Film4 FrightFest has returned for more macabre mayhem. The 5 day residency at the Vue West End, Leicester Square marks its 16th year with its biggest line-up to date. From Thurs 27th August to Mon 31st August, the UK’s leading event for horror genre fans returns to present 76 films across five screens, plus a host of other special events.
There are eighteen countries representing 5 continents with a record-breaking 16 European premieres and 26 UK premieres. In addition, there is a further ‘Discovery’ strand at The Prince Charles Cinema, signalling a welcome return to FrightFest’s spiritual home.
The festival kicks off with David Keating’s Cherry Tree, there is the world premiere of Steve Oram’s hilarious and very disturbing AAAAAAAAH!.
• Continue reading at Entertainment Focus. Click below for full details on FrightFest 2015.
This month’s Total Film magazine includes a small photo of Toyah (yes, the now almost legendary shot of her with that frying pan) and article on Aaaaaaaah! on their “agenda” page feature on FrightFest 2015 – the film festival which began today in London.
FrightFest 2015 offers 75 horror movies in five days! Here are a few that are making Agenda’s spine tingle…
We know Steve Oram can do weird, wild and wonderful – with Alice Lowe, he wrote and starred in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers – but his directorial debut is a different kettle of fish altogether. Or make that barrel of monkeys, because the cast (Noel Fiedling, Toyah Willcox, Oram, Lowe…) communicate only with ape-noises in this bizarre talke of the battle to take over a community. Proof that human beings really are animals.
• View a larger version of the scan here. (Thanks to Lärwi, of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive, for the scan)
– Aaaaaaaah! premieres at FrightFest tomorrow evening, with Toyah, Steve Oram and the cast in attendance, and also participating in a Q&A session.
Icon Film Distribution (IFD) and FrightFest have announced the first films which will be released under the curated banner FrightFest Presents.
The seven titles selected will all have their UK theatrical premieres at the FrightFest five day festival in August at the Vue Leicester Square and represent some of the most exciting genre filmmakers working today.
The exclusive Icon and FrightFest partnership, first announced in April, will see titles released across the UK and Ireland via the distributor’sdigital partners (including iTunes, Virgin Movies, Sky, Google 
Amazon, Xbox , Blinkbox, Google, Wuaki, TalkTalk and Volta) giving film fans instant access to some of their favourite FrightFest titles.
FrightFest Presents launches officially on 19 October with a consumer campaign pushing out from the beginning of the month. Each release has the collective backing of IFD and FrightFest across all marketing, PR and social channels.
The seven titles to be released under FrightFest Presents are: AAAAAAAAH!, The Sand, Afterdeath, Landmine Goes Click, Emelie, The Lesson and Estranged.
• Continue reading at the Horror Channel.
Ten Unmissable Horrors From This Year’s Festival
FrightFest founder and co-director Alan Jones picks his top ten movies showing at this year’s festival. Tickets are on sale now here and the festival runs at Vue Leicester Square from 27 – 31 August
AAAAAAAAH!: If you liked actor Steve Oram in the quirky comedy thriller Sightseers, chances are you’ll adore his directorial debut, bound to become the cult film of this year and many more to come. Original to the point of WTF, imagine future humanity regressing to ape-like behaviour and put under a wildlife documentary microscope. Dialogue-free and featuring a game cast of Oram’s best mates – including Toyah Willcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Noah Fielding and Alice Lowe – this is terrifyingly funny, deeply offensive hilariously sick and unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. David Attenborough, eat your heart out!
• Continue reading at VUE.
Icon, FrightFest confirm first films for new genre label
The Sand and Aaaaaaaah! among first FrightFest Presents acquisitions.
UK distributor Icon Film Distribution and UK horror festival FrightFest have set the first films to be released under their FrightFest Presents banner.
The films will premiere at FrightFest, which gets underway in London on Thursday (Aug 27), before unspooling online between October and February 2016. Digital partners will include iTunes, Virgin Movies, Sky, Google Amazon, Xbox , Blinkbox, Google, Wuaki, TalkTalk and Volta.
Among the first batch of titles is Sightseers actor-writer Steve Oram’s surreal ‘monkey comedy’ Aaaaaaaah!, which Icon will release online this October.
Oram stars alongside Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh), Alice Lowe (Sightseers), Lucy Honnigman (The Ex-PM), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Lucy), Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) and Toyah Willcox (Quadrophenia) in the story of a tribe of warring ‘monkeys’.
• Continue reading at Screen Daily.
Sightseers co-writer and star Steve Oram delivers his demented directorial debut AAAAAAAAH! at FrightFest this Friday 28th August. The mad as a plate of badgers, monkey horror/ sci-fi hybrid previews in Discover Screen 1 with Steve, Toyah Willcox and other cast members due to attend.
With stateside screening dates booked, AAAAAAAAH! looks to destined for cult status and is sure to set Steve on a path to greater film-making opportunities. We chatted to Steve about AAAAAAAAH!’s inception and production along with the state of modern indie cinema and the secrets to mining comedy genius.
How do you pronounce the title is it AAAAAAAAH!?
However you want, I will leave that to the viewer. You can say it like AAAAAAAAH! or AAAAAAAAH! or AAAAAAAAH! Many variations. Multi.
How did you come up with such a warped idea? Did it evolve from something else or was it more of a light-bulb moment?
It’s something that has always fascinated me: how ape-like we all are and yet we rarely reference it in our every-day lives. I’ve always been a big fan of Planet of the Apes and did a short film with the same concept a couple of years ago. So I guess it grew from there.
Was it an easy casting process?
I always had a few names in mind: the two Julians (Rhind-Tutt and Barratt), Tom Meeten but Toyah Willcox I wasn’t expecting, I just sent her the script which she loved and was very enthusiastic about. I think if you tell an actor they have to do run around being a monkey, they’ll probably do it. They love that sort of shit.
The soundtrack to AAAAAAAAH! was pretty amazing. As a musician, did you have much involvement?
The main person who provided the soundtrack was Robert Fripp who donated a largely improvised album to us to use however we wanted. So that’s all just the genius of Robert really. I did most of the shit stuff that sounded like an ape made it.
• Continue reading at HeyUGuys.
Aaaaaaaah! has its world premiere at FrightFest 2015 on Friday 28th August at VUE West End, Leicester Sq (with a Director/Cast Q&A, including Toyah). It will also show at Picture House Central, London on Friday 4th September (this also has a Q&A which includes Toyah), End Of The Road Festival, Dorset on Saturday 5th September and Mayhem Film Festival, Nottingham which runs between 15th – 18th October. Director Steve Oram will also participate in Q&As at these two festival screenings. There is also the, just announced, LA premiere (see below)
FrightFest said: “Oh, and wait until you see Steve (SIGHTSEERS) Oram’s AAAAAAAAH!, which we guarantee will World Premiere to a sea of open-mouthed astonishment.”
Aaaaaaaah! will have its Los Angeles premiere at SpectreFest 2015 on 19th October.
SpectreVision Unveils Lineup For 3rd Annual Genre Film Festival
SpectreFest 2015, the third horror film festival from SpectreVision, will open with the horror comedy Cooties which stars SpectreVision’s Elijah Wood and close with Avishai Sivan’s Tikkun which won top honors this summer at the Jerusalem Film Festival. In fact, it won Best Actor, Best Israeli Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Attendees to SpectreFest will also see the Los Angeles premiere of Michael Madsen’s The Visit, which is shot documentary-style but tells the fantastical story of how the government deals with mankind’s first contact with aliens.
• Continue reading at Deadline. Visit SpectreFest at Twitter.
• Mearns Leader: Toyah to serve Stonehaven well: Eighties pop icon Toyah Willcox is the latest chart star to play in Stonehaven in a long list that includes Simple Minds and The Human League. The former punk princess – whose biggest hit was It’s A Mystery – is to take the stage at Stonehaven Town Hall on September, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 – Continue reading…
• Through The Magic Door: Festival Fun at Cropredy 2015: For example this year a few of the highlights were The Proclaimers, Toyah Willcox, and some of the new ones we enjoyed were Ahab and Katzenjammer – Continue reading…
• We Are Folk: Toyah setting the stage on fire at Cropredy – Continue reading…
• Newark Advertiser: Are you heading to Clumber Park for the Flashback Festival? – Continue reading…
• Daily Mail: Talkin’ about his generation: Phil Daniels relives his iconic role in Quadrophenia as he’s reunited with the Mod scooter he rode in the film… over 30 years later: The film also starred other emerging British talent, such as, Ray Winstone, Toyah Wilcox, Lesley Ash and Philip Davis – as well as Sting. But while the iconic film is ingrained in a whole generation’s collective mind, its star can barely recall filming it. ‘All I can remember about the film is working really hard. We shot it all in six weeks and we did the end first,’ Phil confessed – Continue reading…
• Paul Nicholson @ Twitter: Toyah and the boys at Eastbourne Bandstand last week – Continue reading…
• Fused: Cropredy Festival > Review: An interesting overview of last week’s festival, with some equally interesting photos, and even a few lines on Toyah: “Toyah Willcox. The latter named must surely keep an aging portrait in her attic and delivered an energetic punk-pop set with spasmodically operatic vocals which she reckoned have “5 years left” – Continue reading…
Jubilee will play at the BFI London On Film 2015 season next month. “London’s stories brought to life through a century of extraordinary filmmaking.”
Jubilee (UK, 1978) + Punk Can Take It (UK, 1979)
Queen Elizabeth I and her occult aide Dr John Dee time travel to a dystopian London in Derek Jarman’s homage to punk.
Monday 28 September: 20:30 – NFT2 | Tuesday 29 September: 18:00 – NFT3 | Thursday 01 October: 18:15 – NFT2
Directed by Derek Jarman. With Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox (106 min, Digital). Jarman re-imagines London’s punk years as a future dystopia where big business rules and marauding killers dominate the streets. Queen Elizabeth I and her occult aide Dr John Dee, who time-travel using esoteric magic, give witness to the shocking depravity, while abrasive punk rock numbers are delivered by Jayne County and Adam Ant alongside a Brian Eno score.
• Continue reading/further info at the BFI website.
“Genuinely excited that (and my goodness she’s great in the film!) @toyahofficial will be in attendance for our AAAAAAAAH! World Prem!” Film4 FrightFest @ Twitter.
It looks like the full Aaaaaaaah! has possibly been leaked earlier today – There appeared to be various uploads at You Tube – Whether they were genuine or not, who knows, they have now all been removed anyway. Wait for the FrightFest 2015 premiere and additional screenings to show support for what is set to be another cult movie in Toyah’s filmography.
MAYHEM FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCE FIRST GUEST AND CLOSING FILM
Mayhem Film Festival are thrilled to announce Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah! and Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation as the first two films from this year’s line-up.
Taking place on 15-18 October, Mayhem Film Festival will close its 11th edition with Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation. Hailed as Kusama’s strongest work by Variety, The Invitation is a deeply disturbing, slow burn horror thriller from the director of Jennifer’s Body.
This year, the festival will also welcome back Steve Oram (Sightseers) with his directorial debut Aaaaaaaah! produced by Andrew Starke and executive produced by Ben Wheatley (Rook Films). The film, which contains no traditional dialogue, is an insane and hilarious collision of Romeo and Juliet and The Planet of the Apes in suburbia. Steve Oram will make the trip to present the film and take part in a post-screening Q&A.
• Continue reading at Broadway. Further info on Mayhem Film Festival 2015 is available by clicking below.
NEW IMAGES FROM STEVE ORAM’S ‘AAAAAAAAH!’ RELEASED
The peculiar British thriller will premiere at Frightfest this summer.
A range of images have been released for Aaaaaaaah! (2015), the filmmaking debut from British writer-director Steve Oram, best known for his role in Ben Wheatley’s sadistic comedy Sightseers (2012).
Starring Julian Barratt, Toyah Willcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Lucy Honigman, Tom Meeton, Sean Reynard and Oram himself, with supporting from Noel Fielding, Tony Way and Sightseers co-star Alice Lowe, the film tells the story of alpha male Smith and his Beta, Keith, who make a move to take over a local community. They hook up with a restless Female, Denise, which ignites a deadly feud in which emotions run high and deep-seated grudges resurface amongst the tribe.
• Continue reading at Film 3 Sixty.
Browse Dreamscape’s Aaaaaaaah! news archive by clicking below.
The excitement is mounting…. As we’ve mentioned previously, Aaaaaaaah!, the new film by Steve Oram, which features a bevy of TVO faces, will be getting its world premiere next month at Film 4 FrightFest at Leicester Square! But for those of you who can’t make it there, don’t despair – because the film may be coming to a screen near you!
Additional screenings of Aaaaaaaah! include:
Picture House Central in London’s West End on 4th September (+ cast Q&A); End of the Road Festival (Dorset), 4th-6th September; Mayhem in Nottingham, 15-18 October. Plus more dates to be announced soon.
• Continue reading at The Velvet Onion. Details of further screenings of Aaaaaaaah! will be available here.
News on Aaaaaaaah!, from Ransom Note, which also includes some info on where you’ll be able to see the film, over the next couple of months, after it premieres at FrightFest 2015..
Aaaaaaaah! is Steve Oram’s directional debut starring Julian Barrett, Toyah Wilcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Steve Oram, Lucy Honigman, Tom Meeton, Noel Fielding and Sean Reynard. Aaaaaaaah! (think this is the right amount of A’s, I’m not entirely sure, my glasses aren’t quite the right prescription… Sorry…) is a story about two men, primal and caveman-ish, who plan on taking over a local community. They hook up with restless female, Denise, which brings boiling emotion in the sense of fueds and grudges to take the high ground. The film raises the question: are we men or beasts? The entire cast speaks not in prose but in grunts and jibberish – just because we have a language, does that mean we have discarded or ancestial traits? Well Aaaaaaaah! attempts to cross the barrier and make us think about human life and evolution all at the same time.
Aaaaaaaah! will be touring around the country, the world premiere is at FrightFest on the 28th of August, Picture House Central on 4th September where it will have a residency and the film will call on to End of the Road Festival from the 4th to the 6th of September and Mayhem, Nottingham from the 15th to the 18th of October. More dates will be announced soon.
• Continue reading at Ransom Note.
There are very few left as of making this post, but you may still be able to get hold of a “Single” ticket to see Aaaaaaaah!, as part of FrightFest 2015. There may also still be some “Day” passes, but the “Festival” passes for FrightFest are all sold out.
“The Cult Movie of the Year”
Britflicks takes a look at the British films at this years FrightFest 2015. From classics like Hellraiser to Aaaaaaaah!, the directional debut from Kill List and Sightseers writer Steve Oram.
Alpha Male Smith and his Beta, Keith, move to take over a local community. They hook up with restless Female, Denise, igniting a deadly feud in which emotions run high and deep-seated grudges resurface amongst the tribe. Are we not men? Or are we simply beasts? Steve Oram, the actor/writer from Sightseers and Kill List stars in his long-awaited debut feature with a host of his friends.
Get ready for the most unusual celluloid primal scream – an anarchic, hilarious, disturbing and touching look at the human condition. Themroc meets Pink Flamingos in the Cult Movie of the Year.
• Continue reading at Britflicks. Browse all of Dreamscape’s Aaaaaaaaah! news and updates here. The premiere of the film is approaching fast, keep an eye on Toyah @ Twitter for direct updates on Aaaaaaaah!
Aaaaaaaah! (Country: UK; Year: 2015; Director: Steve Oram; Stars: Steve Oram, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Toyah Willcox, Noah Fielding, Julian Barratt)
Alpha Male Smith and his Beta, Keith, move to take over a local community. They hook up with restless Female, Denise, igniting a deadly feud in which emotions run high and deep-seated grudges resurface amongst the tribe. Are we not men?
• Continue reading at Eye For Film.
Barbara Crampton, Rick Wakeman, James Cosmo, Toyah Willcox, Neil Marshall and Bernard Rose amongst dazzling array of guests set to re-animate FrightFest.
Scream Queen legend Barbara Crampton is Film4 FrightFest’s special guest icon, appearing in no less than four films in this year’s line-up. She stars in We Are Still Here, Road Games and Sun Choke plus makes a cameo appearance in Tales Of Halloween. Not only will Barbara be introducing all her films, she’ll also be talking about her amazing career during a special interview event, hosted by Alan Jones, on Sun 30 Aug, 9.15pm.
The eclectic mix of guests also includes Aaaaaaaah! debut director & actor Steve Oram and his co-stars rock legend Toyah Willcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Noel Fielding and Alice Lowe.
• Continue reading at Show Film First. browse all of Dreamscape’s Aaaaaaaah! news here, and FrightFest 2015 news here.
