Romford Horror Festival kicks off today and goes through Sunday, February 22nd, 2026, at Lumiere Cinema in Romford, U.K. I’ve had the good fortune to see some of the fest’s features in advance and can recommend the following scare fare. Following are the fest’s official descriptions, followed by my thoughts in italics. For more information including times and ticketing, visit https://www.romfordhorrorfestival.com/.
Charlie Shaw’s Revenge
An eclectic group of workers preparing for the re-opening of Forrestal’s Funland, a remote theme park on the brink of bankruptcy, find themselves stalked by a silent killer. Cut off from any form of rescue, the survivors must band together to fight for their lives . . .
Writer/director John Langridge’s U.K. feature delivers the mystery and chills, as well as plenty of slasher-style kills. The theme park setting adds to the uniqueness of the film. A solid cast and fine work at the helm drive this eerie slice of fear-fare cinema, which deserves greatly to being viewed spoiler-free.
Bannister Doll Heist
When four criminals break into a police evidence locker to steal a mysterious package for a buyer, things quickly go wrong. Now they are trapped in a warehouse waiting to offload their ill gotten gain, but whatever it is, it has plans for them, and they might not see dawn.
Prolific scare-fare writer/director Mj Dixon delivers the latest in his Bannister Doll universe, combining crime thriller elements with supernatural horror to great effect. And speaking of effects, the practical gore effects are highly impressive in this U.K. independent horror feature.
Adorable Humans
A couple move to the countryside looking for a new beginning. But a mysterious mirror turns everything inside out. A young care worker agrees to care for a dying man, only to stumble unto secrets that refuse to stay hidden. A musician struggling with writer’s block is haunted by his own muse and a psychologist starts losing her grip on reality following a harrowing accident.
Put the kiddies to bed because this Danish anthology of Hans Christian Andersen adaptations is decidedly not for them. Adorable Humans is abundant with sex, drugs, and yes, rock and roll — not to mention no shortage of violence — with each segment deserving of the description “macabre.”
The Red Mask
When outspoken queer screenwriter ALLINA GREEN (Helena Howard) is chosen to pen the final installment of the legendary slasher franchise THE RED MASK, anger, outrage, and online death threats from die-hard fans causes a rift in her relationship with reticent fiancé DEETZ (Inanna Sarkis). Desperate for a creative breakthrough, the pair escape to a secluded Airbnb, where Allina concocts a DANGEROUS GAME for the two to play to unlock her writer’s block. But when two uninvited houseguests crash the scene, (Kelli Garner and Jake Abel) the weekend turns dark and a twisted game devolves into a duel to the death.
Screenwriters Samantha Gurash and Patrick Robert Young pack plenty of social commentary and meta elements into the slasher The Red Mask, and director Ritash Gupta shows himself up to the task of making it all work, with the help of game cast and crew. But what about the horror in The Red Mask, you may ask, and well you may ask? There are plenty of set-ups, false scares, real shocks, the red stuff, and gorehounds will be treated to one highly memorable kill, so no worries in that department.
House of Abraham
A desperate woman arrives at the House of Abraham to end it all at the hands of a mysterious leader, who offers guests a safe haven to die. Soon it becomes clear she has a secret agenda that throws the weekend into sinister and unexpected directions.
Director Lisa Belcher’s House of Abraham is a cult thriller with horror elements that boasts both political and sociological allegories. While the right to die and political parallels are on tap, Belcher and screenwriter/star Lukas Hassel make sure to keep the suspenseful genre-film elements at the forefront.
We Put the World to Sleep
Adrian and Duru get lost in the characters they play in an apocalyptic film and embark on a secret mission to end the world for real. What follows goes beyond their wildest imagination. Second entry in Adrian Țofei and Duru Yücel’s spiritual trilogy which includes Be My Cat: A Film for Anne and Pure. Note: We Put the World to Sleep can be watched and understood as a standalone by audiences who haven’t seen Be My Cat, because it’s not a direct sequel, the connections are loose.
We Put the World to Sleep swells with unsettling creepiness, such as Adrian holing up in a room with walls plastered with images of real-life “Night Stalker” serial killer Richard Ramirez while he wears the murderer’s blood-stained underwear. There’s weird and disturbing and then there is We Put the World to Sleep, which aims to shock while commenting on acting and microbudget filmmaking.
