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Grimmfest · 2025

Grimmfest 2025

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20 films · 4 reviews

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Beast Of War

Review preview for Beast Of War

Roache-turner achieves a good balance of interpersonal drama and sudden, lurching scares, adding a dash of squaddie-style humour to ease the tension.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A group of young soldiers, fresh out of boot camp, find themselves stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean after their ship is sunk by the enemy, and must battle for their lives against a giant hungry great white shark.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2025; Director: Kiah Roache-Turner; Writer: Kiah Roache-Turner; Stars: Mark Coles Smith, Joel Nankervis, Sam Delich, Lee Tiger Halley, Sam Parsonson, Maximilian Johnson)

Full review

Dead By Dawn

Actors rehearsing at the mysterious Heissenhoff theatre face a deadly threat when a masked killer appears. The theatre, play, and murders are revealed to be part of an occult ritual.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2025; Director: Dawid Torrone; Writer: Dawid Torrone; Stars: Sylwia Boron, Monika Frajczyk, Adam Machalica, Piotr Nerlewsky, Lukasz Szeczepanowski)

Deviant

No details yet.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2024; Director: Daniel M Caneiro; Writer: Daniel M Caneiro; Stars: Urko Olazabal, Alain Hernández, Noelia Domínguez, Fernando Albizu, Gaston Haag)

Don't Leave The Kids Alone (No Dejes A Los Niños Solos)

A claustrophobic and psychological horror film about two competitive siblings alone in their new house.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2025; Director: Emilio Portes; Writer: Alan Maldonado, Emilio Portes; Stars: Ana Serradilla, Jesús Zavala, José Sefami, Paloma Woolrich, Juan Pablo Velasco)

The Driftless

A horror anthology set among the landscapes and mythologies of the US MidWest.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Tim Connery)

Forgive Us All

After helping a stranger on the run from a totalitarian regime, a woman is forced to flee her mountain home through a cannibal-infested forest.

(Country: New Zealand/Aotearoa; Year: 2025; Director: Jordana Stott; Writer: Jordana Stott, Lance Giles, Alex Makauskas; Stars: Lily Sullivan, Callan Mulvey, Richard Roxburgh, Lance Giles, Bree Peters, Lawrence Makoare)

Frankie, Maniac Woman

Review preview for Frankie, Maniac Woman

Tsigaridis and Silva weave comedy and tragedy together, letting each remain distinct, and in the process create a kind of discomfort that the genre rarely admits to.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Battling against the legacy of childhood trauma, internalised misogyny, and the image-obsessed fat shaming of the LA music business, aspiring singer-songwriter Frankie Ramirez finally snaps, with bloody results

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Pierre Tsigaridis; Writer: Dina Silva, Pierre Tsigaridis; Stars: Dina Silva, Rocío de la Grana, Jordan Kelly DeBarge, Stefanie Estes)

Full review

Itch!

Review preview for Itch!

The scenes of violent confrontation are relatively few, but mroe powerful for it... Kang wants us to see not just the physical effects of this, but the psychological effect on those doing harm.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Amid a mysterious deadly outbreak called the Itch. A widower and his estranged young daughter take sanctuary in a department store, only to realise the real terror is inside with them.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Bari Kang; Writer: Bari Kang; Stars: Bari Kang, Tim Andrews, Darrell Bowman, Gabriel Carter, Monica De Oliveira, Carl J Grasso, Phil Harris)

Full review

I See The Demon

At her surprise birthday party, an emotionally vulnerable woman experiences unexplainable phenomena that threaten to turn the best night of her life into a never-ending nightmare.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Jacob Lees Johnson; Writer: Martha Duzett, Jacob Lees Johnson, Davey Morrison; Stars: Alexis Zollicoffer, Noah Kershisnik, Mallory Everton, Jon Heder, Archelaus Crisanto, Dave Martinez)

Kombucha

A musician trapped in an office job tries the free kombucha, helping his co-workers hit their quotas with a smile. Unfortunately for him, the disgusting mucus drink has nasty side effects that give new meaning to being consumed by your work.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Jake Myers; Stars: Terrance Carey, Claire McFadden, Paige Bourne, Charin Alvarez)

LandLord

A Black bounty hunter moves into a rundown apartment complex, but finds herself forced to protect an orphaned boy from the white vampire landlord.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Remington Smith; Writer: Remington Smith; Stars: Adama Abramson, Cohen Cooper, William McKinney, Lance Gerard, J Barrett Cooper)

Lily's Ritual (El Ritual De Lily)

A young woman seeks revenge through witchcraft.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2025; Director: Manu Herrera; Writer: Javier Fernández Moratalla, Manu Herrera; Stars: Eve Ryan, Elena Gallardo, Maggie García, Patricia Peñalver)

The Other

Wanting to build a family, a childless couple fosters a young orphan, survivor of a tragic childhood. But their act of love turns to horror when they find themselves besieged by a malevolent entity intent on destroying the new family.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Paul Etheredge; Writer: Paul Etheredge; Stars: Olivia Macklin, Dylan McTee, Avangeline Friedlander, Lily D Moore, Shawnee Smith, Morgana Shaw, Denise Lee)

Past Life

When an unemployed reporter is hypnotised as part of a past life regression event, he wakes not with memories of life as royalty or some other glamorous person, but instead finds himself haunted by the memories of a serial killer.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Simeon Halligan; Writer: Ray Bogdanovich, Dean Lines; Stars: Jeremy Piven, Tim McInnerny, Nicholas Farrell, Aneurin Barnard, Pixie Lott, Emma Lau)

Rabbit Trap

Review preview for Rabbit Trap

The film’s success hinges on its unwillingness to take sides.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
When a musician and her husband move to a remote house in Wales, the music they make disturbs local ancient folk magic, bringing a nameless child to their door who is intent on infiltrating their lives.

(Country: US, UK; Year: 2025; Director: Bryn Chainey; Writer: Bryn Chainey; Stars: Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen, Jade Croot)

Full review

Squealers (Gibier)

Animal rights activists break into a slaughterhouse, unaware of the deadly game its owner has planned for them.

(Year: 2025; Director: Abel Ferry; Writer: Guillaume Chevalier, Abel Ferry; Stars: Mouloud Ayad, Olivier Gourmet, Kim Higelin)

Syphon

An unhoused man targets a rich man in a violent rampage.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Tom Botchii; Writer: Tom Botchii; Stars: Matt Stuertz, Jackie Kelly, Jeffrey Decker, Jennifer Cozza James, Shuhei Kinoshita, Molly Maloney)

Tribe

A desperate man lost in the west coast mountains has to reconstruct his past in order to step back from the edge of insanity

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Dan Asma; Writer: Dan Asma; Stars: Ray Buffer, Justina Biosah, Nicole Jones, Tyona Bowman, Keaton Asma)

Weekend At The End Of The World

Best friends Karl and Miles have an opportunity to strike it rich, the only thing that stands in their way is the end of the world.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Gille Klabin; Writer: Clay Elliott, Gille Klabin, Spencer McCurnin; Stars: Thomas Lennon, Troian Bellisario, Adam Ray, Tiffany Smith, Sujata Day)

Wormtown

When a cult that worships mind-altering parasites takes over a small town, a trio of women in lockdown are dragged into a fight for survival and revenge.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Sergio Pinheiro; Writer: Andrew James Myers; Stars: Caitlin McWethy, Rachel Ryu, Emily Soppe, Maggie Lou Rader, Madison Murrah, Jordan Mullins)