Scream by the Sea

Anyone lucky enough to have visited a film festival before will know that weirdness is something you can rely on. Sometimes, well, quite often, the movies are so bizarre they verge on inaccessibility, or completely irredeemable disaster. Having attended “Screams” last year, that slightly substandard quality was naturally a concern. Radi and the team put so much energy and effort into this festival, but it can be exhausting watching horror films all weekend. Five movies, ten short films, all of them utterly unapologetically unhinged. 2026 started well, though, with the South West premiere of “Mag Mag”, a Japanese Ring-style horror about a series of bad men in interconnected stories who see a woman nobody else can, who falls in love with them and takes their eyes out. Japanese horrors have a knack for treading the line between being completely insane and being an entertaining watch. A lot happens throughout the runtime, but you never lose track of what is happening. As probably the most widely available movie from the line-up, it was the perfect way to launch the weekend. 

Day Two was also a nice surprise. “Human” was one that even the director openly admitted as being marmite. The judging committee were split between those who loved the feature, and those who found it truly uncomfortable. Sadly, I fell into the latter camp. With all its visceral bone-picking and faecal splurging, Human was gratuitous without a point. Fifteen minutes of the runtime were dedicated to someone sexting, which was borderline unwatchable. I was feeling under the weather anyway, and that nearly set me asleep. Radi openly encouraged us all to head over to Letterboxd, because “the directors, they love the good reviews, the bad reviews, the terrible reviews. They just love that people care, and are talking about it.” Yes, I did leave some subpar Letterboxd reviews, but if it is any consolation to the filmmakers, many of which were present, I famously hate pretty much everything. 

THE MARKET 

Head into the big room by the toilets and you will find the “Screams” market, full of horror merchandise galore. The best named stand is undoubtedly “Lawn of the Dead”, full of horror themed garden gnomes and ornaments for your garden. Other stallholders have astonishing USPs. One restores old horror comics from the sixties and seventies, and they look pristine and good as new. Another turns old horror movies into comic and flip books. Genuinely, the results are awesome. Plenty of horror authors are also given chance to sell their independent horror novels. How lovely it is to have somewhere locally that truly cares about new talent. 

Quite charming was “Alien on Stage”, a documentary from 2020 about a group of bus drivers from Poole who join an amateur dramatics society. They adapt Ridley Scott’s 1979 “Alien” to stage, with cardboard props and great humour, until eventually they are asked to bring “Alien on Stage” to Leicester Square Theatre. Someone argued a horror film festival should only ever make you feel one emotion, fear, but personally it was a real treat to watch something so genuine and human. The cast were sitting in the row in front of us so it was lovely watching their reactions to the movie at the same time that it was playing out on the big screen. They seemed so happy. 

THE FUTURE? 

What I love most is the commitment to the bit. Never does this feel any less legitimate than any other festival. The filmmakers are all delighted when they receive their prizes, because it feels life-changing for them as fledgling directors. There is more than one venue now, meaning that if you miss a film at its premiere, you can head over to the second location and check out the repeat. Although the attendance is only a couple of hundred people, the reactions are passionate and the chances are that if you attend one year, you are bound to go again. Everybody around me loved “Dead by Dawn”, the Polish horror that blended occult and slasher horror to mixed effect. The plot was a bit messy, and the kills uncomfortably gross, but the killer himself, with a mask of a thousand eyes, made as good an image as Ghostface or Leatherface or any of the faces. If only it had a wider circulation, this would make the perfect Halloween costume. Rounding things off was the audience choice winner, “The Other People”, about a child with an imaginary friend. We later learn that a whole other family is living in this house, stealing the food and resources, messing with their lives. Not much frightens me but this was genuinely chilling because of how real it felt. Unfortunately not enough people will ever get to see it, but if you do, definitely give it a watch. I have great pride in being the first person to have ever rated it on Letterboxd, somehow, despite being released in selected American cinemas last year. 

SHORT FILMS 

With ten shorts to choose from, the eventual vote was challenging, with the full gamut of human emotions on show throughout the two hour long blocks. “The Complete Package” was the eventual well-deserved winner, a found-footage satire with a tele-dating tape that turns out to be a hostage situation. An impossible concept, and delivery, not to fall in love with, surely. Personally, “The Whisperer” was a highlight, the rare short film to truly deliver fully upon an idea. All ten had really great concepts, but so many felt almost too short. This unique zombie film saw an old TV dog whisperer invited to a country house to tame a mutt, only to discover this animal was a creature of the undead. There was a lot to love across the entire line-up. “Cosmic Crash”, a playmation alien invasion feature, which ticked in at about two minutes, got everybody laughing hysterically. “Surprise” had a twist none of us really saw coming, and thrived entirely on the performance of its lead. “Stalker”, a sweeping race across Paris, is a complete no-go for arachnophobias, but has nothing to do with the 1979 Tarkovsky classic.