After the notable outlier that is London’s FrightFest, the autumn is when a large share of the UK’s horror and genre film festivals tend to get going. And, in its usual late October slot, Sheffield-based fest Celluloid Screams has recently announced its full 2025 programme, with weekend passes about to go on sale (midday on Saturday 13th September). As ever, it looks great: the festival will be showing a blend of home-grown and world cinema, mystery grindhouse, classic horrors and a sizeable roster of short films (which often wind up being my favourite films of any festival).
Before mentioning some of my own highlights from the programme, it might be useful to mention a few points about Celluloid Screams which might sway people who are interested, but don’t know Sheffield very well. Firstly, if you don’t drive, the venue for the festival is about two minutes’ walk from Sheffield’s main railway station, or a couple of minutes longer from the bus station. There’s reasonably priced parking, lots of cheap places to eat within walking distance of the venue, or a decent cinema café serving alcohol, coffee and meals. There are lots of hotels nearby, some of them budget, and the passes/tickets themselves are very reasonable, considering a weekend pass will also get you into all the extra events – speakers, exhibitions and so on (more below). If you’ve heard of the festival but ‘never got around to it’ for any reason, it’s well worth a look and it’s hosted by a friendly, knowledgeable bunch who have been at it for years – you really couldn’t ask for a better crew or a nicer, more appreciative audience.
Onto the programme…
This year, the festival’s opening gala screening is none other than Tina Romero’s first feature Queens of the Dead. If her father enjoyed giving screentime to various and quite diverse zombified members of the public (I’ll always wonder about that Hare Krishna guy), then Tina Romero has gone a little further by placing her take on a zombie outbreak at the doors of a drag show at a Brooklyn nightclub. On a similar note, and one of the most fun, noteworthy spins on the zombie genre in its own right, the festival will also be showing Return of the Living Dead in honour of its fortieth anniversary: if Tar Man doesn’t get a round of applause, I’ll be very surprised…
There are other classics: look out for Seventies portmanteau horror in the form of Tales From The Crypt (with Joan Collins proving she was every bit a horror starlet before she dedicated her time to soap opera) and – yes, it’s nearly twenty years old – there’s a 4K restoration of Pascal Laugier’s raw, philosophical and bloodily divisive Martyrs. There will also be a mystery 35mm grindhouse screening just before midnight on Saturday – last year it was Pieces, so that gives an idea of the type of film which tends to occupy this slot…
New titles include Mother of Flies, the newest title by festival alumni The Adams Family – with John and Lulu Adams around to introduce their film and host a Q&A after the screening. Witchcraft on film – and what is arguably a newer, more savage renaissance of this subject matter in the past decade or so, is of particular interest to this writer, so the Adams family take on the topics of illness, magic and belief can’t come soon enough.
There’s more uncanny and disquiet in Kier-La Janisse’s The Occupant of the Room (based on a classic story by Algernon Blackwood), and a discussion with the director and writer herself afterwards.
Heading into more modern horror terrain, Man Finds Tape (directed by Paul Gandersman and Peter S. Hall) offers a spin on the modern horror fascination with recorded footage, particularly analogue footage – as siblings discover a series of mysterious video recordings which suggest a disturbing secret, threatening their Texas town.
There’s also been a big uptick in sensory horror of late, from Birdbox to The Undertone, and the UK premiere of Noise (directed by Kim Soo-jin) a character with a hearing impediment, haunted by sounds which seem to relate to her sister’s disappearance.
If you prefer a bit more fantasy and OTT fare then the name ‘Steven Kostanski’ alone should do you; this year, his new title, the fantasy epic Deathstalker will be screening. There’ll also be a new instalment of unintentionally-hilarious Public Information films in the form of Scared Safe Vol. 2 (the festival ran a compilation of PIFs a decade ago, and oh god, they’ve found a load more!)
The closing gala this year belongs to festival favourite Julia Ducournau, whose film Titane took off the roof when it screened four years ago. This year, her new feature Alpha promises to follow another uniquely troubled teen on her own path to reckoning – and it’s sure to be an experience. Will it be divisive? Almost certainly, given the discourse and discussion already out there. Will it be worth seeing and experiencing? Absolutely.
This is of course just a snapshot: head over the festival website now to check out the complete programme and for those all-important festival passes, you need the Showroom Cinema site – with day passes and individual tickets going on sale later. Happy purchasing!