The 2001 programme delivered three of the finest days that any Horror fan could have wished for.

The Closing Movie, FAUST, was introduced by director Brian Yuzna but preceding that were some real treats!

HYPNOSIS, Masayuki Ochiai's 1999 movie was a gruesome, psychological movie about a series of bizarre deaths which seem to have hypnosis at their source. There were some truly bone-crunching and teeth-grinding moments in what remains a unique, fresh, scary and deeply unsettling movie.

UZUMAKI Higuchinsky's movie is a dark, lush, surreal film based on a comic book. Disturbing, highly imaginative and delightfully gross, Uzumaki rightfully became one of the hits of the festival and I still get stopped in the street by people asking to see it again. I can't blame them - I adore this film and you NEED to see it, trust me!

Another highlight of the fest, and the eventual winner of the Cutting Edge short film competition was ROT WOMAN. This short movie is shot entirely in a public bathroom, with barely a word of dialogue. It transpires that a woman has taken refuge in this green-tiled sanctuary from the marauding zombies outside. Thinking herself safe, her life is about to take a messy and destructive turn.

The Opening Movie of the weekend was NAMELESS - the spectacular feature debut from Spaniard Jaume Balagueró and based on the Ramsey Campbell novel. Unbelievably dark and breathtakingly cruel, there are moments in this film to leave you completely speechless. A treat from start to finish, it was a film to make you glad you're a horror fan! Director Jaume Balagueró was slated to appear to intro and discuss the movie, but unfortunately commitments to his new pic, DARKNESS, kept him from Edinburgh that weekend. We'll see if it was worth it when DARKNESS plays at the fest!

On the classics programme was VAMPYRES - the Spanish classic with hot, sexy vampires luring the unsuspecting to their castle and drinking buckets of blood. Yum! We also revelled in the Italian classic THE HORRIBLE DR HICHCOCK with the supreme Barbara Steele and DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS completed the femme fatale set. Creatures of the Night rejoice!

There were also a handful of wonderful short movies being played throughout the festival - as well as the Zombie flick 'Rot Woman', there was 'Black XXX-Mas' with Don Warrington as the kind of Santa you never want to run into, and Frazer Lee's movie 'On Edge' starring Doug Bradley, and guaranteed to put you off going to the dentist FOR EVER. Frazer and producer Joseph Alberti were also around to intro and discuss this sick flick.

Full Programme