Halloween Kills: Spooky movies you can watch in Sheffield cinemas - and what to watch on Netflix and Prime Video

Mark Halloween with the Celluloid Screams film festival

Celluloid Screams Horror Film Festival has been delighting film fans since 2009, delivering shocks and scares with the very best in new and classic horror cinema from around the globe.

Recently voted one of the best horror festivals in the world by horror website Dread Central, the 13th edition of Celluloid Screams returns to Showroom Cinema on Paternoster Row from Friday, October 21 to Sunday 24.

The festival will screen 17 feature films, each accompanied by a selection of short films.

Celluloid Screams will open with Searchlight Pictures’ Antlers from acclaimed director Scott Cooper and horror maestro Guillermo del Toro. Screening a week before its UK release, Antlers tells the story of a school teacher and her student whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with a legendary ancestral creature.

Closing the festival this year will be Titane, screening just a few weeks after its UK premiere at the London Film Festival. Director Julia Ducournau became only the second woman to win the top prize, the Palme d'Or, at the famous Cannes festival this year, where Titane premiered.

Julie Ducournau's first film Raw closed Celluloid Screams in 2016 to a sell-out audience.

After a closely-fought competition on Twitter, the festival will be bringing Paul W S Anderson’s cult favourite Event Horizon back to the big screen. Audience members voted for it from 16 classic horror favourites.

Another cult film being shown is Frank Oz's sci-fi horror musical Little Shop of Horrors, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2021.

The festival's annual art exhibition, 13: UNMASKED, pays tribute to the famous hockey mask from the Friday 13th series to celebrate Celluloid Screams' 13th edition.

Thirteen local artists have been enlisted to redesign this horror icon in their own style and the masks are on display at the Showroom until Halloween. Artists featured include Tom J Newell, Lisa O'Hara and Mila K.

The festival will close in style with a party in the Showroom Café bar on Sunday 24.

Festival founder and co-director Rob Nevitt said: "After delivering one of the few in-person festivals in Sheffield in 2020, we're thrilled to unveil the 13th edition of Celluloid Screams.

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“Once again, our programming team has scoured the earth to find the true gems of the horror genre for audiences’ viewing pleasure.

"With a whole host of premieres and previews, plus a couple of classics thrown in for good measure, Celluloid Screams 2021 could be our best programme to date.”

Festival website: www.celluloidscreams.com

The scary films you can watch at Sheffield’s cinemas

Scary films on over the next few weeks at big cinema chains such as Cineworld Sheffield, Vue, Odeon Luxe and The Light include Halloween Kills, the 12th in the slasher series, a 25th-anniversary reissue of Scream, a restored version of Blade and the new Candyman.

Time-travelling psychological horror Last Night in Soho is also due for UK release on October 29.

Young Halloween film fans can see animation The Addams Family 2, a 2020 reissue of comedy witch movie Hocus Pocus, Halloween-themed animated fantasy The Nightmare Before Christmas or a 20th-anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Cinemas will also have a live screening of the ever-popular stage production The Rocky Horror Show Live on October 28. This one stars Strictly Come Dancing winner Ore Oduba as Brad.

There are more family-friendly films on offer at food and drink venue Church - Temple of Fun in Rutland Way, Neepsend, which is offering daily free showings from Monday, October 25 to Friday 29. They’re not saying which films are on offer with hints for you to guess at, so we won’t spoil the fun. Details at templeof.fun/pages/events.

If you want to watch horror films at home, head to the specialist streaming – or should that be screaming? – site, www.shudder.com, for a big choice.

Curzon Home Cinema has a smallish, arty selection if you search the website for ‘horror’. The list includes American Psycho, The Blair Witch Project and Suspiria.

Top Netflix offerings include Midsommar, The Conjuring, Hush, The Descent, Veronica, Drag Me To Hell, Hereditary, The Cabin in the Woods, Dawn of the Dead and Zombieland.

Popular horror films on Prime Movies include Candyman, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, The Little Stranger, The Forever Purge, Possum, The Grudge, Ma, Crawl, Antebellum and slasher comedy Freaky.

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