London’s Horror History & Offbeat British Cult Films

Join the London Fortean Society with three writers on London and British horror as we look at the city’s dark cinematic street and how film transformed familiar British landscapes into spaces of terror.

The evening will show trailers for many of the films featured.

Lauren Jane Barnett – Death Lines: London’s Horror Film History

Lauren Jane Barnett unearths the literature, legends, and history behind horror classics including Peeping Tom and An American Werewolf in London, and lesser-known works such as mind-control melodrama The Sorcerers; Gorgo, Britain’s answer to Godzilla; tube terror Death Line; and Bela Lugosi’s mesmeric vehicle The Dark Eyes of London.
Tinged with humor, social critique, and more than a few scares, her book Death Lines delights in revealing the hidden and often surprising relationship between London and the dark cinematic visions it has evoked.
Whether read on the streets or from the comfort of the grave, Death Lines is a treat for all cinephiles, horror fans, and lovers of London lore.
In the tradition of writing what you know, Lauren Jane Barnett – in the life she’s lived, the books she’s loved, and the films she’s devoured – knows horror.

Darrell Buxton and Jennifer Wallis – Offbeat: British Cinema’s Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Gems
Offbeat contributors Darrell Buxton and Jennifer Wallis will be discussing some of Britain’s lesser-known cult films and their often-horrific depictions of mental healthcare and family relationships. From Twisted Nerve to Killer’s Moon, and from Amicus’s Asylum to Pete Walker’s Frightmare, we’ll see how British film between the 1960s and 1980s tackled some of the country’s thorniest issues, in the process transforming familiar British landscapes into spaces of terror.

Offbeat: British Cinema’s Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Gems (Revised and Updated) explores Britain’s obscurities, curiosities and forgotten cinematic gems.