Grimmfest 2025 Unleashes Massive Guest Lineup and Full Slate of Premieres

Jeremy Piven, Aneurin Barnard, and Dina Silva headline Grimmfest 2025’s most star-powered lineup yet. (Photo courtesy Grimmfest)

Grimmfest has never been short on chaos, carnage, or cult icons—but the 2025 edition might be their most stacked and star-studded yet.

This October 9–12, Manchester’s Odeon Great Northern transforms once again into a haven for genre freaks, red carpet renegades, and indie horror visionaries. The Grimmfest team has officially unveiled their full feature lineup, guest list, and even dropped a surprise screening—Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy, a canine-centric supernatural thriller that’s already earning buzz as one of the fest’s breakout creepers.

A Festival of Faces

This year’s guest list reads like a glorious fever dream:

From Entourage’s Jeremy Piven and Dunkirk’s Aneurin Barnard, to Gladiator 2’s Tim McInnerny, and Weekend at the End of the World stars Cameron Fife and Clay Elliot, the acting slate offers a collision of prestige, cult, and chaos. Other confirmed guests include Alexis Zollicoffer (I See the Demon), Dina Silva (Frankie Maniac Woman), and a murderer’s row of breakout directors like Kenichi Ugana, Jacob Lees Johnson, Manu Herrera, and Pierre Tsigaridis.

Notably, genre stalwarts like Remington Smith, Sergio Pinheiro, Jake Myers, and Gille Klabin round out a filmmaker lineup that feels like a global transmission from the very edge of horror cinema.

21 Features. 4 Days. One Hell of a Ride.

Grimmfest 2025 promises 21 brand-new feature films, delivering a mix of world, international, European, UK, and Northern premieres that span every flavor of fear. This year’s selections include slasher satire, folk horror, survival thrillers, queer vengeance tales, pandemic-era trauma, and good old-fashioned demon children.

World Premieres like Past Life, starring Jeremy Piven and Pixie Lott, open a twisted doorway into repressed memory and regression therapy. Syphon marks Tom Botchii’s brutal return, while Lily’s Ritual, The Driftless, and more promise blood, beauty, and narrative mayhem.

International Premieres such as Landlord, I See the Demon, Weekend at the End of the World, Wormtown, Itch!, and Incomplete Chairs show just how unhinged global horror can be—from psychotic designers to parasitic religion and dollar-store apocalypses.

European Premieres include Frankie Maniac Woman from festival favorite Pierre Tsigaridis and Forgive Us All, a post-apocalyptic Western starring Lily Sullivan and Callan Mulvey.

UK Premieres push social commentary to a new edge, with Squealers, The Other, Beast of War, and Don’t Leave the Kids Alone blending pitch-black humor with sociopolitical fire.

And Northern Premieres like Rabbit Trap, Deviant, Dead By Dawn, and Kombucha keep the homegrown horror pulsing with myth, murder, and madness.

Grimm Goes to the Dogs (Literally)

And just when you thought the madness had peaked, Grimmfest added Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy as its surprise screening—an eerie, emotional descent into canine terror and supernatural loyalty. It’s the kind of late-night bone-chiller that’s perfect for a packed Manchester crowd with no idea what’s about to hit them.

What’s Next?

Expect full reviews, filmmaker interviews, and exclusive coverage from Grimmfest 2025 right here on HMU. Whether it’s Tim Connery’s anthology gem The Driftless, Kenichi Ugana’s splatter-art satire Incomplete Chairs, or the buzzworthy chaos of I See the Demon—this year’s slate is bold, unrelenting, and aggressively indie.

We’ll be following all the action from the cinema floor to the afterparties.