Grimmfest is an annual festival of horror, cult, and fantastic films based in the city of Manchester, Northern England. Here is the official press release info:
Odeon Printworks will once again be under siege by blood-soaked hordes of horror enthusiasts and film freaks, as the Grimm Team unleash their latest and greatest lineup of dark, dangerous, wild, weird, witty, thrilling, chilling, blood-spilling movies, every one of them a premiere of one kind or another.
Grimmfest 2016 runs 6th – 9th October, 2016. Click here for the schedule and Click here for full festival and day passes.
Highlights include:
Pre-Festival Preview Night (September 23rd)
As a suitably bloody taster for this year’s festival, we present a special preview of one of the most hotly-anticipated horror films of the moment, a remastered classic, and a new UK short film. The sure-to-prove controversial new film from Rob Zombie, the neo-grindhouse gorefest 31 – a cornucopia of carnage, chainsaw-wielding clowns, cult movie stars, and Nazi dwarves – is our spotlight feature. Then we have THE HILLS HAVE EYES, often considered Wes Craven’s classic above his later, more commercial efforts. We will be hosting a pre-release screening of the 4K remastered version from Arrow. We will also be premiering the new uproarious splatter-farce half-hour short THE CORPSE SERIES.
Very Special Guest Ken Foree
We’ll be announcing all our guests as we move closer to the festival; however, we do have one very special guest already in place this year. Ken Foree, of DAWN OF THE DEAD fame and many, many other classic horror movies, will be with us on Sunday 9th October for a UK Premiere screening of his new sci-fi/horror movie, THE RIFT. We can’t wait to welcome him to Grimmfest!
Programming Strands
As ever, Grimmfest promises you premieres, guests galore, and all manner of movie mayhem. And, also as ever, there is method in our madness. This year we have a number of themes and strands for you to explore:
Southern Gothic
Enter a world of God, grits, and moonshine, of twisted family secrets and bloody revenge. We’ve the Regional Premiere of Sean Brosnan’s brutal and oddly lyrical tale MY FATHER, DIE; Marilyn Manson appears as an implacable killer in the UK Premiere of the metaphysical country noir LET ME MAKE YOU A MARTYR; and “ENTOURAGE’s” Adrien Grenier faces down a whole bunch of guilty family secrets in the UK Premiere of TRASH FIRE, the outrageous new film from Richard Bates, Jr., director of previous Grimmfest favourites EXCISION and SUBURBAN GOTHIC.
Nordic Horror
We’ve teamed up with the Nordic genre invasion team to bring you new Nordic delights! From Denmark we have the zombie apocalypse from a domestic suburban perspective in the Regional Premiere of WHAT WE BECOME and the disturbing and strange SUNKEN CONVENT. From Norway comes a waste-clearing mission gone toxic in the UK Premiere of the claustrophobic VILLMARK ASYLUM.
Asia Extreme
This year the TRAIN TO BUSAN comes roaring out of the East, all pistons pumping. We offer the Regional Premiere of this visceral, no-holds-barred zombies-on-a-train actioner We also have the UK Premiere of Taiwan-set THE TAG-ALONG, an old-school flesh-creeper about a young couple plagued by a “hungry ghost.”
Bad Relationships
The sex war is very often precisely that: a pitched battle. This year we take a look at some of the casualties. Care worker Morjana Alaoui (MARTYRS) finds herself increasingly overwhelmed by her embittered new patient in the grueling psychological thriller BROKEN, and local boy Dominic Monaghan bites off rather more than he can chew in the twisted morality tale PET.
Paranoia Can Annoy Ya…
But where would cinema be without it as a theme? We have a brace of troubling psychological thrillers guaranteed to get right under your skin. Ashley Lauren Carter struggles to come to terms with her own dark past in a building with an even darker one in DARLING, and a grief-stricken private investigator finds himself increasingly losing control of his latest case in the voyeuristic OBSERVANCE.
British Horror
The UK has a long and proud tradition of genre cinema, dating right the way back to the silent era. Grimmfest actually began in part out of a desire to showcase new British independent genre work, and this year is no exception. We’ve white-knuckle tension galore in the claustrophobic THE CHAMBER and a deft socio-political spin on the zombie sub-genre with THE REZORT.
Independent and Offbeat
Grimmfest has always prided itself on seeking films that push at the edges of the genre, that offer something a little more… left-field. This year we’ve home invasion as comedy of manners in ANOTHER EVIL, video games gone bad in retro-80s shocker BEYOND THE GATES, and motormouth master-magician Penn Jillette’s savage satire on directorial hubris in DIRECTOR’S CUT.
There’s body horror and social alienation in THE UNSEEN (a UK premiere) and the World Premiere of the suggestively-titled TONIGHT SHE COMES, which spins such classic genre tropes as a summer camping trip, a cabin in the woods, creepy inbred hillbillies, and rural magic.
Classic Horror
This year’s Grimmfest classic is a genuine (and very gory) slice of cinema history – THE BURNING! This infamous summer camp slasher marked the cinematic debut of Holly Hunter, Fisher Stevens, and Jason Alexander. Oft-banned, much-reviled, and almost invariably cut to ribbons, this lurid little shocker has stood the test of time to become a cult classic, now reissued in a beautifully-restored, remastered edition from those fine folk at Arrow.
Short Sharp Shocks
As ever, the shorts programme has something for everyone. We’ve ugly urban legends, grim(m) fairy tales galore, and the World Premiere of the disturbing morality tale NSFW from locally-based filmmaker C.A. Wallace.
