Mayhem Film Festival announces full festival line-up

With just over a month to go before Mayhem’s 21st edition takes place at Broadway, Nottingham (16-19 October), the team is excited to reveal this year’s full festival line-up. With a mix of premieres, previews, classics, and two shorts programmes, there is something for every fan of genre cinema in this year’s programme.

Mayhem Film Festival will open on Thursday 16 October with the UK Premiere of John Minton’s GAME, starring Sleaford Mods’ front man Jason Williamson and Marc Bessant - a nail-biting close proximity cat and mouse thriller in which two men must use their wits to survive. Members of the cast and crew, including director John Minton, writer/producer Geoff Barrow, and lead actors Jason Williamson and Marc Bessant will join us to present the film and take part in a post-screening Q&A. Our opening night will close with Min Kyu-dong’s THE OLD WOMAN AND THE KNIFE, a fast-paced, action-packed Korean thriller in which an older assassin discovers she has more in common than she thought with a rebellious young apprentice. 

Friday 17 October sees day 2 of the festival, which will open with the previously announced CHESS OF THE WIND, Mohammad Reza Aslani’s Iranian masterpiece from 1976. Next up will be Toshiaki Toyoda’s TRANSCENDING DIMENSIONS, a visual feast of a sci-fi in which a hitman heads to a religious facility in search of a missing monk, and ends up encountering a sorcerer and defying the space-time continuum. 

We’ll move into the evening with the previously announced new film from Mayhem alumni Marc Price (Nightshooters, 2018), the high octane THE ARBITER. Joining director Marc Price and cast member Michael Geary for a post-screening Q&A will be additional cast members Georgina Leonidas and Jasmine Sumner. We will round off Friday night with the also previously announced REDUX REDUX from directing duo Kevin & Matthew McManus, a pulse-pounding sci-fi action.

We’ll open Saturday 18 October with the UK Premiere of Yuriyan Retriever’s MAG MAG, an astonishing and statement debut that borrows from Takashi Miike, Sion Sono and Hitoshi Matsumoto to create a fresh new take on J-horror that will truly get under your skin. We’ll then head to a small town in Texas for Paul Gandersman & Peter S. Hall’s MAN FINDS TAPE, in which a brother and sister team up to investigate strange happenings in their hometown - a hair-raising new entry in the found footage genre. We’ll then settle into our first Short Film Showcase of this year’s festival.

Saturday evening will start with the previously announced new mind-bending sci-fi from Mayhem alumni Ben Wheatley (Sightseers, Mayhem 2012), BULK, with both Ben Wheatley and producer Andy Starke joining us to present the film and take part in a post-screening Q&A. We will close the day with a screening of Paul W. S. Anderson’s 1997 space horror sci-fi EVENT HORIZON in which a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and rescue a starship that’s mysteriously gone missing. 

We’ll open the last day of the festival with Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s violent BONE LAKE in which a couple’s romantic getaway is interrupted when their gorgeous remote rental appears to have been double-booked. We’ll then delve into a double bill featuring Didier Konings’ folk horror HERESY (Witte Wieven) in which a persecuted young woman enters the woods and begins to find a new faith in dark powers, which will be paired with the UK Premiere of  Kier-La Janisse’s THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM, based on the story by Algernon Blackwood, in which a schoolteacher spends a restless night in a hotel in the Alps. Director Kier-La Janisse will join us to take part in a post-screening Q&A. We’ll then settle in for our second Short Film Showcase of the festival. 

We’ll start our last evening with the previously announced PORTAL TO HELL by director Woody Bess, before closing things out with the also previously announced DEAD BY DAWN by Dawid Torrone. 

A very limited amount of Full Festival Passes are still available for £95, giving you access to all films and events at this year’s festival. Individual tickets and Frankenstein ticket packages (where you can select any four films for the price of three), will be available from Friday 19 September at 12PM. For more information, and to book tickets and passes, please visit www.mayhemfilmfestival.com. For Frankenstein ticket packages, please visit Broadway’s box office or contact them on 0115 952 6611.

Mayhem Film Festival takes place at Broadway, Nottingham on 16-19 October 2025.

MAYHEM FILM FESTIVAL 2025 - FULL FESTIVAL LINE-UP

Thursday 16 October

7.00PM - GAME [UK PREMIERE] + Q&A // Dir. John Minton, UK, 80m, 2025

9.30PM - THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE // Dir. Min Kyu-dong, South Korea, 124m, 2025, with English subtitles


Friday 17 October

2.00PM - CHESS OF THE WIND // Dir. Mohammad Reza Aslani, Iran, 100m, 1976

4.15PM - TRANSCENDING DIMENSIONS // Dir. Toshiaki Toyoda, Japan, 96m, 2025, with English subtitles

7.00PM - THE ARBITER + Q&A // Dir. Marc Price, UK, 109m, 2025

9.45PM - REDUX REDUX // Dirs. Kevin & Matthew McManus, US, 92m, 2025


Saturday 18 October

12.00PM - MAG MAG [UK PREMIERE] // Dir. Yuriyan Retriever, Japan, 112m, 2025, with English subtitles

2.30PM - MAN FINDS TAPE // Dirs. Paul Gandersman & Peter S. Hall, US, 86m, 2025

4.30PM - Short Film Showcase #1 // Dirs. Various, International, 110m, 2025, partly subtitled

7.30PM - BULK + Q&A // Dir. Ben Wheatley, UK, 90m, 2025

10.00PM - EVENT HORIZON // Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson, US, 95m, 1997


Sunday 19 October

12.00PM - BONE LAKE // Dir. Mercedes Bryce Morgan, US, 94m, 2025

2.00PM - HERESY (WITTE WIEVEN) / THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM [UK PREMIERE] + Q&A // Dirs. Didier Konings/Kier-La Janisse, NL/Can, 90m, 2025, partly subtitled

4.30PM - Short Film Showcase #2 // Dirs. Various, International, 90m, 2025

6.30PM - PORTAL TO HELL // Dir. Woody Bess, US, 93m, 2025

8.30PM - DEAD BY DAWN // Dir. Dawid Torrone, Poland, 87m, 2025, with English subtitles