If there’s one film you catch at this year’s Arrow Video FrightFest, make sure it’s Videoman, a searing crossover between the horror genre and social realism that will move you even as it freaks you out.

Combining witty dialogue with haunting imagery, the feature film debut from award-winning Swedish director Kristian A. Söderström celebrates the golden days of VHS, the Italian giallo and the films of Mike Leigh.

Ennio (Stefan Sauk), a giallo-obsessed VHS collector with a drinking problem finds a highly collectable video tape that could solve his money problems and save him from eviction. He makes a deal with a shady, anonymous collector before realising the video has been stolen.

So begins Ennio’s desperate hunt for the black-gloved perpetrator while, along the way, he meets Simone (Lena Nilsson), an alcoholic woman obsessed with the 80s. As Ennio searches for the tape and begins to lose a grip on reality, his and Simone’s mutual love of nostalgia draws them together. Can they find redemption in each other?

Dario Argento meets Mike Leigh in Kristian A. Söderström’s feature film debut – a darkly comic, creepy and incredibly moving celebration of both gialli and social realism.

Fans of genre cinema, art cinema, and collectors will find Videoman an absolute blast.

Watch the trailer below –