Sean Parker
Soho Horror Fest’s annual Sohome Horror Pride 2025 festival returns this weekend (June 13-15) with a three-day virtual “gala of gayness” featuring some heavy-hitting titles from a mix of acclaimed voices and new visionaries in the LGBTQ+ community. The annual summer festival is now in its sixth year, and the festival runners have put together an impressive “10 fierce features, 25 slay shorts, and 3 special events” for one unforgettable Pride weekend. As in previous years, Sohome Horror Pride passes are available on a pay-what-you-want basis with a suggested price point of £50 (about $70), making it one of the most affordable horror film festivals on the planet.
The lineup this year is stacked! I’ve seen some great films at Sohome Horror Pride over the last few years, including Gem Deger’s Playdurizm, Josh Morris’ Bliss of Evil, and Colby Holt and Sam Probst’s Ganymede, the latter earning a spot on my 2024 year-end favorites list. This year, the festival has really outdone itself, because some of these titles are worth the hype.
If you’re a Scream fan, this year’s lineup is for you. Horror Queers podcasters Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurman are planning a Live Commentary of Scream 3 for a watch-a-long that one can only suspect will focus on Courtney Cox’s bangs and Parker Posey’s flawless performance. Ok, maybe that’s all I focus on in Scream 3. Anyway, between the film’s mystery, mayhem, and murder most foul in the Hollywood hills, it’s sure to be so much more fun than watching it commentary-less. And, if you love that, you’ll love The Premiere, where a delusional film producer in Sag Harbor tries to adapt a version of Scream for the stage with hilarious results. Sohome Horror is calling Sam Pezzullo and Christopher Anthony Bouckoms’ satirical mockumentary The Office, plus Best in Show, plus Stab. Do you really want to miss that?
Like all films at Sohome, thematically tied-in short films precede each presentation. The Premiere screens with Lyndon Hanrahan’s dating app nightmare, I Hope He Doesn’t Kill Me, where one man’s Grindr hookup has him thinking of all the ways he’s vulnerable in this situation, and considering all the horrible ways the night could end. So, what happens when he actually presses his date’s doorbell?
Need more masked killers? Expect cultists, camaraderie, and plenty of victims. Tim Connolly’s Black Theta is primed to be a fun and freaky slasher flick that Sohome is promoting as a blend of the Scream 3 diegetic film Stab 2 and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Connolly plays Andy, an escaped victim of a killer cult from years ago, who finds himself a target once again years later. This film came out of Panic Fest with a lot of positive buzz and took home the Best Produced Screenplay prize at Crimson Screen Horror Fest back in May. The short films preceding Black Theta, Mo Matton’s Gender Reveal and Benjamin Brewer’s Tapped, will introduce the feature presentation.
Mary Beth McAndrews’ Bystanders isn’t for the faint of heart. If I utter the words “frat party,” I think you have a good idea where the film may be headed. A group of young women, expecting a night of fun, are attacked and hunted for sport by the frat boys. That is, until they cross paths with a couple returning from a wedding with a dark agenda of their own. The predatory boys are suddenly made prey, but who can you trust when you’re surrounded by monsters? Bystanders has a familiar, sleazy vibe to it, reminiscent of Guys at Parties Like It or I Spit on Your Grave, so certain content warnings apply. The film won Best Horror Feature at Nightmares Film Festival in 2024, and seven of its eleven nominations at last year’s Horrorhound Film Festival. It’s presented at Sohome Horror Pride 2025 alongside Colin G Cooper’s Bath Bomb and Andrea A. Walter’s I’m in Love with Edgar Alan Poe.
The pressures of being a queer creator vividly come to life in Michael Varrati’s There’s a Zombie Outside, something the co-host of the Midnight Mass podcast understands more than most. A cult cinema filmmaker begins to have trouble distinguishing reality from celluloid when he starts to believe his monstrous creation is real. The film won Cinema Diverse’s Festival Favorite and Director’s Choice awards for Best Feature Film in 2024. It plays with Neal Suresh Murani’s Salem Horror Fest winning Best Short Film, RAT!, and Craig Boreham’s Perfect Boy Next Door.
Speaking of Salem Horror Fest award winners, anyone looking for one of the best found footage movies of the year should tune in to Sohome Horror Pride 2025 for The Rebrand. Kaye Adelaide’s film is whip smart and as ferociously funny as it is thrilling, as a cancelled lesbian influencer couple hires a bisexual videographer to shoot a behind-the-scenes documentary as a means to stage a comeback. The movie took home the award for Best Feature at Salem Horror Fest, and is worth the price of admission just to catch it. The film plays alongside Gabriel Carnick’s gluttonous Belly Belly, and Josie Charles’ Blue Violet.
Chucky star Fiona Douriff plays mother to a gifted scientific engineer, who creates a machine capable of peering into memories to hunt for one “essential memory” to save her dying girlfriend in Psychonaut. If that’s not enough of a race against the clock, the lovers are also being hunted by a man they thought was dead. Sohome Horror Pride 2025’s “movie math” suggests it’s a mashup of Eternal Sunshine and a sapphic take on The Brain That Wouldn’t Die. Psychonaut plays after checking out Ryan Mack’s Last Night and Vyky Saiz’s Restore.
Filling out the rest of the program, catch Marwan Mokbel’s witchy-religious feature, The Judgement, winner of the Outstanding Artistic Achievement award at FilmOut San Diego, and Best Feature at LGBT+ Film Festival Poland. It plays with Kalil Haddad’s The Boy Was Found Unharmed and John Poliquin’s Broad Daylight. Aaron Pagniano’s vampiric Sunset on the River Styx playing with Heath Virgoe’s Hot Young Geek Seeks Bloodsucking Freak, a title rivaling Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person for longest vampire movie title. A mix of Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Tales from the Hood, Parker Brennon’s Hauntology presents an anthology dripping with identity themes and lots of blood. It plays following Jonathan Andre Culliton’s Spookable and Shane Anderson’s The Shroud. And, Joshua R. Pangborn and Stuart Kiczek’s The Brooklyn Butcher has the residents of a New York apartment building fearing their neighbors, as a killer on the loose causes increasing paranoia. The Brooklyn Butcher plays with Aaron Lovett’s Demonboy and Cody Hedera’s Knockoff!
Then there’s the UK Premiere of David-Jan Bronsgeest’s Binary, a not-quite feature-length film, about a trans Pakistani Woman with conflicted feelings about gender-affirming surgery. Whenever she’s feeling confident and embraces her identity, she winds up prone to strange attacks and visions. But things get fun when her inner demons come out to play. The stills I’ve seen from Binary look absolutely incredible, so I have high hopes that the film is going to pack a wallop. It plays alongside Renetta G. Amador’s Gummies and J. Taylor-Jones’ Dead Body.
Again proving their commitment in championing the voices of short filmmakers, Sohome Horror Pride 2025 proudly presents A United Queerdom: Short Film Showcase. A block of additional short films from across the UK. Here, viewers can catch Llŷr Titus’ Welsh folklore-inspired Fisitor, Aimie Willemse’s heartbreaking dementia film, Unravelling, Ian Fallon’s reality-distorted Amoeba, Joe Warner’s bleakly entitled House Hunters, and David Yorke’s anxiety-inducing Nervous Ellie.
Rounding out the weekend, and celebrating its 40th anniversary, Sohome Horror Pride 2025 presents a live script reading of A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Jack Sholder’s Freddy sequel is a notoriously queer-coded follow-up to Wes Craven’s original film. And, in recent years, has found reprieve among fans taking a second look, even providing the movie’s star, Mark Patton, a horror resurgence. The cast is still under wraps for this event, but I have never had a bad experience watching one of these.
Access to the festival is available globally, and viewers with Roku, Apple, or Fire TV devices can watch films directly on their televisions through the Cinesend Screeners App. Additionally, each film and event will have a brief introduction from festival runner Mitch Harrod via Facebook on a special event page that can only be accessed with a badge. Purchasing badges is as simple as sending a PayPal request to the festival. Again, the recommended donation is £50 (about $70). See the Soho Horror Pride 2025 website for more information. Soho Horror is a safe and inclusive space for everyone. They have a zero tolerance policy for being a sh*thead, so be kind or risk getting banned from two of the coolest festivals in the world without a refund.
