Dramas may dominate awards season, but you can always rely on the London Film Festival to bring us some of the best – and often weirdest – horror, sci-fi and fantasy films to watch out for. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s programme, and how to watch them.
Horror
All The Gods In The Sky
Director: Quarxx
Cast: Jean-Luc Couchard, Mélanie Gaydos, Thierry Frémont
Country: France
A man turns to otherworldly forces to free himself and his disabled sister from their difficult lives, at which point things take a nightmarish turn.
Monday 15 October 9pm, Picturehouse Central
Tuesday 16 October 6pm, Rich Mix Cinema
Cam
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Cast: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Melora Walters
County: USA
Erotic cam girl Lola finds herself logged out of her account, and yet ‘Lola’ is still live online, entertaining her fans. Who is her mysterious doppelganger, and what do they want?
Saturday 20 October 6.15pm, Curzon Soho Cinema
Sunday 21 October 3.30pm, Prince Charles Cinema
The Cannibal Club
Director: Guto Parente
Cast: Ana Luiza Rios, Tavinho Teixeira
Country: Brazil
A rich married couple secretly kill and eat their hired help. But they become the prey when they stumble across a secret about the head of their cannibal club.
Wednesday 17 October 6.30pm, Vue Leicester Square
Friday 19 October 9pm, Rich Mix Cinema
Knife + Heart
Director: Yann Gonzalez
Cast: Vanessa Paradis, Nicolas Maury, Kate Moran
Country: France-Swizerland-Mexico
A gay porn producer (Paradis) has to contend with a homicidal psycho determined to bump off her cast, one by one.
Friday 12 October 11.59pm, Prince Charles Cinema
Saturday 13 October 3pm, Vue Leicester Square
Mandy
Director: Panos Cosmatos
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache
Country: USA/Belgium
Nicolas Cage’s girlfriend gets kidnapped by a Satanic cult, so he hunts them down to exact revenge. But this is no typical piece of revenge torture porn. This is very, very weird, and seriously unsettling.
Friday 12 October 6.10pm, Rich Mix Cinema
Wednesday 17 October 6.10pm, Prince Charles Cinema
May The Devil Take You
Director: Timo Tjahjanto
Cast: Chelsea Islan, Pevita Pearce
Country: Indonesia
When her father is struck down with a mysterious illness, Alfie and her step-siblings return to his home to find the cause of the illness – yep, it’s a malevolent spirit.
Wednesday 17 October 8.45pm, Curzon Soho Cinema
Thursday 18 October 3.30pm, ICA Cinema
The Nightshifter
Director: Dennison Ramalho
Cast: Daniel de Oliveira, Fabíula Nascimento
Country: Brazil
A mortician with the power to talk to corpses learns about dangerous secrets in his own life from a dead crime lord. He soon learns it’s best to let dead bodies lie.
Saturday 13 October 5.40pm, Odeon Tottenham Court Road
Sunday 14 October 3.15, Rich Mix Cinema
Tumbbad
Director: Rahi Anil Barve, Adesh Prasad
Cast: Sohum Shah, Mohd Samad
Country: India
A young man in search of a fabled family treasure awakens his witch great-grandmother and releases and otherworldly force.
Wednesday 1o October 8.45pm, Vue Leicester Square
Thursday 11 October 6pm, Vue Leicester Square
Sci-Fi
Duplicate
Director: Bill Oliver
Cast: Ansel Elgort, Patricia Clarkson, Suki Waterhouse
Country: USA
Two identical young men leave each other daily reports on their lives as this strange, subtle sci-fi film gradually reveals their connection to each other.
Sunday 14 October 8.40pm, Prince Charles Cinema
Tuesday 16 October 3.15pm, BFI Southbank
Fantasy
Border
Director: Ali Abassi
Cast: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff
Country: Sweden
A border guard with the ability to literally sniff out crime meets a potentially sinister man to whom she is immediately and fiercely attracted. This is based on a novel by the author of Let The Right One In, so expect a beautiful and wise fantasy.
Thursday 11 October 5.30pm, Embankment Garden Cinema
Friday 12 October 2pm, Cineworld Leicester Square
House Of My Fathers
Director: Suba Sivakumaran
Cast: Bimal Jayakodi, Pradeepa
Country: Sri Lanka
A man and a woman from warring villages have to venture into the forest of the afterlife to free their villages from a curse that has rendered the women infertile.
Saturday 20 October 3.30pm, Vue Leicester Square
Comedy
Sorry To Bother You
Director: Boots Riley
Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yuen
Country: USA
In an alternate reality, telephone salesman Cassius experiences success when he discovers his ‘white voice’, but it leads him to a world of corruption.
Friday 12 October 2.15pm, Embankment Garden Cinema
BFI London Film Festival runs from 10-21 October 2018. Get more information here.