Before bigger names offered festival experiences to people from the safety of their own homes, Soho Horror Film Festival made brand-new horror content accessible at affordable prices. With a focus on platforming queer cinema in their line-ups, the festival returns with a vengeance for it's 5th year on both the big and small screen.
The in-person festival will take over the Whirled Cinema, Brixton from November 11th to 13th, and their first announcement is the International Premiere of Daniel Montgomery's heartbreak haunter The Jessica Cabin. The festival has devoted itself to highlighting LGBTQ+ voices within the horror genre, and this horror-comedy looks to continue that on to crowd-pleasing effect. There's also a tantalising reveal that, in a first for the festival, a single screening will be hosted for all ages. This will offer younger viewers their first taste of watching a horror film in a festival, with the reassurance the future cult-classic will be more like The Munsters instead of Martyrs.
As in-person events have returned to prominence, some festivals have taken that as an excuse to walk back the progress online options made towards accessibility. Soho laughs at such steps backwards, and offers a second festival online from November 18th to 20th, a mere week after the in-person event. The first announcement for Sohome Horror Fest 2022 will be the UK Premiere of Elias Manar's harrowing found-footage shocker What Is Buried Must Remain. This film has been made in collaboration with The Lighthouse Peace Initiative, an organisation which gives young Syrian refugees an education and a safe environment to express repressed emotions through art.
Regarding these films, festival director Mitch Harrod shared “We could not be more proud as a festival to present such essential pieces of film as this; ones that bolster our ethos in the power, catharsis and community that horror filmmaking and films can create. Both THE JESSICA CABIN and WHAT IS BURIED MUST REMAIN are perfect examples and champions of this very philosophy; but these are just 2 of over 25 incredible and diverse films that we will be presenting as part of our hybrid festival this year. Your nightmares are due a system update, and we’ve got you covered this November”.
As for the full line-up of films, all will be revealed on Tuesday October 1st. More information can be found at the Soho Horror Fest website, including contact details, submissions, ticketing, and volunteer opportunities. Limited early bird festival passes are now on sale.
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