One of the most popular events in the Irish film calendar, the IFI Horrorthon, returns for its 19th season from 27th to 31st October. Showcasing the very best in Irish and international horror film, this year’s festival promises to be one of the bloodiest, most terrifying, and most enjoyable yet!
Highlights of this year’s slate include the opening film, Sang-ho Yeon’s Train to Busan, in which passengers on a journey from Seoul to Busan are terrorised by a zombie outbreak. This year’s closing film is the Indonesian thriller Headshot, directed by Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto, which centres on an amnesic nursed back to health by a devoted doctor, until his violent past comes back to haunt him.
Commenting on the launch of the programme, Horrorthon spokesman Mick Fox said
Programming this year proved to be the most rewarding to date. We kept discovering truly excellent genre films that made us programme more new films than ever before. 2016 is an excellent year for horror films, for horror fans, and it can be all enjoyed at IFI, over the Halloween weekend.
New horror sensation Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau, involves a vegetarian who develops a taste for all types of flesh following a hazing incident in her college. One of the most controversial releases of 2016, an ambulance had to be called to the film’s Toronto Film Festival screening, amid reports of audience members passing out during the film’s more graphic scenes.
Irish films showing at the festival this year include Jason Figgis’s Don’t You Recognise Me?, set in Dublin’s seedy gangland, Zoe Kavanagh’s Demon Hunter, and Mark Sheridan’s Crone Wood, a chiller set in Wicklow that centres on a couple in the first flushes of love who make a disastrous decision to camp out in the eponymous woods overnight. Each of the directors will introduce their respective screenings.
Three classic Peter Cushing films will screen this year as part of the Horrorthon Honours strand: 1971’s Twins of Evil, based on a Sheridan le Fanu story, 1968’s Corruption, and 1970’s The Vampire Lovers. More recent classics also feature as part of the programme with a Friday night double-bill of David Cronenberg’s Oscar-winner The Fly starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, and Stephen Herek’s 1986 comedy horror Critters.
Horror maestro Rob Zombie’s new thriller 31 will screen as an Irish exclusive on the festival’s opening evening. Starring Malcolm McDowell as Father Murder, the film follows five unfortunate carnival workers who end up trapped in a compound at the mercy of a group of sadistic clowns. It’s a film that’s sure to strike fear into the heart of any coulrophobe!
Festival favourite, the Surprise Film, will also return this year in its regular Sunday night slot; last year’s film was the critically acclaimed gothic chiller The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers. Previous Surprise Films have included The Others, The Machinist, and Paranormal Activity. Also this year, IFI Horrorthon, in association with Universal Pictures, is pleased to announce a special preview screening of Ouija: Origin of Evil. This screening will take place outside the main festival on Tuesday October 18th.
Individual tickets for the IFI Horrorthon films are on sale now in person at the IFI Box Office, by phone on 01-6793477, or online at www.ifi.ie/horrorthon. Multiple film deals are available priced at €45 for 5 films, or €80 for 10 films, while a range of passes ranging from one to five days are also on sale either in person at the IFI Box Office or by phone.
As always, there will be range of special treats and offers available from the IFI Café Bar throughout the festival weekend.
Full festival schedule
Tuesday 18th October
20:30 Sneak Preview: Ouija: Origins Of Evil
Thursday 27th October
19:00 Train To Busan
21.25 From A House On Willow Street
23.10 31
23.10 Don’t You Recognise Me? – The screening will be introduced by director Jason Figgis.
23.20 Lost Solace
Friday 28th October
13.20 IFI Horrorthon Honours Peter Cushing: Twins Of Evil
15.00 Attack Of The Lederhosen Zombies
16.45 White Coffin
18.30 Raw
20.30 Lake Bodom
22.20 Double Bill: The Dark Tapes / The Rift
22.20 Double Bill: Hidden In The Woods / She Rises
22.30 Double Bill: The Fly / Critters
Saturday 29th October
13.00 IFI Horrorthon Honours Peter Cushing: Corruption
14.50 My Father Die
17.00 The Chamber – The screening will be introduced by director Ben Parker.
19.00 The Autopsy Of Jane Doe
21.00 Don’t Kill It
23.00 Dead And Buried
23.10 IFI Horrorthon Honours Peter Cushing: The Vampire Lovers
23.30 Demon Hunter – The screening will be introduced by director Zoe Kavanagh.
Sunday 30th October
13.10 Short Film Showcase
15.15 Egomaniac – The screening will be introduced by director Kate Shenton.
17.15 Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word
19.10 Surprise Film
21.10 Pet
23.00 Fright Night Part 2
23.10 Found Footage 3D
23.20 Crone Wood – The screening will be introduced by director Mark Sheridan.
Monday 31st October
13.00 Director’s Cut
14.50 Beyond The Gates
16.40 Let Her Out
18.30 Patchwork
20.30 Closing Film: Headshot