Wire report
Gore, gimps and a potty-mouthed magpie: welcome to the Lisbon horror festival where nightmares are a dream
MotelX – Portugal’s only film festival dedicated to horror – hopes to inspire local film-makers by showcasing world-class scares. Now in its 20th edition, its directors say truly nerve-shredding cinema is its holy grail If horror happens in the dark, the midnight movie showing was once the perfect way of gauging the genre’s health. But those days may be over. “When we were a film club, our first ever cinema screening was Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer in 2003, and it was full,” says Pedro Souto, co-director of Lisbon’s horror-centric MotelX festival . “But you don’t have that many people at midnight any more. I don’t know why.” He’s right: the midnight slot I attend – of the gore-bathed Indonesian kung fu flick Ikatan Darah – is only half full. Only a few appreciative chuckles when meat-cleavers plunge into craniums suggest the old midnight spirit still lives. No need to panic, though:
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MotelX – Portugal’s only film festival dedicated to horror – hopes to inspire local film-makers by showcasing world-class scares. Now in its 20th edition, its directors say truly nerve-shredding cinema is its holy grail If horror happens in the dark, the midnight movie showing was once the perfect way of gauging the genre’s health. But those days may be over. “When we were a film club, our first ever cinema screening was Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer in 2003, and it was full,” says Pedro Souto, co-director of Lisbon’s horror-centric MotelX festival . “But you don’t have that many people at midnight any more. I don’t know why.” He’s right: the midnight slot I attend – of the gore-bathed Indonesian kung fu flick Ikatan Darah – is only half full. Only a few appreciative chuckles when meat-cleavers plunge into craniums suggest the old midnight spirit still lives. No need to panic, though:
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What happened
According to The Guardian’s source item, Gore, gimps and a potty-mouthed magpie: welcome to the Lisbon horror festival where nightmares are a dream, MotelX – Portugal’s only film festival dedicated to horror – hopes to inspire local film-makers by showcasing world-class scares. Now in its 20th edition, its directors say truly nerve-shredding cinema is its holy grail If horror happens in the dark, the midnight movie showing was once the perfect way of gauging the genre’s health. But those days may be over. “When we were a film club, our first ever cinema screening was Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer in 2003, and it was full,” says Pedro Souto, co-director of Lisbon’s horror-centric MotelX festival . “But you don’t have that many people at midnight any more. I don’t know why.” He’s right: the midnight slot I attend – of the gore-bathed Indonesian kung fu flick Ikatan Darah – is only half full. Only a few appreciative chuckles when meat-cleavers plunge into craniums suggest the old midnight spirit still lives. No need to panic, though:
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-09-11T15:23:22+00:00.
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Primary source: Gore, gimps and a potty-mouthed magpie: welcome to the Lisbon horror festival where nightmares are a dream via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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- Gore, gimps and a potty-mouthed magpie: welcome to the Lisbon horror festival where nightmares are a dreamThe Guardian - 2026-09-11T15:23:22+00:00
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