Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow

Overview

With Monster Fest showering Melbourne with an annual showcase of horror, thrills and just a bloody good time at the cinema since 2011, non-Victorian genre buffs can be forgiven for experiencing a severe case of film festival envy. Don't worry, the Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow is the cure for that green shade you've been sporting. It's taking the best of the festival around the country; first stop: Sydney.

From March 9 to 12, Event Cinemas George Street will become Monster Fest's temporary home away from home with a lineup that should excite and unnerve cinephiles in equal measure. Topping the bill is the faint-inducing Raw — and it really has made people weak at the knees, so don't say we didn't warn you. The cannibal-focused effort certainly made an impact when it opened the 2016 Melbourne festival, taking out the fest's Golden Monster award.

Attendees can also catch the all-female horror anthology XX, which premieres at this year's Sundance Film Festival, delivering scares, frights, gore and more from filmmakers of the fairer sex. About time. Or, see the monochrome delights of the maternally minded The Eyes of My Mother splashed across the screen, as well as the old-school slicing and dicing of Toronto International Film Festival hit The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Rounding out the program is classic Italian horror Suspiria, plus the locally linked Skinford (which was made in Sydney) and doco Dead Hands Dig Deep (which was made by a Sydney director).