'Past Life'

Source: Grimmfest

‘Past Life’

EXCLUSIVE: The world premiere of Simeon Halligan and Rachel Richardson-Jones’s Past Life will open the UK’s horror festival Grimmfest, which runs October 9-12 in Manchester.

Jeremy Piven, singer Pixie Lott, Aneurin Barnard and Tim McInnerny star Past Life, a tale of repressed memory, regression therapy and a series of unsolved murders from the 80s. Directors Halligan and Richardson-Jones are also the directors of Grimmfest.

Further world premieres include Tom Botchii’s Syphon, about a computer hacker who learns a hard lesson; Manu Herrera’s 80s horror homage Lily’s Ritual; and Tim Connery’s The Driftless, an anthology inspired by Midwest mythologies.

Among the international premieres at the festival is Jacob Lees Johnson’s I See The Demon starring Jon Heder and Alexis Zollicoffer, and Kenichi Ugana’s Incomplete Chairs about a perfectionist furniture designer.

Also screening at the festival is Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap, which stars Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen as a couple whose hold on reality starts to crumble; and Pierre Tsigaridis’s Frankie, Maniac Woman which takes a look at misogyny in the entertainment industry.

Grimmfest line-up 2025 

*denotes world premiere 

Past Life*
Dir. Simeon Halligan, Rachel Richardson-Jones

Syphon* 
Dir. Tom Botchii

Lily’s Ritual*
Dir. 
Manu Herrera 

The Driftless*
Dir. Tim Connery 

Landlord
Dir. Remington Smith 

I See The Demon
Dir. Jacob Lees Johnson

Tribe
Dir. Dan Asma 

Weekend At The End Of The World 
Dir. Gille Klabin 

Wormtown
Dir. 
Sergio Pinheiro 

Itch!
Dir. Bari Kang 

Incomplete Chairs 
Dir. Kenichi Ugana

Forgive Us All
Dir. Jordana Stott

Frankie, Maniac Woman 
Dir, Pierre Tsigaridis

Squealers 
Dir. Abel Ferry

The Other
Dir. Paul Etheredge 

Beast Of War
Dir. Kiah Roache-Turner 

Don’t Leave The Kids Alone
Dir. Emilio Portes 

Rabbit Trap 
Dir. Bryn Chainey 

Deviant 
Dir. Daniel. M Caneiro 

Dead By Dawn 
Dir. Dawid Torrone 

Kombucha 
Dir. Jake Myers