Grimmfest, Manchester’s International Festival of Fantastic Film, have now announced their full feature film lineup for 2023 and also unveiled their official poster (by Uncle Frank Productions ) The festival will be returning to regular venue the Odeon Great Northern in Manchester on October 6-8 to showcase the best in genre cinema. There are also some announced guests which always makes for a great experience at Grimmfest, being able to chat with some of those behind the films.

The evening before the main event, there’s a special preview screening of Joe Lynch’s SUITABLE FLESH and also screenings of the classic Tony Scott film ‘The Hunger’ and Paul Schrader’s Cat People.  You can get tickets for those screenings (and other Grimmfest screenings) HERE

Tony Scott’s masterwork of bisexual vampirism The Hunger, set in New York and stars David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon as the ill-fated eternal love triangle this is a rarely shown classic. Great film and a wonderful indicator of just how great a cinematic genius Tony Scott was and would become through his career.

Cat People (which is a remake of a 1942 film) is a strange one but a good one. After years of separation, Irena and her minister brother, Paul, reunite in New Orleans. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irena is drawn to the cat — and the zoo curator is drawn to her. Soon, Irena’s brother will have to reveal the family secret: that when sexually aroused, they turn into predatory jungle cats.

Also on Thursdays preview night are two startling short film premieres (Bug, and Sam & Doug) and the infamous Evolution of Horror pub quiz and then on Friday the 6th, the main fun begins.

Never screened outside of Japan, and believed lost for nearly 30 years, Banmei Takahashi’s 1988 classic, DOOR, combines deadpan domestic comedy, chilling stalker thriller and baroquely bloody home invasion horror. It finally had its international premiere at BIFAN in South Korea in July, and Grimmfest are hosting the first UK screening.

Kenichi Ugana’s LOVE WILL TEAR US APART encompasses dark and deadly romance, satiric slasher movie, psychological thriller and even some martial arts mayhem. Grimmfest will be hosting the UK premiere in Manchester, birthplace of Joy Division, whose music inspired the film’s title.

Mikhail Red’s Filipino psychological thriller DELETER (UK premiere) follows an overworked, emotionally and morally detached internet content moderator, haunted by her own repressed memories, and by the suicide of a co-worker, who starts to fear she is being by something more supernatural.

OBJECTION / GIVE ME AN A (UK premiere) responds to the recent overturning of Roe v Wade in the US. Conceived and co-ordinated by Natasha Halevi, it comprises 16 short pieces in which various female filmmakers and writers react to this assault on their rights.

Loosely inspired by Jenna Kanell’s own experiences of abuse and harassment following her appearance in the first TERRIFIER film, Raymond Wood’s FACELESS AFTER DARK (regional premiere), co-written by Kanell, deftly balances splatter, satire, vicarious vengeance and metacinematic mischief to offer a pointed critique of some of the more questionable aspects of the horror genre.

In Nicholas Tomnay’s WHAT YOU WISH FOR (regional premiere), Nick Stahl plays a down-on-his-luck chef fleeing gambling debts who assumes the identity of a dead friend, only to realise that he has, quite literally, bitten off more than he can chew.

Gerry Anderson meets Philip K. Dick in Evan Marlowe’s ABRUPTIO (English premiere). Entirely enacted by lifelike latex puppets, it features human bombs, social collapse and an alien invasion.

Miguel Azurmendi’s debut feature, KERATYNA (UK premiere) offers a surreal spin on REAR WINDOW for the age of the internet incel – a slow-burning psychological thriller invoking David Icke-style conspiracy theories.

EVIL EYE (regional premiere) sees Mexican maestro Isaac Ezban (THE SIMILARS, THE INCIDENT) moving away from the Twilight Zone sci-fi strangeness of his previous films and into full-blooded Latin American Gothic. Two young sisters are sent to stay with their sinister grandmother, who, they gradually start to suspect, might be a witch.

A search for her own murky origins as a product of the infamous “Lebensborn” Project leads a young nurse into a confrontation with Nazi Eugenics, Nordic-Teutonic folklore, and witchcraft, in Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s MOTHER SUPERIOR (English premiere), a subversively female-focused repurposing of classic 1970s-style Euro-horror tropes.

Tamae Garateguy’s AUXILIO (UK premiere) puts a spin on the notorious nunsploitation subgenre, conjuring vengeful ghosts, religious hypocrisy, political intrigues and family guilt.

Jenn Wexler’s THE SACRIFICE GAME (regional premiere) reinvents several classic genre tropes: home-invading Satanist psychos, sinister girls’ boarding schools, and alienated, victimised teens with dark secrets.

Quarxx’s PANDEMONIUM (regional premiere) presents an existential nightmare journey into the various hells of other people, drawing on cinematic and literary references ranging from Sartre to Angela Carter and Lovecraft to Lars Von Trier.

In Caya Casas’ THE COFFEE TABLE (UK premiere), a hapless husband’s desire to assert himself against his overbearing wife by buying a singularly hideous table unleashes a nightmarish chain of events that will destroy not only the couple themselves, but all of those around them. This is a film that will shake even the most hardened of genre fans.

In Travis Greene’s 8 FOUND DEAD (UK premiere), various characters find themselves unexpectedly double-booked at their AirBnB accommodation and facing an uncomfortable night with a decidedly sinister elderly couple, across three separate timelines.

Acting co-director Leonie Rowland says: “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.”

From the creative team of ABRUPTIO, composer and musician Patrick Savage (THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, A CURE FOR WELLNESS, BENEDETTA, COCAINE BEAR) will be in attendance.

Representing SAM AND DOUG, Grimmfest welcomes actor Elliot James Langridge (HABIT, NORTHERN SOUL).

And finally (for the moment), Mike Muncer, founder and host, and Becky Darke, returning guest and events coordinator, of podcast THE EVOLUTION HORROR will be presenting various events in and around the festival.

The full screening schedule, details of the shorts programmes, more festival guests and other events, will be released soon.

A full synopsis of all films is available at https://www.grimmfest.com/grimmfest-unveils-full-feature-film-lineup-for-2023/

You can head here https://grimmfest2023.eventive.org/passes/buy to get your passes 

Full festival passes are available now at https://www.grimmfest.com/festival/