Our next guest at this years festival is the amazing Barbie Wilde.

Barbie Wilde is a true polymath of the macabre, a creative force whose career has seamlessly transitioned from the neon-soaked stages of the 1980s music scene to the dark pantheon of horror cinema and literature. Though she is immortalized in cult film history as the elegant and terrifying Female Cenobite in Clive Barker’s Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Wilde’s artistic foundation is remarkably diverse. A student of Drama and Anthropology at Syracuse University, she refined her craft in London through the study of Classical Mime and Art History, eventually performing with the prestigious mime troupe SILENTS. Her early screen credits are a fascinating tapestry of the era, ranging from a "vicious thug" in Death Wish 3 to a drummer in the long-lost Grizzly II: Revenge alongside a then-unknown George Clooney.



Before she became a fixture of the horror genre, Wilde was a prominent figure in the post-punk and New Romantic movements. As a member of the music and dance group SHOCK, she graced the stages of world-class venues from New York to Bangkok, supporting legendary acts like Gary Numan and Depeche Mode. Her presence extended into the burgeoning world of music television, where she appeared in iconic pop videos for Simple Minds and Ultravox, and carved out a niche as a presenter and journalist. During this period, she interviewed a diverse spectrum of cultural icons, from the rebellious Iggy Pop and Johnny Rotten to Hollywood stars like Nicolas Cage and Hugh Grant.

In more recent decades, Wilde has reinvented herself as a "purveyor of erotically charged horror fiction," earning critical acclaim for her visceral and transgressive prose. Her debut novel, The Venus Complex, and her celebrated short story collection, Voices of the Damned—which featured collaborations with artists like Clive Barker—established her as a formidable literary voice. Her signature character, Sister Cilice, has become a cornerstone of modern Hellraiser lore, recently expanding into a dedicated collection titled The Cilicium Quadra and an upcoming comic book.

Wilde continues to shape the genre today, collaborating as a producer and screenwriter on the feature film Blue Eyes and returning to the screen in projects like Dark Ditties Presents… and Witches of the Sands. Her enduring influence and "sensual brutality" have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the Texas Frightmare Weekend Lifetime of Torment Award and the 2023 Cine-Excess Innovator of Horror Award, cementing her legacy as one of the most versatile and provocative figures in British horror.