A Feast of Festive Frights on the Sci-Fi Channel this Christmas!

Looking for something to offset the saccharin sweetness of the festive period? Want something scary to watch this Christmas? Then look no further than the UK’s very own Sci Fi channel!

If you tend to chow down a bit too vigorously on those mince pies and cold-turkey butties, their season of frightening movies can serve a positive purpose – helping to curb your appetite as your stomach churns at the gory delights on offer. So “Gory Be!” to the Sci Fi channel for concocting this Fright Before Christmas special event – a veritable smorgasbord of filmic frighteners served up in double doses, including the channel premieres of Boogeyman 3 and The  Tattooist.

BOOGEYMAN 3 (2008) *CHANNEL PREMIERE*
Showing: 14/12/09 at 9pm; 16/12/09 at 11pm; and 19/12/09 at 9pm
There are some things you’re meant to be scared of – and one of them is confronting your own fears! In this third outing from the nerve-shredding Boogeyman franchise college student Sarah probes the ‘boogey’ myth following the tragic death of her roomie, Audrey. Not a good idea. In doing so, she unleashes the inevitable evil entity, and then has the irksome task of convincing her sceptical campus buddies that the pesky chap really exists before he chomps his way through the lot of them. But is the Boogeyman for real? Or is he simply the sum of all of Sarah’s fears? Stars Erin Cahill (Power Rangers: Time Force), Chuck Hittinger (Bad Blood), Mimi Michaels (Gamer) and the UK’s own Nikki Sanderson (Coronation St.)

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)
Showing: 14/12/09 at 11pm; 18/12/09 at 11pm; 20/12/09 at 11pm; and 24/12/09 at 11pm
It’s the granddaddy of all werewolf comedies – John Landis’ irreverent 1980s classic, in which naive college yank David (David Naughton) ignores the warnings of local codgers while holidaying on the English moors and wakes up with a nasty bite to the neck. Despite alarming hallucinations, our Dave refuses to believe that he’s just had a close encounter with a werewolf and trots off to London Town, where all manner of bloodletting and barking at the moon ensue. Alongside co-star Griffin Dunne the cast features a roll-call of Brit thesps, including Jenny Agutter, Rik Mayall, David Schofield, John Woodvine and Brian Glover. Special effects make-up maestro Rick Baker won an Academy Award® for his sterling efforts in transforming Naughton into something big, hairy and very scary indeed.

THE RING (2002)
Showing: 19/12/09 at 11pm; and 21/12/09 at 9pm
This stylish remake of the Japanese horror sensation concerns a sinister video-tape that pops the clogs of anyone who dares to watch it. One such person is journalist Rachel Keller who, faced with her impending doom, hot-foots it to an isolated town in the gloomy Pacific Northwest in the hope that the sinister Shelter Mountain Inn might provide some answers – and pretty damned quickly at that. The stellar cast boasts Naomi Watts, Brian Cox, Martin Henderson and Adam Brody. Gore Verbinski directs.

RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (2004)
Showing: 15/12/09 at 11pm; and 16/12/09 at 9pm
That Resident Evil just won’t leave the building! Milla Jovovichreprises the role of gun-toting heroine Alice, who’s going to need all of her biogenetically enhanced superpowers as she discovers that Raccoon City has suffered another wave of zombie infestation. As she searches for the missing daughter of wheelchair-bound scientist Dr Charles Ashford (Jared Harris), Alice gets a helping hand in the form of mini-skirted supercop Jill Valentine (Sienna Guilroy). Blasting away with everything they’ve got, this tight-clad twosome take on rogue zombies – not to mention Nemesis, Alice’s former colleague Matt in evil transmuted form.

THE TATTOOIST (2005) *CHANNEL PREMIERE*
Showing: 15/12/09 at 9pm; and 21/12/09 at 11pm
“Tattoos? They’d look cheap and nasty even on The Queen, dear” – every mother’s warning to their offspring who is tempted to pierce designs into their flesh, and a warning that talented young tattooist Jake Sawyer (Jason Behr – TV’s Roswell) should’ve heeded. An American wandering the world to practise his art, Jason aims to master the obscure Samoan tradition of ‘tatau’. Showing a woeful disrespect by stealing a tattooing tool belonging to Samoan friends of his lover Sina, Jake unleashes a vengeful spirit that has every intention of making his life very lively indeed. As he journeys deeper and deeper into the terrors of the Pacific spirit world, Jake must battle to save Sina’s life – and his own soul. With Mia Blake (Without a Paddle) and David Fane (Outrageous Fortune).

I’LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (2006)
Showing 17/12/09 at 11pm; and 18/12/09 ay 9pm
If only teenagers would stay at home and read improving books they’d save themselves a lot of grief. In this 2006 instalment of the I Know What… horror franchise, a prank goes wrong, a friend lies dead, and an anonymous caller starts to plague the teens with hints that he witnessed their less-than-exemplary deeds. Prime candidate for their tormentor is The Fisherman, the original target of their prank, and a man who likes to get jiggy with a fishing hook. Brooke Nevin, David Paetkau, Torrey DeVitto, Ben Easter and Seth Packard star in this horror movie that works on the principal that if a formula is successful, why change it?

STIR OF ECHOES (1999)
Showing 20/12/09 at 9pm; and 24/12/09 at 9pm
Jurassic Park and Angels and Demons scribe David Koepp both co-writes and directs this starry supernatural suspense shocker, in which blue-collar dad Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) starts witnessing all manner of supernatural stuff after hypnosis endows him with psychic abilities he can’t control. Now poor Tom experiences an acute sense of dread as he goes about his daily business, convinced that evil lurks around every corner. He’s also haunted by the spirit of a young girl who disappeared from the neighbourhood months ago. One person who doesn’t share Tom’s agitation is his young son Jake, a fellow-psychic who takes communicating with the dead in his stride.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT 2 (2006)
Showing 22/12/09 at 9pm; and 23/12/09 at 11pm
Playing fast and loose with time can have dire consequences – as evidenced by this lively sequel to the hit 2004 hit. Nick (Eric Lively) is robbed of a lifetime of happiness when his beloved Julie (Erica Durance) dies in a car crash. Refusing to accept the loss, he fixes on a novel way of dealing with it: he travels back through Time to the moment just before the crash in order to alter the course of events. But as Nick struggles to find a way to save his loved one, he’s about to discover that meddling with the past can have devastating consequences for his future.

ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID (2004)
Showing: 22/12/09 at 11pm; and 23/12/09 at 9pm
This magnificently trashy sequel to the 1997 original may lack Jennifer Lopez’s sublime derriere, but there’s still plenty of entertainment as a group of money-grubbing scientists sets sail for Borneo to search for the rare Blood Orchid. Their mission to make millions from the orchid’s unique life-extending properties suffers a setback, when all manner of large, wriggly things slither out of the jungle to say ‘Hello!’. With Johnny Messner, Matthew Marsden, Kadee Strickland and Denis Arndt.

Fright Before Christmas is showing on the SCI FI channel Monday 14th December – Thursday 24th December. With film double bills from 9pm… And just wait till you see what Sci Fi have planned for after Christmas Day!