BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Pontypool

As a conceit for a penny-pinching horror movie, it’s hard to fault. Restrict the action to the basement studio of a local radio station in deepest Ontario and feel the tension rise as reports come ...

October 31, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Pontypool (Relaxed Screening)

+ intro and discussion. Terror strikes an Ontario town after an aural virus infects its inhabitants, with radio announcer Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) the last line of defence against the zomb...

October 31, 2022 | RELAXED SCREENING

Mandy

Introduced by Marcus Powell (author and film historian) SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Nightmare is never far away in Alexander Mackendrick’s films. It’s there in...

October 31, 2022 | SENIORS

Cette maison

+ Q&A with director Miryam Charles Miryam Charles on ‘Cette maison’ Cette maison opens with the words of a heavy, exhausted, nostalgic heart, which dreams of being caught up by the sea, broug...

October 31, 2022 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA PREVIEW

28 Days Later...

+ Q&A with director Danny Boyle Imagine waking up in a hospital with no idea how you got there and finding London completely deserted, a ghost town after the population was decimated by the sp...

October 31, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Nightbreed Director's Cut

+ intro (on Sunday 30 October only) Perhaps even more unclassifiable than his debut Hellraiser, Clive Barker’s singular sophomore feature is an exhilarating action/horror hybrid about a secret kin...

October 30, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Hellraiser - 35th Anniversary

+ intro by actors Nicholas Vince and Simon Bamford, with Phil Stokes, BFI Governor/Curator of the Clive Barker Archive On location with ‘Hellraiser’ In a gutted North London mansion that, conveni...

October 30, 2022 | PREVIEWS AND EVENTS

A Nightmare on Elm Street

When a group of teenagers discover they are all having nightmares about the same creepy guy, they realise they must stay awake if they want to stay alive. Often grouped in with the slasher sub-genr...

October 29, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Candyman

In this instant cult classic, based on a short story by Clive Barker, white graduate student Helen Lyle (Madsen) is researching urban legends when she discovers the tale of the Candyman (Todd). Bor...

October 29, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Viy

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Circumventing the restrictions of Soviet film production, Viy is a loose adaptation of a Nikolai Gogol story in which a seminary stu...

October 28, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund on ‘Triangle of Sadness’ Let’s start with the title: what does ‘triangle of sadness’ refer to? It’s a term used in the beauty industry. A friend sat next to a plastic surgeon at a p...

October 28, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Ghostwatch

Content warning: this is a live immersive event and may contain loud and sudden sounds, strobe lighting, smoke, and jump scares throughout. On Halloween night, 1992, 11 million viewers tuned into ...

October 28, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

The Banshees of Inisherin

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore… In titling his gritty, west coast Irish dramas, Martin McDonagh certainly has a type. All three aforementioned pl...

October 28, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Experimental Sound
and Vision
Found Sounds, Lyrical Loops and Landscapes

+ intro by author and musician David Toop (Thursday 17 November only) Greenaway’s early films were made against the backdrop of the emergence of a new style of music, most vividly represented by t...

October 27, 2022 | FRAMES OF MIND
THE FILMS OF PETER GREENAWAY

Barbarian

Travelling to Detroit for a job interview, a young woman books a rental home. But when she arrives late at night, she discovers that the house is double-booked, and a strange man is already staying...

October 27, 2022 | PREVIEW

Queer Horror and Experimental Magic Films from the BFI National Archive

For one night only, we present three strange, otherworldly horror artefacts from the BFI National Archive. Inspired by Tony Scott’s The Hunger and the radical avant-garde, The Mark of Lilith (198...

October 26, 2022 | EXPERIMENTA

The Fly

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. In his inspired overhaul of the 1958 original, David Cronenberg’s fusion of romantic melodrama and body horror sees reclusive scien...

October 26, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Kuroneko

While her son is at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law are raped and murdered by samurai. They return as vengeful spirits, seducing samurai to their deaths. A young man returns from battle a war ...

October 25, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

True Romance

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Scripted by Quentin Tarantino, this is an unashamedly slick, brash, violent account of a spree embarked on by Detroit comic-store a...

October 24, 2022 | GARY OLDMAN

SAS Rogue Heroes

+ panel and Q&A with creator/writer Steven Knight, cast members Connor Swindells and Alfie Allen, Director Tom Shankland and Exec Producer Karen Wilson. Filmed on location in the UK and Moro...

October 24, 2022 | TV PREVIEW