Get Freaked Out At The Sydney Film Festival

Editorial

With the Sydney Film Festival just around the corner, you should be busy planning your schedule for a film packed fortnight. If highbrow foreign films or weepy dramas are not for you, however, never fear, festival organisers have a roster of horrifying thrillers to get those hearts pumping in the Freak Me Out strand..

Homegrown terrors come in the form of Red Hill, starring the True Blooded Ryan Kwanten as a young cop whose first day on the job in a small Victorian town is anything but uneventful when a prison break occurs. The Loved Ones gives new meaning to teenage rejection with a blood thirsty fusion of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Pretty in Pink and Caught Inside will have you rethinking the wisdom of taking a cruise anytime soon. Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water, the sea ahead are most definitely not calm.

Catch Gemma Aterton in The Disappearance of Alice Creed when her titular character is held captive in a purpose built chamber. And if you thought Sydney real estate was killer, don't underestimate what someone will do to secure the perfect apartment in Hong Kong in Dream Home. You'll find more Asian schlock in Possessed from South Korea and Symbol from Japan. Don't miss the Romanian The Temptation of St. Tony for your fix of Lynchian surrealness.

For the bloodsucking lovers, Sydney Film Festival is also hosting an ode to vampires with screenings of nocturnal classics including Nosferatu, Near Dark and Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, to really get the chills happening. Head to www.sydneyfilmfestival.org.au for all of your festival needs.

Wenlei Ma