‘LandLord’ Premieres at Grimmfest Before Heading Stateside

The undead are decending into Manchester this week with the world premiere of LandLord, an arresting new horror from writer-director Remington Smith, screening at Grimmfest 2025 before heading to its North American debut at Nightmares Film Festival later this month.

Set against the simmering heat of an American summer, LandLord follows a Black bounty hunter with no name, played by newcomer Adama Abramson, who arrives at a dilapidated apartment complex to recover a stolen briefcase. Her mission takes a sharp turn when she encounters Alex, a young boy whose mother is murdered by the building’s sinister owner – a white vampire landlord portrayed by William McKinney (George and Tammy). Bound together by vengeance and survival, the unlikely pair must face off against the vampire, his human accomplice, and a corrupt sheriff who seems more than happy to let the nightmare continue.

The film, shot on location in Kentucky, combines grounded realism with supernatural menace. Drawing on Smith’s own experiences of transient living and social inequality, LandLord transforms the traditional vampire myth into a biting allegory about class, race and exploitation. It is as much a study of systemic oppression as it is a horror story, bringing a lived-in authenticity to the genre that reflects the struggles of those often ignored by cinema.

Abramson and young actor Cohen James Cooper both make their feature debuts, with McKinney joined by J. Barrett Cooper (White Noise) and Lance Gerard. Smith, who previously explored American identity in his documentaries The Woods and The Derby, wrote, produced, directed and edited the feature, creating what early festival buzz describes as “neo-realist horror with heart and teeth.”

LandLord premieres at Grimmfest at 3.30pm on Friday, 10 October, at Manchester’s ODEON Great Northern before crossing the Atlantic for its North American premiere at the Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio, on 18 October. The film’s dual debut marks a major step for Smith, whose work has long blurred the line between documentary observation and cinematic horror.

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