LPT HORROR SEASON 2026

After Dark Meet the people behind London’s horror festivals:

This week it's the turn of ETCETERA THEATRE

Horror may have its monsters, ghosts and things that go bump in the night, but running a horror festival involves rather more practical concerns: programming shows, supporting artists, selling tickets and, occasionally, working out how to clear fake blood, body parts and sets in the five minutes before the next show begins.

For London Pub Theatres’ Horror Season, After Dark goes behind the scenes of the festivals giving horror theatre a home. We begin at the 42-seat Etcetera Theatre, where organisers Otto and Martyn are preparing for Camden Horror Fest.

NOWHERE TO HIDE

Camden Horror Fest began with a simple observation: horror already seemed to belong at the Etcetera.

A small black box above a pub already possesses an underground ambience. Add darkness, an audience sitting within a few feet of the performers and a genre built around making people wonder what might be lurking just beyond their line of sight, and the room begins to feel less like a limitation and more like an invitation.

For Otto and Martyn, that closeness was part of the initial appeal.

“Horror works brilliantly here because the audience is close to the performers, there is nowhere to hide, and every sound, silence and movement becomes part of the atmosphere.”

But the ambition was broader than finding a good room for ghost stories. They also saw a gap for a London theatre festival able to accommodate horror in all its forms.

“Horror is such a flexible genre. It can be frightening, funny, political, surreal, emotional, or completely strange.”

Camden Horror Fest was created to give those different kinds of work a home.

HORROR, BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

It’s not just about the number of times it can make somebody leap out of their seat. Otto and Martyn look for atmosphere, a strong theatrical idea and, crucially, a sense that something is at stake. That leaves the door open to everything from slashers and ghost stories to folk horror, body horror, gothic monologues, psychological work and dark comedy.

Two productions in this year’s programme illustrate just how broad that definition can be.

HORROR UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Film can tightly control what we see. The camera directs our eye, editing decides when information is revealed and a well-timed soundtrack tells us when we should start worrying.

Theatre has something unique.

Presence.

“Live theatre makes horror immediate,” Otto and Martyn explain. “The audience can hear the actor breathing. They can feel the silence before something happens.”

Ordinary objects can become sinister. “A chair in the wrong place, a blackout, a whisper, someone standing too still, a door that should not open.”

None of this requires a huge budget. “Sometimes the audience’s imagination does most of the damage.”

At the Etcetera, small choices can carry enormous weight: a movement can feel menacing, a quiet line threatening, a glance enough to implicate an audience member.

“In a larger venue, horror can become spectacle. In a small venue, it becomes personal.”

The flexibility of the room also matters.

“It can become a bedroom, a basement, a séance room, a memory, a nightmare, or something much stranger.”

The horror doesn’t have to overwhelm the room - it only needs to get under your skin.

I can attest to this. The Etcetera’s relationship with horror predates Camden Horror Fest. The venue was once home to the London Horror Festival, where I first encountered live horror theatre. One production, inspired by the circumstances surrounding Mary Shelley’s writing of Frankenstein, still haunts me. The company transformed the tiny black box into a mad scientist’s laboratory, with the creature coming to life mere inches from me amid crackling circuitry, sparks, smoke and flashing lights. That proximity created a tension I’d never experienced while watching horror on screen. It felt as though I could reach out and touch it - or rather, that it could reach out and touch me.

It was genuinely terrifying.

WHAT DOES THE CAMDEN HORROR AUDIENCE WANT?

Being scared is the obvious answer, but Otto and Martyn see it more broadly. “I think audiences want to feel something strongly.”

That could be fear, tension, shock, laughter, discomfort, curiosity or sadness. Horror audiences don’t necessarily need to be terrified every second, but they do want a production to commit to its world.

“The best shows understand the rhythm between dread, release, surprise and atmosphere.”

That breadth also creates a particular challenge when it comes to programming the festival.

As Otto and Martyn explain: “Horror can mean so many things to different artists. Some companies come with very traditional ghost stories, others bring comedy, experimental performance, psychological work, physical theatre, or something closer to cabaret or live art. The challenge is to make space for that variety while still making the festival feel like a clear event with its own identity.”

For Otto and Martyn, the reward is seeing what artists do with the space. “There is something very satisfying about watching a small room transform completely because a company understands atmosphere, timing and audience imagination.”

There is a larger ambition behind it too: making space for a genre they feel can be underestimated. “Horror has always been deeply theatrical, and it deserves to be taken seriously as live performance.”

BRINGING A HORROR SHOW TO CAMDEN

For companies arriving at the festival for the first time, Otto and Martyn’s advice is straightforward: “Be clear about what experience you want the audience to have.”

In an intimate space, every choice matters. As they point out, that includes “the sound, the lighting, the pace, the first image, the final moment, how the audience enters the room, even what they see before the show starts”.

They also stress the importance of being specific about what you’re offering. “Don’t just say ‘horror show.’ Tell audiences what kind of horror it is. Is it gothic? Funny? Psychological? Supernatural? Bloody? Queer? Historical? Experimental?”

Horror audiences know there are many sub-genres. Telling them which particular nightmare you are offering makes it easier for them to find you.

And a festival appearance need not be simply another performance slot. Otto and Martyn encourage companies to invite reviewers, gather images and audience responses, meet other artists and think about the show’s future beyond Camden.

BLOOD, GORE AND TUESDAY ADMIN

Naturally, running a horror festival also comes with administrative questions not faced by every arts organiser. As Otto and Martyn put it: “One of the strangest parts of running a horror festival is how quickly the unusual becomes normal. You find yourself having very practical conversations about blood, screams, props, bodies, ghosts, knives, coffins, rituals, fake wounds, unusual liquids, and whether something can be safely cleaned before the next show.”

“In another context that would seem completely unhinged,” they admit.

At Camden Horror Fest?

“It’s just Tuesday admin.”

And then there are the clichés.

Asked which horror trope should be allowed a well-earned rest, they nominate the “it was all a dream” ending, particularly when it removes the consequences of everything that came before. There is, however, apparently some room for negotiation if it is “done with a very sharp knife”.

Another staple may also have had its moment.

“Not every creepy child needs to sing slowly in the dark. The creepy child union has had a very strong run.”

THE FUTURE

Otto and Martyn want Camden Horror Fest to grow into a proper annual platform for the genre: somewhere companies, writers, comedians, solo performers and experimental theatre-makers can bring ambitious work to an audience actively looking for it.

They hope to develop greater press and industry involvement, audience awards, late-night events and stronger links between participating artists.

Ultimately, the aim is as much about identity as expansion. They want Camden Horror Fest to become part of the theatrical calendar: a festival audiences anticipate, artists seek out and London’s fringe scene recognises as a home for horror.

There is something pleasingly appropriate about that ambition. Horror has always been good at taking an ordinary place - a house, a hotel, a tent, a lake - and making it feel as though something extraordinary might happen there. Camden Horror Fest is attempting much the same thing with a black box theatre above a pub.

Although perhaps not with a creepy child singing slowly in the dark.

AUDIENCE AWARDS FOR HORROR SHOW HERE

We’re putting the decision in your hands. Throughout the festival season, audiences will be able to vote for their favourite productions and moments across all three festivals, including:

Best Death

Best Jump Scare

Best Twist

Most Inventive Use of a Prop

Keep an eye out for the voting link and have your say.

BEHIND THE SCENES HERE

What makes a theatre audience gasp? What sends a chill down their spine? How do you create a convincing murder on a tiny stage? And what can an atmospheric lighting cue or sound effect do to create that delicious sense of unease?

We’ll be looking behind the curtain at the craft that goes into creating horror on stage, from performers and directors to designers, technicians and special effects artists.

THE WORLD OF FRINGE THEATRE HERE

Horror festivals are part of a much bigger tradition of independent and fringe theatre.

If you’re curious about where that tradition came from and why fringe theatre has become such an important part of our cultural landscape, read our feature exploring the origins and history of the fringe festival, and why it continues to matter.

[link to article: To Fringe or Not to Fringe]

FOLLOW THE HORROR SEASON. INSTAGRAM @pubtheatres1

New reviews and features will be added throughout October, so check back regularly for the latest coverage.

LPTM’s Horror Season is an experimental editorial feature for October 2026, and we’ll see where it takes us …

For now, dim the lights.