Black Sunday Film Festival returns with its annual summer mini-fest Midsummer Scream on Saturday July 18th at Firstsite in Colchester.

Alongside a stacked selection of feature presentations and acclaimed short films, audiences can once again experience the festival’s legendary Cult Film Secret Screening – a much-loved Black Sunday tradition guaranteed to surprise and delight devotees of cult cinema. Single tickets and day passes are on sale now.

The festival opens with the UK premiere of Deep Water, a shark-infested thriller from director Renny Harlin, starring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley. Next comes the UK premiere of Match, the chilling new feature from director Daniska Esterhazy.

The festival then welcomes the Essex premiere of We Put the World to Sleep, the latest mind-bending work from cult filmmaker Adrian Tofei. Then there’s the Essex premiere of Appofeniacs, a dark and explosive contemporary thriller from filmmaker Chris Marrs Piliero.

The evening then reaches its finale in true Black Sunday fashion with the Cult Film Secret Screening. This year’s hand-picked mystery selection is a rarely screened cult classic and promises to be the perfect late-night summer big screen experience for all devoted horror hounds.

Accompanying each screening is a striking international line-up of genre short films from emerging filmmakers. This year’s selections include Foreign Bodies (Lysander Wong), F*ckface (Dean Puckett), He (Hira Vin), Itch (Joe Savage), and The Eating of Sin (Gaius Milne Brown).

The night concludes with the Black Sunday Afterparty, bringing together filmmakers, guests, and audiences for a late-night celebration of independent genre cinema following the Cult Film Secret Screening.

BSFF Midsummer Scream 2026 is sponsored by Love Horror and Signature Entertainment.

For more information on the Black Sunday Film Festival and its upcoming events, visit: blacksundayff.com or follow the festival on X and Instagram @blacksunday_ff.