‘Dracula’ and ‘Victorian Psycho’ Set to Bookend Grimmfest 2026

Grimmfest will bookend its 2026 edition with two very different visions of Gothic horror, opening with an advance screening of Hammer Films’ definitive uncensored 4K restoration of Dracula before bringing the festival to a close with the UK premiere of Victorian Psycho, starring Maika Monroe.

The Manchester genre festival returns to Odeon Great Northern from 8 to 11 October for four days of horror, fantasy and cult cinema, with the newly announced opening and closing selections joining a feature line-up already revealed by organisers.

Terence Fisher’s 1958 Dracula, also released in the US as Horror of Dracula, remains one of Hammer’s defining productions, with Christopher Lee’s ferocious Count and Peter Cushing’s athletic Van Helsing helping reshape the screen image of Bram Stoker’s characters for a new generation.

The version screening at Grimmfest has been restored by Hammer Films and Silver Salt Restoration in collaboration with The Warner Archive Collection, using archival material sourced from around the world.

Crucially, the restoration reinstates footage cut from UK and US versions after being deemed too gruesome by censors. Some of that material survived through reels from the film’s original 1958 Japanese theatrical release and has not previously been released in full to audiences in either country.

Grimmfest attendees will therefore get an early look at the restoration ahead of its nationwide cinema release on 16 October and subsequent UHD and Blu-ray box set on 26 October.

At the other end of the weekend, Zachary Wigon’s Victorian Psycho will receive its UK premiere as the festival’s closing film.

Adapted by Virginia Feito from her own novel, the film stars Maika Monroe and takes aim at the manners, repression and hypocrisies of Victorian society through a blood-soaked mixture of period drama, Gothic melodrama and psychological horror.

The festival describes the film as a collision of literary and cinematic influences, drawing comparisons with Jane Austen, Daphne du Maurier, the Brontës, Sarah Waters, Bret Easton Ellis and Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, with Monroe at the centre of the mayhem.

Grimmfest has also expanded its 2026 programme with three dedicated shorts strands, Weirder Tales, Future Tension and Laughing in the Dark, covering everything from cosmic horror and dystopian satire to grotesque comedy and splatter.

The shorts selection includes two world premieres, two international premieres, one European premiere, 11 UK premieres, two regional premieres and three Greater Manchester premieres. Among the filmmakers returning to the festival are Dave Made a Maze director Bill Watterson and Natasha Halevi, while Italian screen veteran Franco Nero appears in the world premiere of Jacopo Marchini’s The Terrible Old Man.

Weekend passes, day passes and individual tickets for Grimmfest 2026 are available now, with the festival running at Odeon Great Northern in Manchester from 8 to 11 October. For more information and to get your tickets, visit: grimmfest.com/