Halloween Horrors Ahoy

If you’re looking for something just a little bit different to scare you shitless this Halloween, permit local filmmaker Ben Steiner to fulfil your bowel-loosening needs. Eighteen months ago, Ben organised his first horror short film night at the Cube. This proved a big success, despite starting by mistake with Cockfight – the most hardcore film of the evening. (“It’s a kind of Cuban Fight Club with added buggery,” he informs us, helpfully.)

Ben immediately started planning a follow-up event. But there was a problem. “There are a lot of horror short films out there but so many of them are generic and predictable to the point where they’re actually reassuring rather than frightening or disturbing,” he reports. After a year and a half of scouring the world’s most grisly film festivals, he’s come up with a sextet of stomach-turning delights.

Eyes down for the full line-up if you dare:

Heir

A trangressive award winner described by its distributor as “a monster movie unlike any other. It is a bleak and fantastical examination of one of society’s darkest taboos that aims to stimulate the mind and wrench the gut with equal power.”

Skuld

A 30 minute Faroese horror said to be “like a Danish Ghost story for Christmas”.

The Sunken Convent

Another Danish film, this one’s a very loose adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen yarn.

A Nearly Perfect Blue Sky

A recently released 40 minute film by oddly named French director Quarxx. Ben tells us: “It’s extremely intense but also very sensitive, beautifully acted and shot.”

The Herd

An award-winner whose director, Melanie Light, recently moved to Bristol and will be present to provide an introduction. It’s described as a brutal and harrowing work with a heartfelt vegan/feminist message. “I actually stopped drinking milk because of it,” Ben reveals.

The Flea

Hey – it’s Ben’s event, so he can show one of his own films if he wants to. The Flea, which, he tells us cryptically “may or may not be about a pair of estranged vampire hunters” has been enjoying a second film festival life off the back of the success of his more recent short, The Stomach. 

The Horror Shorts 2 event takes place at the Cube on Saturday, 29 October, with the first film on screen at 8pm. Advance tickets are available here.

If that doesn’t appeal, you have plenty of other options on and around Halloween, with more likely to be announced soon.

On Wednesday 26 October, there are two al fresco screenings at spooky ol’ Arnos Vale Cemetery: Hocus Pocus and The Lost Boys.

From Friday 28-Sunday 30 Oct, Bristol Film Festival presents a Horror in the Caves weekend in Redcliffe Caves, plus a drinkalong screening of vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows in Averys wine cellar (Fri 28) and ’70s horror The Medusa Touch at one of its key locations – Bristol Cathedral (Sat 29). See our news story here for full details of these.

On Friday 28, The Hellfire Video Club is showing super 8 splatter flick The Dead Next Door at the Cube. Over at the Curzon on the same evening, you can catch Nic Roeg’s great adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. The following night, the Curzon is screening Kubrick’s classic, The Shining.

On Halloween itself (that’s Monday 31, fact fans), Brian De Palma’s Carrie is showing at the Cube, while both of Bristol’s Showcase cinemas get into the jolly spirit of the occasion with William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. Keep an eye on our comprehensive daily film listings for more info as we get it.

Read more: Bristol Film Festival’s spooky Halloween