates a buzz, whereas Hatchet III was shown after two more serious horror films, and before a sombre thriller, so it was the perfect escape for some humour and over the top gore.
Even renowned film critic and FrightFest co-director Alan Jones agrees that it’s mainly down to the fans that attend the festival, who help the films gain success. “HATCHET hadn't been picked up in the UK until we showed it and The Works saw the audience reaction. That's why Adam Green added our names on the final credits”
The four co-directors (Alan Jones, Paul McEvoy, Ian Rattray and Greg Day) of the festival are definitely one of the main reasons for the success of the films shown. To make sure that they programme the films into the right slots, they not only start relationships with the filmmakers, but watch rough cuts of their films, give advice and motivate them along the way until their films are shown at the festival. They definitely know what the audience wants to see, and therefore, the audience has a lot of trust in them. As well as the audience, distributors have great trust in them too. Films such as The Desert, Odd Thomas and The Banshee Chapter were all picked up halfway through the screenings thanks to the audience’s reaction. This proves that the audience plays a big part in getting the films shown at the festival, a distribution deal.
Alan, Paul, Ian and Greg are so involved and passionate about the films that they show; they even created their own DVD label in 2005 – “Frightfest Presents”. They decided that so many great films were being ignored by the mainstream distributors; they would go ahead and distribute them themselves.
As well as them directly helping out with the success of Hatchet, there is clear evidence of them helping out with Alex Chandon’s Inbred. Following his tour around the best genre festivals around the globe, Chandon (2012) published two blog posts onto the FrightFest website, titled “HOW FRIGHTFEST HELPED INBRED GO GLOBAL, AND HOW A FRIGHTFEST GOODIE BAG TRAVELLED THE WORLD”. The blog posts explain how Chandon screened the co-directors a very rough cut of his latest film - Inbred, and how they pushed him to finish the film in time for a world premiere at FrightFest. ‘The timing of FrightFest was perfect. Being such a prestigious festival it generated a lot of press and great word of mouth for INBRED and it was the catalyst that kick started a great adventure on the festival circuit for the film.’ (Chandon 2012)
Word of mouth is a very powerful tool in the world of film promotion, especially for an independent genre film. Reason being, films like these don’t get massive million pound marketing budgets, and word of mouth is not only free, but very personal. So the likelihood that friends/family will go see said film based on an opinion of someone that they actually know, rather than nameless quotes on posters and in other advertisements, is very high indeed (Kerrigan, F. 2010). Also, because it’s almost exclusively genre fans that will be seeing the films shown at FrightFest, they would be more inclined to like it, whereas if the film is shown to an audience of all kinds of fans, the probability of someone not liking it, and sharing bad thoughts about the film would be much higher. This is slightly biased on both levels but after all, it’s better for a filmmaker to have positive biased reviews, than negative ones. Coming back to the point about seeing the film at FrightFest, the fans would also be more likely to share their views, as the majority of the screenings are premieres, or previews. This means that the fans will be able to in a way, ‘show off’ about how they’re seeing films before the mass public, and how they’re literally rubbing shoulders with celebrities at said screenings. Most of the ‘showing off’ would be done via social networking sites, as they would want to get their views out quickly and as it happens, rather than waiting until after the festival ends. Furthermore, because it’s all happening on social networking sites, their views can be read and shared with hundreds, if not thousands of people, making the word of mouth go further.
The Soska Twins American Mary, and Christian James’ Stalled both gained a theatrical release after showing at FrightFest (albeit a limited run). Mike Hewitt from Universal Pictures saw how great the audience reaction was to American Mary, and how much the fans got along with the twins, so decided to try and get them more screenings in the UK. After a couple of months, the Soska twins and lead actress Katharine Isabelle were back in the UK, and embarked on an eight night tour in association with FrightFest Presents to some of the biggest cities around the country – including two nights in London. This would not have been possible if for the great reaction it received at FrightFest. Currently, the pair is working on a WWE studio film – See No Evil 2, which is a huge step up from their two previous independent releases. As for Stalled, they got to put on a special event at the very well-known Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. They screened the film, and had a very long Q&A afterwards with key cast members and a few of the crew, including the director.
As well as the Hollywood films and independent ones, there are also some very small, micro budgeted films from upcoming filmmakers. Quite a few of these smaller films are made my fans of FrightFest and have felt that the festival gave them enough confidence to let them make their own films. They get to network, interface with fans and other film industry folk, which builds up their confidence and well as their contacts book. We integrate everyone - from top to bottom - which is a key to ensuring that our events don't become elitist and 'awards-driven'’ (Day, G & Jones, A. 2013)
Fans such as Chelsey Burdon[ii] and Evrim Ersoy[iii] have done this. Burdon created a short film for FrightFest’s 666 Short Cuts to Hell competition. Her film didn’t win, but it aired on The Horror Channel and became part of their anthology that was released onto iTunes and BlinkBox. Shortly after this, she began pre-production on her next short film which stars the well-known Fiona Dourif. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for the inspiration and courage FrightFest gave her. As for Ersoy, he co-founded the production company Ne'er Do Well Films, and for the past two years, they have been making short films and idents for the festival. This means that the most respected and famous filmmakers in the industry will get to watch their work thanks to FrightFest. It is a proven fact that the festival helps launch filmmaker’s careers. Directors such as Neil Marshall, Jake West, Paul Hyett, Christopher Smith and Simon Rumley are all examples of this. Alan Jones and Greg Day both agreed that they helped launch their career though FrightFest (Day, G & Jones, A. 2013). By mixing well established filmmakers, with beginners, it allows them to feed off of each other, instead of just keeping the more reputable people to one side. And this works too, in 2006, Guillermo del Toro chose to hold the UK premiere of Pan's Labyrinth at FrightFest, over The London Film Festival, showing that it’s all about the audience it plays for, rather than the status of the festival. Also, when there was a special screening of An American Werewolf in London, John Landis originally was only going to attend that screening, but instead, he stayed the whole weekend. He didn’t shy away from fans, Landis was very sociable and was interested in the fans views on what they just watched. The FrightFest audience is like no other.
One of FrightFest’s best aspects that a lot of fans are thankful for, is that the fans and the filmmakers are all put on the same level. They sit together during film screenings, go to the same pubs at the end of a festival day, the press pit is in the cinema’s lobby so everyone can see and hear what’s going on, and they aren’t given over the top special treatment, because at the end of the day, they’re all horror fans, and they all have shared interests. Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell noted this in his documentary FANALYSIS (Fanalysis. 2002). Whilst at festivals and conventions, he used his icon status to interview the audience members about their fandom and find out the meaning of fan/celebrity relationships. He found that the more the celebrity takes an interest in the fan, the more the fan tries to look like a ‘super fan’ and obsesses over them. Even though this isn’t necessarily easy for the celebrity to do as they would have many thousands of fans and it’s literally impossible to get to know them all on a personal level, the ones they do spend time with pay off indefinitely. This is because the ‘super fans’ obsession powers them to make their celebrity seem like the best and most talented one. Bringing this point back to FrightFest, when a filmmaker approaches an audience member that may or may not already be a fan of them, this kick-starts a relationship between the two, and therefore, the audience member would be more inclined to watch said filmmakers work and possibly become a fan (Hills, M. 2010).
Since the majority of the audience at FrightFest are hardcore genre fans who are willing to spend over £500 to stay in London to attend the festival, the filmmakers know that they have great knowledge of the genre. Since the target audience for the films shown are these type of people, the filmmakers and fans can freely talk to one another and give honest opinions of what they watched. Alan Jones mentioned ‘Often what the FrightFest audience says is implemented in the final print’ (Day, G & Jones, A. 2013), and this is a big deal, for well-known filmmakers to make changes to their work, just because a couple of fans said they didn’t like something/wanted to see more of someone. This just shows how much trust is put into the organisers, and the attendees.
From my findings, it is clear that the fans that attend FrightFest are the biggest reason that some independent films get distribution deals in the UK – and sometimes worldwide. The filmmakers, co-directors and distribution companies all trust the audience’s opinions and act on them whenever they get the chance. In return, they are allowed to mix in with the talent and talk with them endlessly over the festival, and sometimes start new friendships with them.
As well as this, the way that the films are programmed into the festival is also a big reason why some get a better reaction than others. By separating them into specific sub-genre’s and mixing them into one another, the audience never gets bored of seeing the same sort of films one after another. So their attention span is always at its highest.
Reference List
A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss.(2010) The American Scream. London, BBC, 21st October 2010.
Chandon, A. (2012) How FrightFest Helped Inbred go Global and How a FrightFest Goodie Bag Travelled the World – Part One. [Online] Available from: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/Frightfestwebfeatures/frightfestbagtra.html [Accessed on 4th November 2013. GMT 19:15:00].
Day, G &; Jones, A (2013) Interviewed by: Richardson, L. (21st November 2013)
Dickinson, J. Interviewed by: Richardson, L. (7th November 2013)
Fanalysis. (2002) [Film] Directed by: Bruce Campbell. USA, Campbell Entertainment Inc.
Green, A. Interviewed by: Richardson, L. (7th November 2013)
Hall, D (2007) Hanging with the Hatchet Man, an interview with Adam Green. [Online] Available from: http://www.eatmybrains.com/showfeature.php?id=73 [Accessed on 7th November 2013. GMT 13:00:00].
Hills, M(2010). “Attending Horror Film Festivals and Conventions: Liveness, Subcultural Capital and ‘Flesh-and-Blood Genre Communities’.” Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema. Ed. Ian Conrich. London; New York: I.B. Tauris. pp. 87–101
Kerrigan, F. (2010) Film Marketing. Oxford, Elsevier Ltd. pp 115 – 177.
Young, R (2013) 'Hatchet III' concludes the series with a blood-spattered final note on DVD. [Online] Available from: http://www.examiner.com/article/hatchet-iii-concludes-the-series-with-a-blood-spattered-final-note-on-dvd [Accessed on 7th November 2013. GMT 13:45:00]
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