Soho Horror Film Festival returns to Brixton's Cold Harbour Blue cinema for a weekend of frights and delights to carry on the Halloween spirit. Boasting a plethora of premieres and special events, the LGBTQ+ festival, which runs from 20 to 23 November, is the second event from the Soho Horror team this year, following its special Pride event over the summer, and the upcoming Sohome Horror Fest that takes place online from 31 November to 1 December.

With everything from sharksploitation to drag queen zombies, meditative explorations of motherhood, and horny alien thrillers, there's a little bit of something for everyone at this year's Soho Horror Film Festival. But which films should you prioritise this weekend? Here, we round up the top seven films we can't wait to catch on the big screen.

Queens of the Dead

Opening this year's Soho Horror Film Festival is a very special screening of Tina Romero's laugh-out-loud zombie flick Queens of the Dead. Starring Katy O'Brien, Jaquel Spivey, Margaret Cho, and Jack Haven, among other huge names, Romero's feature debut follows a group of club kids and drag queens fighting against the odds to get their seemingly doomed show up and running. But a bigger battle is on the horizon as a zombie outbreak overruns Brooklyn, forcing them to put their personal conflicts aside to survive the night and escape the city. Queens of the Dead will be shown in collaboration with The Arzner Cinema, with tickets on sale now.

Queens of the Dead has its London premiere on 20 November

Hunting Matthew Nichols

Ahead of its theatrical run in March next year, you can catch Markian Tarasiuk's Hunting Matthew Nichols for its international premiere at this year's Soho Horror Film Festival. The found footage film follows a documentary filmmaker who endeavours to solve her brother's missing persons case 23 years after he mysteriously disappeared, and was presumed dead. But when she uncovers shocking evidence, she begins to believe her brother might actually be alive.

Hunting Matthew Nichols has its international premiere on 21 November

It Needs Eyes

There is arguably nothing more horrific than the internet, the deep, dark depths of which contain terrors we can scarcely imagine and that place us in direct danger. It's a concept explored in Zack Ogle and Aaron Pagniano's It Needs Eyes, which has its international premiere at the fest. After suffering a traumatic event, Rowan (Raquel Lebish) visits her estranged aunt's oceanside home. While wracked with guilt, she drowns out her woes with increasingly violent internet content, coming across videos of a missing woman known only as Fish Tooth. As she begins to dig deeper into her case, she begins to suspect Fish Tooth is calling out through the screen for help.

It Needs Eyes has its international premiere on 22 November

Kenneled

The Third Saturday director Jay Burleson returns to Soho Horror Film Festival once more with his latest warped creation, Kenneled, which enjoys its world premiere at this year's event. The twisted body horror follows a down-on-his-luck dogwalker who is offered a chance out of financial ruin when he is approached by a wealthy client to care for his housebound canine. It seems like the opportunity of a lifetime, but this is no ordinary dog…

Kenneled has its world premiere on 22 November

Nesting

Between sleepless nights, cracked nipples, sick-covered clothing, and the immense pressure thrust on you, motherhood can be hell. And Chloe Cinq-Mars' feature debut Nesting (Peau à Peau) highlights the horrors of being a new parent in devastating detail. It follows Penelope (Rose-Marie Perreault) and her boyfriend Gaspard (Simon Landry-Desy), who have just welcomed a bouncing baby boy, Lou. Penelope is grappling with sleep deprivation and postpartum depression while shouldering the bulk of the familial load as Gaspard occupies his time skateboarding and smoking weed. One night, while taking a stroll to soothe Lou to sleep, she witnesses a violent hold-up that is the catalyst for the toll of motherhood to boil over.

Nesting has its UK premiere on 23 November

Touch Me

After stunning Soho Horror Film Festival audiences in 2022 with the deliciously bleak Hypochondriac, Addison Heimann is another returning face to this year's event with horny alien flick Touch Me. Starring Olivia Taylor Dudley, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jordan Gavaris, Touch Me follows Joey (Dudley) and her best friend Craig (Garvis), who become addicted to the touch of Joey's alien ex Brian (Pucci) whose touch compels people to immediately have sex with him. But as the duo falls under his euphoric spell, they inadvertently become sucked into his web of lies and his Earth-threatening master plan.

Touch Me has its English premiere on 23 November

Dead Lover

Closing Soho Horror Film Festival 2025 is the London premiere of Grace Glowicki's Dead Lover, which, as a European exclusive, will be presented in Stink-O-Vision so audiences can smell their way through the ghoulish flick. The film follows a lonely gravedigger who finally meets the man of her dreams, but their whirlwind romance is cut short when he devastatingly drowns at sea. Struggling with her grief, she goes to extreme lengths to resurrect her lover.