The Nickel Cinema
117-119 Clerkenwell Road
London, EC1R 5BY
A fully licensed grindhouse cinema, bar and video shop
Shop and bar are open 1hr prior to screenings.
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Please note: as a small capacity grassroots theatre, we are unable to offer refunds or exchanges on tickets. No late admittance after 15 minutes!
HE NEVER DIES: THE FILMS OF KALIL HADDAD
(Short films, Canada, Kalil Haddad)
A programme of Toronto-based experimental filmmaker Kalil Haddad’s incendiary and truly strange work. A retrospective screening that shows a young artist’s evolution over the years, the progression of films tells a unique story: one that grows increasingly disturbing and aesthetically bold, culminating in the truly shocking VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE.
Doors 6pm / 8.30pm
REFLECTIONS OF EVIL
(2002, USA, Damon Packard)
PART OF ‘LOS ANGELES HATES ITSELF’
A night celebrating outsider artist Damon Packard’s genius low-budget visions.
“Terror Beyond Imagination”
Julie, a teen who died from a PCP overdose in the early ’70s, searches from beyond the grave for her younger brother Bob, who now in the ’90s is an obese watch seller suffering with sucrose intolerance. A very rare UK screening.
Doors 6pm
SUPERVIXENS
(1975, USA, Russ Meyer)
“Too much… for one movie!”
Clint must flee after his wife is killed by a psychopathic cop, who tries to pin the murder on him.
Truly one of Russ Meyer’s best.
Doors 5.30pm
UP!
(1976, USA, Russ Meyer)
“If you don’t see Up! … you’ll feel down!”
Adolf Hitler is hiding out in California under the identity of Adolf Schwartz; however, he is soon murdered by a mysterious assailant. This coincides with the arrival of a mysterious woman in a nearby town. Whatever the case might be, nobody seems interested in investigating the crime, but there are many who are interested in her.
Doors 8.30pm
FORCE OF EVIL
(1948, USA, Abraham Polonsky)
“The sensational story of a numbers king whose number was up!“
Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.
Doors 5.30pm / 8pm
BABY BLOOD
(1990, France, Alan Robak)
“It’s time to feed the baby.”
A cruel circus owner beats and abuses his pregnant wife. One day the circus receives a leopard newly captured in Africa, but the animal soon dies. However, an evil creature that was inside the leopard bursts out of the animal’s body, burrows into the wife’s body and takes over her fetus. It soon starts demanding blood, and the woman goes searching for victims for her new “baby.”
Doors 6pm
SHRIME TIME: A NIGHT OF BIZARRO UNDERSEEN ANIME
From radical student animation collectives to sun-bleached techno-dystopias and gore-drenched horror, Shrime Time shines where the sun daren’t: revealing the backside of seldom-seen Japanese visual culture.
Expect screenings from the 1960s to the present day, paired with special guests: musicians, artists, researchers and those obsessed with the outermost edges of Japan’s visual imagination.
The Shirime a yōkai (Japanese folkloric spirit and the evenings conveniently misspelled namesake) whose sole purpose is to startle unsuspecting samurai by revealing an eyeball in place of an arsehole. In his sick, twisted way, Shirime embodies the very spirit of B-cinema - a flash of grotesque brilliance, whose origin and intent remain a mystery, leaving the path forever altered.
So come. Sit still in the dark.
Let the rectacular eye stare deep into your curious soul.
The Shrime is watching.
Doors 6pm
UPTIGHT
(1968, USA, Jules Dassin)
“A man on the run. A life at stake. A people about to explode.”
Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own.
Doors 5pm / 8pm
RATS
(2024, USA, Maxwell Nalevansky, Carl Fry)
With video intro by Maxwell Nalevansky
In a surreal small‑town version of 2007 Texas, a young graffiti artist lands in jail and is coerced into spying on his cousin—suspected by an unhinged cop of dealing nuclear weapons. What follows is a frenetic, gross‑humored ride through conspiracy, over-the-top characters, and chaotic counterculture.
Doors 6pm
COMBAT SHOCK
(1986, USA, Buddy Giovinazzo)
With video interview with director Buddy G
“Fighting, killing, maiming. Agent Orange and the torture cages were the easy part!”
A dangerously disturbed Vietnam veteran struggles with life 15 years after his return home, and slowly falls into insanity from his gritty urban lifestyle.
Doors 8.40pm
LIFEFORCE
(1985, UK, Tobe Hooper)
Tobe Hooper’s notorious sci-fi/horror hybrid begins with astronauts discovering humanoid figures aboard a mysterious spacecraft trailing Halley’s Comet — and spirals into full-blown apocalypse once one is brought back to London. What follows is part vampire film, part disaster movie, and part erotic spectacle, anchored by Mathilda May’s unforgettable nude performance as an energy-draining alien and a young Patrick Stewart caught up in the chaos. Often derided on release, Lifeforce now stands as a delirious monument to Cannon Films excess: lurid, expensive, and unashamedly strange.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.45pm
PSYCHOMANIA
(1973, UK, Don Sharp)
Motorbikes, black magic, and eternal youth collide in Psychomania, where a gang of leather-clad delinquents discover a ritual that allows them to die and return invincible. Don Sharp films their undead rampage through misty English suburbs and concrete flyovers, a collision of Hammer horror atmosphere and youth-culture kitsch. George Sanders appears in one of his final roles, lending a wry dignity to a film that drifts between menace and absurdity, its pop soundtrack and occult rituals securing its cult reputation.
Doors 8,40pm
Film 9pm
BRANDED TO KILL
(1967, Japan, Seijun Suzuki)
Seijun Suzuki’s infamous yakuza meltdown follows Hanada, the “Number Three Killer,” as a botched job drags him into a spiral of erotic obsession and professional downfall. A widow who surrounds herself with the smell of boiling rice and dead butterflies becomes his muse and undoing, while surreal shootouts strip the genre of coherence. Too strange for his studio bosses, the film cost Suzuki his job, but won him immortality: Branded to Kill is now revered as a fevered masterpiece of fractured noir.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
ROSA LA ROSE, FILLE PUBLIQUE
(1986, France, Paul Vecchiali)
Paul Vecchiali’s Rosa la Rose is at once intimate and unsparing, centering on a young Parisian sex worker whose life is defined by pragmatism, small joys, and the unspoken solidarity of her milieu. When romance enters the picture, Rosa is forced to weigh her own sense of freedom against social prejudice and economic survival. Vecchiali — long committed to stories on the margins — imbues the film with tenderness and sensuality without ever lapsing into cliché, making it one of French cinema’s most complex portraits of prostitution.
Doors 8.15
Film 8.40
THE ADVENTURE OF IRON PUSSY
(2003, Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul & Michael Shaowanasai)
“Cross-dressing crime fighter. 7/11 clerk. This is Iron Pussy.”
In her latest mission, secret agent Iron Pussy is sent to infiltrate Thailand’s elite on suspicion of running a drug empire. Disguised as a maid at Madame Pompadoy’s lavish mansion, Iron Pussy’s mission is complicated when she falls for Pompadoy’s pipe smoking son, Tang, and she begins to uncover more than she bargained for.
The character of Iron Pussy is the creation of performance artist Michael Shaowanasai who co-directs this action-musical with Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who would go on to become Thailand’s most internationally renowned director. A love letter to melodramatic 70s Thai action cinema, this outlier in Weerasethekul’s filmography is rarely screened but is a wonderfully kitsch romp.
Introduction by Harry Thorfinn-George.
Doors 5.30pm
Film 6pm
+
Doors 8pm
Film 8.30pm
LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN
(1976, Italy, Ruggero Deodato)
Long before shocking the world with Cannibal Holocaust, Ruggero Deodato turned the Italian poliziotteschi on its head with this vicious portrait of Rome’s dirtiest cops. Partners Fred and Tony pursue criminals with methods so sadistic they’re indistinguishable from their prey, leaving a trail of eye-gouging, bloodshed, and casual misogyny. Notorious for its violence and nihilism, the film also carries the perverse thrill of Deodato’s unflinching style, offering a rare chance to see the genre pushed to its outer limits of excess.
Doors 6pm
Film 7pm
FADE TO BLACK
(1980, USA, Vernon Zimmerman)
An outsider’s fantasy turned nightmare, Fade to Black follows Eric Binford, a lonely cinephile who channels his frustrations into increasingly violent re-enactments of Hollywood classics. Dennis Christopher plays Eric with unnerving fragility, shifting from Bogart and Cagney impressions to homicidal mania. A mix of slasher film, character study, and movie-buff fever dream, Zimmerman’s film is both a critique of media obsession and an elegy for the porous boundary between life and screen.
With introduction by Ian Mantgani.
Doors 5.30pm
Film 6pm
MIAMI CONNECTION
(1987, USA, Woo-sang Park & Y.K. Kim)
A film lost to time and later rediscovered as a cult juggernaut, Miami Connection is the story of Dragon Sound, a synth-rock band of martial artists who sing about friendship and world peace while battling drug gangs, ninjas, and betrayal. Amateur performances and stilted dialogue only heighten its sincerity, while the earnestness of taekwondo master Y.K. Kim shines through every kick and power ballad. More than a so-bad-it’s-good curio, it’s an accidental hymn to optimism and DIY cinema.
Doors 8pm
Film 8.30pm
SCALA LUCKY DIP NIGHT
Join us for a very special event which celebrates the life and legacy of the late Liverpool-born cinephile Robin Little. The evening includes a screening of SCALA!!! - the riotous documentary about London’s legendary cinema with appearances from John Waters, Stewart Lee, Mary Harron and more - plus a Surprise Film, making it a double-bill in true Scala tradition.
We're thrilled to welcome SCALA!!! co-directors Jane Giles and Ali Catterall along with a Surprise Guest. The evening will also include a Lucky Dip giveaway from Robin’s treasured cult film DVD collection, carrying forward his love of cinema and celebrating physical media. Robin’s film book collection has been donated to The Nickel, and profits from the screening will go to suicide prevention charity CALM.
18:30 - Doors open
18:45 - Intro by Jane, Ali and Surprise Guest
19:00 - SCALA!!! (96 mins)
20:30 - Break + DVD lucky dip
21:15 - Mystery film (78mins)
22:30 - finish
THE CRUISE
(1998, USA, Bennett Miller)
Bennett Miller’s debut documentary follows Timothy “Speed” Levitch, a hyperverbal New York City tour guide whose monologues mix history, philosophy, and personal confession into a torrent of poetic incantation. Shot in high-contrast black-and-white on the streets of mid-1990s Manhattan, the film captures both the grandeur and decay of the city while presenting Levitch as a figure at once prophetic and fragile. More than a portrait of a man, it is a meditation on urban space, eccentricity, and the act of speaking one’s world into being.
Part of our I HEART NY double bill.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.45pm
Q: THE WINGED SERPENT
(1982, USA, Larry Cohen)
Larry Cohen’s offbeat monster movie situates a giant Aztec serpent atop the Chrysler Building, terrorizing New York while the police flail. But at its heart is Michael Moriarty’s jittery performance as a small-time crook who discovers the creature’s nest and tries to bargain his way to safety. With David Carradine as a bemused detective and Cohen’s trademark guerrilla shooting in the streets of Manhattan, the film fuses pulp spectacle with social satire, a creature feature that feels inseparable from the city it devours.
Part of our I HEART NY double bill.
Doors 8.10pm
Film 8.30pm
PICCADILLY
(1929, UK, E.A. Dupont)
A landmark of late silent cinema, Piccadilly tells the story of Shosho, a scullery maid at a London nightclub whose talent as a dancer propels her to stardom — and into a dangerous romance. Anna May Wong’s luminous performance cuts through the melodrama, making her one of the first non-white actors to carry a British film at the center. Dupont films Soho with shadows and elegance, capturing the glamour and unease of a city intoxicated by modernity and haunted by its racial and class hierarchies.
This screening is brought to you in partnership with Faber and Faber and will be complimented by a discussion with Katie Gee Salisbury of the film and her book ’Not Your China Doll’
Doors 6pm
Film 7pm
STAR 80
(1983, USA, Bob Fosse)
Bob Fosse’s final film chronicles the life and death of Dorothy Stratten, the Playboy model and actress murdered by her estranged husband Paul Snider. Told with chilling precision, it moves between Hollywood promise and domestic menace, anchored by Mariel Hemingway’s vulnerable performance and Eric Roberts’ terrifying embodiment of Snider’s desperation. Fosse, long interested in the machinery of performance and exploitation, strips away glamour to reveal the violence beneath America’s fixation on fame and beauty.
Introduced by Ryan Bellett.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
THE MANSON FAMILY
(1997/2003, USA, Jim Van Bebber)
Jim Van Bebber’s decades-in-the-making vision of the Manson cult is at once exploitation cinema and serious attempt to reckon with its enduring mythology. Shot on grainy 16mm and staged with startling ferocity, the film reconstructs the murders with hallucinatory intensity while framing them through a 1990s tabloid-TV lens. More than true crime, it’s a portrait of disaffected youth, countercultural decay, and the allure of charismatic violence — uncompromising, abrasive, and unlike any other depiction of the Manson story.
Doors 8.30pm
Film 9pm
SUMMER OF FEAR
(1978, USA, Wes Craven)
Wes Craven steps out of the slasher spotlight into the realm of supernatural suspense with Summer of Fear, a tense story of adolescent unease and family paranoia. When an enigmatic cousin arrives in a small town, a young girl’s life unravels as mysterious accidents and dark influences mount. Craven’s keen eye for dread and atmosphere, combined with a slow-burning sense of menace, makes this more than a TV movie: it’s an intimate study of fear infiltrating the ordinary.
Introduced by Craig Williams.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
NIGHT VISIONS
(1990, USA, Wes Craven)
Wes Craven’s made-for-TV thriller follows a Los Angeles detective who must team up with a psychic to track a serial killer preying on the city. Tense, atmospheric, and compact, it showcases Craven’s skill in building suspense even within the constraints of a network television format. For fans of ’90s horror and procedural mystery, it’s an overlooked example of his versatility beyond the slasher genre.
Introduced by Craig Williams.
VHS screening
Doors 8.30pm
Film 9pm
LA MARGE (THE MARGIN)
(1976, France, Walerian Borowczyk)
Borowczyk’s exploration of sexuality and social transgression follows a man drawn into Parisian nightlife, where desire and desperation intertwine. Known for its frank eroticism and surreal visual composition, the film situates intimate acts within a bleak social margin, challenging both narrative convention and audience comfort. Borowczyk’s lush cinematography contrasts starkly with the protagonist’s existential alienation, making it simultaneously seductive and unsettling.
Introduced by Craig Williams.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
and
Doors 8.20pm
Film 8.45pm
AAAAAAAH!
(2015, UK, Steve Oram)
A savage, wordless comedy of human behaviour, Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah! turns primal instincts into absurdist spectacle. Office workers and suburban dwellers alike are reduced to grunts, yelps, and chaos, revealing the thin veneer of civilization. Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, it’s a deconstruction of social norms with the intensity of slapstick, ritual, and sheer physical comedy.
Steve Oram and Tom Meetan will join us for a Q&A/discussion.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.45pm
G.B.H. (1983)
(UK, David Kent-Watson)
A quintessential example of British shot-on-video cinema, G.B.H. follows Steve "The Mancunian" Donovan (Cliff Twemlow), a nightclub bouncer and ex-con, as he battles a ruthless London mob boss attempting to take over Manchester's nightlife scene. Twemlow not only stars in the film but also wrote, produced, and composed the music, infusing it with his unique vision. The film's low-budget production, amateurish performances, and over-the-top action sequences contribute to its cult status among fans of exploitation cinema. Notably, G.B.H. was one of the films that faced scrutiny during the UK's "video nasty" moral panic, adding to its notoriety.
Doors 8.40pm
Film 9pm
WALKING THE EDGE
(1985, USA, Norbert Meisel)
This tight, violent revenge thriller follows a former detective as he hunts the gang responsible for his brother’s murder. With gritty L.A. locations, car chases, and a relentless pace, the film is a textbook example of ’80s exploitation action, pairing hard-boiled morality with stylized bloodshed and street-level suspense. A minor cult classic, its adrenaline-driven sequences exemplify the era’s rough-and-ready crime cinema.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
MIXED BLOOD
(1985, USA, Paul Morrissey)
Paul Morrissey’s exploration of New York gang culture brings documentary realism into melodramatic structure, following a Puerto Rican youth gang negotiating crime, loyalty, and survival. Morrissey blends energetic street cinematography with intimate character studies, capturing the volatility of adolescence and urban decay while offering moments of surreal, almost operatic intensity.
Doors 8.20pm
Film 8.40pm
THE CASE IS CLOSED FORGET IT
(1971, Italy, Damiano Damiani)
Damiano Damiani’s giallo-noir hybrid tracks a determined investigator navigating Milan’s corruption and shadowy power structures. Branded by fatalism and punctuated by moments of visceral brutality, the film balances crime procedural mechanics with the psychological impact of pervasive moral decay. A taut, stylish example of Italian genre cinema’s capacity for social commentary.
Doors 5.30pm
Film 6pm
EBONY & IVORY
(2024, UK, Jim Hosking)
Jim Hosking's surreal comedy imagines a bizarre 1981 encounter between Paul McCartney (Sky Elobar) and Stevie Wonder (Gil Gex) at a remote Scottish cottage. What unfolds is a hallucinatory, absurdist odyssey filled with crude humor, awkward silences, and eccentric dialogue. The film's unconventional pacing and grotesque visuals challenge traditional narrative forms, offering a psychedelic parody that defies logic and coherence. A must-see for fans of avant-garde cinema and those seeking a truly unique cinematic experience.
With director Jim Hosking in person - intro and Q&A
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
THE GREASY STRANGLER
(2016, USA, Jim Hosking)
Jim Hosking’s grotesque, absurdist comedy horror follows a father-son duo entangled in murder, mischief, and lubrication. Equal parts surreal performance art and black comedy, the film revels in bodily horror, sexual eccentricity, and neon‑lit madness. Michael St. Michaels’ performance as the titular figure is both horrifying and absurdly charismatic, ensuring the film’s instant cult status.
With director Jim Hosking in person - intro and Q&A
Doors 8.30pm
Film 9pm
SHRIME TIME: A NIGHT OF BIZARRO UNDERSEEN ANIME
From radical student animation collectives to sun-bleached techno-dystopias and gore-drenched horror, Shrime Time shines where the sun daren’t: revealing the backside of seldom-seen Japanese visual culture.
Expect screenings from the 1960s to the present day, paired with special guests: musicians, artists, researchers and those obsessed with the outermost edges of Japan’s visual imagination.
So come. Sit still in the dark.
Let the rectacular eye stare deep into your curious soul.
The Shrime is watching.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.45pm
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928) + LIVE SCORE
(1928, France, Jean Epstein)
Jean Epstein’s silent adaptation of Poe’s tale is a masterclass in early cinematic expressionism, merging abstract imagery with atmospheric tension. The decaying Usher estate, filmed in shadowed chiaroscuro, embodies psychological collapse, while the film’s experimental editing and camera movement intensify the narrative’s dreamlike terror. A touchstone of avant-garde horror, it remains visually hypnotic nearly a century later.
With a live score by Marika Tyler-Clark and introduction by Agnė Qami
Doors 6pm
Film 7pm
and
Doors 8.15pm
Film 9pm
FEAR OVER THE CITY
(1975, France/Italy, Henri Verneuil)
Henri Verneuil’s slick urban thriller stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a tough Paris detective drawn into a deadly game with a sadistic killer who stalks women across the city. Mixing suspense, crime procedural, and high-octane spectacle, the film is famous for Belmondo’s breathtaking stunts—leaping across rooftops and dangling from skyscrapers—performed without doubles. Both a showcase for its star’s daredevil charisma and a portrait of a city under siege, it stands as one of the great European action films of the 1970s.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
KINJITE: THE FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS
(1989, USA, J. Lee Thompson)
A brutal, sensationalist thriller from J. Lee Thompson, Kinjite pits a veteran detective against a network of sex traffickers exploiting minors. Charles Bronson anchors the narrative with gruff moral authority, while the film’s lurid depictions of crime and corruption underscore the tension between vigilante justice and systemic failure. Shocking, exploitative, and morally pointed, it’s a signature late-career Bronson vehicle.
Doors 8.40pm
Film 9pm
DR. CALIGARI
(1989, USA, Stephen Sayadian)
Sayadian’s erotic reimagining of the classic German Expressionist tale fuses horror, surrealism, and adult cinema. With highly stylized sets, provocative imagery, and a narrative that blurs dream and delusion, it pushes the original material into explicit territory while maintaining a fascination with manipulation, control, and madness. A provocative, visually adventurous cult curiosity.
Doors 5.30pm
Film 6pm
SLAVE GIRLS OF MORGANA LE FAY
(1971, USA, Piero Regnoli)
An erotic fantasy steeped in sword-and-sorcery melodrama, the film follows Morgana’s seductive schemes and her thrall of young women trapped in a gothic, pseudo-medieval world. Piero Regnoli’s direction combines risqué spectacle, campy effects, and overt sexuality, delivering a film designed for titillation and the pleasures of genre excess.
Doors 7.30pm
Film 8pm
117-119 Clerkenwell Road
London, EC1R 5BY
A fully licensed grindhouse cinema, bar and video shop
Shop + bar are open
1hr prior to screenings
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