Since 2018, Soho Horror Film Festival has been the safest and most inclusive space in genre cinema. The event champions the most diverse talents in the world of independent movies, celebrating those whose voices are often overlooked and marginalised. In addition to the in-person event each November, Soho Horror also hosts two virtual festivals, the next of which is set for 11th to 14th July. Today, festival director Mitch Harrod has shared the line-up for what promises to a devilish celebration of queer-made fear.
Turning grindhouse to Grindr-house, from the 11th to 14th July, the award winning Soho Horror Film Festival returns to present its 5th annual virtual celebration of all things queer horror with SOHOME HORROR PRIDE 2024.
A 4 day online gala of gayness that will take a chainsaw to heteronormativity and bring you the very best voices in LGBTQ+ filmmaking. Featuring 11 fierce features, over 20 slay shorts, and 5 very special live events, Sohome Horror Pride will be broadcasting this onslaught of sickening cinema straight to your screens at home.
Opening the festival with a symphony of scares is the UK Premiere of Erlingur Thoroddsen’s THE PIPER, a haunting remix of the Pied Piper of Hamlin fable, featuring a stunning score from genre legend Christopher Young, as well as one of the final performances from the incredible Julian Sands. Keeping things in a melodic mood, Sohome Horror Pride will also host a live show celebrating the breadth of horror film musical adaptations with exclusive performances. Then to close the festival, dialling up the distortion and turning down the good taste, Heidi Moore brings to the stage a gaggle of drag queens competing for Serial of the Year in the punk opera sleaze of KILL DOLLY KILL; guaranteed to leave you Troma-tised.
Drag finds its horror centre stage this year with a 50th anniversary honouring of Divine and John Waters’ infamous classic FEMALE TROUBLE from Nightmare on Fierce Street Podcast, and an exclusive live director’s commentary of last year’s viciously vogue FEMME. But that’s not all, SOHOME continue to champion the directors of drag horror cult classic DEATH DROP GORGEOUS by screening a whole new leviathan in SAINT DROGO: a horny, ethereal, queer folk horror that lures you in with its rural beauty and then gnaws your throat out. SOHOME’s celebration of Drag concludes with a special evening with Drag queen genre icon, Peaches Christ, who will present her short films alongside collaborator Michael Varrati for Midnight Mass.
Coming (out) of (r)age horror sets to terrify on many levels in the international debut of Sam Probst and Colby Holt’s conversion therapy chiller GANYMEDE; medieval revenge and sapphic redemption collide in WILD EYED AND WICKED from GB Foxwood; and supernatural slashers in the Chaz Bono and Bonnie Aarons starring direct-to-noughties-DVD throwback THE BELL KEEPER. Also finding their UK Premiere at the festival is the tender yet viscerally vampiric Dutch feature WE ARE ANIMALS; and if you’re not over spider cinema yet in 2024, steel yourself for the strangest body horror you’ll see all year in Ion De Sosa’s euro satire MAMANTULA.
The forging and security of identity is a prevalent theme across the lineup, but especially so in a special preview of Nicholas Vince’s one man show cinematic adaptation I AM MONSTERS! and the colonialist camp of Gil Baroni’s HOUSE OF IZABEL, a twisted Brazilian 60’s set melodrama where male-presenting individuals escape to a country estate to explore their feminine personas. Trans narratives and general excellence has a special presentation in T-Shockers, a showcase of the best in trans horror at the moment; which features just a few of almost 30 short films being exhibited throughout the event.
Sohome Horror Pride will also play host to a special evening celebrating and bidding farewell to the female horror collective Ghouls Magazine with a series of panels, retrospectives on feminine cannibal movies and an exclusive preview screening of Aimee Kuge’s CANNIBAL MUKBANG.
So get your glitter ready, scream me by your name, and join us this July. From its inception in 2018, the Soho Horror Film Festival has held LGBTQ+ visibility, inclusivity and celebration as one of its cornerstones.
Sohome Horror Fest: Pride Edition is a virtual film festival taking place from the 11TH-14TH July. For accessibility and inclusivity, the festival is run on a Donate-What-You-Can price basis, with a recommended donation of £40 to help cover the costs of the festival. In addition, a proportion of all donations will be given to Mermaids UK, an organisation that provides support for Trans, Non Binary & Gender diverse youth. Much of the festival will be accessible globally but certain screenings will be geo-blocked to the UK.
Information can be at WWW.SOHOHORRORFEST.COM
