A 4-day horror film festival takes over the Great Northern this weekend

A four-day horror film festival is set to take over the Odeon Cinema at Manchester’s Great Northern Warehouse this weekend.

Running from Thu 9 Oct – Sun 12 Oct, GRIMMFEST hosts a whopping selection of 22 brand-new feature films, record numbers of World and International premieres and a special guestlist of global stars.

The festival launches with the World Premiere of PAST LIFE — a psychological thriller filmed in Manchester by Grimmfest co-founders Simeon Halligan and Rachel Richardson-Jones. Starring Jeremy Piven (Entourage, Mr. Selfridge), Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk), Tim McInnerny (Blackadder, Gladiator II), and Pixie Lott, the film promises a twisted descent into regression therapy, repressed memory, and unsolved crimes of the 1980s.

Also on opening night, the International Premiere of Weekend at the End of the World will welcome director Gille Klabin (The Wave) and stars Cameron Fife and Clay Elliot for a riotous absurdist horror comedy about two drunken idiots holding the fate of the universe in their hands.

GRIMMFEST Friday highlights

• Landlord – A gritty, politically charged vampire reimagining presented by director Remington Smith.
• I See the Demon – A psychedelic psychological thriller, introduced by director Jacob Lees Johnson and actress Alexis Zollicoffer.
• Tribe – Found footage, folklore and conspiracy collide, with director Dan Asma and star Justina Biosah in attendance.
• Frankie Maniac Woman – Grimmfest favourite Pierre Tsigaridis (Two Witches) returns alongside lead actress Dina Silva for a fearless story of female rage and empowerment.

GRIMMFEST Saturday highlights

• Incomplete Chairs – Prolific Japanese auteur Kenichi Ugana (Love Will Tear Us Apart) brings his anarchic satire of creative obsession to the UK for the first time.
• The Driftless – Writer-director Tim Connery unveils the World Premiere of his lyrical Midwestern anthology of dark folklore.

GRIMMFEST Sunday highlights

• Lily’s Ritual – World Premiere. Director Manu Herrera leads a delegation of cast and crew for this lavish homage to 80s and 90s occult horror.
• Kombucha – A North West Premiere, billed as “Cronenberg’s Office Space,” introduced by director Jake Myers.
• Wormtown – International Premiere with director Sergio Pinheiro, cinematographer Roy Rossovich, and producers Andy Myers and Aaron Mack.

GRIMMFEST 2025 premieres

• World Premieres: Syphon, The Driftless, Lily’s Ritual, Frankie Maniac Woman.
• International Premieres: Landlord, I See the Demon (starring Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder), Tribe, Wormtown, Weekend at the End of the World, Itch, Incomplete Chairs.
• European Premiere: Forgive Us All, starring *Lily Sullivan, Callan Mulvey and Richard Roxburgh.
• UK Premieres: Squealers, The Other, Beast of War, Don’t Leave the Kids Alone.
• Northern Premieres: Rabbit Trap (starring Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen), Deviant, Dead by Dawn, Kombucha.
• Pre-Release Screening: Good Boy — a supernatural thriller told from a dog’s point of view.

For more information, timings and tickets, head over to the GRIMMFEST website.