With Frightfest taking place in a mere weeks time, Variety are reporting that the guys behind the festival are making another move into the home entertainment market. Frightfest previously launched a handful of DVDs in the UK back in 2005 – with titles including Dead Meat, Malefique, Eyes of Crystal, Tears of Kali and The Roost.
The Frightfest team is in advanced negotiations with French producer-distributor Wild Bunch to launch a DVD label in February with the intention of releasing 12-15 titles a year in the U.K. The news has also boosted the clout of Frightfest itself: “It gives us a bit of a presence in the market,” says Ian Rattray, one of fest founders and a film booker-distributor with 20 years’ experience. “It opens doors. Suddenly films become available that might never have been.”
Frightfest also plans to launch a film market next year, after learning that foreign distributors were using the festivals Discovery screen to seek fresh blood for their slates. “There’s no such thing as a dedicated horror film market,” Rattray says. “Horror films tend to get lost at film markets like Cannes.”
