International, European and Swiss premieres in the Official Selection

Immediately after its premiere in Japan, HIGUMA!! presented as an international premiere. In the movie, a monstrous bear preys on teenage crooks. It is bloody but also funny while social problems are addressed in a sub-context. The European premiere of THE BARN PART III will be celebrated in the presence of Swiss producer Simon Lustenberger. Halloween demons are brought to life in this consistently entertaining splatter movie homage to the 80s.

Horror fans are also eagerly awaited the New Zealand production DEATHGASM II: GOREMAGEDDON, a splatter comedy with lots of heavy metal charm; DOLLY, a hard-hitting backwood slasher from the USA, suitable only for steel nerves; the Japanese suspense film EXIT 8, which plays almost exclusively in repetitive corridors of a metro station, or NO ME SIGAS, the first Mexican creation of the very successful horror film production worldwide Blumhouse. In it, an influencer goes on a ghost hunt, helps with the supernatural events herself until she is actually confronted with an entity that doesn't want anything good.

In addition to around thirty new releases, there are also many exclusive retrospectives on the program this year, which have hardly or never been seen at the cinema in Switzerland.

International guests

After winning the “Eye of the Beholder” award, Pedro Cristiani (director) and Marcela Cárdenas-Alvarez (producer) from Argentina are back at BRUGGGORE. In three séances under the title “Autopsy of Darkness,” together with workshop participants, they develop a complete short film script without any dialogue. The narrative elements for this come from ancient traditions from the Brugger area, which have been preserved as subconscious horror symbols to this day.

In order to contextualize the two screenings of the film INFERNO (2025) with a live Q&A, the film team will travel from Belgium: Director Brandon Gotto, actress Margaux Colarusso and producer Vivian Audag will answer questions from the audience. INFERNO addresses real crimes such as the series of murders by Marc Dutroux or Michel Fourniret and is becoming terribly topical as a result of the Gisèle Pelicot case. Constant paternalism, aggression and disparagement by partners, husbands and superiors, domestic, sexualized and gender-based violence and femicide are just a few of the topics that are drastically presented in the film.

Live silent film dubbing with keynote speech

The silent film Häxan (Witches) from 1922 by Benjamin Christensen combines documentary, essay and horror. Using medieval illustrations, he shows how superstition and fear led to the hunt for witches in the Middle Ages. To date, hundreds of people around the world die as a result of superstitions — most of them are women accused of witchcraft. On Friday, April 24, 2026, at 20:00 at Cinema Odeon, this will be addressed with an exclusive silent film recording followed by a keynote speech.

Anna Murphy is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer. She is primarily at home in folk, progressive rock & metal, but also makes experimental music as a solo artist. Anna is creating a sound world especially for the live silent film setting of HÄXAN on BRUGGGORE 2026, which will celebrate the world premiere at the film festival.

“Switzerland carried out the first witch trials,” says historian Prof. Dr. Susanna Burghartz, whose research focuses on women and gender history. After the film, she will give a keynote speech.

Expanded program

BRUGGGORE has entered into a new cooperation with filmkids.ch. The film school in Zurich has produced short films in recent years, which are made from screenplay to final cut by children and young people between 8 and 18 years of age.

At this year's BRUGGGORE Film Festival, a juried selection of the scariest Filmkids works will be shown and the winning films will be selected in the presence of the young filmmakers.

For hard-boiled horror film fans and those who want to become one, there is also a Fantastic Market, a horror film quiz by CinéSwiss and for the whole of Brugg and the surrounding area, there are various food trucks and form a street food village on Neumarktplatz during the five days of the festival.