Manchester’s biggest horror festival returns to paint the town red

One of the best horror and genre film festivals in the world returns to Manchester

Ladies and gentlemen, October is here.

It may feel like September only just started and you’re sure you had a tan just last week but, believe me, those people you hate on Facebook are tracking Santa already.

But there is still hope for the grinches and grinchettes amongst us.

Because Grimmfest has arrived in Manchester.

If you live in Manchester and love horror films (or horror-comedy, zom-com, or indie movies) then you almost certainly know about Grimmfest. It’s when Mancunians pack themselves into screening rooms to watch the latest and greatest horror movies that the world has to offer.

Not only is it the most popular horror festival in the northwest but the biggest film festival in Manchester and one of the top 40 genre film festivals in the world.

For well over a decade, Simeon Halligan and the Grimmfest team have filled Manchester venues with film fans of all ages from cosplaying students to retirees arriving on a bus pass.

Most mainstream horror movies are terrible. Ask any film buff and they’ll tell you.

Although fans are occasionally blessed with a sleeper hit, it’s a sad fact that for every Get Out there are about half a dozen different takes on Ouija. When you add prequels, sequels, remakes and reboots to the list, the horizon gets pretty bleak for veteran gore-hounds everywhere.

And that’s why events like Grimmfest are so important.

Presented by Grimm Up North, Grimmfest is the North West’s largest festival celebrating independent horror, sci-fi and cult movies. Although the festival team provide screenings and mini-festivals all throughout the year, Grimmfest is their crowning achievement – a film event which brings the best new horror movies right to your doorstep.

Because the truth is that real horror movies don’t live in Hollywood. They crawl out from underneath the woodwork. They inhabit the damp corners and the dark spaces of our cultural psyche.

The best horror movies are the ones that creep up behind you.

For anyone who doesn’t know (and believe me, you really should), the aim of Grimmfest is simple- bring the best horror-and-genre films in the world to Manchester, and show off all the local talent it can dig its bloody little claws into.

What’s on at Grimmfest 2024?

ARGENTINE HORROR DOUBLE BILL: THE RETURNED & MURDER ME MONSTER

6.30pm 15/11/24 | Cervantes Institute, Deansgate, Manchester, UK

In these stories, bodies suffer, mutate, revive, and resist.

Fear permeates the vitiated atmospheres, landscapes inhabited by a spectral presence, and bonds crossed by violence.

This cycle, “Body, Destruction, and Death in Contemporary Argentine Horror Films,” explores this aesthetic and thematic variety.

The Returned (2019) dir. Laura Casabé
In 1919 South America, a landowner’s wife, desperate for a child after multiple miscarriages, prays to a mythical deity to resurrect her stillborn son. The plan works, but with the child comes something else—something evil.

Murder Me Monster (2018) dir. Alejandro Fadel
A rural police officer investigates the mysterious case of a woman found headless, with the main suspect blaming a legendary monster.

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ARGENTINE HORROR DOUBLE BILL: TERRIFIED & BREATHE: TRANSGENESIS

6.30 pm 8/11/24 | Cervantes Institute, Deansgate, Manchester, UK

Continuing the cycle “Body, Destruction, and Death in Contemporary Argentine Horror Films,” this double bill delves into the unsettling themes of fear and violence.

Terrified (2017) dir. Demián Rugna
A Buenos Aires neighbourhood is shaken by paranormal events: disappearances, the unsettling presence of dead people who won’t disappear, mysterious voices, and strange murders, as a group of investigators search for answers.

Breathe: Transgenesis (2019) dir. Gabriel Grieco
After accepting a job as a fumigator pilot in the countryside, Leonardo discovers a dark secret in the town that endangers him and his family.

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THE FOG & CHRISTINE

6.40 pm 1/11/24 | Minicini, Ducie Street Warehouse
Join in with a classic John Carpenter double bill to celebrate the Halloween season with two iconic horror films that will chill and thrill!

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It was first published on 23 October 2024 and is subject to be updated from time to time. Please refresh or return to see the latest version.

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