The Northern School of Art’s specialist Stage and Screen faculty is hosting an international conference exploring the relationship between horror cinema and video games on Thursday 2 April 2026.

Nightmare26, which takes place at the School’s degree-level campus in Hartlepool, will bring together leading creatives, academics and audiences to explore how fear is constructed, experienced and reimagined across film and interactive media.

The theme of the event is inspired by a quote from the cult horror video game Alan Wake that “if our lives are already written, it would take a courageous man to change the script.” The conference will explore how horror stories move between games and cinema, shaping both storytelling and audience experience.

Organised by staff, postgraduate researchers and final-year undergraduate students at The Northern School of Art, the one-day event aims to bring together video game developers, filmmakers and academics to encourage open discussion across the industry.

Dr David Edwards, Reader and Acting lecturer at The Northern School of Art, who is the event organiser, said: “I’m delighted to be bringing the conference back for a second year at the Northern School of Art. This year’s event is truly international, with contributions from the USA, Canada, Italy and India alongside a diverse range of papers exploring horror and video games.

“Horror is uniquely powerful in both games and cinema, and this conference is an opportunity to better understand how those experiences connect and how audiences respond to them.”

“We’re also thrilled to welcome guests including Dan Pinchbeck, Sandy Batchelor and Bob Fischer. What makes Nightmare26 special is its collaborative spirit, with student work, film screenings, exhibitions and gaming stations all part of the experience. It’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase our students’ work to an international audience.”

Bob Fischer

Dan Pinchbeck

Sandy Batchelor

This year’s conference will take the influential Silent Hill series of games as a key case study, reflecting renewed interest in the franchise following recent releases and adaptations, including the upcoming film Return to Silent Hill.

The programme for the day is structured around three themes: the crossover between horror in gaming and cinema; storytelling and performance; and representations of mental health within the genre. Contributions from developers including the game development studio Bloober Team, the developers behind the remake of Silent Hill 2, will support discussion across both industries.

Keynote speaker Dan Pinchbeck, founder of founder of BAFTA-winning game studio The Chinese Room, will draw on his work on titles such as Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Still Wakes the Deep.

Actor Sandy Batchelor will join as evening guest. Seen most recently in Danny Boyle’s hit film 28 Years Later (2025), Down Cemetery Road (2025), Rogue Heroes (2025) as well as The Capture (2022), he was a voice actor on Dan Pinchbeck’s Still Wakes the Deep.

The evening will conclude with a screening of John Carpenter’s body-horror classic The Thing and a Q&A hosted by Fortean Times columnist Bob Fischer.

The event wraps up with a drinks reception and the announcement of the winners of a Nightmare 26 competition for the School’s Illustration degree students.

The conference will take place in person, with recordings made available after the event. Organisers say the strong involvement of students reflects a commitment to opening up academic and creative discussion to wider audiences.

The Nightmare26 schedule is as follows (and can also be downloaded here). Links to book tickets are below.

Thursday 2nd April 2026

9.00am – Registration [Refreshments Provided] (Student’s Union, Church Square)

10.00am – Conference Opens

Opening Comments – Dr John Waddington (Vice Principal, Higher Education, The Northern School of Art), Dr David Edwards (Conference Convener, Reader, The Northern School of Art)

10.30am – 12.00pm (Church Square Theatre): “In my restless dream, I see that town. Silent Hill” – The Legacy of Silent Hill: Chair: Dr David Edwards (The Northern School of Art)

• The Horizontal Cellar: Fog, Domesticity and the Inversion of Urban Space in Silent Hill (Dr Andrew Wedgbury, University of Staffordshire)
• The Legacy of a Non-Game: PT and the Power of Early Access (Meghan Hewitt, Independent Scholar)
• Changing Values in Horror Game Re-releases (Dr Connor Jackson, Liverpool Hope University)
• Rule of Rose – Why Female Darkness Scandalizes Us (Kira Blankenship, North Carolina State University) Virtual

1pm – Lunch [Provided] (Student’s Union, Church Square)

1.00pm – 2.30pm (Church Square Theatre): “Your mind and your body don’t belong to you” – Body Horror and Concepts of the Self, Chair: Dr Reece Goodall (University of Warwick)

• Body Horror Apotheosis (Jenny Batchelor, The Northern School of Art)
• Beyond the Dark Sea: Identity, Body Horror and Ecological Disaster in Still Wakes the Deep (Sejuti Bala, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad) Virtual
• Italian Giallo and Rural Gothic Tropes in Video Games: The Intertextual Case of Saturnalia (Federico Gorziglia & Mario Monopoli, Sapienza, University of Rome)
• No More Happy Endings: Cruel Princesses and Twisted Fairytales in Rule of Rose (Dr Catherine Pugh, Independent Scholar)

2.30pm – Break [Refreshments Provided] (Student’s Union, Church Square)

3.00pm-4.00pm (Church Square Theatre): “Find a way to crack open the door and let the light back in” – Recontextualising narratives between mediums, Chair: Dr David Edwards (The Northern School of Art)

• The Mechanics of Silence in A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead (Calvin Goh, University of Edinburgh)
• Frozen Awake: Translating Sleep Paralysis into Horror Form in Mara (Clive Tonge, Birmingham City University)
• Analogue ‘Reality’ in the Fears to Fathom Games (Dr Reece Goodall, University of Warwick)

4.00pm (Church Square Theatre): Keynote

• Press X to Insert Shoggoth: Quickfire Rules for Doing Horror Well in Gaming – Dan Pinchbeck (Founder of The Chinese Room and writer director of Still Wakes the Deep/Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture)

5.00pm (Church Square Theatre): The Northern School of Art Short Film Screenings/Gaming Posts:

• Tender (2024) – Level 5 Acting for Media Film Project (Shortlisted for Best Student Short at the London Horror Film Festival, 2025)
• Solivigant (2026) (Level 5 Acting for Media Film Project)
• Hysteria (2024) – dir. Oscar Fitchett (Graduate of The Northern School of Art)

6.30pm (Church Square Theatre): Film Screening– Hosted by Bob Fisher & Dr David Edwards 

• The Thing (1982) followed by a live Q&A with actor Sandy Batchelor (28 Years Later/Still Wakes the Deep) and writer/director Dan Pinchbeck conducted by Bob Fischer (Fortean Times/Scarred for Life)

Closing Comments – Bob Fischer/Dr David Edwards

9.00pm – Conference Closes

Announcement of the Nightmare26 Illustration Prize and post-conference reception at The Owl, Scarborough Street

Tickets for the whole conference cost £22.38 and £2.88 for the evening film screening and Q&A. To book conference tickets click HERE. To book film screening and Q&A tickets click HERE