There are festival announcements and then there's what Wacken Open Air just did to reveal the first wave of acts for their 2021 festival. The annual hard rock and metal festival just created a short horror film to tease the 2021 return.

Yes 2020 has been its own sort of horror, but Wacken borrows from a number of horror film tropes in revealing the first 10 acts to play next year's festival. The film starts in black and white as a Dracula creature awakens in a castle ready to unleash a grizzly fate upon a woman awakened by the unwelcome intrusion.

You'll also see nods to a mad scientist, this time creating a creature that mirrors the Wacken logo head as opposed to a true Frankenstein. Plus, there are nods to zombies rising from the graves, teens attacked on a dark lonely roadway, a cornfield scarecrow coming to life and more.

All this theatrical exploration of the horror genre is just a great way of garnering attention and buzz for revealing the first 10 acts of the 2021 festival, which include Judas Priest, As I Lay Dying, Venom, Dropkick Murphys, Lordi (playing a special Horror Castle show), Tarja, Rose Tattoo, Death SS, Hamatom and Moonspell. Watch Wacken's horror short film below.

The 2021 Wacken Open Air festival returns July 29-31 next year in Wacken, Germany. Stay tuned to the Wacken website for future announcements concerning the 2021 festival event.

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