Having outgrown the bijou surroundings of the Prince Charles Cinema as well as the larger Odeon West End, Frightfest, London’s annual celebration of contemporary horror films this year moves to the more spacious surroundings of The Empire, Leicester Square. The main screen this features a line-up of premieres of both major domestic and international genre films, and for the first time this year there will be a second smaller screen entitled the ‘Discovery Screen’ will be used to show a variety of lesser-scale delights. The festival’s continued expansion is illustrative of not only an increasing appetite in the UK for cinematic thrills and spills but so too the rude health that the genre continues to be in internationally.

Among the highlights this year include world premieres of Christopher Smith’s Triangle, The Descent Part 2, Philip Ridley’s Heartless, Aussie thriller Coffin Rock, the highly-tipped Italian thriller Shadow and the bizarre-sounding Human Centipede, as well as first UK showings of Swedish Euro-sensation Millenium, Michael Dougherty’s already-classic Trick R Treat, and cult Norwegian Nazi Zombie flick Dead Snow. All in all, more than thirty different films from twelve different countries, and the extra promise of special guest appearances and introductions by cast and crew members.

Frightfest runs from this evening through to Monday 31st August. Festival passes have long since sold out, but tickets for single films will still be available for many films. See the official Frightfest website for details: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/

And be sure to follow my (hopefully) live coverage on Twitter (see sidebar link) or my post-festival roundup here early next week.