For a community of die-hard, genre-loving film fans who grew up crouched over tiny glass TV screens, the holy grail has arrived. Some of the cult film world’s most influential (and most obscure) releases, projected large and loud, on an IMAX screen the size of a building.

Bristol’s new(ish) Forbidden Worlds Film Festival returns for a second year, from 18th-21st May, with a frankly ridiculous line-up of big-screen treats. Three strands that very much speak for themselves: Creature Creators (stop-motion pioneers and practical effects wizards), Video Shop Archives (old school cult classics), and Michelle Yeoh (nuff said). sinbadKicking off with a Stan Winston double-feature on opening night, showcasing Winston’s iconic effects work in The Terminator, before a rare theatrical screening of his directorial debut Pumpkinhead, Forbidden Worlds is really going there with unusual, one-off events.

 “We all have our favourites,” jokes Tessa Williams, one of the festival’s lead programmers and a die-hard genre fan herself, before insisting no bridge was too far with obscurity when choosing their line-up. Case in point, Saturday night’s almost heroically weird screening of 1988’s Amsterdamned – a schlocky slasher thriller that promises a scuba-suited serial killer, a hard-boiled detective on the case, and a totally bananas, practically-shot speedboat chase, all within the romantic canals of you guessed it, Amsterdam itself.

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The only one still to allude them? “We did want to show Madhouse,” 1981’s Rottweiler themed psycho-twin movie, “but the screening rights completely priced us out.”

“It was definitely about balance, though.” adds Williams, a word which comes up a lot when discussing the festival. For every Friday morning screening of a bizarre Norman J. Warren alien movie (Prey, in case you were wondering), there’s a much more approachable restoration premiere of a well-known classic, like Bruce Lee’s Way of the Dragon, or Sylvester Stallone’s ’90s favourite Cliffhanger. Or, as it goes, a sincere and artfully framed celebration of a true Hollywood icon, with the Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation joining the fray, with special bows for 1958’s legendary The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and a look at the legacy of stop-motion pioneer Willis O’Brien with 1933’s original King Kong.

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And then there’s the Michelle Yeoh of it all. Dubbed by the festival as an “action icon”, the recent Oscar-winner has seen her initial career as a high-kicking, motorbike-leaping badass revisited, following the runaway success of Everything Everywhere All At Once. And why not? Fans of The Yeoh new and old will be pleased to see not just the hugely fun Jackie Chan-vehicle Supercop on the cards, but gun-toting Hong Kong classic Royal Warriors, and comic-book wildcard The Heroic Trio all playing across the weekend too.

Promising four UK restoration premieres, four special anniversary screenings and 17 films in total, all on the newly re-established Bristol Aquarium IMAX, with a fun-loving audience roaring along, Forbidden Worlds is building something really very special in the west. And with the support of local film groups (20th Century Flick, Bristol Bad Film Club, Bristol Black Horror Club) as well as some heavy hitters like Arrow Video, we could be looking at the beginning of something very exciting for Bristol’s genre scene.

“We’re a proper little film festival now,” adds Williams, following the runaway success of the first event and Halloween sidebar in 2022, both of which were nearly one-offs. “We’re taking each year as it comes definitely, but we’re also already thinking about next May…”

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Forbidden Worlds Film Festival kicks off in Bristol 18-21 May 2023. Details on tickets and the full line-up of films can be found at forbiddenworldsfilmfestival.co.uk.