Grimm Up North has been Manchester’s dealers of under-the-counter horror on the big screen for four years now. In addition to its annual horror and cult film festival (which celebrates the finest in independent horror cinema, including in 2012 one of the holy grails of modern horror, the new Cabal cut of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed), Grimm Up North brings terror and squalor to the otherwise reputable Dancehouse on a monthly basis. This Friday sees the North West premiere of the gritty V/H/S, a testament to video nasties of old: a gang of petty criminals are mysteriously hired to retrieve footage, but have to make their way through a stack of VHS tapes found next to the body of a woman. The tapes get weirder and more disturbing as six different directors provide six movies within a movie. Seasonal carnage comes in the form of Christmas Evil, a 1980s yuletide slasher with a crazed Santa acting as judge, jury and exectutioner over his bullying co-workers. Alongside this double bill will be Grimm’s usual selection of DVDs, posters, T-shirts and cheap beer. Who needs the Christmas markets?

Fri 14 Dec, The Dancehouse Theatre, 10A Oxford Road, M1 5QA, Tel: 0161 237 1413, 7.15pm, £7.50, www.grimmfest.com

Fri 14 Dec
Words:
Agent J
Published on:
Thu 13 Dec 2012