Forbidden Worlds festival announces ‘Big Scream’ Halloween weekend

Following its hugely successful inaugural event in May, Bristol’s Forbidden Worlds film festival returns to the former Bristol IMAX this Halloween to (metaphorically) splatter blood and giblets across the city’s largest cinema screen.

Full throttle: Ash (Bruce Campbell) in Evil Dead II. Pic: Park Circus/StudioCanal

The Big Scream programme, which runs from Friday 28-Sunday 30 October, is splendidly diverse. Those who crave classics old and new are rewarded with John Carpenter’s original Halloween, a 35th anniversary screening of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II, and James Whale’s 1935 masterpiece Bride of Frankenstein, with Boris Karloff as the monster and Elsa Lanchester (sporting that hairdo) as Mrs. Monster. Some might claim ’90s teen horror The Craft is a classic too, but that’s probably pushing it a bit

Ladies – ask your hairdresser for an iconic Elsa Lanchester. Bride of Frankenstein pic: Park Circus/Universal

It wouldn’t be Forbidden Worlds without films you might have expected to find in a 1980s video shop (ask your dad, or visit Twentieth Century Flicks). This time, they’re showing Fright Night, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and one of the more enjoyable entries in the ever-popular ‘semi-naked babes menaced by a psycho’ cycle, Slumber Party Massacre.

Slumber Party Massacre: sheer terror caused their clothes to fall off. Pic: Shout Factory

You’ll find the culty stuff deeper in the programme. Yet to sprout his distinctive moustache, future Jason King star Peter Wyngarde leads the cast of 1962 Brit horror Night of the Eagle, in which he plays a psychology prof who discovers that his naughty spouse (Janet Blair) is practising witchcraft. One of William Castle’s most entertaining gimmick flicks, The Tingler stars Vincent Price as a boffin who discovers a parasite that latches on to the human spine to feed on fear. Forbidden Worlds could neither confirm nor deny that they will be attempting to revive ‘Percepto!’ to tingle the audience.

Vincent Price and chum in The Tingler. Pic: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

Who could resist the concept of voodoo zombies versus the mob? From the makers of Blacula and Scream Blacula Scream, 1974 blaxploitation-horror crossover Sugar Hill casts Marki Bey as the badass girlfriend of a murdered nightclub owner who unleashes armies of the undead on the mobsters she holds responsible for his demise. You may wish to heed the festival’s warning: “This film contains racist language and jive-ass honkies”.

Blaxploitation meets horror in Sugar Hill. Pic: Orion Pictures Corporation

Connoisseurs of bizarro Far East horror will be treated to the new restoration of the Shaw Brothers’ genuinely bonkers The Boxer’s Omen, which swiftly loses interest in being a kung-fu flick and takes a turn for the surreal. Expect black magic and crocodile sex. There’s more martial arts in the festival’s equally bonkers closing film, Wolf Guy, in which Japanese star Sonny Chiba plays a cop with a lycanthropic secret.

The Big Scream poster design by Jim’ll Paint It

The technically minded may wish to note that films will will be projected from DCPs on a professionally installed Christie digital cinema projector. The screenings will not fill the full size of the former Bristol IMAX screen, but the projected image size will still be very big indeed.

Once again, you’ll be able to purchase branded Forbidden Worlds beer, courtesy of New Bristol Brewery. And this time, some films will be presented with descriptive subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Weekend and Day Passes for the festival are now on sale with individual screening tickets becoming available in a few weeks. Visit the Forbidden Worlds website for further information.

Main pic: Evil Dead II. Park Circus/StudioCanal

Read more: Next batch of films on Bristol’s biggest screen at the former IMAX cinema revealed