MĀRAMA, GRIMMFEST 2026 at Odeon, Deansgate

Hey Horror Fans, The scream season is upon us and GRIMMFEST 2026 is kicking it off with some amazing offerings. I hope you can join me for Taratoa Stappard’s MĀRAMA. "Taratoa Stappard’s literate and elegantly brutal debut feature offers a razor sharp reimagining of the classic Gothic Melodrama; confronting directly the darker realities that so often lurk just beneath the surface of the baroque and stylised narratives. There are nods to Du Maurier’s REBECCA, and maybe to J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s UNCLE SILAS, but this is primarily a riff on JANE EYRE (perhaps by way of Jean Rhys’ classic reimaging and deconstruction of Bronte, WIDE SARGASSO SEA), which taps into the Bluebeard myth that might have been one of Bronte’s own inspirations, and fuses this with horrific historical facts about the treatment of indigenous people in the region, to offer a nightmarish exploration of Colonial exploitation and cultural genocide." Film starts at 4:40pm and we will have a social afterwards at the Lion's Den just outside the cinema entrance. I am doing the whole day at GRIMMFEST so will not be able to stay very long at the social. Tickets can be bought here: https://www.grimmfest.com/screenings/marama/