Legends Never Die : the Cine-Excess 2026 Online Conference and In-Person Symposium
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Online Monday 19th - Thurs 22nd Oct, in Person Friday 23rd October 2026 (Birmingham, UK)
Legends are a key fixture of a wide range of cult film genres. Whether the legendary talent behind the camera, the icons in front of it, the (in-)famous companies that produce and distribute these films, or the mythical and often controversial stories they tell. Cine-Excess 2026 celebrates, dissects and critically evaluates some of the key legends, myths and legacies that continue to underpin cult cinema traditions.
One film that demonstrates the power of legends, myths and legacies is the visceral 2003 slasher film Wrong Turn, which has gained cult status for popularising backwoods horror into the new millennium. Set in the Mountain State of West Virginia, abound in the legends of Appalachia, Wrong Turn combined suspenseful filmmaking with the innovative talents of SFX icon Stan Wilson. As part of the 2026 festival, we are delighted to welcome the director of Wrong Turn, Rob Schmidt, who is scheduled to attend the festival in person. Here, Schmidt will be the recipient of a Cine-Excess Innovator of Horror Award, acknowledging his landmark film as well as his wider contributions to cult and independent media practices. Rob Schmidt will also be discussing his participation in the new documentary Scum of the Earth, which screens at the festival.
In connection with the screening of this documentary, we also celebrate The Hills Have Eyes and its 1984 sequel, which not only contributed to a popular cycle of backwoods horror but radically showcased a socially conscious approach to genre filmmaking through the aesthetics of exploitation cinema. As part of the 2026 festival, we are delighted to welcome stars of the original Hills Have Eyes franchise, Michael Berryman (“Pluto”) and Janus Blythe (“Ruby”), who will both be attending the festival via live stream to receive Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Further situating the overarching themes of the festival, we are delighted to welcome Aviva Briefel as the keynote speaker to our 2026 conference component. Aviva Briefel is Professor of English and Cinema Studies at Bowdoin College, Maine. She is the author of numerous essays on horror and co-editor of the collections Horror after 9/11: World of Fear, Cinema of Terror and Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work. She has also authored several books on Victorian culture, most recently, Ghosts and Things: The Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism. The keynote talk being delivered by Professor Briefel, titled “Return to Cabrini Green: Candyman (1992/2001) and the Spatialization of Horror Legends,” will discuss how the two major film versions of Candyman explore and explode the bonds between gothic legends and spatial locations, particularly in the context of Black horror.
During the four day conference, Cine-Excess is proud to showcase papers being delivered by academics from as far afield as the Universities of Brighton, Southampton and Warwick, plus Charles University (Czech Republic), the University of Wollongong (Australia), the University of Louisville (USA) and the University of Montreal (Canada). Topics being investigated by these academics include “Parenthood, Anxiety, and the Body in Eraserhead and Kotoko”, “Guru Dutt and the Cult of His Enigma”, “The Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Corbucci”, “Bootleg Revivals: Fan Films and Franchises” and much more.
For full festival details, please download the PDF programme.
Legends are a key fixture of a wide range of cult film genres. Whether the legendary talent behind the camera, the icons in front of it, the (in-)famous companies that produce and distribute these films, or the mythical and often controversial stories they tell. Cine-Excess 2026 celebrates, dissects and critically evaluates some of the key legends, myths and legacies that continue to underpin cult cinema traditions.
One film that demonstrates the power of legends, myths and legacies is the visceral 2003 slasher film Wrong Turn, which has gained cult status for popularising backwoods horror into the new millennium. Set in the Mountain State of West Virginia, abound in the legends of Appalachia, Wrong Turn combined suspenseful filmmaking with the innovative talents of SFX icon Stan Wilson. As part of the 2026 festival, we are delighted to welcome the director of Wrong Turn, Rob Schmidt, who is scheduled to attend the festival in person. Here, Schmidt will be the recipient of a Cine-Excess Innovator of Horror Award, acknowledging his landmark film as well as his wider contributions to cult and independent media practices. Rob Schmidt will also be discussing his participation in the new documentary Scum of the Earth, which screens at the festival.
In connection with the screening of this documentary, we also celebrate The Hills Have Eyes and its 1984 sequel, which not only contributed to a popular cycle of backwoods horror but radically showcased a socially conscious approach to genre filmmaking through the aesthetics of exploitation cinema. As part of the 2026 festival, we are delighted to welcome stars of the original Hills Have Eyes franchise, Michael Berryman (“Pluto”) and Janus Blythe (“Ruby”), who will both be attending the festival via live stream to receive Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Further situating the overarching themes of the festival, we are delighted to welcome Aviva Briefel as the keynote speaker to our 2026 conference component. Aviva Briefel is Professor of English and Cinema Studies at Bowdoin College, Maine. She is the author of numerous essays on horror and co-editor of the collections Horror after 9/11: World of Fear, Cinema of Terror and Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work. She has also authored several books on Victorian culture, most recently, Ghosts and Things: The Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism. The keynote talk being delivered by Professor Briefel, titled “Return to Cabrini Green: Candyman (1992/2001) and the Spatialization of Horror Legends,” will discuss how the two major film versions of Candyman explore and explode the bonds between gothic legends and spatial locations, particularly in the context of Black horror.
During the four day conference, Cine-Excess is proud to showcase papers being delivered by academics from as far afield as the Universities of Brighton, Southampton and Warwick, plus Charles University (Czech Republic), the University of Wollongong (Australia), the University of Louisville (USA) and the University of Montreal (Canada). Topics being investigated by these academics include “Parenthood, Anxiety, and the Body in Eraserhead and Kotoko”, “Guru Dutt and the Cult of His Enigma”, “The Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Corbucci”, “Bootleg Revivals: Fan Films and Franchises” and much more.
For full festival details, please download the PDF programme.