Scare yourself silly with Bristol Film Festival this spooky season

Scare yourself silly with Bristol Film Festival this spooky season

Posted on: 12 Oct 2023

October is well and truly upon us and it’s time to start planning your Halloween-themed events so why not treat yourself to an evening at the movies?

 

Bristol Film Festival’s Halloween season runs from Wednesday 18 October to Thursday 2 November 2023.

 

Film buffs will be able to immerse themselves into the world of claustrophobic caves, nightmarish folk rituals, lovesick teen vampires and a whole lot more with more than two weeks’ worth of spooky screenings planned.

 

Browse the full programme here or take a look at our top picks below…

 

 

Bristol Film Festival’s Halloween season kicks off with a quadruple bill on Wednesday 18 October. Audiences can choose between the beloved Addams Family Values at Arnos Vale Cemetary, time-warping extravaganza The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Bristol Improv Theatre, Pixar’s Day of the Dead tale Coco and Jordan Peele’s psychological horror, US.

 

In addition to a second screening of Rocky Horror, Thursday 19 will see screenings of kids’ monster romp Hotel Transylvania at Arnos Vale, Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton starring vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive and then vampire killer superhero/horror crossover Blade – both also at Arnos Vale.

 

 

On Wednesday 25, film buffs will be able to catch the first true horror film at St Mary Redcliffe with 1920 masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, accompanied with live music. The following day (Thursday 29), head to Averys Wine Cellars for cult vampire mockumentary, What We Do In The Shadows.

 

The double header on Friday 27, kicks off at Averys Wine Cellars with the legendary British horror adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now. Then, descend into the Redcliffe Caves for claustrophobic film The Descent – where better to watch a cave-based horror film than in a cave complex…?

 

 

Saturday 28 will once see five films screening, beginning with psychological rock music thriller Green Room at Screening Room. Then, Redcliffe Caves hosts screenings of Stephen King classics Pet Sematary, the Oscar winning, Misery and Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. Saturday will close with horror masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs at Averys Wine Cellars.

 

Sunday 29 is another bumper day down in Redcliffe Caves with House of Wax (1953) starring master of horror Vincent Price, white-knuckled survivor horror Don’t Breathe, sci-fi psych horror classic Cube, found-footage frightfest [REC], the Paris catacombs-based As Above, So Below and, finally, another screening of modern cult classic, The Descent.

 

 

Then it’s time for Halloween itself! Tuesday 31 sees two 50th anniversary specials screened at Bristol Museum: firstly, classic folk horror The Wicker Man, and secondly, William Friedkin’s Oscar winner, The Exorcist – two real masterpieces on the same day, at the same venue!

 

Across Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 November, The Mount Without will close the festival’s spooky season with screenings of three vampire flicks, namely 80s comedy-horror The Lost Boys, Francis Ford Coppola’s Gary Oldman-starring Bram Stoker’s Dracula and teen franchise opener, Twilight.

 

 

For a comprehensive look at Bristol Film Festival’s Halloween 2023 programme, head to the festival’s website.

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Article by:

Stanley Gray

Stan is a born and bred Bristolian, recently graduated from studying English Literature in Sheffield. His passions are music and literature and he spends the majority of his time in venues all over the city, immersing himself in Bristol’s alternative music scene. A lifelong Bristol City fan, Stan’s Saturdays are spent watching his team both home and away.