Now approaching its teens, Grimmfest has firmly cemented its place on the UK horror film festival circuit. However, as you might well expect, the (normally) Manchester-based festival looks very different in 2020. This year it’s packed-up its mask and moved online. Fear not, because you’re still going to be treated to twenty new features, a short film programme, Q&As, seminars and an audience with Mick Garris. All from the comfort of your own home.
Grimmfest takes place between 7-11 October. Some of the feature film highlights are:
The Oak Room
During a raging snowstorm, a drifter returns home to the blue-collar bar located in the remote Canadian town where he was born. When he offers to settle an old debt with a grizzled bartender by telling him a story, the night’s events quickly spin into a dark tale of mistaken identities, double-crosses and shocking violence.
Urubu
Tomás, birdwatcher and photographer, tries to give his career a push by taking an impossible photograph: an albino Urubú never seen outside captivity. To this end, he drags his wife and daughter to the Amazonian forest.
12-Hour Shift
It’s 1998 and over the course of one 12 Hour Shift at an Arkansas Hospital, A Junkie Nurse (Angela Bettis), Her Scheming Cousin (Chloe Farnworth) and a group of black market Organ-Trading criminals (Mick Foley, David Arquette, Dusty Warren) start a heist that could lead to all of their demise.
It Cuts Deep
While on Christmas vacation, a young couple contemplates their future together. Ashley is interested in getting married and having kids which terrifies Sam. When the more attractive and paternal Nolan enters the picture, Sam’s life spirals out of control as Ashley questions their relationship. Chaos reigns as Sam desperately clings to Ashley while fending off the threatening Nolan.
Fried Barry
An alien assumes control of a man’s body and takes it for a bizarre joyride through Cape Town, South Africa.
Unearth
Unearth follows two neighbouring farm families whose relationships are strained when one of them chooses to lease their land to a gas company. In the midst of growing tension, the land is drilled, and something long dormant and terrifying, deep beneath the earth’s surface is released.
Alone
Set in the Pacific Northwest wilderness, the film follows recently widowed Jessica who, fleeing the city in a desperate attempt to cope, is kidnapped and locked away in a mysterious man’s cabin. Her escape from the clutches of this murderous captor land her in the heart of the untamed wilderness, with only her wits to rely on for survival as her pursuer closes in.
To purchase tickets and passes (for exclusive content), and to find out more, visit the Grimmfest website.
