[Commlist] CFP: Cine-Excess 2026: Legends Never Die

*/_Cine-Excess International Film Festival and Conference_/*

Monday 19 October to Saturday 24 October 2026

*Online Conference*

Legends Never Die

*In-Person Symposium*

Thursday 22 October & Friday 23 October | Birmingham, UK

*_Guest of Honour // In-Person_*

*Rob Schmidt*

/Wrong Turn/(2003), /Masters of Horror/ (2007) & /The Alphabet Killer/ 
(2008)

*_Guests of Honour // Online_*

*Michael Berryman*

/The Hills Have Eyes/(1977), /The Hills Have Eyes Part II/ (1984) & /The 
Devil’s Rejects/ (2005)

*Janus Blythe*

/Eaten Alive/(1976), /The Hills Have Eyes/ (1977) & /The Hills Have Eyes 
Part II/ (1984)

*_Keynote Speaker // Online_*

*Professor Aviva Briefel*

Bowdoin College, Massachusetts, USA

*_Call for Papers_*

To access this year’s unabridged CfP, please visit 
www.cine-excess.co.uk/call-for-papers.html 
<http://www.cine-excess.co.uk/call-for-papers.html>

Legends are a key fixture of a wide range of cult film genres. Whether 
it’s 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.

Rob Schmidt’s /Wrong Turn/ (2003) demonstrates the power of legends, 
myths and legacies, having 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 this year’s 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. He will also be discussing his participation in the new 
documentary, /Scum of the Earth: Creating America’s Rural Communities of 
Horror/, which screens at the festival.

Another of cult cinema’s most legendary directors was Wes Craven, whose 
seminal film /Scream/ celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. 
However, to fully appreciate /Scream/ as the magnum opus of Wes Craven’s 
later work, we must look back to the director’s early career in the 
1970s, embodied by his highly controversial 1977 classic, /The Hills 
Have Eyes/.

/The Hills Have Eyes/and its 1984 sequel 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 this year’s 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. These awards acknowledge not only Berryman and 
Blythe’s incalculable contributions to the /Hills Have Eyes/ franchise, 
but their wider contributions to the modernisation of North America’s 
horror and cult traditions.

Further situating the overarching themes of this year’s 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, Massachusetts. 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/ (2011) and /Labors of Fear: The Modern 
Horror Film Goes to Work/ (2023). She has also authored several books on 
Victorian culture, most recently, /Ghosts and Things: The Material 
Culture of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism/ (2025).

Beyond the horror genre, legends, myths and legacies also contribute to 
the cultification of a wide range of film genres. From kung fu films to 
Spaghetti Westerns, teen films to sexploitation, failed Hollywood 
blockbusters to independent B-movies, this year’s theme finds 
fascination in the making of legends—that is, the process of 
cultification, the making of cult cinema. Papers might consider not only 
cult objects, therefore, but how these objects have gained cult status 
and become legendary in subcultural circles: legendary films and film 
genres, legendary filmmakers and their stars, legendary characters and 
their iconographies, and so forth.

We welcome 20-minute papers or pre-constituted panels on, but not 
limited to, the following topics:

  * Wrong Turns and Franchised Regions: (Re-)Defining Backwoods Horror
  * The Hills Still Have Eyes: Michael Berryman and/or Janus Blythe as
    Cult Icons
  * The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Wes Craven as Cult Auteur
  * “What’s Your Favourite Scary Movie?” /Scream/ at 30
  * The Real Bruce Lee: Cult Legends, Legacies and Remediations
  * Life after Death: The Cult of Dead Performers
  * Legendary Evil: Sawney Bean, Ed Gein and Ted Bundy on Screen
  * Short Form Scares: Amicus Productions and Anthology Horror
  * Creepshows: Comic Book Scares from One Era to Another
  * Blood on the Nation’s Claw: Folk Horror Myths in Britain and Beyond
  * Urban Legends: Popular Myths Reborn through Cult Film
  * Nine Knives: Iconic Slasher Characters that Refuse to Die
  * Cult Auteurs: Legendary Directors and Screenwriters, Producers and 
Stars
  * Terrorvision: The Legends and Legacies of Cult TV
  * Before and After the Legacy Sequel: New Perspectives on Cult Franchises
  * Retelling Legends: Adaptations, Reboots, Remakes
  * Legends Across Borders: New Cult Media and Transnationalism
  * The Kids Are Alright: Moral Panics and Reactive Legacies in the Media
  * This Story is Based on Fact: Bringing Cult Legends to Life
  * Undying Legends: Ageing Stars on Screen

/Cine-Excess/2026 invites proposals for *either* the online conference 
*or* in-person symposium. *Participants should indicate their preference 
when submitting their proposal.*

The online conference is expected to run for a minimum of two days on 
the week beginning Monday 19th October, with *registration fees of £100 
/ £50 (concessions)*. Registration fees include virtual attendance at 
the conference, related streamed screenings and filmmaker talks.

The in-person symposium will likely be a two-day event in Birmingham, UK 
on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd October, with *registration fees of 
£200 / £150 (concessions)*. Registration fees include in-person 
attendance at the symposium and related cinema screenings, as well as 
access to the online components of /Cine-Excess/ 2026.

Since 2007, /Cine-Excess/ has developed and nurtured a reputation as an 
inclusive and safe space in which to present new work around global cult 
film cultures. We welcome submissions from emerging and established 
scholars, activists, filmmakers and community groups.

Please send a 300-word abstract and a short bio by Friday 21st August 
2026 to:

  * John Atkinson, Editorial Lead
  * Dr Daniel Sheppard, Head of Conference Development
  * Professor Xavier Mendik, Director of /Cine-Excess/

Abstracts should be sent to the following email address: 
(conference /at/ cine-excess.co.uk) <mailto:(conference /at/ cine-excess.co.uk)>

Final decisions will be communicated by the end of August 2026.

We will subsequently invite a limited number of participants to rework 
their papers for inclusion in the nineth edition of the /Cine-Excess/ 
journal.

For more information on this year’s /Cine-Excess/, visit our website: 
www.cine-excess.co.uk <http://www.cine-excess.co.uk>


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