Skip to main content

Halloween Horrors in Belfast

Following on from its well received premiere at the 3rd Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival in Belfast last month, and its award winning stint at this year’s Freak Show Film Festival in Orlando – where lead actor Robert Render picked up the award for Best Actor – George Clarke’s creepy spookfest The Last Light is set to chill the spines of audiences at Belfast’s Strand Cinema on Saturday 29th October…

The Last Light is the dark tale of a maintenance man called on to ensure an old derelict house – formerly a psychiatric hospital, no less - is securely boarded up after a reported break-in. On what is supposed to be his last day on the job, he experiences increasingly chilling occurrences. Initially believing that wayward kids are playing a prank on him, it soon becomes evident that something much more sinister is afoot…

The Last Light is a moody, atmospheric and old fashioned haunted house yarn – perfect viewing on All Hallow’s Eve… Read more about the film here.
Tickets are £10 and this includes wine and nibbly things, a red carpet walk and a screening of the film followed by a cast and crew Q&A. 

Tickets can be purchased here, or at the box office at The Strand.

Also screening in Belfast in the run up to Halloween is the second annual Halloween Horrorthon at the Waterfront Hall's Movie Bar on Friday 28th. Kicking off at 8.30pm, the marathon this year consists of a trek through some of the most imaginative, 'colourful', blood-spattered and low budget terror flicks of the 80s...
Frank Hennenlotter's deranged and oddly touching Basket Case, Don Coscarelli's creepy, trippy nightmare flick Phantasm, Stuart Gordon's darkly funny, exceedingly splashy take on Lovecraft's Herbert West misadventure Re-Animator, and the one and only The Evil Dead, which really needs no introduction

There are a limited amount of tickets remaining for the Horrorthon and these can be booked here. Alternatively, if you're based in or around Belfast, head over to Movie Bar organiser John Baxter's fine blog Knifed In Venice for the chance to win a couple of tickets for the horrorthon. Happy Halloween!

There are also a host of horror screenings at the Queen's Film Theatre. Apparitions: The Spectral Screen includes The Shining, The Blair Witch Project, The Innocents and Ringu, to name but a few.

Popular posts from this blog

The Ash Tree

1975 Dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark Part of the BBC’s annual series A Ghost Story for Christmas , which ran from 1971 to 1978 and featured some of the small screen’s most chilling moments, The Ash Tree was the last of several MR James adaptations directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Written for television by David Rudkin, It stars Edward Petherbridge in the dual role of Sir Richard, an 18th century aristocrat who inherits the vast estate of his late uncle, and of Sir Matthew, his 17th century ancestor whose role in local witch trials, and the death of Ann Mothersole (Barbara Ewing), haunts Sir Richard.  With a slim running time (just over 30 minutes) The Ash Tree is one of the shortest entries in the series, but it is also one of the densest. The amount of detail and information packed in, without compromising or diluting the impact of the source material, is admirable. Clarke manages to convey events and flashbacks by utilising an interesting narrative structure and some ...

Mandrake (2022)

Mandrake tells of probation officer Cathy Madden (Deirdre Mullins), who is assigned to help with the rehabilitation of recently released ‘Bloody’ Mary Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty), who had been incarcerated years prior for the murder of her abusive husband. Rumours have long swirled in the local area concerning Mary’s dabbling in witchcraft and involvement in cases of missing children. No sooner has she been released, than the bodies of several local children are found in the woods near her farmhouse. As Cathy and local police delve deeper, the veil between real and imagined starts to fray and Cathy is drawn into a dark world of occult ritualism and blood sacrifice. Directed by Lynne Davison and written by Matt Harvey, Mandrake is a delicious slice of witchy, Northern Irish folk horror, dripping with atmosphere and arcane lore. While Irish horror is having a moment right now, with acclaimed titles such as Aislinn Clarke’s Fréwaka and Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother mining rich and cr...

Kensal Green Cemetery

During a recent visit to London, a friend and I decided to explore Kensal Green Cemetery in the west of the city. Founded as the General Cemetery of All Souls by barrister George Frederick Carden in 1833, Kensal Green was inspired by the garden-style cemetery of Pere-Lachaises in Paris. Comprised of 72 acres of beautiful grounds, it was not only the first commercial cemetery in London, but also the first of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ garden-style cemeteries established to house the dead of an ever-increasing population. Campaigners for burial reform were in favour of “detached cemeteries for the metropolis” and in 1832 Parliament passed a bill that led to the formation of the General Cemetery Company to oversee appropriate measures and procedures concerning “the interment of the dead.” The company purchased land for the establishment of Kensal Green in 1831 and held a competition in order to select an appropriate designer. Among the prerequisites in the brief provided to entrants, we...