It may only be September but there’s a chilling promise of terror in the air sweeping across the UK as the award-winning Soho Horror Film Festival rises from its slumber to reveal its first wave of films.
Back for its 9th year, the festival is set to bring a whole new slate of independent international horror to both the big and small screens, many of which are, for the first time in the UK or Europe; and “Early Bird” Festival Passes are on sale NOW! Soho Horror Fest prides itself on finding family in fear, and this first wave of films celebrates just a few of their incredible alumni for 2026.
As Christmas rears it’s seasonal head and we all run to our free-delivery online overlords, you might first want to heed a warning from the obsessional odyssey that is Russell Goldman’s SENDER. After receiving a series of packages containing unnervingly personal items, a woman (played to nerve-shredding perfection by Severance’s Britt Lower) spirals down a paranoid rabbit hole to try and unveil her mysterious sender.
Adapted from his own 2022 short film, Goldman’s feverish thriller operates at the kind of anxious frequency that should come with either a health warning or a prescription; delving into an all-too-relatable distrust felt by anyone terminally online who finds themselves dissolving into algorithm addiction and digital turmoil: hallucinatory, restless and such an epoch of our current unrest. Both harrowing and hilarious, and boasting a staggering supporting cast of genre favourites David Dastmalchian (LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL), Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus) and Jamie Lee Curtis (duh), SENDER is a mesmeric debut that will find its UK Premiere as a centrepiece film of Soho Horror Fest 2026.
After wowing audiences and winning the festival award in 2023 with his debut HIPPO, director Mark H Rapaport returns to present the UK Premiere of GODHEAD. A lonely priest’s sanctuary is upended one afternoon by a pair of strange twins intent on using him as a pawn in their divine mission, when one of them claims to be the holy spirit. A stark interrogation of faith and family, and pure catnip for anyone with religious trauma in their past, GODHEAD drips with dread and dogma and is sure to leave audiences Godsmacked.
For those film fans who want a slice of the paranoid pie, but can’t make it to the festivals theatrical home in London, fear not, for their revered virtual counterpart festival Sohome Horror Fest will be hosting the Online Premiere of Kyle Mangione Smith’s knuckle-gnawing found footage headfuck COMPLIANCE. When a tech company is faced with a sexual assault controversy, new hire Sam is tasked with containing the PR fallout, but she soon finds herself in is a cat and mouse game of surveillance and control. Kyle’s feature debut festers and grows on the cinematic language of his previously shown short films to present something that feels truly evil.
Playing also with found footage tropes and playing also at the virtual festival, returning fave Sean Nichols Lynch will bring the European Premiere of THIS HOUSE IS TOTALLY HAUNTED. An utterly charming, and genuinely scary, stealth sequel to his previous feature THE CEREMONY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN, that somehow manages to up that film in almost every way. Cult survivor Anubis recruits two paranormal podcasters to try and rid his home from allegedly malevolent spirits, but will this be content gold, or something far more sinister?
Finally, when it comes to talking about horror and family in 2026, you can’t not mention the irrepressibly talented Adams Family, and Sohome Horror Fest 2026 is delighted to host a special Adams Family Movie Night this November, which will feature the Online Premiere of the beautifully inspirational and incisive fly-on-the-wall biopic of their filmic process BLOOD & GUTS from Katie Green & Carlye Rubin; a fierce testimony to the power and strength of the independent horror community, and the family that it both houses and represents. Alongside this feature documentary, the festival will also host a rare screening of one of the teams early films, and a unique live commentary – Mystery Science Theatre style – from John, Toby, Zelda and Lulu on a surprise film that they hold close to their hearts. After all, the family that slays together, stays together.
And that’s just a tease of what terrors and treats the festival has for you, with the full 75+ film lineup being revealed in early October. And for filmmakers out there, there’s still a few more weeks left to submit your films!
“Early Bird” festival passes that give full access to both the in-person and online festival are on sale now via their website: http://www.sohohorrorfest.com
The Soho Horror Film Festival will run from 20TH-22nd November at the truly unique cinematic speakeasy, the Coldharbour Blue Cinema in Brixton, London. While the Sohome Horror Film Festival will run from the 26th-29th November, and will be fully accessible online. Day passes, individual film ticket and the virtual event passes will go on sale in October.
Bloody Flicks 