Grimmfest, Manchester’s International Festival of Fantastic Film, is delighted to announce the full feature film line-up for its 2026 edition, returning to Odeon Great Northern, Manchester, from 8–11 October. FULL DETAILS HERE
Four fear-filled days showcasing the bloody best in brand new genre cinema, with ferocious features, a savage selection of shorts, a hair-raising horror classic and more uncanny UK premieres than ever before.
Grimmfest audiences will have an exclusive opportunity to see many of these films long before their release, in a programme packed with World Premieres, International Premieres, UK Premieres and Northern UK Premieres.
This year’s feature film line-up brings an extraordinary collection of genre talent to the big screen, including Luke Hemsworth (WESTWORLD), Barbara Crampton (RE-ANIMATOR), Asia Argento (LAND OF THE DEAD), Maribel Verdú (PAN’S LABYRINTH), Belén Rueda (THE ORPHANAGE), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (THE TUDORS), Kevin Durand (ABIGAIL), Alyssa Sutherland (EVIL DEAD RISE), Toby Stephens (DIE ANOTHER DAY) and Matilda Lutz (REVENGE), among many others.
THE FOG — OPENING FILM
The festival kicks off with a special screening of John Carpenter’s classic THE FOG, with this year’s Grimmfest Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Adrienne Barbeau in attendance to accept the award and take part in a special Q&A.
VICTORIAN VILE
It has been a bumper year for period horror, and Grimmfest is celebrating with a selection of blood-soaked historical shockers.
French maestro Quarxx, director of Grimmfest favourite PANDEMONIUM, makes a welcome return with the UK Premiere of alternate reality morality tale, THE ONES WHO GRIEVE, which plays a little like THE WALKING DEAD reimagined by Ingmar Bergman.
Minos Papas reinvents and inverts the myth of Medea in 1880s Cyprus in the viscerally powerful and emotionally devastating Cypriot folk horror MOTHERWITCH, also a UK Premiere.
The English Premiere of MĀRAMA, Taratoa Stappard’s literate and elegantly brutal Māori Gothic, starringToby Stephens and the extraordinary Ariana Osborne, which reworks elements of JANE EYRE into a nightmarish exploration of colonial exploitation and cultural genocide.
SPANISH SCREAMS
This has also been a particularly strong year for Spanish and Spanish-language Horror, which has always proved popular at Grimmfest, and so, in response, the festival is delighted to introduce this dedicated Spanish-language strand, presented in association with the Cervantes Institute.
Combining social satire, Civil War guilt and the vengeful spectres of the Santa Compaña, Victor Català’s atmospheric 1970s Galician horror THEY ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT makes for an intriguing companion to THE FOG. World Premiere at Grimmfest.
Cristian Bernard’s UNDER YOUR FEET is a grimm fairy tale – Hansel & Gretel, by way of ROSEMARY’S BABY and SUSPIRIA, with standout performances from its young cast and anchored by a commanding turn from Spanish screen icon Maribel Verdú (PAN’S LABYRINTH). A UK premiere.
Also receiving their UK Premieres, two very different films from the versatile Jacob Santana, both featuring the great Belén Rueda (THE ORPHANAGE).
EVIL DRESS is an elegantly retro-styled mix of old school haunted house horror and perspective shifting possession drama, while REVERSION is a tricksy, slippery, paranoid psychological thriller, also starring Jaime Lorente (MONEY HEIST).
A UK Premiere, too, for Christopher Cartagena’s DISFORIA, a violent home invasion thriller set against a society in collapse, and the Regional UK Premiere of THE WHISPER, Gustavo Hernández’s (THE SILENT HOUSE) ferocious new horror which follows two siblings fleeing their bloodthirsty father, only to uncover an underground criminal ring and a haunting generational curse.
NEW NIGHTMARES
Outside of this year’s special programme strands, there’s a killer selection of World, International and UK Premieres.
Ángel Gómez Hernández’s gripping, intense, darkly funny and unexpectedly mean-spirited LA-set spider horror CRAWLERS, starring Matilda Lutz (REVENGE), delivers nerve-shredding creature thrills with a vicious satirical bite. UK Premiere.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (THE TUDORS) and Alyssa Sutherland (EVIL DEAD RISE) star in THE ROOM BELOW. Stephen King meets David Lynch in Kurt Martin’s chilling study of fairy tale thinking as psychopathic personality disorder, a Grimmfest International Premiere.
Lucky Cerruti puts a savage new spin on the familiar tale of city dwellers falling foul of small-town America in the unrelentingly bloody and brutal BOXCUTTER, a heartbreaking and horrifying Grimmfest World Premiere.
Damien Fannon returns to Grimmfest with the International premiere of his debut feature, IVAN. Developed from his earlier short, this timely exploration of A.I. blends the body horror of early Cronenberg with Fannon’s trademark domestic disquiet.
And there’s a UK premiere, too, for NEVER AFTER DARK. Dave Boyle’s gripping and emotive reboot of old-school J-Horror, which combines a nerve-jangling ghost story, disorientating temporal paradox, and a powerful exploration of survivor’s guilt.
Asia Argento heads an astonishing ensemble cast in Graham Guit’s brutal, breakneck-paced, pitch-black multi-character crime comedy, STRONGER THAN THE DEVIL, a UK premiere.
NORTHERN UK PREMIERES
The Northern UK Premiere selection is equally eclectic.
DEATHGASM 2: GOREMAGEDDON, Jason Lei Howden’s long-awaited and bat-shit-crazy sequel to Grimmfest 2014 crowd pleaser; heavy-metal horror-comedy hit, promises to turn the volume — and the gore — all the way up past 11.
Expanding his Grimmfest 2023 short, Tyler Savage’s ODDITIES reunites with Adrienne Barbeau while adding Lilimar, Lovie Simone, Xander Berkeley and Will Oldham. The result is a richly atmospheric slice of Lovecraftian horror with more than a touch of Tobe Hooper.
GRIND, an uncompromising, grimly hilarious anthology that savagely skewers the gig economy. From directors Brea Grant, Chelsea Stardust and Ed Dougherty, it features an ensemble cast including Barbara Crampton, Matt Mercer and Rob Huebel.
Already a firm festival favourite, SICKO [AURU], from Kazakh director Aitor Zholdaskali, is a pitch-black satire on influencer culture, social media grifting and medical malpractice, as desperate self-preservation descends into greed and brutal violence.
THE GLORIOUS DEAD, from prolific Upstate New York mavericks The Adams Family (MOTHER OF FLIES), imagines a post-Rapture world where the darkest vision of Evangelical Christianity has come true, leaving a laid-back small-town sheriff to face a world gone to literal Hell.
And ambition, authorial delusion, and toxic nerd culture are under the microscope in Steve Pink’s elegantly structured, morally slippery and unexpectedly brutal blackly comic crime conundrum, TERRESTRIAL.
And there is still one more surprise feature film to be announced…
The festival’s short film programmes, guest list and complete schedule will be announced very soon. Watch this space.