In Dreams Are Monsters is a major BFI UK-wide film and events season celebrating the horror genre on screen, taking place from 1 October to 31 December in cinemas nationwide, at BFI Southbank (from 17 October to 31 December), BFI IMAX, on BFI Player and with a tie-in major BFI Blu-ray release. It is supported by National Lottery, BFI Film Audience Network and the ICO.

In Dreams Are Monsters coincides with two big screen horror re-releases, both of which will be screening at BFI Southbank. It’s the 40th anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s all-time horror classic Poltergeist (1982) and the 20th anniversary of Alejandro Amenábar’s double BAFTA nominated The Others (2002), which features a chilling performance from Nicole Kidman.

In Dreams Are Monsters is a fresh, inventive and inclusive take on the horror genre tracing how the imagery of nightmare has been created through film, and how stories of monsters have always been political. Through five mythical horror archetypes – the beast, ghost, vampire, witch and zombie – In Dreams Are Monsters explores how these monstrous bodies have been represented on screen over the last hundred years and how they have been reclaimed by new voices in horror filmmaking.

Each archetype doesn’t so much inform a subgenre as it does a taste for horror; whether it be the creatures that lurk in the shadows, or those that come from within, the beasts of cinema are our darkest fears made flesh. The witch threatens the patriarchy with her alternative, gendered power: her magic and sexuality destabilise the masculinist social order. The ghost embodies the silenced classes: a domestic sign of broader, social horrors taking place. Vampires, the most seductive of monster archetypes, blur the lines between horror, action, eroticism and romance, while the zombie is the most overtly politicised of all cinematic monsters, a rotting blank canvas for social commentary.

In Dreams Are Monsters promises something for everyone, the horror aficionado as well as the horror novice: tales of blood and seduction; of glorious, excessive gore; of teenagers turned monstrous and of the dead risen and angry.

A rare screening of legendary Black horror filmmaker Richard C Kahn’s Son of Ingagi (1940) will be followed by a panel discussion on the history of Black horror, as well as from the wider African diaspora the world premiere of Clarence A. Peters’ thrilling new Nigerian drama series Inside Life, which is screening as part of film festival Film Africa 2022.