Belfast International Horror Festival

H. P. Lovecraft's The Old Ones
2023-10-28 11:00 - 12:30 (Europe/London) | The Beanbag Cinema, 23, Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 2FF ·, United Kingdom
Director Chad Ferrin returns to the Dark Hedges International Film Festival with his latest feature H.P. Lovecraft’s The Old Ones. Set in 1930, sea captain Russel Marsh saw the light, and for 93 years his body was not his own. Inhabited by a Great Old One, he committed unspeakable acts in the name of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. Now free, he is in search of a way to go back in time to reverse the horrors wrought upon the world. But the cult has other plans and will stop at nothing to destroy him.

Bliss Of Evil
2023-10-28 12:45 - 14:15 | The Beanbag Cinema, 23, Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 2FF ·, United Kingdom
A sound engineer is forced to confront her trauma when she and her girlfriend’s grunge band are trapped in a recording studio by a shadowy killer.

PARALYSIS
2023-10-28 14:30 - 16:30 | The Beanbag Cinema, 23, Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 2FF ·, United Kingdom
A woman suffering from sleep paralysis learns her demons may be connected to a family secret.

Short Film Competition (Irish Finalists)
2023-10-28 15:00 - 17:15 | The Strand Arts Centre, 152-154 Holywood Road, Belfast, United Kingdom
The Dark Hedges Film Festival presents a showcase of the 10 finalists within the Irish category for this year’s Short Film Competition.

Audience will be able to vote for the Audience Choice award on the night. The Grand Jury prize within the category will be announced at a later date.

There will be a short internal during this event

Idiot Boy
2023-10-28 16:45 - 18:00 | The Beanbag Cinema, 23, Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 2FF ·, United Kingdom
The residents of a small, decrepit town come to terms with the disappearance of a young girl. When a young man takes up the search, he discovers some dark secrets in the place he calls home.

Told through a series of vignettes, the residents of Ballymoss find odd and often destructive ways of passing time in a place that seems to have been forgotten.

Shot on VHS and Hi8 tapes, Idiot Boy is a unique and visceral story of darkness, black comedy and horror.

Short Film Competition (International Finalists)
2023-10-28 17:30 - 19:30 | The Strand Arts Centre, 152-154 Holywood Road, Belfast, United Kingdom
The Dark Hedges Film Festival presents a showcase of the 10 finalists within the international category for this year’s Short Film Competition.

Audience will be able to vote for the Audience Choice award on the night. The Grand Jury prize within the category will be announced at a later date.

There will be a short internal during this event.

Bad Things in the Middle of Nowhere
2023-10-28 18:15 - 19:30 | The Beanbag Cinema, 23, Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 2FF ·, United Kingdom
A group of criminals lay low in the remote Irish countryside after pulling off an audacious robbery.

As they plan their escape they quickly realise the robbery will be the last thing to go right for them.

Ghostwatch
2023-10-28 20:30 - 22:00 | The Strand Arts Centre, 152-154 Holywood Road, Belfast, United Kingdom
To mark the passing of Sir Michael Parkinson, The Dark Hedges Film Festival is screening Lesley Manning’s Ghostwatch.

The Beeb received a number of complaints as a TV crew carried out a supposedly real paranormal investigation at the most haunted house in Britain.

The mockumentary shocked a nation when it was screened on BBC one on Halloween night in 1992.

The next ninety minutes would go down in British television history.

The Invisible Man (1933)
2023-10-29 18:00 - 20:00 | The Strand Arts Centre, 152-154 Holywood Road, Belfast, United Kingdom
The Dark Hedges Film Festival is screening James Whale’s The Invisible Man (1933) to celebrate the film’s 90th anniversary.

Based on H.G. Wells novel Whale’s film sees Claude Rains play Jack Griffins, a doctor who accidently stumbles on a potion that can make him invisible.

When he reveals his new ability to his old mentor (Henry Travers) and his fiancée (Gloria Stuart), it’s clear that a side effect of the potion is insanity.

Jack goes on a violent rampage, and the police struggle to hunt him down, unable to see their target, while his mentor and his former partner (William Harrigan) desperately try to devise a plan to capture him.

This screening as part of the classic horror strand of the programme, will be introduced by Victoria Brown.

Black Narcissus (1947)
2023-10-29 20:15 - 21:30 | The Strand Arts Centre, 152-154 Holywood Road, Belfast, United Kingdom
This explosive work about the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is the epitome of the sensuous style of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. A group of nuns – played by some of Britain’s finest actresses, including Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, and Flora Robson – struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.

With the help of set designer Alfred Junge and cinematographer Jack Cardiff (both rewarded with Academy Awards), Powell and Pressburger convincingly created a Himalayan convent on a Pinewood soundstage, lending the proceedings a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere

This screening will be Introduced by Victoria Brown. A horror lover, Victoria writes for BanterFlix and FrightClub NI and is the founder of The Readers in the Rue Morgue Horror Book Club and Film Club.

Programmed as part of a season celebrating the work – and influence – of film-makers Powell and Pressburger.

The Dark Hedges Horror Movie Quiz
2023-10-30 20:00 - 23:00 | The Sunflower Public House, 65 Union Street, Belfast, BT1 2JG, United Kingdom
The Dark Hedges Film Festival is hosting its first ever Horror Movie Quiz just in time for Halloween.

Come on down to the Sunflower and test your cinematic knowledge through 8 fiendish rounds.

There’ll be spot prizes and goodies up for grabs, with the night compared by local cosplayer Joanne Alexander.

Tickets are £3 each with a maximum of 4 people per team.

Dementia 13
2023-10-31 19:00 - 22:00 | The Sunflower Public House, 65 Union Street, Belfast, BT1 2JG, United Kingdom
Join The Readers in the Rue Morgue Film Club this Halloween Night for a screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s first ever film,! In partnership with The Dark Hedges International Film Festival.

We’re also having a spooky costume contest, with First, Second and Third place prizes up for grabs! Generously donated by local businessesTickets are £5 & all proceeds will go to our chosen charity The People’s Kitchen.

Please note that there is a 25 ticket limit via EventBrite but you can also pay at the door on the night! (exact change encouraged).

Hocus Pocus & Witches Disco
2024-10-26 19:00 - 23:00 | Show Some Love Belfast, 175 Victoria Street, Belfast, Antrim, United Kingdom
Light your black flamed candle and get ready for a party on the opening night of this year’s Dark Hedges Film Festival as they screen Disney’s cult- classic Hocus Pocus (1993) at Show Some Love Belfast.

Fancy dress is encouraged for this BYOB screening will be followed by a witches disco at the venue as a DJ attempts to put a spell on you with some spooky tunes well into the Witching hour

In Kenny Ortega’s feature a teenage boy named Max and his little sister Dani move to Salem, where he struggles to fit in, before accidentally awakening the Sanderson sisters (Bette Midler, Sarah Michelle Gueller and Katy Najimy) on Halloween night.

The trio of witches soon set out to avenge their execution by the town’s people 300 years prior.

Dawn of the Dead (1978) at Connswater
2024-10-27 14:00 - 16:00 | Connswater Shopping Centre, Bloomfield Avenue, Newtownards Road, Belfast, Antrim, BT5 5LP, United Kingdom
Join The Dark Hedges Film Festival as they screen George A. Romero’s seminal zombie masterpiece Dawn of the Dead (1978) at the Strand Cinema’s temporary home at the Connswater Shopping Centre just in time for Halloween.

As hordes of zombies swarm over the U.S., the terrified populace tries everything in their power to escape the attack of the undead, but neither cities nor the countryside prove safe. In Pennsylvania, radio-station employee Stephen (David Emge) and his girlfriend, Francine (Gaylen Ross), escape in the station helicopter, accompanied by two renegade SWAT members, Roger and Pete. The group retreats to the haven of an enclosed shopping centre to make what could be humanity’s last stand.

When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will roam the earth, well East Belfast!!

The Burbs (1989)
2024-10-27 18:00 - 20:30 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
Welcome to the Never Seen Seen It Film Club’s latest season: “1988-89: The 2 Best Years in Cinematic History”!

Join us on Sunday 27th October, 6pm BST where we will be enjoying the next selection of our new season…The Burbs (1989)

Synopsis

Settling in for some time off in his suburban home, Ray Peterson’s (Tom Hanks) vacation becomes a horror when the Klopeks, a suspiciously odd family, move in down the block. Enlisting the aid of his paranoid buddy, Art (Rick Ducommun), and his militia-man neighbor, Rumsfield (Bruce Dern), Ray sends his son and wife (Carrie Fisher) away on a trip while he investigates the Klopeks. When a neighbor disappears, Ray and his cohorts risk their lives to save their cul-de-sac from the clutches of evil.

Short Film Competition 2024
2024-10-28 19:00 - 23:30 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
Join the Dark Hedges Film Festival at the Accidental Theatre in Belfast as they showcase the 20 finalists for this year’s short film competition.

They’ll be screening both the Irish and International finalists on one night, starting with the Irish entries from 7pm, then the international selection (9:30pm). There’ll be a short interval between the two showcases

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

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)
2024-10-29 20:00 - 22:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
Join The Dark Hedges Film Festival for a BYOB screening of James Signorelli’s cult classic Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) at the Accidental Theatre just in time for Halloween.

Horror Icon Cassandra Peterson stars as the aforementioned mistress of the dark, when she inherits a rundown mansion in a small American town Elvira soon finds herself battling an evil uncle and the townspeople who want her burned at the stake.

Anyone who pre-books a ticket, will receive a limited edition print upon arrival!

The Dark Hedges Movie Quiz
2024-10-30 20:00 - 23:00 | Accidental Theatre, 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, United Kingdom
Tickets for £4 each

Test your horror knowledge at the Dark Hedges Film 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 and of course goodies for the winners!

The evening will be hosted by the festival’s team and Lit to the Tit’s Claire McCullough

The Rocky Horror Picture Show & Shock Treatment
2024-10-31 19:00 - 23:30 | The Belfast Barge, Lanyon Quay, Belfast, Antrim, BT1 3LG, United Kingdom
Get your fishnets and stockings ready for a night of debauchery onboard the Belfast Barge as the Dark Hedges Film Festival hosts a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show & Shock Treatment on Halloween night

In The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), newly engaged couple Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick & Susan Sarandon) end up at the castle of Dr Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) after their car breaks down. It just so happens on this wet and stormy night the self-proclaimed ‘sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania’ is hosting a party to celebrate the unveiling of his latest creation, a muscular Adonis called Rocky, the perfect male specimen who will bring him absolute pleasure.

As the evening goes on our two straight-faced lovebirds have their eyes are opened to a world of kink and perverted pleasure they never knew existed.

In Shock Treatment (1981), released six years after Jim Sharman’s original, Brad and Janet (now portrayed by Cliff De Young and Jessica Harper), head to Denton to take part in a game show on DTV. They find the town has been taken over by the television company and its primary sponsor, fast food company Farley Flavours. The couple soon find themselves held captive at the request of Farley’s mysterious CEO

Sharman’s follow-up might not have gained the same cult status as its predecessor, but in recent years it’s been re-evaluated and praised by critics for its views on celebrity culture and reality television.

On the night there’ll be props on hand to help get our audience in the mood for the time warp and fancy dress is encouraged as local cosplayers Joanne Alexander (HedgeScout) and Gabrielle Riddiough (Wishmama) will be on hand to judge the best dressed during the intermission between the two films, don’t worry they won’t bite, well not unless you want them to!

Dark Hedges Film Festival’s Christmas Movie Quiz
2024-12-20 20:00 - 23:30 | The Sunflower Public House, 65 Union Street, Belfast, BT1 2JG, United Kingdom
Test your Christmas movie knowledge at the Dark Hedges Film Festival’s 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?

Well join us at the Sunflower for this fund-raising event for the 2025 programme, Christmas jumpers are recommended, the quiz will be followed by a recording of a festive edition of BanterFlix’s podcast More Than Pixels on a Screen.

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

Dark Hedges Film Festival Quiz
2025-08-29 20:00 - 22:00 | 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.
