PREVIEW: FilmPride - Scream, Queens!

Hello, cinema lovers. Brighton’s queer community is about to get its scares served with a side of camp. FilmPride, Brighton & Hove’s LGBTQ+ film festival, has announced Scream, Queens!, an evening of queer horror short films on Friday, 30 October from 7 - 9pm at The Actors, 4 Prince’s Street, Brighton, BN2 1RD.

The programme is a carefully chosen selection of ten shorts covering supernatural thrillers, body horror, dark comedies, witchcraft and sci-fi. That is an impressive amount of ground for two hours, so plan accordingly.

Queer cinema and horror have long shared a deep connection. LGBTQ+ filmmakers frequently use the genre as a canvas for real-world struggles and trauma. Cathartic and triumphant storytelling is woven from shared experiences of real-life terrors. This collection shows how contemporary queer creators are reclaiming and redefining horror tropes. Queer audiences have spent decades rooting for the monster, so it's only fair we get to direct the proceedings now.

The programme includes:

The Monster Within Me (Dir: Kuba Marczuk, UK). A young man must battle his nature and emotions after an unexpected, tragic event.

Sleepeater (Dir: Amrita Acharia, UK). Ahri and her wife Matilda institutionalise Ahri’s father to claim his house for themselves. But an exhausting cycle of guilt is awakened. Night after sleepless night, paranoia erodes the trust between them, until finally the insomnia destroys everything they love.

Son of God (Dir: Bruce Micallef Eynaud, Malta). A Maltese priest, harbouring a secret, steals a valuable painting of Jesus from his church, in the hope of selling it and starting a new life abroad.

Love Spell (Dir: Lauren Vevers, UK). In 1999 in a high school in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a teenage girl casts a spell to make her best friend fall in love with her.

Papergirl (Dir: Jack Warren, US). Gender dysphoria gives way to terrifying metamorphosis when a lonely partygoer discovers that their skin is turning to paper.

Itch (Dir: Susannah Farrugia, Malta). A novice nun develops a severe skin condition which continues to worsen, along with her mental state, as she struggles with her feelings for another nun.

Black Hole Barry (Dir: Alejandro Alberola, UK). Facing his boyfriend’s move-in, Scott embarks on a self-destructive week of hookups – a decision he’s going to regret forever.

The Cost Of Living (Dir: Alice Trueman, UK). Lily, a disconnected, neurotic fitness-freak, has a brush with death and comes face-to-face with her worst fear. But Death appears to Lily as a femme fatale, and Lily finds herself unexpectedly giddy with desire.

The Cruise (Dir: Richard Louprasong, US). On Halloween night, a couple ventures into the woods rumoured to be haunted to conjure up an urban legend. But the two are about to meet a ghost from the past.

The Last Story on Earth (Dir: Aaron Immediato, US). Trapped in a library during an alien invasion, a determined drag queen must use the power of her storytelling and imagination to protect both her supporters and her protesters from terrifying extraterrestrial threats.

The evening aims to be inclusive and welcoming to the local community. Costumes are welcome but entirely optional. Guests can arrive in full ghoul glamour or simply as themselves. It's the night before Halloween; let your hair down.

Tickets are available now at filmpride.org. But hurry, they are selling out fast.