Black Sunday Film Festival Sets Packed Halloween Mini-Fest for October

Black Sunday Film Festival is returning to Firstsite this Halloween with a one-day programme built around UK and Essex premieres, international shorts, a secret cult screening and a late-night afterparty, as the independent genre event brings its annual spooky season mini-fest back to Colchester on 24 October.

The 2026 edition will feature four feature presentations spanning horror, thriller, science fiction and found footage, alongside a shorts programme designed to spotlight emerging filmmakers working across genre cinema.

Opening the day is the Essex premiere of A Ghost at Gilmore House, directed by Oliver Mitchell and written by Rob Worsey. The supernatural feature stars Lyndsey Craine and begins a programme that continues Black Sunday’s focus on independent productions and filmmakers working outside the mainstream.

That is followed by another Essex premiere, The Alice Paradox, from director William Brroke. The film adds a science-fiction strand to the day’s schedule, broadening a line-up that moves between supernatural horror, experimental genre work and cult cinema.

One of the programme’s major debuts comes with the UK premiere of Heritage, directed by Baptist Agostini-Croce. The found-footage feature continues a format that has become closely associated with Black Sunday’s programming, with the festival regularly giving space to low-budget and unconventional horror that uses the form to create intimacy and immediacy.

Later in the evening, Chris Schwab’s Dracula: The Night Around Us receives its Essex premiere, bringing one of horror’s most enduring figures into the festival before the programme moves towards its traditional late-night finale.

That final slot remains under wraps. Black Sunday’s Cult Film Secret Screening returns for 2026 with another rarely shown title, with the identity of the film being kept hidden until audiences are seated and the screening is ready to begin.

Short-form work also plays a significant part in this year’s programme. Selected titles include Halloween Bird from Dean Bertram, Sam Dixon’s Lift, Liam Alexander O’Brien’s Rare and Victor Basallote’s Happy, creating an international showcase for filmmakers working across different corners of the genre landscape.

The screenings will be followed by the Black Sunday Afterparty, giving filmmakers, guests and audiences the chance to continue the evening after the secret screening and discuss the day’s discoveries.

The Halloween event continues a busy period for the festival, which has built its identity around independent genre work and a mixture of features, shorts, premieres and repertory surprises. And given this being the spookiest time of year, this festival is one you won’t want to miss.

Black Sunday Film Festival’s Halloween mini-fest takes place at Firstsite, Colchester, on Saturday 24 October 2026.

BSFF Halloween 2026 is proudly sponsored by Love Horror, with single tickets and day passes available now on the site: blacksundayff.com/