Shock and Gore festival returns

Ninth time unlucky for victims of horror fest.

Back for its ninth instalment, the Electric Cinema’s annual Shock and Gore Festival is set deliver everything its name suggests, as a week of blood and guts cinema gets underway in Southside this Friday.

With a mix of creepy classics, brand new bone-chillers, scary short films and intense insight from industry professionals, this year’s programme caters for all aspects of the genre, running until Thursday 18th July.

The opening day of the festival sees Bill Murray at his dark-comedic best in The Dead Don’t Die, with the laugh-and-gasp theme continued through In Fabric, which follows the life of a cursed dress in a department store. The curtain falls on day one of Shock and Gore with a late-night 40th anniversary screening of Ridley Scott classic, Alien.

Elsewhere across the Southside cinema’s week-long scare-fest, the UK’s latest must-see movie, Midsommer, shows for the duration of the festival. Two nationwide premieres also arrive in Birmingham – Manson family biographical drama Charlie Says goes on show at 9pm on Saturday 13th July, whilst thriller Hold Your Breath can be seen for the first time in UK cinemas on Sunday 14th July.

Local amateur filmmakers who entered this year’s short film competition will find out who scoops the 2019 prize, after the submitted films are critiqued by a panel of experts, with the winning short being screened before all main feature films shown at the festival.

Shock and Gore Film Festival runs from Friday 12th–Thursday 18th July. The full list of films and events taking place can be seen at www.shockandgore.co.uk, and to see all the events taking place in Southside visit www.enjoysouthside.co.uk