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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As a small capacity grassroots theatre, we are unable to offer refunds or exchanges on tickets. No late admittance after 15 minutes!
THE MAD BOMBER
(1973, USA, Bert I. Gordon)
Bert I. Gordon takes a sharp right turn into ‘70s urban perversion with this remarkably politically incorrect crime shocker: A psycho citizen is planting deadly bombs across Los Angeles. A depraved rapist is the only witness who can identify him. And a deranged detective will break every rule in the book to bust them both
Introduced by Kier-La Janisse, author, film programmer and founder of the Miskatonic Institute
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30PM
KIER-LA JANISSE’S MYSTERY FILM
?
Kier-La Janisse, author, film programmer and founder of the Miskatonic Institute - chooses one of her personal favourite movies as a mystery film. The film will be introduced by Kier-La Janisse and she will be available for book signings.
Doors 8:15pm
Film 8:45pm
THE APPLE
(1980, USA, Menahem Golan)
In the glitzy, glittering futuristic world of 1994, music is king, and the man who controls it is all-powerful malicious mogul, Mr. Boogalow. Now he has his eye on two fresh-faced young singers, Alphie and Bibi, who score a hit at his WorldVision Song Festival and fall under the irresistible spell of fame, money, and temptation. As Bibi becomes a mammoth superstar, will Alphie be able to save her soul before it’s too late?
Introduced by programmer Ally Russell-Shields
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
IGUANA
(1988, Italy/Spain, Monte Hellman)
A grotesquely disfigured harpooner called Iguana is severely mistreated by his fellow sailors on a whaling ship in the 19th century. One night he escapes and takes up residence on a remote island. He makes himself ruler of the island and declares war on mankind. Anyone unfortunate enough to wind up on the island with Iguana is subjected to his cruel tyranny.
Doors 8:15PM
Film 8:45PM
OUTRAGEOUS
(1977, USA, Richard Brenner)
Gay hair stylist Robin Turner does a lot of work for drag queens, all the while dreaming that he’ll someday find the courage to perform in drag himself. When his schizophrenic friend, Liza, turns up looking for a place to stay, the two form an increasingly tight bond, Robin helping Liza through an unplanned pregnancy and Liza pushing Robin to develop a successful nightclub act.
Introduced by programmer Graham Russell
Doors 6pm
Film 6:20pm
SANTA SANGRE
(1989, Spain, Alejandro Jodorowsky)
A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his mother – the leader of a strange religious cult – and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE
(1994, Japan, Kaizo Hayashi)
Maiku Hama is a private detective working in Yokohama. Hama comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter named Yang and agrees to track down his missing brother. Through a series of double-crosses Hama gets embroiled in a gang war and a revenge plot between the two brothers.
Introduced by film critic James Balmont
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
STAIRWAY TO THE DISTANT PAST
(1995, Japan, Kaizo Hayashi)
Broke, with his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama’s past, returns to town, the fuse is lit on a criminal powder keg set to blow the lid off the Yokohama underworld.
Introduced by film critic James Balmont
Doors 8.20pm
Film 8.45pm
THE COMEDY
(2012, USA, Rick Alverson)
Indifferent to the notion of inheriting his father’s estate, a restless, aging New Yorker passes time with his friends in games of mock sincerity, irreverence, and recreational cruelty towards those around them.
With video introduction by director Rick Alverson
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30PM
(2012, USA, Rick Alverson)
Indifferent to the notion of inheriting his father’s estate, a restless, aging New Yorker passes time with his friends in games of mock sincerity, irreverence, and recreational cruelty towards those around them.
With video introduction by director Rick Alverson
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30PM
ENTERTAINMENT
(2015, USA, Rick Alverson)
Set in the Mojave Desert, the film follows a broken-down comedian playing clubs across the Southwest, working his way to Los Angeles to meet his estranged daughter.
Starring Gregg Turkington in his cult Neil Hamburger persona.
With video introduction by director Rick Alverson
Doors 8:25pm
Film 8.45pm
HABIT
(1995, USA, Larry Fessenden)
It’s autumn in New York. Sam has broken up with his girlfriend and his father has recently died. World-weary and sloppy drunk, he finds temporary solace in the arms of Anna, a mysterious vampire who draws him away from his friends and into a web of addiction and madness.
Introduced by writer Clark Collis who will be signing his book ‘Screaming and Conjuring’
Doors 5:30pm
Film 6pm
BABE PIG IN THE CITY
George Miller’s brilliant, grotesquely underrated family film was considered too dark for children upon release, but has since been reappraised and is considered a masterpiece by the likes of Tom Waits.
Followed by an acoustic music performance by Maria Dearest in our basement bar, along with animal themed karaoke!
Doors 6PM
Film 7PM
Music 9PM
PUTNEY SWOPE
(1969, USA, Robert Downey Sr.)
The board of directors at a Madison Avenue ad agency must elect a new chairman. In the maneuvering to make sure that enemies don't get votes, all the members accidentally cast their ballot for the board's token black man, Putney Swope.
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
THE TEMPTATION OF ST TONY
(2009, Estonia, Veiko Õunpuu)
A mid-level manager who develops an aversion to being a good person questions his morality as he faces the challenges of middle age and loses control of his life.
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
THE OUTFIT
(1973, USA, John Flynn)
A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother’s death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.
Timothy Carey double feature
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
THE WORLD’S GREATEST SINNER
(1962, USA, Timothy Carey)
A bored insurance salesman quits his job to go into politics. He first starts preaching about how man is greater than he thinks and that man can live forever. He ends up forming his own political party, “The Eternal Man” party. He begins to be referred to as “God”. Then he starts having doubts about the eternalness of man.
Timothy Carey double feature
Doors 8.30pm
Film 9pm
RE-WIND AKA CELLULOID NIGHTMARES
(1988, Japan, Hisayasu Sato)
A gruesome snuff video is found in a sex booth. It shows a young woman who is tortured, killed, and dismembered by an unknown sadist. The deadly blade is hidden inside the camera itself.
With introduction and book signing by Jasper Sharp
Doors 6pm
Film 6.30pm
964 PINOCCHIO
(1991, Japan, Shozin Fukui)
A memory-wiped and defective cyborg sex slave is tossed onto the streets and taken in by a homeless woman while his corporate creators hunt him down.
Doors 8pm
Film 8:30pm
DEF BY TEMPTATION
(1990, USA, James Bond III)
An evil succubus is preying on libidinous black men in New York, and all that stands in her way is a minister-in-training, an aspiring actor, and a cop that specializes in cases involving the supernatural.
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
DEVIL STORY
(1986, France, Bernard Launois)
A deformed man living with his mother in the countryside roams the woods killing indiscriminately. A couple spend the night nearby, and the wife goes through a nightmarish experience involving a black horse, a mummy, and the deformed man.
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
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.
NOTE: BOTH SCREENINGS CONTAIN THE SAME PROGRAMME
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
and
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
LICKERISH QUARTET
(1970, Italy, Radley Metzger)
A jaded, wealthy couple watch a blue movie in their castle home along with her adult son. The son is testy, so they go into town and watch a circus-like thrill ride. The daredevil woman in the show looks exactly like one of the women in the movie, so the man invites her to join them for a nightcap. Tensions among the family seem to rise. She stays overnight, and during her 24 hours in the castle, each of its three residents involves her in a fantasy. She, in turn, keeps asking, “Who has the gun?” Will there be violence before it’s over?
Part of a Radley Metzger double feature introduced by Craig Williams
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
SCORE
(1973, USA, Radley Metzger)
In the mythical European city of Leisure, married couple Jack and Elvira have an ongoing bet regarding who can seduce whom. This comes up in the wake of a swinging night with a couple of tourists picked up via a newspaper ad. Elvira, a self-professed “sexual snob” has bet she can seduce newlywed Betsy, married to handsome marine biologist Eddie. If she fails by midnight, then Jack gets to seduce Eddie.
Part of a Radley Metzger double feature introduced by Craig Williams
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
ODYSSEY
Special preview + intro/Q&A with director Gerard Johnson
(2025, UK, Gerard Johnson)
Natasha Flynn, a coke-fueled London estate agent, hides her crumbling life behind luxury. When loan sharks offer cash to hide a kidnapped agent, she’s dragged into London’s seedy underworld, leading to a bloody, chaotic showdown.
Doors 5pm
Film 6pm
and
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
TENEMENT
(1985, USA, Roberta Findlay)
The story of a South Bronx apartment building ruled by a gang of crazed, junkie punks. After witnessing the miscreants shooting up heroin and munching on rats, an apartment resident gets fed up and calls the cops on the band of basement squatter low-lifes. The police haul them in but justice, unsurprisingly, does not prevail. Immediately upon their release, the gang returns with only one thing on their drug-damaged minds- revenge.
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
THE THRILL KILLERS
(1964, USA, Ray Dennis Steckler)
Three psychotic murderers escape from a mental institution and stalk women in Los Angeles.
Doors 6pm
Film 6.45pm
BODY FEVER
(1969, USA, Ray Dennis Steckler)
Set in the underworld of drug trafficking and prostitutes, this story involves Charlie Smith, private eye, whose job it is to find Carrie Friskine and fast! Carrie, a cat burglar, has ripped off the ring-leader of a drug racket and now he’s after her blood.
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8:45pm
THE WICKER MAN
(1973, UK, Robin Hardy)
Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there.
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
THE LAST SACRIFICE
(2024, UK, Rupert Russell)
Valentine’s Day 1945. A ritual murder in rural Britain. A new horror is born.
The Last Sacrifice delves into the real-life 1945 witchcraft killing of Charles Walton—the terrifying event that inspired The Wicker Man and birthed the folk horror genre. This unsettling true-crime interrogation probes into the eerie, enigmatic cultural undercurrents that shaped 1970's folk horror genre, leaving an indelible mark on cinema and public psyche. The Last Sacrifice uncovers an unflinching portrayal of Britain's profound identity crisis, both during the tumultuous early 1970s and the resurgence of folk horror today, ominously coinciding with yet another national descent into madness. Its conclusion: The Wicker Man is more fact than fiction.
With director Rupert Russell on stage
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
VIDEO BAZAAR PRESENTS: EYES OF FIRE
(1983, USA, Avery Crounse)
Before The Witch, there was Eyes of Fire. In this overlooked gem, a rogue and adulterous 18th century preacher and his followers flee to the 'promised land' in an attempt to establish a settlement beyond the western frontier. But when they encounter a forest filled with evil spirits, the group exchanges happiness for apocalyptic madness. Eyes of Fire is a dreamlike hallucination that combines arthouse surrealism, gonzo creature effects, and ambitious symbolism to build a truly haunting experience.
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
VIDEO BAZAAR PRESENTS: TORTURE DUNGEON
(1970, USA, Andy Milligan)
In Medieval England, a sadistic duke plots to kill off all the heirs to the throne so he can claim the crown for himself.
Doors 8:15pm
Film 9pm
FRANKENHOOKER
(1990, USA, Frank Henenlotter)
A medical school dropout loses his fiancée in a tragic lawnmower incident and decides to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, he was only able to save her head, so he goes to the red light district in the city and lures prostitutes into a hotel room so he can collect body parts to reassemble her.
Doors 6pm
Film 6:30pm
BASKET CASE
(1982, USA, Frank Henenlotter)
A young man carrying a big basket that contains his extremely deformed, formerly conjoined twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will.
Doors 8.15pm
Film 8.45pm
THE FIRST ANNUAL NICKEL CINEMA HALLOWEEN PSYCHOTRONIC ALL-DAYER!
6 mind-melting, rarely (or never) screened movies! Guests and surprises! Exclusive poster for sale! Rarely screened trailers, shorts and clips! Costumes encouraged!
One day festival ticket is £45 and allows access throughout the day for all six films.
Doors 12pm
117-119 Clerkenwell Road
London, EC1R 5BY
A fully licensed grindhouse cinema, bar and video shop
Shop + bar are open
30 mins prior to screenings
Instagram | X | Email
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