SCREAMS BY THE SEA 2026

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Well, it happened again!

A trip to the seaside to partake in the fantastic Screams by the Sea International Horror Film Festival in Bournemouth. You may have read about my experiences there last year, but this year was bigger and bolder, and Radi and his team put on another spooktacular event for all the Screamers, packed full of value for money screenings, talks, competitions, and social events.

Spread out over two days this year, Screams 2026 kicked off at lunch time on Friday the 13th of March (very apropriately) and faded into the night, like a ghostly whisp in the early hours of Sunday the 15th of March when all the excitment caught up with us and we succumbed to tiredness and, perhaps, one whisky too many…

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BROKE N’ HEARTLESS VIDEO

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One of the fun things about the horror community is all the people you get to meet and share your passion with. While talking to someone about your favourite films is fun, talking to someone about your favourite horror films adds an extra level of knowing smiles and nods to the conversation. Horror is scary, horror is disturbing but, most of all, horror is a lot of fun.

Which is clearly the ethos behind BROKE N’ HEARTLESS VIDEO and their return to a basic, analogue movie making experience.


Who?

Good question…

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GNoH Review: Osiris (2025)

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Written by William Kaufman and Paul Reichelt
Directed by William Kaufman

Special Forces commandos are abducted mid-operation by a mysterious spacecraft and, upon awakening, find themselves prey to a relentless alien race in a fight for survival. (IMDB)

Osiris is not perfect and there are a number of issues with it if you stop and think about them carefully but, as I keep saying, you aren’t really supposed to do that with this kind of movie. Grab a beer, turn the lights down and enjoy the show.

Read the full review on Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

Night Terror (A.K.A. Eye for an Eye) (2025)

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Written by Elisa Victoria and Michael Tully
Directed by Colin Tilley

Follows the story of Anna who grieves the death of her parents as she moves from New York to Florida to stay with her grandmother. She falls in with some other teens, but when she sees a grisly act of violence, she finds herself trapped. (IMDB)

Night Terror/Eye for an Eye opens with a bright and peppy cheerleading number that could be straight out of one of Tilley’s music videos.

However, all is not entirely cheery.

The scene effortlessly lulls the audience with a sense of cheeky fun, before plunging the viewer into horror as lead cheerleader, May (S. Epatha Makerson) meets with an unpleasant accident and wakes from her dream with considerably fewer eyes than when she went to sleep.

But hey, at least who (or whatever) took them was kind enough to sew up the sockets afterwards!

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GNoH Review: Clown in a Cornfield (2025)

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Written by Carter Blanchard, Eli Craig and Adam Cesare
Directed by Eli Craig

A fading midwestern town in which Frendo the clown, a symbol of bygone success, reemerges as a terrifying scourge. (IMDB)

Clown in a Cornfield is a Gen-Z slasher with one foot firmly planted in the 80s. it riffs on current social divides; a modern narrative and message with a familiar and nostalgic parade of gore and fun kills.

Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

Horror Hangout Podcast: Review

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Presented by Ben Errington and Andy Conduit-Turner

A Podcast Where Film Fans Watch The Best & Worst Horror Movies EVER!
LISTEN NOW

Following my fun day out at Screams by the Sea where I got to meet Ben and Andy, as well as be briefly inteviewed by them, I have been catching up with some recent episodes of their Horror Hangout Podcast. I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t really know anything about it before I leapt in but I was, at least, coming to it completely fresh. I have listened to various horror podcasts over the years and do enjoy listening to other people talking about the films I love and generally enjoying the genre.

The Horror Hangout is comfortably familiar from that point of view. Take two big horror fans, give them a microphone or two, some special guests and let them talk; it’s a formula that everyone knows, but it works brilliantly. Of course, if you also add in some daft games like the Mount Rushmore of Horror, or Mount Rushhorror and a completely nuts title rhyming game and you get a couple of hours of entertainment that any horror fan is going to enjoy.

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Abigail (2024) – Quick Review

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Director by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick

After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl. (IMDB)

***warning – some mild spoilers***

Caught up with Abigail recently after putting it off for a while as I kept hearing mixed reviews. Well, that will teach me to disobey one of my own rules of not listening to what other people say! I had a great time with Abigail – well better that than the poor souls who kidnapped her not knowing what they were getting into.

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The Substance (2024)

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Written and Directed by Coralie Fargeat

A fading celebrity takes a black-market drug: a cell-replicating substance that creates a younger, better version of herself. (IMDB)

Demi Moore is Elisabeth Sparkle, the archetypal ‘fading starlet’ who has likely made a lot of people at her network rich, but who has also been aged out of the industry by not being 30 anymore. She is unceremoniouly dumped by Harvey (Dennis Quaid) the not-so-subtly named, lecherous studio exec who eats shrimp as if the Cookie Monster lacked manners and ogles young girls while telling Elisabeth she is past it. All while wearing an unfading, shit-eating grin.

Caught up in a traffic accident on the way home from her firing, Elisabeth is approached by a mysterious medic who suggests she would be a ‘good candidate’ and slips a USB stick into her coat pocket. Intrigued, Elisbeth finds an advert for The Substance which promises her a brighter, younger version of herself. At first sceptical, she succumbs to the advert and contacts the company as events reinforce her alienation from the industry she loves.

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Sinners (2025)

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Written and Directed by Ryan Coogler

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. (IMDB)

Michael B. Jordan plays Smoke and Stack, twin brothers returning to their Mississippi Delta roots to open a juke joint in their home town. They have been away for several years, working in Chicago, the name Al Capone being bandied about; they are tough guys with a reputation even after all this time. With a truck full of Irish Beer and Italian wine, there is also the suggestion that they might be in hot water if their old bosses find out what they have been up to. But the fear of reprisals from gangsters is nothing compared to the fear of devils and demons, rife in the superstitious South.

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