Grimmfest 2025 Returns to Manchester With Exciting Stacked Lineup Including ‘Rabbit Trap’ & ‘The Other’
All horror fans within driving distance of Manchester had better cancel their plans this October. Between the 9th and the 12th of this month, Grimmfest 2025 will be playing twenty new genre-film releases, four of which will be world premieres, at the Odeon Great Northern in Manchester. On August 18, the festival’s website released the full list of these films, and it’s nothing short of a horror smorgasbord.
Horror Movies with Messages
One thing that really stands out about the Grimmfest 2025 list is the number of films that will clearly be aiming for more than sheer blood-curdling escapism. The world in which we live is terrifying enough to inspire any horror filmmaker, and at least six of this year’s Grimmfest releases are movies intended to be no less frightening in their societal commentary than in their thrills and chills.
In this category alone, the variety is exhilarating. Interested in seeing an unblinking look at the cultishness of fundamentalist extremism? Your film is Wormtown, described on Grimmfest‘s website as a film in which “parasitic mind controlling worms pair up with patriarchal religious fundamentalism.”
The real-world horror of racism, so richly mined in such superior genre films as Night of the Living Dead and Get Out, will be represented at Grimmfest 2025 by The Other, a malevolent-child horror film about an interracial adoption, and by Landlord, a vampire flick in which a Black bounty hunter is pitted against a vampire who has enslaved an apartment building.
Frankie, Maniac Woman, promises to be a searing examination of how women are oppressed in show business, while Squealers will follow animal-rights advocates who are stalked by some sinister meatpackers. Kombucha will be a satirical horror flick about the interplay of artistry and commercialism.
More Components of the Smorgasbord
If you’re looking for pure entertainment, your options at Grimmfest 2025 will be no less diverse. The revenge thriller Syphon will show a cyber-hacker getting his comeuppance, while Deviant will showcase what dangers can befall a horny user of the Tinder app. The festival’s requisite found-footage entry will be Tribe, a surreal horror film in which an amnesia victim struggles to piece together the fragments of his memory. Don’t Leave the Kids Alone will follow the terrifying ordeal of two children whose parents have not obeyed the titular mandate. And every horror festival needs a creature feature, which is where the shark-attack flick Beast of War will come in.
What’s more, Grimmfest 2025 promises more than enough throwback features to satisfy your appetite for retro-chic horror. There will be Past Life, in which repressed memories tie into some cold-case homicides dating back to the 1980s. There’ll be a folk-horror entry by the name of Rabbit Trap, starring Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen as a musical couple who start to lose touch with reality. And Dead by Dawn, in which a bunch of actors find themselves caught up in a very sinister occult ritual, will be a kind of latter-day giallo flick.
Varied, Bold, and Unique
Now, these are only some of the remarkable pictures that will be showcased at Grimmfest 2025. All in all, it promises a horror movie marathon like no other. If you have any love for horror (especially niche horror) and any ability to make it to the festival this October, don’t pass up this opportunity. There’ll be something for every horror fan at Grimmfest 2025, and in many cases, its attendees will be the very first audience members to see these films.
