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Festival coverage

Grimmfest

3 October – 6 October 2019

Harpoon
Harpoon

There were six European premières among the films at 2019's Grimmfest in Manchester, which had a focus on women in horror and opened with Abigail Blackmore's Tales From The Lodge.

The festival ran from 3 to 6 October.

View complete schedule

Other years (12)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Blood Vessel
    Review preview for Blood Vessel

    This is a B-movie, there's no denying that, but it's a B-movie made with love and no small measure of skill.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    Somewhere in the North Atlantic, late 1945. A lift raft adrift at sea, and in it, the survivors of a torpedoed hospital ship: With no food, water, or shelter, all seems lost - until an abandoned German minesweeper drifts ominously towards them, giving them one last chance at survival.
  • The Wretched
    Review preview for The Wretched

    The tropes it uses are old ones but simplicity works in their favour, adding to the sense that there are uncanny powers at work and that nothing is quite what it seems.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parent's imminent divorce, faces off with a thousand year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door.
  • 1BR
    Review preview for 1BR

    Marmor resists the temptation to over-explain, yet every time you think you see a way out, some new confounding factor will emerge.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Terror in an apartment complex.
  • The Shed
    Review preview for The Shed

    Sabatella's film makes its central location surprisingly effective.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    Stan lives with his abusive grandfather and tries to protect his best friend from high school bullies. When he discovers a murderous creature has taken refuge inside his tool shed, he tries to battle the demon alone until his bullied friend discovers it and develops a far more sinister plan.
  • Artik
    Review preview for Artik

    A film that feels very immediate and real despite its extreme premise.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A comic book obsessed serial killer teaches his son how to get away with a series of brutal murders until the boy befriends a mysterious man who threatens to expose everything.
  • Rabid
    Review preview for Rabid

    Rose has the qualities of an archetypal, folkloric figure, enduring the same events over and over again in different places, in different forms.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A remake of David Cronenberg's original, in which experimental plastic surgery leads to a sudden outbreak of disease.
  • A Serial Killer's Guide To Life
    Review preview for A Serial Killer's Guide To Life

    There's a good supply of bloody violence which will entertain horror fans and any number of people who have limited patience for those selling dubious remedies or telling them to smile more.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A frustrated thirtysomething woman stuck in a small seaside town meets a charismatic life coach who promises to transform her world with alternative therapy - and who is also a serial killer.
  • Why Don't You Just Die
    Review preview for Why Don't You Just Die

    The characters are beautifully drawn and the performances finely balanced in a film with a lot more going on upstairs than its preoccupation with violence might suggest.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A dark action comedy about a group of people brought together in the apartment of police detective Andrei: his resentful daughter, an angry thug and a cheated cop. Each one of them have a reason to want revenge.
  • Harpoon
    Review preview for Harpoon

    Held together by three impressive performances, with Tyra the standout, Harpoon deftly plays with audience assumptions and sympathies, exploiting our prejudices as each character gradually reveals hitherto unseen depths.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Rivalries, dark secrets, and sexual tension emerge when three best friends find themselves stranded on a yacht in the middle of the ocean under suspicious circumstances.
  • Satanic Panic
    Review preview for Satanic Panic

    Satanic Panic is one of those films that's a lot smarter underneath than it looks on the surface.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A pizza delivery girl at the end of her financial rope has to fight for her life - and her tips - when her last order of the night turns out to be high society Satanists in need of a virgin sacrifice.

A–Z of Grimmfest 2019 reviews

Features

  • Adapt to survive
    David Marmor on locations, violence, rental nightmares and 1BR
  • Against the odds
    David Marmor on how neither fire not disappearing actors could stop him making 1BR
  • Messing about in boats
    Rob Grant on superstition, Harpoon and the art of keeping still
  • The magpie
    Lauren Ashley Carter talks fight scenes, troubled characters, animal inspiration and Artik
  • Getting under the skin
    The Soska sisters on Rabid, female relationships, #MeToo and being back at Frightfest
  • Challenging images
    The Soska sisters on David Cronenberg, plastic surgery, transhumanism and remaking Rabid
  • A woman's story
    Pollyanna McIntosh on Darlin’ and the wildness in all of us