A horror film festival in the middle of a forest in Arnold is set to return this September. Visitors to the Huldra film festival - which takes place on Saturday, September 3 - will have to walk through a 'haunted forest' to get to the screening with the opportunity to wander through the venue's maize maze.
The outdoor festival shows a collection of carefully selected short horror films from international and home-grown filmmakers. As well as the films on offer, the festival will have a selection of hot food, a full bar and also merchandise on sale from local independent businesses.
The forest backs out onto George's Hill: an area which, according to folklore, there have been mysterious reports of a figure wearing all black. According to historic reports, the figure was seen wearing a hat, covering all features except a large, hooked nose, and a silver chain.
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The festival was created by founders Dan and Kym Lord, who live locally to the maize maze, in Lime Lane, in Arnold. As dedicated horror film fans, they started the festival plans after being stuck indoors during Covid watching horror films.
"We started it because we were literally watching lots of horrors every single night and we started to mark them which was something to get us through the lockdown. We started to get a real feel for it. Everyone got on board so quickly and the Notts Maize Maze team has been so brilliant in getting involved. It all just fell into place," Dan said.
"It's a horror film festival at the maze but it has quite a festival feel going on. We have a really good pizza trailer that makes horror-themed pizza and the place itself has a full bar in the forest which is cool. We have a massive screen with surround sound.
"We are hoping to have some live music playing when people come in as we have to wait for the sun to go down before it starts. We will also have scare actors on the night, too," he said.
The forest provides a backdrop for the evening of spooky events, including Nottingham Horror Collective who are back for a second year, and Hellbent City clothing which will bring a collection of garments and merchandise. Sneinton Market favourite Bone Arrow will also be providing a stall to display their collection of bespoke and fine jewellery.
The first year of the festival proved to be a bit tricky as an out-of-the-blue thunderstorm meant the event had to be postponed until July - the same day that England went into the Euro 2020 final and lost to Italy. Although the new date had an affect on ticket sales, Dan estimated that the event had about 150 people in attendance.
"We had to move it because of the weather but then we found out we were going to be in the finals. Within minutes, we had people emailing me to say they had Covid so they wouldn't be able to make it," Dan said.
He added: "We were so surprised by how many people came. We thought it was going to be about 30 of our friends but we had loads of people who came from across the country to attend. We aren't doing this for mass numbers as we always said this is for fun.
"The films are from all over the world and some of them are just so out there. They are really thought-provoking and we try to cover every type of horror to make it really interesting for everyone."
