The Big Scream

Europe didn’t just create cinema. It also gave birth to the horror film.

From Georges Méliès’ The Haunted Castle (1896) to the iconic imagery of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) to modern day thrillers like Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil (2022), Europe has constantly influenced the tropes and iconography of the horror genre to make it what it is today. 

It’s been 10 years since B***it and the harrowing psychodrama that followed and while that political spasm has somewhat soured the relationship between us and our continental neighbours, we’re here to re-build bridges and celebrate their unique contribution to the horror genre with

The Big Scream: European Slaycation

Grab your passport, pack your bags and get ready for three nights of some of the most lurid, blood-soaked, sexually-charged and visually enticing cult horrors from the past 60 years courtesy of our European brothers, sisters and friends beyond the binary, as we take you from the dark shadowy streets of Rome, to the blood-drenched beaches of the Spanish coast and into the seedy underbelly of Dutch literary society (it’s more sordid than you think!)

This year’s sanguinary selection includes the film that cemented the giallo genre into the minds of audiences, Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace (1964), Paul Verhoeven's sexual thriller The Fourth Man (1983), gory French body horror Baby Blood (1990), the taboo-breaking thriller Who Can Kill A Child? (1976), the insanely entertaining theatre-set slasher Stagefright (1987), a rare opportunity to see the film that made giallo queen Edwige Fenech an international star, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971) and Dario Argento’s masterpiece Deep Red (1975).

So get ready for impossibly bright, crimson-red blood, neon-lit sets, gratuitous levels of nudity and lots of prog rock.

Let’s turn those blue passports red again.

PLUS we’ll be kicking off the festival with a selection of locally-made horror shorts courtesy of BFI NETWORK, complete with a Q&A with the filmmakers.