8th Fantastic Films Weekend
Friday 12 – Sunday 14 June 2009
National Media Museum, Bradford
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
Box Office: 0870 7010200
Celebrating the weird, wonderful, macabre and mysterious corners of cinema and television, the Fantastic Films Weekend is set to creak open the lid to its eighth annual appearance at the National Media Museum (June 12 – 14).
This year’s highlights include a special guest appearance by great British director Mike Hodges and a not-to-be missed opening night featuring Embodiment of Evil, the final film in the Coffin Joe trilogy from one of the pioneers of underground horror José Mojica Marins, alongside a midnight screening of the hugely popular zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead.
Mike Hodges, whose sci-fi favourites Flash Gordon and The Terminal Man are showing during the three-day extravaganza, will be interviewed live onstage on the closing day by artistic director Tony Earnshaw.
Tony said: “This year’s event is lining up to be our most adventurous yet. Classic Hammer horrors rub shoulders with an array of new blood while we also cast a retrospective eye over some of the hits of the past 70 years. I’m also delighted to be able to welcome back Mike Hodges, who’s an old friend and strong supporter of our festivals, to talk about his career in fantasy cinema.”
Opening film, Embodiment of Evil, is the latest outing for Coffin Joe (Marins), who debuted in the 1963 film, classed as Brazil’s first horror, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, followed in 1968 by This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse. Forty years later, the long-awaited finale to the trilogy sees the gruesome gravedigger released from prison, only to resume his bloody quest for the perfect mate to bear him a son.
Closing the three-day festival is Dario Argento’s Suspiria, a masterclass in disturbing atmosphere and sustained terror, which many would argue is the Italian director’s masterpiece and one of the best ever witch movies.
Other standout FFW events include two classics from the 1930s: Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr featuring the WORLD PREMIERE performance of a new score by Paul Robinson, played by the HarmonieBand, and a new print of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Fredric March.
The Call of Cthulhu, an adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s most famous tale of terror, and Hammer’s The Satanic Rites of Dracula join Amicus’s Madhouse; the Ozploitation epic Razorback; Candyman, based on Clive Barker’s creation, and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s outlandish Santa Sangre, as must-see treats for fans.
And the festival is continuing its strong tradition of using the National Media Museum’s capacity to show films in all major formats. Aliens, James Cameron’s self-proclaimed Vietnam war film in space, will be shown on a 70mm print. J.J. Abrams’s reinvented space blockbuster Star Trek and Zack Snyder’s film version of comic book legend Alan Moore’s The Watchmen are both showing on the Museum’s giant IMAX screen.
In addition to a devilishly entertaining selection of shorts, the National Media Museum’s TV Heaven also complements the feature film programme with showings of small screen classics, such as Blake 7, (the series is also the subject of a talk); an episode of Artemis ’81, the sci-fi epic in which the future of mankind is fought over by an angel of light and an angel of death; and back by popular demand, the TV version of the spooky stage play, Woman in Black, which was screened during the 6th Fantastic Films Weekend in 2006.