Fright Fest Special with Paul McEvoy - One of the UK's biggest and brightest thriller, fantasy and horror film festivals

#frightfest #horrorfandom #filmpodcast 

Hi, Jim here and you’re listening to the honest filmmaker podcast, career advice from people in the business.

Today I’m talking to Fright Fest director Paul McEvoy.

Fright Fest is one of the biggest horror film festivals out there and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It has debuted films from the likes of Christopher Nolan, Ti West and Guillermo del Toro.

I spoke to Paul about the origins of the film festival, he gave me his tips for filmmakers entering Fright Fest, we  talked about navigating censorship and audience sensitivities. He also gave me his tips for audience members on how to get the most out of your Fright Fest experience. 

Enjoy!

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Transcript

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[Music] hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I'm speaking to Paul maoy from the horror film festival frightfest frightfest is one of the biggest horror festivals out there and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year it's debuted films from the likes of Christopher Nolan Ty West and gulo Del Toro I spoke to Paul about the origins of the film festival he gave me his tips for filmmakers entering frightfest we also talked about navigating censorship and audience sensitivities and he also gave me some tips for audience members to get the most out of frightfest enjoy so first off can you tell me a bit about the origins of frightfest and what inspired its creation um okay uh briefly because obviously I could probably wax on for about an hour yeah um so I used to co-own a shop called the cinema store um which was in Coven Garden we'd sell like books and posters and all that kind of stuff and I had a finally I was on a holiday with my then girlfriend um and I suddenly had a had a flash this like 206 years ago um nobody in the UK was doing a a festival for genre so I kind of got we wrote all the notes I want to make an amazing Festival brilliant guests brilliant films make it unlike other festivals where there's like the barriers where you're not allowed access to meet people and all that kind of stuff and purely I'm a I'm a big horror genre lover so I was just I selfishly I created a festival that I would want to attend this would be my the ultimate you know I'd be seeing all the movies getting stuff signed if that's your thing and getting freebies and all that kind of malaky so that's it in in very short terms that is the the origin that's how it started so and how many years has it been running this one will be our 25th anniversary year 25th uh and this year we started off at the Prince Charles uh back in the year 2000 um and this year we we kind of moved around the square so we did a few years at the Prince Charles and then we kind of outgrew that because it was just not enough seat and the tickets were selling within minutes so we then moved to I think it was the odian West end but then that closed down as they were make into Flats then we moved to the Empire what was the Empire leester Square so it's like the 1300 CA and then I think that was then closing or being refurbished so um we then had to move to The View Cinema Leicester Square so we've been all around the square um and then one year the view wasn't available either so we went to um uh view uh Shepherd's Bush and then so we did that for one year which worked great and then we came back to the refurbished cine World IMAX leester square and we ran screens there and at the prince ch Charles yeah and then this year it's just been announced um we're actually moving for our 25th anniversary to both the odion Leicester Square we're in the huge odion the one yeah all the screens on that and the odian Lux Leicester Square which is the other enormous cinema right next to it which is so we're running all the screens on that so 25th anniversary we're running both pretty much taking over half of Leicester Square so gr H artwork's going to be looming down on everybody um this is going to be a a tough one I guess but looking at that first time you did it to maybe last year's Festival how much has it changed over the years I'm assuming it's got bigger more films more people um it has um obviously as with everybody and everything we have to evolve but we've always kept at heart that it's that we're doing this for the fans you know we never take the fans for granted ever um okay you casing we have to have like a a red carpet thing where you can't you know but even even then we still try uh and instill that Community feeling so unless it's somebody that's literally got to come in introduce their film and then go because they've got got other commitments we encourage everybody from Robert England Toby Hooper John Landis to George Romero to guo to alonur to Eli Roth to get into the mix along with the firsttime filmmakers for example we did like Ben weatley in the cast and crew of kill list and Ben watched everybody's films over that entire weekend because he's a genre lover so you and John Lander is the same he was watching as many films as he possibly could um and then obviously going back you know we had Christopher Nolan with insomnia at the Prince Charles so again great guest great guy still kind of every time I see him with like hey f um you know we we change we have to we have to be involved but we're still keeping the core love of cinema at heart yeah so although it might sometimes feel oh corporate corporate it really isn't we have Aon aity whatever that word is yeah there's nobody telling us right you've got to show this that and the other yeah of course we do some studio pictures some big ticket Studio pictures because that's part of genre that's part of the mix and of course a lot of filmmakers that have gone on to do incredible works we supported their early careers so from like GMO we did like Devil's um Devil's Backbone and Nolan and and and some have stayed within genre and some haven't like Lee Cronin we had I I didn't know Lee from Lee Cronin director of Evil Dead rise he we had both of his short films which was submitted when I was selecting all the short films yeah along with the features no not anymore we've got I've got Helen and her amazing team selecting all the shorts because I can't cope with even just the features um but no look so we kind of discovered him and then he's gone to make it with de rise in fact I was emailing him just the other day about another thing similarly with Ty West Ty West the roost his first feature came through on come VHS or a DVD right and I I loved it so we might not have even seen the roost but we showed it back in like 200 whatever 2001 whatever it was um quite a long time ago now and I and instead of emailing this was almost in the days before emails yeah so I called Ty up and he's like hello it's Paul from Fest in the UK thank you so much for sending the roost I love that right and he's like well I'm I'm working at um Urban Outfitters he was on the he was on the floor of Urban Outfitters and and he said oh that's fantastic news fantastic news he said um do you think I should get a passport I like yeah get get a passport please and bring over promo stuff and he handmade a load of bats that he brought over gave to everybody at the screening at the front screening and then for House of the devil he did he came and did something else for that for the inke keepers he brought some so and then of course he's gone to make Pearl and x and um Maxine which is coming out very soon in fact again without any name dropping I was emailing him last week about that so it's it's not about just showing the big names it's about the excitement of discovering new Talent um you know Isa Lopez with tigers are not afraid we were one of the few festivals that reached out and wanted it she she every Festival almost not just genre festiv but a lot of festivals and I think um she was rejected by all of them it was only fantastic Fest and us that that support and again I don't know if you've seen Che Masterpiece back so good we premiered it in Glasgow on the year when it was Bleak snow so she made it all the way in from abroad through like even half the people trying to get there from the UK couldn't bloody well get there yeah so me and is we did the Tigers are not afraid in in Glasgow then I invited her back to we show it in August um for the London gig and she again you know a dry dry eye in the house etc etc and then of course now's doing a True Detective series four you know so it's all about discovering people and some some short filmmakers and some filmmakers go on to make other incredible work some don't you know through life reasons and and we all know funding is a whole different uh topic yeah yeah there you go yeah okay so with that in mind um say I'm entering a film into the festival um what what criteria are you looking for that's a tough question is it um right um okay are we talking shorts or features uh let's start with shorts so short films what what criteria you looking for you my advice through doing 20 odd years of selecting all the shorts and we do get sent hundreds and hundreds of them um they come in now via film freeway for the first I think 18 or 19 years of the festival we didn't charge anybody anything to submit anything but then we were getting so much stuff we we now I think we're the most inexpensive Festival to submit to we we've tried to keep our prices relow because we understand that struggling filmmakers you know you're struggling to make the film let alone submit it for 150 200 quid so I can't remember the exact price is but it's very very low MH my my advice and obviously I'm not selecting the shorts now yeah because I have Helen and her team um keep it short um I think the optimum length for a short film is between seven and 12 minutes yeah okay I think do work or they can work if they're shorter than that but if you start putting stuff that if you if you've done a short that's more than 12 minutes it's very difficult to program because um if you if you're doing a showcase like which we do a short film showcase right maybe you've got 10 spots within each each showcase so like a 90 minute 100 minute total program um even if your 15 minutter is wonderful it might be taking the place of two other ones a seven and an eight right and then by the same token is a kind of don't bore us get to the chorus scenario yeah if do screen um a short before a feature which we have done occasionally a lot of people in the audience are they ready to watch the feature they don't want a 25 minute or 22 minute short before feature so that's that would be my advice is to try and keep it short um get other pairs of eyes and ears over it so if if I made a short I had time to make a short I would have my friends you know or or even acquaintances have a look at this what do you like about it what's wrong with it what would you edit because then they're not going to care about me being in a field somewhere bissy cold or I need to keep that bit in or oh this this performance is so good no let let people see it that will then give you genuine honest critical feedback and that also applies to Features yeah because so many features come through and okay we've shown lots of long films but your heart sinks when it's running time 2 hours 12 minutes and your heart sings when it's 8 or 92 lovely you know perfect yeah okay and I would yeah I'd agree completely with all of that because I think whenever I make a film I even show it to people who I know are going to be abrasive with it and tear it to shreds because I've rather know now than when I send it out to sales and distribution or to festivals i' rather honest is great because as as a Creator and as creators out there you if you take the the good criticism as in the positive reviews that's great but you're gonna have to take bad criticism yeah and you can't take that it's like you know you're in the wrong game like pop music and art you know like I love radio I Love The Cure and some don't that's completely fine because not everybody loves the same art or the same films and I've said this before but it's true that there's always going to be divisive pictures and I would almost rather a film uh or a piece of art be a divisor thing I.E you're not going to please everybody like than being Bland that's the worst thing is something that you you know machine built like in the Marvel stuff or St to try and please everybody and in the end you don't please anybody because it's it's a bland big Mac yeah you know what I mean it's aable for the mass Market yeah yeah well I won't agree with you on Star Wars but because I absolutely Star Wars I I I don't that was one of my first obsessions but all all the little things all the little toys pal yeah changed a lot it has changed a lot over years worth of Fortune and then then I flew from can to the opening day of um episode one oh really wowers um and to be honest with you I wasn't it's all right anyway look look I'm just using Star Wars I know I know yeah no I get it I get it so so talking about uh pushing the envelope and doing those things that um you know people really love obviously um these days you can have controversial films with sort of controversial themes and content and how do you navigate that and do you care about audience sensitivities or are you like it's a horror film deal with it what what's your kind of stance on that no we're we're very very careful in fact um every year um we get sent stuff through that myself and Alan Jones who is my you know co- programmer um on the festival we get send a lot of stuff that we find um dist distasteful really yeah no but either it doesn't work for us on a personal level or we just know that the content is too problematic so I'm I'll just give an example like we screened um uh the Remake Alex Aya's remake of um um of maniac yeah you know the one Elijah would yeah yeah and there was some push back from people that would shown something that was too extreme and we totally get that but there was and a lot of people love it and now it's kind of regard as not a classic but people respect it they they do like it but there was at that time of that screening there was there was some Kickback um we also did program a Serbian film which is a very controversial picture especially in it unart form but it wasn't in our eyes and again all artists in the eye the beholder it wasn't exploitation for exploitation sake having spoken at length with the director and the producer of that picture it was it was a metaphor for you know the the plight of the country etc etc but whereas if then you've got some stuff which is just pure trash pure exploitation that we wouldn't touch with a barge pole I mean we did screen the remake of I Spit on Your Grave which again wasn't wonderful I mean but it was it we got yeah we didn't get away with it it wasn't really something that we loved yeah and there's cly much worse stuff that we have absolutely you know turned down yeah um so yeah but then horror has always been and it always should be have some controversial stuff in it so for example if we were running frightfest back in the early 70s we'd be offered stuff like The Last House on the Left which has got original one which has got some massively problematic stuff in it even Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the original Maniac uh so I think it's good to push the boundaries but I think the boundaries over the years have changed um but so for example we we we were premiered both of the terrifier pictures terrifier one terrifier two we did the world premier of the second one um was it last year yeah was the years the years Flow by yeah was it last can't remember anyway um but it's really long really really really long like two and a half hours long I remember in the in my introduction I said look this is the the war in peace of um Slasher clown movies and to be honest I the film is Extreme in its Gore and it's done extremely well worldwide box office it's been a sensation done a fortune and art is now like a for the kids a lot of teenagers love it don't they're almost like they're video nasty you know what I mean don't know about I'm old than you remember like the video Nast era um so when we're when me and Al are programming for frightfest it's not Paul Fest it's not Allen Fest it's frightfest so we are reflection of what is out there and terrifier is in the current Zeitgeist so whereas I pref I I prefer David Lynch and that kind you know the more cerebral kind of stuff and I do throw in a lot of that you know lynum slow Burnie kind of stuff and all that malaky but but then you I couldn't just show you know we're showing 7 films or something this year again they can't all be of the same kind of thing it's got It's like a mixtape of like you have a slow burner then you have like AIT of a popper and an action comedy one and a more hard no so it's a mix a mix of stuff yeah and do you notice uh I mean do you notice any Trends coming up is there like a like for example last year was there a ton of films in a certain type that's a brilliant question Jim um yes and no okay because because when we're selecting the films um it literally takes us a year to put the program together okay so we're already working on fact working on stuff for next year not let alone this year as in next August um we generally we don't see patterns until the program is complete m and then there's two um uh a couple of very respected critics um uh virin salvie Kim Newman yeah and Anon Patel and they do like a a frightfest round up okay of everything that we've shown they do both written word thing the BFI and they do a podcast BFI podcast something radio and it's interesting because they watching all of the frightfest Selections in the space of like three or four weeks so some stuff they come to see at the festival someu some stuff they'll see to review and Advance they pick out the strands of oh this year is but when we're selecting them so for example I've got four or five movies to watch today yeah and maybe one of those I'll love but it might chime with a film that Allan's already selected or I selected six months ago so and we are purely a reflection of the times and what's being made and again of course there was obviously the covid years I thought it was going to be a lot more lockdown movies of course there were but that wasn't immediately um uh uh wasn't immediately um noticeable for us because a lot of stuff was made pre pandemic and then it was in post production post pandemic so does that make sense yeah yeah that makes perfect sense and it brings me on to something else whenever I speak to filmmakers who've had a film at frightfest one of the things that they love about it is the amount of exposure they get because a lot of festivals you can go and you don't really have that much interaction with press but they all say loads of interviews loads of press obviously that's that must be important to you guys how do you keep that momentum up and keep the Press coming and keeping them interested um again that's an interesting one um the Press Greg day who is another Festival co-director he he looks after all the pr so he does and he will pretty much with very few Exceptions there there's no like hierarchy of oh if you've got that film there then obviously you know there's certain films we have to do as like Temple so they're going to get more press but we always try and generate as much press as possible yeah each individual film so um what what tends to happen is this is is what I've been emailing last couple of weeks when I've been saying your film is selected to frightfest please don't tell anybody please give it strictly to yourself because then when we make our uh um um our announcement our announcement of the films it gives more impact so we say look please hold it back and then when we do the official press release we're listing all the movies like the whole lot x man at World premier x amount of UK prems whatever it's going to give everybody the fair crack of the whip on the playing field you know everybody's get the publicity um so it doesn't matter whether it's a studio picture or there's a bunch this year a lot of first time both UK and international filmmakers where we've loved their works I mean we've really loved so it's beautiful to be able to launch some you know their careers into the into the world kind of thing yeah and and we also do you know that we we try and encourage as many of the filmmakers to hang with each other as possible so as in like see I hate the networking but it's it's great for networking both from an acting and directing perspective you know because we have about seven or 800 guests coming in from around the world you know directors producers writers special effects people makeup effect actors actress blah blah blah and and you get to mingle with people who love the thing you love as well so even if you're not networking for a business reason you're just nerding out about horror movies that you love um so then my final question on this would be what if I'm coming to the to frightfest as an audience member how do I get the most out of it okay um so this year luckily we've got um more slightly more not enough I don't think we've got slight more weekend passes available because last year they sold out in in record time so luckily we do have a few more but I was I went to actually visited both the cinemas yesterday again and although they're big I don't know if it's going to be quite big um look if you can get a weekend pass um that is your best value all right um that basically gives you a guaranteed seat in the main Auditorium but then it gives you first tips on the selection of your Discovery tickets so you know that'll give you free access to such and such of films um and then of course we do the day pass so if people uh can't make it for every one of the five days then they'll just come on the Saturday or the Sunday or the Monday because it's Bank Monday um and then you can pick and choose your day you know you can make your own mixtape um and then of course you get a lot of people just coming along for one film um I would say it's such a fantastic atmosphere both both for the fans and for the filmmakers whether they've got a film in the festival or not it doesn't really matter it's just important to be there to be you know talk as you said talking to producers and financiers if if that's your bag or if you're there purely as a fan make friends with the people in the seat next to you you never know who you're going to be sat next to that's similar to me and I go to a lot of festivals worldwide I've met a lot of people just by sitting next to them just say oh hey hey do enjoying the film blah blah and just yeah just I know not everybody can be or is able to be like um talkative and I totally get it if people don't want to talk that that's completely fine of course um you know mostly 99.9% of rightest audiences are very friendly it's the friendliest Bunch um and obviously we can't not everyone that comes to every every screening is a fredfest fan a lot of people just Bowl up and watch a movie but it's such a brilliant atmosphere that you you don't get if we if me and E Jim were going to see a film in your local view on a Friday night who knows what that audience can be like there might be phones there might be shouting there might be people trying to get in from another screen this doesn't happen Fest you know everybody's looking after each other everybody knows that they're sharing the love of genre yeah that's that's really special that's very rare around the world I mean there are a bunch of festivals that I've been to that where it is that same kind of level of passion Motel X Moto G in what youal uh fantastic Fest over in Austin Beyond Fest in La um Tiff you know Peter's midnight Madness at Tiff amazing amazing atmospheres but then you go to somewhere and actually I'm not going to name any names it's not no but but look something like the and I love going to can I do love it but you see genre pictures in can and it's not that same kind of respectful audience and I love no tell me about I I love no I love can as well and but the Mad thing about that is I've been in screenings where for example it's a George Romero thing I can't remember the one he did what uh the recent one he did and Land of the Dead I think it was Premier at can or something like that and obviously the audience are sort of quite a wide range of people aren't they so they're not horror fans necessarily they're so they react very differently to that kind of well I saw um um wenty uh they crg's crash in oh really all right cool yeah yeah which was like the world premier amazing I love love the mov yeah but so all the genre or many other genre festivals weren't able to get tickets there was no tickets available and I was literally surrounded by people who obviously had no idea what they were going to watch or that it was a Bo picture they just got the ticket and turned up and they in their finery and many of them walked out like five or 10 minutes they were like and I felt sorry for the people outside that couldn't get a ticket that were desperate to see the new look K is a different Beast it's its own brilliant crazy insane Beast it's not it's not a genre Festival is it not absolutely not it's like like seeing stuff in London you know London fil Festival great yeah it's not a genre Festival so they will often program stuff in not such good slots or whatever and then you are going to get a lot of regular audience in there as well do you know what I mean so yeah and so that's kind of what I love about can as well is if they don't like it they'll Boo or they'll leave and if they love it they'll clap for 20 minutes at naum but that's fine you know that's there's passion there it's different different sort of Festival we we we we premiered um um Donnie Darko years yeah yeah and we went me and all went see um Southland tals um it was like the very early morning screening in the enormous pet and of course it was the to be seen again extraordinarily long long cut it was just like I you know it's got some great stuff in it in in retrospect but at the time we were like oh my god what happened when is this gonna end you know that's that's can which I Love Thinking of all your experience watching all these horror movies what is the most disturbing horror movie or seen in a horror movie you've ever seen right so despite doing this thing for 25 years and being a horror fan my entire life I do still genuinely get scared about on certain films and that fear foron you know when the hairs on the back of your neck go up that still happens um not a lot not as much as it should be but uh enough so one of one of my favorite films of the year which we just well pre we just sorry UK premiered in fredfest in Glasgow is a new movie that's coming out in April in the UK all you need is death by Irish director pulan who looks very much like alen Mo he's in that Alan Mo kind of style it's film about a young couple searching for a cursed GAC song which kind of infects like a virus when I watched it it was like literally hairs it was just terrifying bit like um Z's possession mixed with kill list or whatever um and inside aler you know bastillo Mor's picture spoilers but when betri is coming out from the dark um Marts which again we premiered that was shocking me and we sat in a screening room on our own it was massive room and nobody was nobody's in there watching me and him like four or five other people and we're like [ __ ] know this is we have to show we have to show this um so yeah that and that's obviously a terrifying um picture um there's loads yeah so yeah horror and look my favorite I'm not going to say never if you're going to ask me my fa no go for it no tell me favor favor my favorite horror pictures I've gone on record with this before obviously it's when people say what's your favorite horror and don't look now is my absolute all time favorite because I still am terrified of the ending because I watched it when I was like 13 or 14 with my parents and that ending just kept repeating in my mind I couldn't get it out of my mind and then just rewatched it on 4K and it's just a masterpiece um the Innocence the horn ing um brilliant scary films Texas Chainsaw Massacre agento Inferno um alien the first alien picture um I'm sure I've forgotten some but look that's just a and and David Lynch my favorite filmmaker so M Holland Drive or Twin Peaks firew walk with me um um a video drum see theend the thing remake George's bless and I love George so one of my closest friends um pretty much all of georgees but you know dwn dead especially Night of the Living Dead just just wonderful pieces of work I hope you enjoyed this week's episode if you want more advice from industry professionals who are out there at the moment working or you just want to listen to some cool stories from film sets from around the world then please do subscribe[Music]