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Grimmfest 2020 will offer a roster of feature film premieres and shorts programmes across a new online platform.
This year has seen every film festival struggling to find ways to present new films to their audience safely, without risk of infection, in the midst of a global pandemic. And after long and serious discussion, Grimmfest will be going ahead in a new format for 2020.
Grimmfest's live event at the Odeon Great Northern, Manchester, will be postponed until spring 2021. But fear not, a new online alternative “virtual festival” will run from 7 - 11 October 2020 and will feature an exciting array of feature film premieres, shorts programmes, Q&As, talks and much more.
The online event will present over 19 features, two short film showcases, and an exclusive Q&A with the Master of Horror himself, Mick Garris (MASTERS OF HORROR, STEPHEN KING’S THE STAND), who will also be receiving a Lifetime achievement award.
And what’s more, Grimmfest have released info on the first tranche of exciting premieres that will screen as part of the new venture.
A focus on iconic female horror stars will feature Adrienne Barbeau (THE FOG) confronting a Faustian pact with a fracking company in the UK Premiere of UNEARTH. Grimmfest favourite Pollyanna MacIntosh (THE WALKING DEAD) revs up for the European premiere of girl-gang biker revenge flick REVENGE RIDE and, 34 years after TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, Caroline Williams returns to Stretch's midnight DJ slot for the European Premiere of vampire flick for the #MeToo era, TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
There's more female-centred horror in the UK premiere of Jose Luis Montesinos’ ROPES in which a wheelchair-bound woman finds herself trapped in an isolated house with a loyal service dog turned rabid.
Grimmfest continues to champion independent voices in horror, with a selection of soon-to-be cult classics. There's the UK premiere of South African psychedelic drug-trip alien possession movie, FRIED BARRY. FATAL ATTRACTION meets THE BLOB as Misogynous sexual mores encounter old school EC Comic style poetic justice in the UK premiere of B. Harrison Smith’s THE SPECIAL.
Body jacking parasites disrupt a polite dinner party with gory consequences in the European premiere of outrageous black comedy AN IDEAL HOST. THE BIG CHILL meets BATTLE ROYALE as a college camping trip turns into a fight for survival in the northern premiere of TRIGGERED. And an African American family on the run collides with cannibal Klansmen in the world premiere of DEATH RANCH, Charlie Steeds' delirious tribute to Seventies grindhouse and blaxploitation cinema, which suddenly feels all-too-uncomfortably topical.
Seventies cult cinema is evoked, too, in the UK premiere of URUBU, Alejandro
Ibáñez Nauta's homage to his own father, Spanish genre legend Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, whose most famous work, WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? is ruthlessly reimagined for a new generation.
Grimmfest will also host an exclusive panel on Iconic women in horror, featuring some of the stars of this year's selected films, talking about their careers.
Steve Balshaw, chief programmer, said: "We are selecting some fantastic genre movie premieres that people can enjoy from the safety of their own home. With so many titles already confirmed, this is shaping up to be a fine alternative.”
Simeon Halligan, festival director said: “We are indebted to the ODEON, who have worked with us to offer alternative ways to present the festival and are pulling out all the stops to help us make sure Grimmfest 2020/21 is a success. We are also pleased that our key Sponsor ‘Horror Channel’ are able to continue their support throughout 2020, enabling us to put on an amazing post lockdown celebration of genre cinema”.
Grimmfest 2020 full festival ‘Online’ passes are available now, from www.grimmfest.com
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