The 2016 printed program was launched at the Lido Cinema on 31 October 2016 with a screening of Rob Zombie’s "31". While previously known for its emphasis on horror films, the 2016 festival expanded to showcase other genres including crime, action, western, children’s films, animation and documentary. The 2016 festival theme was ‘ritual’ and its concept trailer was an homage to the 1966 film "Eye of the Devil". This theme coincided with the creation of Monster Pictures’ rebranding of its website as ‘The Cult of Monster’ with the festival tagline "Join the Cult!" urging customers to sign up for fortnightly newsletter ‘The Monsterite’ and to attend the Cult of Monster Marathon at the festival, where the first 50 participants would receive a free Cult robe with embroidered Cult of Monster insignia. The keynote speaker for 2016 was director Ted Kotcheff, who presented screenings of "Wake in Fright", "First Blood", "Weekend at Bernie’s" and "Split Image", as well as a masterclass moderated by Mark Hartley, the director of . Other guests included director Julia Ducournau, who appeared to present the Australian Premiere of her film "Raw" as the festival’s opening night film, director Mattie Do, who presented the Australian Premiere of her film "Dearest Sister", director Neil Edwards, who presented the Australian Premiere of his film "Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgement" and actors Sky Elobar and Elizabeth De Razzo who appeared with Closing Film "The Greasy Strangler". De Razzo had replaced actor Michael St. Michaels, who was denied entry to Australia a week before the event. Other features screened at the 2016 festival included Ben Wheatley’s "Free Fire", Paul Schrader’s "Dog Eat Dog", Chris Peckover’s "Safe Neighborhood", Alice Lowe’s "Prevenge", Bartosz M. Kowalski’s "Playground", Liam Gavin’s "A Dark Song", André Øvredal’s "The Autopsy of Jane Doe", Sophia Takal’s "Always Shine", Jesse Moss’ "The Bandit", Matthew Holmes’ "The Legend of Ben Hall", Gonzalo López-Gallego’s "The Hollow Point" and a new digital restoration of Andrzej Żuławski’s "On the Silver Globe".