[category]
[title]
Brace yourself: Night Visions is back to haunt Helsinki’s silver screens. As the largest festival in the Nordics dedicated to horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, this March edition (25–29 March 2026) promises a deep dive into cult classics, fresh genre discoveries, and those ‘WTF’ indie flicks that leave you questioning your grip on reality.
A huge part of the draw is the venues. You’ll be watching screams unfold in the city's most iconic cinemas: the functionalist gem Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, the Art Deco beauty Cinema Orion (recently named one of the greatest 100 cinemas in the world), and their gritty antithesis, WHS Teatteri Union, a former adult cinema that has reinvented itself as the ultimate home for weird celluloid.
This year’s guest of honour is nothing short of genre royalty: Bond star and ‘Scream Queen’ Caroline Munro will be in attendance to discuss her legendary career.
Beyond the films, don't miss the Movie Flea Market on Saturday, 28 March (12:00–15:00) in the lobby of Bio Rex Lasipalatsi. Entry is free, and it’s the best place in town to hunt for rare physical media and memorabilia.
The Big Recommendations
We asked festival programmer, author, and critic Matti Rämö to pick the absolute essentials from this year’s line-up.
The ‘WTF’ Indie Pick: The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick Director Pete Ohs is flying in to fly the flag for weird indie cinema. He’ll also be presenting his black-and-white sci-fi feature Obex. Expect the unexpected.
The Hardcore Horror: Fresh from the brutal Midnight Madness strand at the Toronto International Film Festival, Obsession has emerged as the most talked-about title among horror purists this year.
The New Wave of Body Horror: Female directors have been dominating the body horror subgenre lately. Natalie Erika James’s Saccharine is already being hailed as ‘this year’s The Substance.’ Meanwhile, Julia Ducournau (of Titane fame) returns with Alpha. Note: The French-language Alpha will screen with Finnish subtitles only.
The Gothic Classics: Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter is a late-era gem from the legendary British Hammer House of Horror, starring our guest of honour Caroline Munro. ‘Hammer Studio – think Christopher Lee’s Dracula – is a cornerstone of horror history,’ says Rämö. ‘I’m already buzzing about interviewing Munro on stage about her time at the studio.’
The Exploitation Icons: Russ Meyer’s masterpiece Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! arguably boasts the best title in cinema history. It stars the formidable Tura Satana, who also appears in the exploitation flick Astro-Zombies. To understand the legend herself, check out the documentary Tura!. Satana was a martial arts-wielding powerhouse who redefined the female image in pop cinema, became a punk icon, and – legend has it – once turned down a marriage proposal from a young Elvis Presley.