Happy Halloween, and off with our head! Last night, our festival director Chris Oosterom opened the festival with a tentacle-themed opening speech and a special post-screening discussion with Ted Evans, the director of the opening film, Retreat. The film was shot in sign language, and a sign language interpreter was present for the discussion. Evans spoke about his own youth as the source of inspiration for the film: as a child, he attended a school exclusively for Deaf students—an environment that he occasionally found oppressive. Retreat can be seen twice more at the festival: tonight at 18:50 and on November 4th. A full report of our opening night can be found here.
From today, every day of the festival we will be highlighting the programme’s best parts, from specials to parties and VR, and featuring our favourite films. Last-minute tickets are still available for many programmes via the timetable. The exhibitions in LAB111 are free throughout the festival. See you soon!
Today’s menu
Imagine Halloween Party
Tonight at 10PM in OT301
You can make Halloween as scary as you want (just ask John Carpenter), as long as you turn it into a spooky, crazy dress-up party. Since our first official festival day falls exactly on October 31st, we naturally can’t hold back. Starting at 10 PM tonight, we’re throwing a party at OT301, within walking distance of LAB111. It kicks off with the Halloween Drag Karaoke (‘I was working in the lab, late one night…’), led by the legendary drag king Hunky Dory. From midnight onwards, you can then dance yourself into a sweat (of fear) to the spooky set by Mr and Mevr. Koot. Tickets are €5,- and are available here.
Special: Imagine x InScience – Jacob’s Ladder (35th Anniversary)
Tonight at 6:45PM in Filmhallen
This disturbing paranoia classic from 1990 is part of our festival theme A Tentacular Touch, which is all about madness. After the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer tries to get his life back on track. Do his bizarre hallucinations point to PTSD or is there more going on? When it was released, Jacob’s Ladder was the mind-fuck film you absolutely had to see. Why is the film still urgent? Film scholar and superfan Patricia Pisters will lift a spoiler-free corner of the veil at today’s screening. It will screen one more time on November 7th, without an intro.
Imagine Expanded: ROAMance
Every day in Hal West
A multiplayer VR-experience created by one of our own. Are we allowed to do that? Yes, we are! Stanislaw Lugiziński, Imagine’s tireless guide in the virtual domain, created ROAMance together with Ibrahim Qurashi. It’s based on dating apps, minus the superficiality of swiping. Where apps revolve around appearance, in ROAMance the inner self forms the starting point. A literal blind date. ROAMance opens our VR/Expanded programme Rites of Passage today. Check out all the experiences here.
Films of the day
Start your festival right – with a nightmare. What if the presenter of a children’s programme is suddenly overwhelmed by unpleasant memories of his own childhood? In Monkey’s Magic Merry Go-Round (today at 12:00, November 7th at 21:25), playtime is officially over. A hellish ride on a runaway carousel.
Speaking of pain… Aatami Korpi, who dealt with the Nazis in Sisu (2022), runs into trouble with a commander of the Russian Red Army in the aftermath of WWII in sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge (tonight at 21:20, November 7th at 19:00). Aatami causes just as much an orgy of violence as in part 1.
Phew, even a nice morning run around Lake Garda leads to a battle of life and death. That’s what happens to the runner in The Run, one of the last screenings of the day. A familiar story in an interactive format, because the viewer (yes, you) helps decide the runner’s fate. Oh, and Dario Argento and Franco Nero are also dropping by! Tonight only, so grab your chance!
Our team tips for tomorrow
Our colleagues give us their hot takes
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend
Rabia, Head of Marketing: ‘My fave, not just because I’m giving an introduction on November 1st where I connect tentacle erotica, 1600s Japanese art, and Lovecraft, but also because it’s the ultimate anime cult horror from the 80s.’
Screening on Nov 1st at 21:20 (with intro) and on November 4th (without intro).
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie
Evrim & Kiko, Programmers: ‘2025’s funniest film is also the wildest. Don’t dilute your chance of going into this blind! If you like mockumentaries, Back to the Future, Flight of The Conchords and Calvin & Hobbes, you’ll love this.’
Screening on Nov 1st at 16:20 and on Nov 4th.
