‘Onslaught’ Leads Huge Celluloid Screams 2026 Horror Line-Up

Celluloid Screams is going big for its 2026 edition, with Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s Onslaught opening the Sheffield horror festival, Larry Fessenden attending as Guest of Honour to present his four-film monster saga, and Dario Russo’s The Fox bringing proceedings to a darkly comic close.

The festival returns to Showroom Cinema from 22 to 25 October, bringing together UK premieres, repertory screenings, international discoveries and filmmaker appearances across four days. Founded in 2009, Celluloid Screams was recently named among Dread Central’s Top 40 horror festivals worldwide.

Opening night belongs to the UK premiere of Onslaught, the latest collaboration from You’re Next and The Guest duo Wingard and Barrett. The 92-minute action horror follows an Army sniper attempting to protect her young daughter after a rogue unit of genetically engineered super soldiers escapes into the desert.

Fessenden, meanwhile, will provide one of the weekend’s major through-lines. The filmmaker will introduce 1995 vampire film Habit, modern Frankenstein tale Depraved and werewolf thriller Blackout, before presenting the 2026 conclusion to the cycle, Trauma Or, Monsters All. The latter brings together the classic monster archetypes explored across the previous films, with Fessenden set to take part in an extended Q&A following the screening.

Elsewhere, the programme includes the UK premiere of Blood and Guts, a documentary about independent filmmaking family The Adams Family, with John Adams, Toby Poser and Lulu Adams attending for a Q&A. The trio will also present apocalyptic horror The Glorious Dead.

Mexican-Argentinian creature horror Fifteen receives its UK premiere, while Japanese supernatural thriller Never After Dark, spider infestation movie Crawlers and Glenn McQuaid’s The Restoration at Grayson Manor are also among the new genre titles heading to Sheffield.

The retrospective programme reaches beyond new releases too. Celluloid Screams is partnering with Vice Press for John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, with everyone attending receiving an exclusive Matt Ferguson poster, while Jimmy T. Murakami’s devastating animated nuclear drama When the Wind Blows returns for its 40th anniversary. A mystery 35mm Grindhouse screening and two secret films maintain traditions that have become part of the festival since its earliest years.

Closing night shifts into stranger territory with the regional premiere of Russo’s The Fox, starring Jai Courtney and Emily Browning and featuring Olivia Colman as the voice of a manipulative fox who offers to transform one man’s unfaithful fiancée into his idea of the perfect woman. Sam Neill also lends his voice to the Australian comedy.

Festival and day passes for Celluloid Screams 2026 go on sale at 12 noon on Saturday 12 September, with individual tickets following at 12 noon on Saturday 19 September. The festival runs at Sheffield’s Showroom Cinema from 22 to 25 October 2026.

For more information and tickets, visit: celluloidscreams.com/