Something Strange Festival celebrates Friday the 13th with horror film marathon, haunted backrooms - The Straits Times
Besides live events, the Something Strange Festival will showcase horror films including Marama (right, top) and Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma (right, above).
The 2026 Halloween season may be over, but horror-themed festivities will carry on at Cineleisure via the inaugural Something Strange Festival (SSF) from Nov 13 to 15.
The festival celebrates Friday the 13th with a horror film overnight marathon, which starts from Friday night through to Saturday morning. There will also be live events, immersive experiences and a bazaar at the Orchard Road mall through Levels B1, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.
The 10 films being screened as part of the SSF Horror-thon ($22 a movie) at Golden Village include the Singapore premiere of Gothic horror Marama (2025), New Zealand’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards.
Look out, too, for slasher film Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma (2026), starring American actresses Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, which premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival as the opening film of the Un Certain Regard section, where it won the Queer Palm.
Other titles in the line-up include Japan’s The Curse (2026), Vietnam’s Phi Phong: The Blood Demon (2026), Thailand’s Omukade (2025) and Australia’s Talk To Me (2022).
For those interested in programming with an in-person element, there will be performances by musicians like Singapore-based indie-pop band stereoblu, as well as talks, such as one discussing witchcraft and another spotlighting hantu (spirits/ghosts).
SSF will also host The Curiosity Market, where visitors can pick up things with an element of “strange”. Expect booths offering fortune tellings and items like incense and candles.
There are also interactive and immersive experiences, namely the Haunted Backrooms, which is offered in full glory as a haunted house complete with scare actors ($20.70) or through a “behind the scenes” walkthrough of the set ($11.50), minus the risk of jump scares and pop-ups.
You can embark on the after-dark Haunting Heritage Tours ($55.20) in the Somerset area around Cineleisure, which was once the site of extensive burial grounds. The 90-minute guided walking tour will cover the dark history, urban legends and supernatural encounters connected to the area.
Horror enthusiasts are also invited to make and submit their horror short films over a 48-hour period, via SSF’s Horror Short Film Challenge ($50 for adults, $25 for students). Cathay Photo gift vouchers, Singapore Film Society memberships and videography equipment are up for grabs for the top three winners.
Selected entries will be showcased through the Supernatural Confessions platform founded by festival founder Eugene Tay. The platform includes a book, a YouTube channel and several podcasts, all of which focus on exploring the strange and unexplained in Singapore.
Tay, the 47-year-old author of the 2015 book Supernatural Confessions: You Are Not Alone, tells The Straits Times: “Singapore has a rich heritage of folklore, ghost stories and supernatural beliefs that have been passed down through generations.
“Through Something Strange Festival, I hope to celebrate these traditions while creating a platform for film-makers, artists and storytellers to reinterpret them for a new generation.”
Selected parts of the festival will be free for the general public to attend, such as the talks, musical performances and The Curiosity Market.
For more information on the ticketed events and activations, go to somethingstrange.sg
