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…

I travelled down to Bournemouth on the Friday morning and knew it was going to be a good day. The wind and rain of Thursday had given way to a bright and sunny (albeit slightly chilly Friday) and, as I arrived at my Travelodge, I was able to find parking. As a man of a certain age, it is difficult to describe the relief and satisfaction of having a parking space right outside your hotel.

I dropped the car off and then headed along the seafront in search of the Brass Haus where the day was due to kick off at 12 with a live podcast recording of the Script 2 Scream podcast hosted by Will and Lee. The podcast was a new one to me, but I will be checking it out as the near two hour chat between Will and Lee was a relaxed and fun dissection of two classic horror scenes from ALIEN and THE DESCENT. Will and Lee are clearly massive film fans and it was a pleasure to listen to them record the podcast while comparing the scenes we all remember with the scripts we might not be so familiar with.

This was followed up with an author reading from Rob Ulitski from his book DEAD AWAKE: Collapse – Noxidone was meant to be a miracle drug – designed to shorten the sleep cycle, unlock more hours in the day. Somewhere along the way, everything went wrong. Another relaxed affair, but an interesting one with some useful nuggets of wisdom from Rob about his process and the art of novel writing.

At 6pm, the festival proper kicked off with the sublimely barmy MAG MAG from Yuriyan Retriever. Kicking off in perfect J-Horror style with scary scenes and creepy, long-haired ghost women, MAG MAG then knocks you completely off kilter with literal toilet humour, some both shocking and hilarious scenes, and almost, but not quite, musical theatre. It jumps in and out of styles and tones, but in a way that takes you along for the ride, I never found it jarring or annoying and I had a lot of fun with the movie. It was my choice for audience award at the end of the festival and, while it didn’t ultimately win, I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

After that, we were back to the Brass Haus for the Steamship Circus which was unlike any circus I ever went to as a kid, but was a striking showcase for the talents of the performers who came along to entertain the Screamers! Where else are you going to see Hula-Hooping, accordions and someone dressed in what looked like meat all in the same place?

Then it was time for bed, to relax and recharge for the main event.

Saturday started early with the opening of the main day of the festival lead by the, quite frankly, inspiring energy levels of festival director Radi Nikolov. I don’t know where he gets it from, but it is infectious and got the event off to a great start, despite a potential possession and interference from ghosts.

The day started with HUMAN from Matt Stuertz another batshit crazy horror that blew away any cobwebs anyone might have been harbouring… with gusto. Made by someone who is obviously a big fan of EVIL DEAD and general splattery madness, HUMAN follows Dani, alone in a film studio, who is being stalked by an entity in a situation that goes from mildy scary, to utterly insane in the blink of an eye. If you like the idea of a bathroom stall utterly soaked in blood and gore, while an open wound farts additional puss all over the walls and Dani, then this could be one for you. The ending lost me a little, the meaning lost in the dialogue. I wasn’t the only one, and the ending will be devisive, but it is definitely a ride for the majority of its run time!

HUMAN was followed by the first block of short films

And what a great first volume of shorts. From creepy Air BnBs (I mean, surely they are all haunted?) to homicidal vending machines, an 80s meat-market video dating experience, a missing cat leading to the end of the world and a surprise birthday celebration with a twist, the audience was treated to a plethora of styles, genres and emotions. They were, in short (see what I did there?) all excellent, but there could be only one winner… but not until we had seen the second round later in the afternoon.

After the short film showcase, I headed over to PATCH, the third main location for the festival, to support the screenwriter pitches. Having been there last year, I could well appreciate the nerves and pressure the three finalists would be feeling and wanted to be there to cheer them on. It is a great opportunity offered by the Screams festival and a chance to have a film produced with SilentD Pictures.

We had three finalists this year and first up was Brock LaBorde live on ZOOM from the US with The Cursed and the Favored, a compelling tale of haunted scarecrows in the deep south of America against the backdrop of slavery. With plenty of twists and turns this was more than a simple tale of revenge.

Next up was Diani Citra who had travelled half way around the world to pitch Karmic Echoes to the judges. Another powerful story, but with a very different focus on female empowerment embedded in the cruel reality of sleeping sickness, asking the question, “is trauma inherited?”

Luke Ollerton was last to present his horror comedy, Boken Hearts which follows a couple in trouble as they seek help at what may well turn out to be a haunted couples retreat. A completely different direction again from the previous pitches.

All three finalists gave great pitches and of three vastly different movies. I suspect the judges had a hard time picking the winner whonwas due to be announced later that evening after the final movie of the festival.

Sadly, I missed the screening of ALIEN ON STAGE which was showing at the main screen at Pavillian Dance, but it sounds like a movie I will catch at a later date as the responses from the audiences were all very postive.

After the pitch sessions, it was a quick dash back across to Pavillion Dance for film number 3, DEAD BY DAWN. Directed by Dawid Torrone, Dead by Dawn is set in a theatre as a group of performers rehearse a play written by a legendary playright who actors would die to perform for…literally

By this point I was beginning to think that the theme for Screams 2026 was “batshit crazy” as this was another movie that starts creepy and then goes places you didn’t expect throwing everything at the audience with some impressive effects, horrifying kills and crazy visuals. It has a pretty explosive ending that will likely leave some audiences a bit frustrated, but I enjoyed it.

Sticking to Pavillion Dance we then got to the second block of short movies.

This time around we had TV celebrities training zombies, surreal gardening horror, claymation alien invasions, stomach churning bug horror and a final animated cross between Abe’s Oddysee and Solyent Green.

Again, a very strong collection of shorts that just made the decisions as to which should win the coveted Screams Best Short accolade even harder!

And then, before you knew it, we were at the end, the final film of the day, THE OTHER PEOPLE from Chad McClarnon.

Bucking the trend of the other films we had seen, The Other People was a lot less crazy than the others, although the premise was still pretty disturbing. The story builds slowly and tension grows as the truth about the house and community in question is revealed. While I just didn’t quite gel with the ending myself, I know a lot of people loved it and it is definitely worth a watch when you get a chance. I felt it could have been trimmed a little to remove some unnecessary ‘filler’, but there is one sequence in the movie that is quiet, simple, but also one of the most shocking things I have seen in a while.

As the lights came up in the screening room there was (almost) one final thing to do. Among all the thank yous to the great team who put Screams together this year and some photo ops, the festival awards were also announced.

Best short of the festival was The Complete Package. Definitely my favourite and also with the audience who were gasping and laughing in all the right places when the film was screened. You can check out my post on BROKE N’ HEARTLESS VIDEO to find out a little more about the team behind this great short and what we can expect from them next.

The winning script pitch was Brock’s The Cursed and the Favored and we are looking forward to seeing how this one develops. Again, it must have been so hard to chose between the 3 pitches and I hope to see the other two developed in the future as they were both amazing ideas.

And, finally, the winning feature of the festival was….

Drum Roll…..

The Other People

The audience spoke and they chose this creepy urban shocker, so congratulations to the team.

As I said earlier, Mag Mag was my choice, as the utter lunacy on show really made it the movie of the festival for me but, ultimately, all 4 features I got to watch over the weekend were fantastic for different reasons and worth a watch if you get a chance. It was a great selection of movies, so well done to the Screams team for the choices.

The night ended where it began, back at the Brass Haus for drinks and chat with the Screams Team, catching up with some old friends and meeting lots of new ones. I might have sunk my month’s quota of whisky in one night, but it was worth it to round off two days of fantastic fun.

Radi and the team…. you did it again, an absolutely wonderful weekend and an amazing value for money festival. One aspect of the festival I didn’t capitalise on this time round was the market place, new for 2026, which held a number of stalls for authors, artists and merchants to offer up their wares to the Screams delegates. I just didn’t quite get the time to explore it fully, although I did get the chance to have a chat with Otto Redman, ignited by a shared love of Black Sheep (I knew wearing that T-shirt would make me at least one new friend). I now am the proud owner of Otto’s The Vampire of Portsmouth novel and will definitely check the market place out properly next year, as I am sure there was some fun merchandise I missed out on.

And then it was Sunday morning, check-out time and back to the real world.

You can read more about last year’s festival HERE and do check out the Screams INSTAGRAM page for updates about the festival. You can also find info on the new Screams DISCORD community where you can learn more about the SCREAMING HOUR where we sit down together every couple of weeks to watch a select horror movie from the SHUDDER catalogue… a great time is gauranteed!

Thanks again Screams!

See you next year!