Reece Shearsmith in Borley Rectory
When: 20th – 22nd October 2017
Where: Showroom Cinema, Sheffield, South Yorkshire
£: Weekend passes cost £85 or £75 for concessions
What is it?
This year’s Celluloid Screams, Sheffield’s horror film festival, will take place from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd October at the Showroom Cinema, offering a weekend packed full of the best new and classic horror.
The festival kicks off on the Friday with the Opening Gala screening of The Endless (Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead). Taking us further down the rabbit hole than ever before, this latest expedition into the unknown showcases the directors’ knack for innovative storytelling and subverting genre conventions.
Also on the Friday evening will be a screening of Borley Rectory with special guest, director Ashley Thorpe; and lurid black comedy 68 Kill (Trent Haaga).
The Saturday begins with I Remember You (Óskar Thór Axelsson) at 11am. Based on Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s best-selling novel, this supernatural scandi-noir is certain to send a shiver down your spine. An elderly woman hangs herself inside a church in the remote Westfjords of Iceland, which leads to an investigation into a number of strange deaths of elderly people in the region. Freyr, the new psychiatrist in town discovers that the deceased woman was obsessed with the disappearance of his 7-year-old son, who vanished without a trace three years prior. Across the bay in an abandoned village, three city dwellers are restoring a house when a series of supernatural occurrences begin to unfold.
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s The Endless
Also showing on the Saturday will be Habit, Simeon Halligan’s blood-soaked tale delving deep into of the underbelly of the city, where animalistic violence and savagery rule. Tragedy Girls (Tyler MacIntyre), a gory and entertaining bubblegum chiller about exploitation in the digital age, friendship between sociopaths, and the dangers of heavy gym equipment; and a special anthology screening of Inisde No. 9 with special guests Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, adding to Saturday’s chilling entertainment.
The second day of the festival will round off with a Celluloid Screams Secret Film at 9.45pm and the Sheffield Hallam University Midnight Gala with the 40th Anniversary restoration of Suspiria (Dario Argento).
For the final day of the festival there will be a screening of Tag (Sion Sono), which promises a deeply disorienting world, packed with hallucinatory imagery and vivid action set pieces, that will leave you questioning your own reality by the end.
Also on the Sunday will be a screening of Mayhem (Joe Lynch), a gleefully gory ode to office politics, and M.F.A. (Natalia Leite), a captivating revenge thriller tackling rape culture in modern society head-on with a fierce and unflinching intensity.
Mark Duplass, Creep 2 (Photo: Desiree Akhavan)
There’ll also be a 30th Anniversary screening of Hellraiser (Clive Barker) with special guests Nicholas Vince and Geoff Portass), and the UK Premiere of Creep 2 (Patrick Brice).
The festival will round-off with the Closing Gala screening of Better Watch Out (Chris Peckover) at 10pm. Halloween may be just around the corner, but the festival will look ahead to Christmas for their closing gala. In quiet suburban neighborhood, Ashley agrees to babysit for twelve year old Luke, an average kid whose parents are out for the evening. With his best friend Garrett along for moral support, Luke has lofty ambitions to prove to Ashley that he’s boyfriend material, but plans to confess his feelings go awry when the house comes under attack by unseen invaders.
All screenings will be open to Celluloid Screams pass holders. There are a limited number of tickets available for individual films, which can be purchased from the Showroom Box Office.
More info: celluloidscreams.co.uk