‘Evil Thread’ Sets World Premiere for Dead Northern 2026

A killer jumper is about to unravel York. Benny J. Smith’s Evil Thread, a British comedy horror that sends an ambitious fashion student into battle with a murderous piece of knitwear, will receive its world premiere at Dead Northern Horror Film Festival later this month.

The film screens at City Screen Picturehouse on Sunday 27 September at 12.30pm, bringing an 88-minute dose of creature-feature chaos to the festival’s final day.

Written by Smith alongside Daniel Morland and Lucy Turner, Evil Thread follows Mindy Lou Kazoo, a slightly awkward fashion student determined to make her way in the industry. Her prospects take a distinctly supernatural turn when she is given an ugly charity-shop jumper by her boyfriend Fred and discovers that the garment is anything but harmless.

As the body count begins to rise, Mindy and her friends are forced to contend with a piece of clothing that appears determined to kill its way through anyone unfortunate enough to cross its path. The film’s sales material describes the story as a love letter to the horror cinema of the 1980s, mixing practical effects, gore, comedy and a deliberately exaggerated monster-movie sensibility.

Smith has said the project is intended as an ode to the “fabulous insanity” of 1980s horror, with the comedy built around the kind of bold practical work and larger-than-life genre concepts that defined the era. That influence runs throughout the film’s presentation, from its retro fashion-world setting to a villain that is quite literally wearable.

The cast includes Michael Adamson, David Ajayi, Eleanor Beck, Sylvia Garrick, Juho Hankela, Nathan McGowran, Nicholas Odoni, Hendrika Seguro-Bigg, Sarah Seymour, Teresa Dawn Taylor and Chrissie Wunna. Jack Robertson takes on the role of “The Jumper”, while Smith directs and produces, with Turner and Lainya Craig also serving as producers.

The project’s materials position Evil Thread as a horror-comedy with broad genre appeal, drawing on vintage slasher and creature-feature mechanics while leaning heavily into absurdity and practical effects. Its target is clearly viewers with an affection for the less restrained side of 1980s horror, where a simple high-concept premise could be pushed as far as filmmakers were willing to take it.

For Dead Northern, the screening adds another world premiere to a 2026 programme already packed with independent horror, filmmaker Q&As and new British genre work across the weekend.

Evil Thread receives its world premiere at Dead Northern Horror Film Festival on Sunday 27 September 2026 at 12.30pm at City Screen Picturehouse, York. Get your tickets from the Dead Northern site, or below:
deadnorthern.co.uk/

Evil thread trailer