[1] Paul McEvoy has stated that his initial idea for FrightFest "came from my love and admiration for the seminal 'Shock Around The Clock' events of the 1980s organised by Stefan Jaworszyn and Alan Jones.

[9] The objective of FrightFest is to "provide the UK with a horror fantasy festival similar to the market leaders in Europe, Sitges (Spain) and Brussels (Belgium).

Categories include: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Monster, Best Death, Best Scare, Best Gore, Best Gross-Out, Best WTF Twist, and Best for Striking Originality.

Presenters at the event included Andrew Macdonald, Neil Marshall, Mikael Håfström, Paddy Breathnach, Roar Uthaug, Joe Lynch, Kit Ryan, Chris Stapp and Matt Heath, Jonathan King, Tom Shankland and Clive Bradley, Juan Antonio Bayona and Sergio G. Sánchez, Adam Green, Mike Williamson, and Rigoberto Castañeda.

FrightFest Xtra a one-day event held at The Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley on the following Saturday and presented Santo in the Wax Museum, Espectro, and Mr. Brooks.

Films shown on the discovery screen were Best Worst Movie, I Sell the Dead, I Think We're Alone Now, Colin, Black, Evil Things, Fragment, It's Alive, and Pontypool.

Films shown on the discovery screen were Burning Bright, The Clinic, Finalé, Wound, Outcast, Higanjima: Escape from Vampire Island, Christopher Roth, Fanboys, After.Life, Amer, and After.Life.

Films shown on the discovery screen were The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry, A Horrible Way To Die, Midnight Son, Rabies, Blood Runs Cold, Kidnapped, Stormhouse, The Dead, Atrocious, My Sucky Teen Romance, The Caller, and The Devil's Business.

The films shown on the new re-discovery screen were Inbred (with live audio commentary), The Arrival of Wang, Crawl, The Mummy's Shroud, Rasputin, the Mad Monk, The Devil Rides Out, and Bride of Frankenstein.

This year's Total Film Total Icon interview was with Dario Argento, which was hosted on the main screen For Elisa, Daylight, Sadik 2, Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz, Paranormal Diaries: Clophill, Wake in Fright, The American Scream, Hansel & Gretel: The 420 Witch, Antisocial, Painless, Wither, Snap, The Demon's Rook, Stalled, Cannon Fodder, Rewind This!, The Borderlands, On Tender Hooks, Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman, Contracted, The Desert, Willow Creek, House Of Usher, Nosferatu, Corruption, and an episode of Holliston.

Pod, Wind Walkers, Worry Dolls, Aaaaaaaah!, Never Let Go, Bloodsucking Bastards, The Rotten Link, The Entity, III, Final Girl, The Sand, Afterdeath, The Unfolding, Body, The Shelter, Zombie Fight Club, Future Shock!

The Story Of 2000AD, The Nightmare, Estranged, The Hallow, Sun Choke, Night Of The Living Deb, Hangman, Another Me, The Tenderness Of Wolves, Madman, The Mutilator, Contracted: Phase II, Duke Mitchell - Remake, Remix, Rip-Off, Over Your Dead Body, These Final Hours, Most Likely To Die, Summer Camp, They Look Like People, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Hawk the Slayer, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Hellraiser, The Reflecting Skin, The Lesson, Howl, Awaiting, Goddess Of Love, The Lazarus Effect, Suspension, Last Girl Standing, Banjo, Hostile, Bite, and Curtains.

Beware the Moon book launch, horror writing master class with James Moran, Women in Genre panel, Special FX demonstration, The Future of British Horror, Screen International Genre Rising Star Award Screen International Awards Films shown on the discovery screens were Motherly, The Brilliant Terror, Shadow of the Cat, Night Drive, Hotel Poseidon, Red Snow, Pretty Boy, Isolation, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, Followers, Laguna Ave, The Parker Sessions, Bad Candy, The Unburied, Captive, Boy#5, Are We Monsters, The Last Rite, When the Screaming Starts, Bring Out the Fear, Censor, John and the Hole, Bloodthirsty, Forgiveness, Killer Concept, Woodlands: Dark and Days Bewitched, Post Mortem, Nocturna: Side A – The great Old Man’s Night, As In Heaven, So On Earth, Knocking, Greywood’s Plot, Mystery Spot, Antidote, She Watches From the Woods, and The Found Footage Phenomenon.

The films shown on the discovery screens were B*tch a**, Croc!, Splinter, The Eyes Below, Pussycake, The Summoned, Tiny Cinema, The Ones You Didn’t Burn, They Wait in the Dark, Hypochondriac, Raven’s Hollow, Everyone Will Burn, Mean Spirited, Cult of VHS, Holy S**t!, Swallowed, The Ghosts of Monday, Sissy, Sorry About the Demon, Everybody Dies by the End, The Breach, Hounded, Orchestrator of Storms, Wreck, Eating Miss Campbell, Cerebrum, The Group, The Devil’s Hour, Walking Against the Rain, Bite, The Duke Mitchell Film Party, Dog Soldiers, Control, Torn Hearts, Follow Her, Huesera, Powertool Cheerleaders Vs.

The films scheduled to be shown on discovery screen one were Punch, Lore, A Million Years, Trim Season, How to Kill Monsters, Doctor Jekyll, Here for Blood, The Conjuring, The Moor, Isaac, The Glenarma Tapes, Haunted Ulster Live, REC, Enter the Clones of Bruce Lee, The Blue Rose, Sympathy For the Devil, Failure!, The Puppet Asylum and It Follows.

The films scheduled for Discovery Screen 2 were I Will Never Leave You Alone, Happy Halloween, Drive Back, So Unreal, The Freaks of Fancy, Cursed in Baja, Delirium, From Figment to Finance, In the Name of God, Boutique: To Preserve and Collect, Video Vision, The Monster Beneath Us, Dark Match, AI: For You, Cara, Derelict, Razor Blade Smile, Schlitter: Evil in the Woods, Fright, Generation Terror and Members Club.

Films shown at the event were Gnaw, Hush, Book Of Blood, Treevenge, My Name Is Bruce, The Children, Langliena: Una Storia Macabra, Escape from New York, Splinter, and Pig Hunt.

[31] From Beyond the Grave introduced by Mark Gatiss, R-Point, Shallow Ground, The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse with Jeremy Dyson; Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, Neil Marshall and Nora Jane Noone with a sneak preview trailer of The Descent, Sin City (another surprise movie), The Devil's Rejects.

Recently it has grown to include more blogs which cover Video Games, TV, the Australian horror scene, foreign language genre fare, HD format releases, Memorabilia and Comics.

In 2005 a "FrightFest Presents" DVD label was created and briefly distributed Dead Meat, Malefique, Tears of Kali, Eyes of Crystal and The Roost within the UK.

Films to be released from October 2015 are Night of the Living Deb, Some Kind of Hate, Last Girl Standing, AAAAAAAAH!, Afterdeath, Landmine goes click, Emelie, The Lesson, Estranged.