Forbidden Worlds Film Festival
The Big Scream
The former Bristol IMAX Cinema, Bristol Aquarium
13–14 October 2023
Prepare for big screen screams!
Bristol’s biggest repertory genre film festival is back with a selection of ‘popcorn horrors’ designed to thrill and chill this spooky season.
Horror fans are invited to Bristol’s former IMAX screen on 13–14 October 2023 for two nights of retro ‘popcorn horrors’: B-movie homage Night of the Creeps, Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi monster movie Mimic, a 40th anniversary screening of John Carpenter’s Stephen King adaptation Christine, Amblin’s ‘family friendly’ spider-fest Arachnophobia, body-snatching actioner The Hidden, and the late William Friedkin’s unfairly maligned killer-tree spectacular The Guardian.
With many of these films finding their audiences on VHS and DVD, now is a unique opportunity for horror fans to see these cult horrors on the biggest screen in the South West.
Forbidden Worlds Film Festival: The Big Scream 2023 - Trailer by Arthur Cauty
At-a-glance schedule
Friday 13 October 2023
5pm: NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986)
7pm: MIMIC: DIRECTOR’S CUT (1997)
9.30pm: THE GUARDIAN (1990)
Saturday 14 October 2023
4.30pm: ARACHNOPHOBIA (1990)
7pm: CHRISTINE: 40th ANNIVERSARY RE-RELEASE PREMIERE (1983)
9.30pm: THE HIDDEN (1987)
Festival Passes and Tickets
Festival Pass holders are able to attend ALL screenings over the course of the festival.
Day Pass holders can only access screenings on that particular day.
Upon your arrival at the event, if you have a Festival or Day Pass, you will be given a festival lanyard for ease of access.
Early Bird Festival Pass (Fri & Sat): SOLD OUT
Festival Pass (Fri & Sat): SOLD OUT
Friday Day Pass: SOLD OUT
Saturday Day Pass: SOLD OUT
Individual Tickets: £8.50/£5
Festival Programme
Friday 13 October 2023
5PM: NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986)
Dir: Fred Dekker | U.S. | 88 mins | Cert. 15
A loving tribute to the 1950s B-movie from the director of ‘The Monster Squad’.
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An insane escapee from a mental institution, frozen corpses from the 1950s, a canister containing parasitic alien slug-like creatures, a fraternity house full of innocent students, and a world-weary cop (played by genre fave Tom Atkins of The Fog, Creepshow and Maniac Cop fame) – these are just some of the B-movie mainstays that Fred Dekker crams into his cult sci-fi-comedy-horror as he pays homage to his favourite movies of the fifties.
7PM: MIMIC: DIRECTOR’S CUT (1997)
Dir: Guillermo del Toro | U.S. | 112 mins | Cert. 15
Guillermo del Toro’s Hollywood debut presented in its definite Director’s Cut version.
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A genetically engineered bug – created to prevent a pandemic among the children of New York City – has been quietly mutating in the city’s subway and sewage systems, and now it’s helping itself to its citizens…
Having won deserved critical acclaim for his feature debut, Cronos, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro popped over to Hollywood for his next film. Boasting a cast list that includes Mira Sorvino, Josh Brolin and F. Murray Abraham, and set about making a gloopy giant-bug movie. Initially released in a version overseen by a notorious producer who we shall not name, del Toro was finally able to complete his Director’s Cut in 2010 – and that is the version that we shall be presenting.
9.30PM: THE GUARDIAN (1990)
Dir: William Friedkin | U.S. | 92 mins | Cert. 18
Paying homage to the late William Friedkin the only way we know how – by screening his deliriously entertaining killer-tree movie!
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In 1990, the two main players behind modern horror classic The Exorcist returned to the genre. Author and screenwriter William Peter Blatty wrote and directed Exorcist III to acclaim (if not the equivalent box office of his earlier work), while director William Friedkin made The Guardian to general ridicule from the critical classes – but they were wrong!
The perfect late-night horror extravaganza – boasting a decapitation, limb-lopping, a perfectly placed cactus, Druids and a shape-shifting babysitter – we cannot wait to share this film with a willing audience and help reclaim it from the critical doldrums.
Beautifully photographed by John A. Alonso (Chinatown, To Live and Die in L.A.), The Guardian will also look magnificent on our gigantic screen.
Saturday 14 October 2023
4.30PM: ARACHNOPHOBIA (1990)
Dir: Frank Marshall | U.S. | 110 mins | Cert. PG
Horror for all the family – unless you’re terrified of spiders!
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Dr Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) has an extreme fear of spiders – which is something of a shame as a deadly species from Venezuela is breeding in his barn. With the help of a local exterminator (John Goodman) and a British entomologist (the much-missed Julian Sands), he’s going to have to swallow that fear if he wants to save his small town.
Produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, Arachnophobia offers horror of the family-friendly… unless you’re terrified of our eight-legged friends.
And they will look rather large on our gigantic screen!
7PM: CHRISTINE (1983)
Dir: John Carpenter | U.S. | 110 mins | Cert. 15
Two titans of terror – and a brand-new 2K re-release to celebrate the 40th anniversary.
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Having just made The Thing (for an audience that was yet to embrace its greatness), horror maestro turned next to the best-selling fiction of Stephen King for Christine, a killer-car chiller about a Plymouth Fury with supernatural forces and jealous tendencies.
Having screened Carpenter’s Halloween at last year’s Big Screen, and hosted a nof his 1976 classic Assault on Precinct 13 in May, we are only too pleased to present a special preview screening of a 2K re-release, courtesy of Park Circus, ahead of the film’s nationwide re-release on 20 October to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
9.30PM: THE HIDDEN (1987)
Dir: Jack Sholder | U.S. | 97 mins | Cert. 15
A VHS favourite back where it belongs – on the biggest screen!
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What if aliens were horny, violent, drawn to sports cars and strip clubs, and able to move between human bodies? And what if a film would answer that question while combining it with a mismatched buddy cop movie and wrapping it up into satirical comedy-horror-sci-fi whole?
Well, that’s exactly what VHS fave The Hidden does, as well as provide a great pre-Agent Cooper role for Kyle Maclachlan. A film designed to be watched with a large, appreciative audience – and the perfect finale to our second Big Scream.