October is about Hallowe’en and Hallowe’en is basically about films.
Keep your costumes and candy (yes I know we’re British but the whole trick or treating is increasingly of the USA and essentially it was good alliteration.
Last year’s FilmFear brought us many cinematic sensations but most of all Nicolas Cage being more Nicolas Cage than Nicolas Cage has ever or will be, in – ‘Mandy’ at HOME Mcr – review here.
It also brought indie Swedish gem Videoman. – read review here
Credit: HOME McrThis year, HOME and Film4, brings us the biggest programme yet, comprising six days of horror, extreme cinema, cult favourites and specialist guests visiting our fine city, kicking off from Tuesday 29 October.
Highlights include:
- a special preview of The Lighthouse, director Robert Eggers’ much-anticipated follow-up to his folk-horror debut The Witch (2015). Starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as lighthouse keepers battling the elements, isolation, inner demons and more on a remote and mysterious Maine island in the 1890s. Excitingly, the film won’t be on general release until January 2020, giving us Mancunians, honorary Mancunians and visitors to HOME amongst the first to view;
- from the producers of the aforementioned and quite wonderful Mandy, Daniel Isn’t Real, is a creepy imaginary-friend horror (are there any other kind?), starring Patrick Schwarzenegger;
- a Hallowe’en night preview of Doctor Sleep, based on the Stephen King novel and starring Ewan McGregor as Danny Torrance, set 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining;
- Billy Senese’s The Dead Center, starring Shane Carruth as a troubled doctor who becomes obsessed with the resurrected corpse of a suicide victim (that scary enough for you?).
Alongside the shiny and new, FilmFear also features three classics:
- Masters of horror, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee (it wouldn’t be Hallowe’en without them), star in classics The Tingler (1959) and The Wicker Man (1973), respectively; and
- Werner Herzog’s 1979 take on the infamous tale of Nosferatu the Vampyre, which brings the season to a finale on 3 November.
Accompanying the screening programme there is a ‘Bring the Family’ screening of Nicolas Roeg’s The Witches on Sunday 27 October, which has been selected by HOME’s Young Programmers.
HOME’s Film Programme Producer, Jennifer Hall, said,
We’re looking forward to serving up another Halloween treat for horror-hungry fans and welcoming audiences of all ages to our first FilmFear “Bring the Family” screening of The Witches, a fitting contribution to the season from HOME’s Young Programmers who have also programmed The Wicker Man.”
For in between your trips to HOME, Film4 will be screening a week of chilling titles including Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! and The Midnight Man, starring Robert Englund.
So head HOME Mcr for hallowe’en this year for FilmFear and chills…
For full details of the programme, visit https://homemcr.org/event/filmfear/
Reviews of my favourites to follow…
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