Sarah Appleton is a documentary filmmaker who has steadily been building up a body of work within horror cinema. Her first documentary, The Found Footage Phenomenon, saw her direct alongside Phillip Escott, whilst her second film, The J Horror Virus, paired her with Jasper Sharp. For her third documentary, Generation Terror, she has reunited with Escott. Whilst her directing partners have changed from project to project, one constant is that each and every one of Appleton’s productions have screened at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, with Generation Terror being part of this year’s selection.
Horror bleeds into the 21st Century in an incisive documentary looking back at the late 1990s film industry on a global scale, to find out what happened at the turn of the millennium to allow for the huge wealth of horror films flooding out from all corners of the globe. From Scream(1996), The Blair Witch Project (1999), and Final Destination (2000), to Wrong Turn (2003), Hostel (2005) and Saw (2004), with insight from Joe Lynch, Xavier Gens, and Bill Malone who track the technology, the industry and the societal changes behind the next generation of horror films.
Generation Terror will screen its world premiere at this year’s FrightFest, playing on Monday 26th August at 3:15pm on Discovery Screen 2. The documentary is perfect viewing for those that were raised on the horror releases from the late 90s through to the end of the 00s. Generation Terror analyses the state of genre cinema both pre and post 9/11, leaving no stone unturned as it ventures to territories outside of America. Ahead of the world premiere at FrightFest, THN sat down with Sarah Appleton to discover more about the world of noughties horror and why it keeps drawing her back in.
Generation Terror screens at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on Monday 26th August. More information on the film and tickets can be found on the FrightFest website.
