The Horror Channel has scheduled a pair of UK TV premieres – both of them eerie, very near-future sci-fi horrors – and fans of homegrown cinema will want to check them out.

First up (and almost upon us!) is Peripheral (UK, Paul Hyett, 2018), which will be showing on Friday 25 February at 11.05pm. The Horror Channel website describes it as follows:

‘Dark sci-fi horror with Hannah Arterton. It’s author vs AI when a writer uses a smart editing software, only to discover that the machine is manipulating her work to suit its own nefarious end.’

Director Hyett is a bit of a regular on the Brit horror scene; after working in the make-up department for Descent (UK, Neil Marshall, 2005), he went on to direct a Balkans-based horror called The Seasoning House (UK, Paul Hyett, 2012) – a firm favourite of Brit horror advocate M.J. Simpson – and a werewolf movie called Howl (UK, Paul Hyett, 2015).

Then comes the award-winning Await Further Instructions (UK, Johnny Kevorkian, 2018), which will premiere on Saturday 12 March as part of the channel’s ‘Killer Thriller Week’. I’m not sure of the exact time yet, because the website schedule doesn’t go that far into the future, but the Horror Channel describe it as ‘a powder keg of throat-grabbing suspense, Cronenbergian intensity and mind-bending body horror, starring Sam Gittins, David Bradley, Grant Masters and Holly Weston.’ Here’s the synopsis from IMDb:

‘A family’s Christmas takes a strange turn when they awake to find themselves trapped inside and begin receiving mysterious instructions through the television.’

This film is one of my personal favourites, and it’s bittersweet to see it getting a TV slot because it was the last film of Johnny Kevorkian, who sadly died in 2020. Make a special effort to watch it because it’s a cracker – and if you miss it on TV, there’s always Amazon Prime.