‘Evil Dress’ Sends Belén Rueda Into Supernatural Terror at Grimmfest

A blue dress, a grieving house and a mother beginning to question what she sees form the unsettling core of Evil Dress, Jacob Santana’s Spanish supernatural horror, which will receive its UK premiere at Grimmfest tomorrow night.

The Spanish-language film screens at Odeon Great Northern in Manchester at 8.30pm, with Belén Rueda leading the cast as Alicia, a woman attempting to rebuild her life after a difficult divorce.

She moves into an old house with her daughter Carla, played by Vera Centenera, hoping for a fresh start. Instead, the pair find themselves surrounded by the traces of a much darker history. Carla begins sensing strange presences inside the property, while a blue dress discovered in the attic appears to connect her to the ghost of a young girl from the past.

As Carla’s behaviour changes, Alicia is forced to confront the possibility that something supernatural is taking hold of her daughter. At the same time, the mounting disturbances begin to undermine her confidence in her own perception, leaving mother and daughter caught between a haunted house and an increasingly uncertain version of events.

Directed by Santana from a screenplay by Frank Ariza, Evil Dress deliberately looks backwards in its approach to horror. Grimmfest has highlighted the film’s 1970s-inspired visual style, from its colour palette and framing to its carefully controlled use of sound and movement.

The festival has also pointed to echoes of The Changeling, The Shining and The Amityville Horror, with familiar haunted-house ingredients including the unsettling neighbour, an oppressive school environment and an apparently cursed object hidden away in the attic (can you guess what it might be?).

What begins as a relatively traditional ghost story, however, gradually shifts into something less straightforward. Ahead of the screening, Grimmfest has teased a major change in perspective as the film progresses, suggesting that the supernatural framework may be hiding a more troubling reality underneath.

Rueda brings considerable genre pedigree to the project, most notably through her acclaimed performance in The Orphanage. She is joined by Centenera, Santiago Molero, Belén Écija and Elena Irureta.

Produced by AF Films and Forgotten 2 Entertainment, with E-Media Canary Project and Match Point also involved, Evil Dress was shot in the Canary Islands and opened theatrically in Spain earlier this year.

Evil Dress receives its UK premiere at Grimmfest 2026 at Odeon Great Northern, Manchester, tomorrow, Thursday 8 October at 8.30pm. Get your tickets now from: grimmfest.com/

Evil Dress trailer