‘The horror we are showcasing this year is interior, intelligent, engaged and explosive. It delights in the genre as much as it bends and redefines it. We are so proud of our 2023 lineup and so excited to share it with you all.’

(Acting co-director Leonie Rowland)

Manchester’s International Festival of Fantastic Film comes to Odeon Great Northern this October! In partnership with the Evolution of Horror – ‘The World’s Greatest Horror Podcast’ (Boyd Hilton, HEAT) – Grimmfest celebrates its fifteenth year at the cutting edge of horror and genre film.

The festival runs over three days, 6 to 8 October, with 18 screenings filling these three days. Among the delights on offer are regional, national and even international premieres, genre classics and exciting new releases. Leonie along with co-director Linnie Blake have programmed the festival with strong vibes of female-centric horror and existential threats, a healthy dose of moral compromises and the ways we bring about our own damnation. Horror is at its best when it uses the threats of mythical monsters, supernatural spooks and science gone exceedingly wrong to express our fears of family histories, toxic environments and the relentless exploitation of people by political and economic regimes, all while giving us a cathartic thrill ride. Across the three days, Grimmfest promises to offer all this and more.

Friday opens with Shorts Programme 1, showcasing new short films that chill the blood in a quick space of time. This is followed by the regional premiere of PANDEMONIUM. Described as a Portmanteau Purgatorio, Quarxx’s film combines all manner of references including Jean-Paul Sartre, Angela Carter, H. P. Lovecraft and Lars von Trier to create a nightmarish journey into the hell that is other people. If you gaze long enough into an abyss for the abyss to gaze back, you and the abyss might want to gaze into PANDEMONIUM, and then comfort each other. Plus, there’s a Q&A where you can ask if the makers of the film are alright.

If that’s not enough for you, next up is the English premiere of MOTHER SUPERIOR, an occult chiller of histories personal, national and spiritual (review here). Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s film utilises Euro-horror elements and Gothic psychodrama to explore an eerie blend of Nazi eugenics and demonic folklore. Next is Jenn Wexler’s THE SACRIFICE GAME, which combines home invasion and Satanism with teenage troubles in the setting of a sinister boarding school. This cineliterate film knows its genre and audience, twisting expectations and fearlessly tormenting likeable characters.

FACELESS AFTER DARK takes viewers into a sly interweaving of gore and satire that takes inspiration from the real-life horrors experienced by actor Jenna Kanell, who co-wrote this film after being targeted by incels and stalkers following her starring role in TERRIFIER. Director Raymond Wood highlights the Faustian bargain of horror stardom and toxic fandom, likely to make many a viewer uncomfortable. FACELESS AFTER DARK is followed by a Q&A that promises to be fascinating.

Friday closes with the UK premiere of J-Horror LOVE WILL TEAR US APART, which takes the viewer on a wild ride through romance, slasher, psycho thriller and martial arts. This tale of high school bullying, violent retaliation and inexplicable incidents is eccentric, absurdist, unsettling and unpredictable, and has particular local resonance as its title was inspired by the music of Manchester-born band Joy Division.

After all that, Saturday might be time for something gentler, but who wants that? Shorts Programme 2 kicks off Saturday morning, followed by the UK premiere of Miguel Azurmendi’s dazzling debut feature, KERATYNA. This internet horror takes aspects of REAR WINDOW to create a paranoid and slow-burn psychological descent of an unpleasant protagonist, before assaulting the viewer with developments that will leave you sitting in the pub looking dazed afterwards. But no time for that, because THE COFFEE TABLE calls. Yes, you read that right. This UK premiere by Caya Casas features marital tensions, deception and guilt, brutality and absurdity, and a hideous table. Who knew furniture could be so dangerous? Stick around for the Q&A to learn how this came about.

Speaking of how things came about, recent developments in the USA led to GIVE ME AN A, an anthology of 16 short films focused on abortion rights and bodily autonomy. The overturning of Roe V Wade in 2022 has led to real-life horrors for thousands of women, and these films demonstrate some of the rage over this massive injustice. Ranging from sci-fi to horror to black comedy to musical, GIVE ME AN A is a channelled roar of rage at patriarchal oppression. More righteous anger can be found in the panel discussion that follows the film.

Saturday evening provides WHAT YOU WISH FOR, so be careful. Nicholas Tomnay delivers a dark satire on the savagery of the rich, in which Nick Stahl finds that trying to evade his gambling debts by assuming the identity of a dead friend can be a thoroughly Faustian bargain. The second day of the festival concludes with Filipino thriller DELETER (UK premiere), in which an internet content moderator, already plagued by overwork and desensitisation, must confront repressed memories, a co-worker’s suicide and the fear of something more supernatural. Mikhail Red’s chilling tale follows in the footsteps of Prano Bailey-Bond’s superlative CENSOR, asking what is the role of the watchmen who are themselves watched in the internet age?

Sunday provides Shorts Programme 3, demonstrating Grimmfest’s commitment to new talent. In the afternoon, we have EVIL EYE, a Latin American Gothic fable from Mexican auteur Isaac Ezban, in which two sisters who fear their grandmother may be a witch start to realise they could actually be right. Next, we have AUXILIO, an Argentinian production that draws on Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS with a confrontational approach to the toxic collusion between church power-mongering and state corruption, as a young novice in a convent encounters paranormal forces from the tortured, holy and not-so-holy. This European premiere promises to shock, disturb and challenge.

The once thought lost J-Horror DOOR from 1988 receives its European premiere on Sunday. This blend of domestic comedy, stalker thriller and home invasion follows a neglected Tokyo housewife who finds herself harassed by a door-to-door salesman, as events rapidly escalate. This exclusive premiere is followed by a panel discussion about the film and its history. Next, we have 8 FOUND DEAD, which does not refer to festival attendees who have expired from exhaustion, but rather what happens when various characters find themselves in an AirBnB double-booking with some rather sinister other guests. Echoing recent accommodation horror (is that a thing?) such as THE RENTAL and BARBARIAN, 8 FOUND DEAD is a dark-hearted comic thriller that offers a deeply cynical view of humanity. Finally, Grimmfest 2023 closes with ABRUPTIO, featuring such stars as Robert Englund, Hana Mae Lee, James Marsters and Jordan Peele voicing latex puppets that look just wrong enough to be the fuel for nightmares. Evan Marlowe combines the sensibilities of Gerry Anderson and Philip K. Dick with Charlie Kaufman and Lloyd Kaufman into a surreal LA noirscape that may have viewers scratching their heads as well as covering their eyes.

As well as film screenings, the festival also features stalls with comics, books, posters and memorabilia, as well as DVDs and Blu-Rays, cushions and hot sauce. The stalls are set up in the foyer of Odeon Great Northern, offering many treats for festival attendees, affectionately known as Grimmlins.

Vincent’s Archive: Grimmfest 2023