Dark Hedges Film Festival Quiz
2025-08-29 20:00 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | The Sunflower Public House, 65 Union Street, Belfast, BT1 2JG, United Kingdom
Join the Members of the Dark Hedges Film Festival team for a fundraising quiz for this year’s programme.

Test your movie knowledge as we aim to get in the mood for this year’s spooky season!

The event will be co-hosted by BanterFlix’s Jim McClean and local cosplayer Joanne Alexander (Hedgescout) with questions prepared by members of the festival’s team Joe Mc Elroy, Victoria Brown and Therese Hyland

Prizes are up for grabs, including one for best team name

Tickets for £3 each, max 4 people per team.

Carrie Prom Night at Ashfield Girls School
2025-10-22 19:00 - 22:30 | Ashfield Girls School, 397 Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 1RT, United Kingdom
As part of the BFI’s nationwide season Too Much: Melodrama on Film, Ashfield Girls High School becomes the perfect stage for Brian De Palma’s unforgettable Carrie. A landmark of horror-infused melodrama that remains as shocking, stylish and emotionally powerful today as when it first hit screens in 1976.

In partnership with Banterflix’s Belfast International Horror Festival – under their theme of Female Rage!

Adapted from Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie follows shy teenager Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), tormented at school and oppressed at home, whose repressed powers erupt with devastating consequences on prom night. With its heightened emotions, gothic score, and explosive finale, Carrie is both terrifying and tragic – a portrait of bullying, repression and rage that speaks powerfully to young audiences.

Step into Ashfield’s school hall and atrium for immersive prom-night activities, before settling into the Drama Studio for the film. This immersive, youth-led event will be co-created with Ashfield’s Media students, who will design posters, décor and wraparound activities to make the screening a night to remember. Open to school attendees and the general public – you are invited to arrive early for pre-show experiences including:

Special Introduction

Prom dress theme – dress up and step into the story

Student-designed posters to take home as keepsakes

Cinema shop with popcorn and treats available

Gore station – practical effects for audience by the students (with training)

Prom photo booth & punch bowl hosted by Banterflix

Decor & atmosphere designed with students, including balloon arch and streamers

Vote for Prom King & Queen – with prizes on the night

Super 8 – *Optional* stay for a special Super 8 cut of Carrie (20mins) – see how they edited it down for home viewing!

Part of BFI’s Too Much: Melodrama on Film season, this event invites audiences to rediscover Carrie as a quintessential melodrama: a story of unbearable pressure, raw emotion and devastating release as relevant and relatable today as ever.

Check out more events within this year’s BIHF programme.

Location

Tickets £10 for adults, Teenagers £8

Ashfield Girls High School,397 Holywood Rd, Belfast BT4 1RT

Carpark available and parking on Holywood Road – 3a bus close by (last bus at 10.40pm)

Braindead & Chainsaws Were Singing (The Comedy of Horror)
2025-10-23 19:00 - 23:00 | The Beanbag Cinema, 23, Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 2FF ·, United Kingdom
BIHF presents a fiendish double-bill as they screen a cult classic alongside a new feature as part of the “Comedy of Horror’ strand within this year’s festival.

First up is Peter Jackson’s zombie comedy splatter Braindead (1992), in which a young man’s mother is bitten by a hybrid rat-monkey creature and begins to transform into a zombie, while also infecting swathes of south Wellington’s populace.

Jackon’s film will be followed by Sander Maran’s absolutely bonkers Chainsaws Were Singing, a horror-musical-comedy from Estonia.

Check out more events within this year’s programme here.

Tammy and the T-Rex & Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill (The Comedy of Horror)
2025-10-24 19:00 - 22:00 | The Beanbag Cinema, 23, Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 2FF ·, United Kingdom
BIHF presents a fiendish double-bill as they screen a cult classic alongside a new feature as part of the “Comedy of Horror’ strand within this year’s festival.

First up is Stewart Raffill’s body swap horror comedy Tammy and the T-Rex (1992) in which an evil scientist implants the brain of murdered high-school student into a Tyrannosaurus who escapes then wreaks vengeance on his high-school tormentors.

That film will be followed by Irish filmmaker Zoe Kavanagh’s Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill.

Demon Hunter Tayrn Barker is sent through time alongside a band of teenagers to the year 1987 and must protect the group from a notorious summer camp slasher, whilst also trying to find a finding a way back home to the present.

The Belfast International Horror Festival aims to screen an exciting mix of new features and short films from filmmakers around the world to audiences here in Belfast.

Originally established by BanterFlix in 2020 as the Dark Hedges Film Festival it was rebranded in 2020 into the Belfast International Horror Festival

the 2025 programme runs from the 22- 31 October. Check out events here.

I Live Here Now (Irish Premiere)
2025-10-25 18:00 - 20:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
Fresh from screenings at the Fantasia and Edinburgh International Film Festivals this year, BIHF present the Irish Premiere of writer/ director Julie Pacino’s feature debut I Live Here Now.

With shades of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, a young woman checks herself in a derelict hotel and Nightmarish visions from her past come to haunt her.

Pacino’s feature is a darkly humorous psychological horror about female pain and identity.

Check out more events within this year’s programme here.

The Descent 20th Anniversary with Special Guest Shauna Macdonald
2025-10-25 20:30 - 23:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
BIHF celebrates the 20th anniversary of The Descent by welcoming one of the film’s stars Shauna Macdonald to Belfast for a special screening of Neil Marshall’s claustrophobic horror classic.

When a caving expedition goes horribly wrong a group of women become trapped underground and find themselves pursued by a strange breed of predators.

Afraid of the dark? You will be!

Check out more events within this year’s programme here.

Bride Of Frankenstein (90th Anniversary)
2025-10-26 13:00 - 15:00 | Harland & Wolff Staff Club, 8-10 Dundela Ave, belfast, BT4 3BQ ·, United Kingdom
BIHF teams up with the Strand Cinema for a screening off James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester at the Harland & Wolff Staff Club to celebrate the film’s 90th anniversary

After recovering from injuries sustained in the mob attack upon himself and his creation, Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) falls under the control of his former mentor, Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), who convinces him to build his monster a mate.

Local author Victoria Brown will introduce the film and host a post screening discussion about the theme of female rage as represented within the horror genre.

Check out more events within this year’s programme here.

Ginger Snaps (Never Seen it Film Club)
2025-10-26 18:00 - 22:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
BIHF has teamed up with Accidental Theatre’s Never Seen it Film Club for a screening of Ginger Snaps (2000) as part of the female rage strand within their festival’s programme.

Directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, this Canadian horror was based on an idea they worked on together.

Two outcast sisters, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) live in suburban town of Bailey Downs, but on the night of Ginger’s first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature.

Her wounds miraculously heal but something is not quite right and Brigitte try to save her sister and herself.

Check out more events within this year’s programme here.

BIHF Short Film Competition Finalists
2025-10-27 19:00 - 23:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
Cinema film posters promoting Belfast International Horror Festival horror movies, showcasing various terrifying and suspenseful horror film titles and artwork.

BIHF be showcasing the finalists for this year’s short film competition at the Accident Theatre on Monday 27th October

They’ll be screening both the Irish and International finalists on the night, starting with the international entries from 7pm, followed by the Irish finalists (9pm approx). There’ll be a short interval between the two showcases.

There’s also a selection of shorts from both the Irish and International entry available to watch on our festival’s digital player.

Audience members will be asked to vote for their favourites (Irish/International) on the night with a Grand jury prize also available within both categories.

There’s also the ‘First Blood’ & ‘Bloody Women’ awards up for grabs as they celebrate first-time filmmakers and female directors respectively.

The venue is BYOB so come on down and enjoy an eclectic mix of shorts made by filmmakers from around the world

Check out more events within this year’s programme here.

Tony Todd Night
2025-10-28 19:00 - 23:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
The BIHF pays tribute to Horror legend Tony Todd who sadly passed away last November as they screen two of the actors’ iconic roles Candyman (1992) and Tom Savini’s Night of the Living Dead, which this year celebrates its 35th anniversary.

In Bernard Rose’s Candyman Todd plays the aforementioned murderous Soul with a hook for a hand. Accidently summoned to reality by a sceptic grad student who is researching the monster’s myth.

While in Savini’s remake of George A. Romero’s horror classic, Todd plays Ben, one of seven refugees who have to seek shelter within a Pennsylvanian house when the dead return to life.

There will be a short interval between each film, both screenings will be introduced by the member of the festival’s team.

Check out more of this year’s programme here.

Jennifer's Body
2025-10-29 19:00 - 22:00 | Movie House Cinemas City Side, 100-150 York Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT15 1WA, United Kingdom
BIHF screen’s Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body at Movie House Cinemas CitySide as part of the female rage strand within their festival’s programme.

When small-town high-school student Jennifer (Megan Fox) is possessed by a hungry demon, thanks to a run-in with a Satan-worshipping rock band, she soon develops a taste for teenage flesh and the only person who can stop her is her nerdy best friend Needy (Mamma Mia’s Amanda Seyfried).

Terribly miss-marketed to teenage boys when it was released in 2009 Kusama’s feature, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, has since been re-evaluated and is now championed by the LGBTQ + community for its representation of bisexuality onscreen within the horror genre.

Check out more events within this year’s BIHF programme.

BIHF Horror Movie Quiz
2025-10-30 19:00 - 23:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
Test your horror knowledge at the Belfast International Festival’s annual movie quiz!

Fancy dress is encouraged, there’ll be eight fiendish rounds at the Accidental Theatre with spot prizes for the best dressed, best team name and of course goodies for the winners!

The evening will be co-hosted by members of the festival’s team and cosplayer Joanne Alexander (Hedgescout)

Tickets for £4 each max four people per team!

Check out more events within this year’s BIHF programme.

The Craft Onboard Belfast Barge
2025-10-31 20:00 - 23:00 | The Belfast Barge, Lanyon Quay, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 3LG, United Kingdom
Let your inner weirdo out this Halloween Night onboard the Belfast Barge for a screening of The Craft for the closing night of this year’s Belfast International Horror Festival.

Starring Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True, Andrew Fleming’s film centres on a group of four outcast teenage girls who pursue witchcraft for their own gain, but soon encounter negative repercussions.

Anyone who prebooks a ticket for the screening will receive a special print designed by local artist Chris Ellis (Ellistration).

Check out more events within this year’s BIHF programme.

The BanterFlix Christmas Movie Quiz
2025-12-10 20:00 - 22:00 | The Sunflower Public House, 65 Union Street, Belfast, BT1 2JG, United Kingdom
Test your Christmas movie knowledge at the BanterFlix Christmas movie quiz!

Do you know you the rules for keeping your Mogwai safe? Know how to get your hands on that elusive Turbo Man doll? Survive the Nakatomi Corporation’s Christmas party?

Members of the BanterFlix’s team will on hosting duties alongside local cosplayer Joanne Alexander (Hedgescout) at the Sunflower for this fundraising event for next year’s Belfast International Horror festival.

Christmas jumpers are recommended, with prizes up for grabs on the night, including some for the worst answers during the evening

tickets for £5 each, max 4 people per team.
