The Nickel | Independent Cinema in Clerkenwell, London

The Nickel is an adult-oriented space. The films, preshow materials and space itself may contain violent, sexual and potentially offensive imagery unsuitable for under-18s or those of a sensitive disposition.

Please note we are unable to offer refunds or exchanges on tickets. No late admissions from 15 minutes after showtime.

MR KLEIN

(1976, France/Italy, Joseph Losey)

Paris, 1942. Art dealer Robert Klein profits from buying valuable possessions cheaply from Jewish families desperate to flee occupied France. When he begins receiving mail intended for another Robert Klein—a Jewish man sharing his name—his attempts to uncover the stranger's identity draw him into an increasingly unsettling labyrinth of bureaucracy, suspicion and mistaken identity, where the distinction between hunter and hunted begins to disappear.

Directed by Joseph Losey from a screenplay by Franco Solinas, Mr. Klein is a masterful psychological thriller that examines complicity, identity and moral indifference under the Vichy regime. Alain Delon delivers one of the finest performances of his career, anchoring a film that combines Kafkaesque paranoia with meticulous historical detail. Winner of three César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, it remains one of the most powerful cinematic explorations of occupied France.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

(1978, Czechoslovakia, Juraj Herz)

A humble village girl becomes the captive of a grotesque Beast, a figure both terrifying and tragic. As she navigates his eerie, shadow-filled castle, fear gives way to curiosity and compassion, revealing the humanity hidden beneath his monstrous exterior.

A darkly gothic and visually striking fairy tale, Juraj Herz’s Beauty and the Beast blends horror and romance, exploring obsession, transformation, and the thin line between terror and tenderness.

AUDITION

(1999, Japan, Takashi Miike)

A widowed businessman attends a series of auditions to find a new wife, seeking companionship through what begins as a seemingly innocent and orderly process. He becomes fascinated by one quiet, enigmatic woman whose demeanor conceals a darker, unpredictable side. As their relationship develops, hidden obsessions and violent impulses emerge, turning courtship into terror and control into a deadly game.

Takashi Miike’s Audition is a slow-burning psychological horror that lulls viewers with calm, meticulous pacing before erupting into shocking violence. The film explores desire, loneliness, and the dangers of idealizing another person, gradually revealing the thin line between attraction and obsession. Disturbing, tense, and unforgettable, Audition transforms a conventional romantic premise into a haunting study of horror and human cruelty.

SHRIME TIME: A NIGHT OF BIZARRO UNDERSEEN ANIME

Shrime Time, now in its first orbit round the sun, continues to serve prime pedigree chum for the eyeball in your bum.

Anime and Japanese experimental animation. Offensive, reductive, perverse, bizarre, abrasive, gratuitously contentious, depraved and unhinged—rarely sentimental, always beautiful, mental and morose. Ninety minutes no warranty.

Masterpiece and disaster-piece are bedfellows here. The rectacular spectacle operates in the shadows, every film a mystery film. No holes barred: mecha, mutant, mafia, tentacles and torture, saccharine sweetness and vapid vaudeville slapstick combine to enshrine the Shrime.

The name comes from the Shirime, a yokai whose entire reason for existing is flashing samurai with an eyeball where the sun daren’t shine. No warning. No context. Just b-cinema’s whole philosophy, distilled into a single grotesque wink.

Nothing evades the all-seeing rectacular spectacle.

All hail the nickel and all who sail with her. The time is Shrime.

BYZANTIUM

(2012, UK/Ireland, Neil Jordan)

After arriving in a quiet English seaside town, the enigmatic Clara and her withdrawn teenage daughter Eleanor attempt to build new lives while concealing a secret that has bound them together for generations. As Eleanor forms her first genuine friendships and begins to reveal the truth about their existence, the violent past they have spent centuries fleeing threatens to catch up with them once again.

Directed by Neil Jordan and adapted from Moira Buffini's play A Vampire Story, Byzantium reimagines vampire mythology through a distinctly female perspective. Rejecting many of the genre's familiar conventions, the film blends Gothic horror, dark fantasy and intimate character drama while exploring themes of power, exploitation and motherhood. Led by acclaimed performances from Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton, it has become recognised as one of the most distinctive British vampire films of the twenty-first century.

Introduced by writer Susan Jonusas.

A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN

(1971, Italy/France/Spain, Lucio Fulci)

Carol Hammond, the daughter of a prominent politician, is tormented by increasingly vivid dreams involving her glamorous, free-spirited neighbour Julia Durer. When Julia is found brutally murdered, the line between Carol's nightmares and reality begins to dissolve, drawing her into a labyrinth of murder, hallucination and psychological manipulation where nothing can be trusted.

Directed by Lucio Fulci before his celebrated cycle of gore films, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin is one of the masterpieces of the Italian giallo. Combining surreal dream imagery, elaborate murder set pieces and psychedelic visual design, the film reflects the influence of the sexual revolution while pushing the boundaries of censorship with its graphic violence and eroticism. Featuring a mesmerising score by Ennio Morricone and standout performances from Florinda Bolkan, Stanley Baker and Anita Strindberg, it remains one of Fulci's most elegant and accomplished works.

SLEEPING DOGS

(1977, New Zealand, Roger Donaldson)

Starring the late Sam Neill as disillusioned drifter Smith who retreats to an isolated stretch of the New Zealand countryside in search of peace. His solitude is shattered when an authoritarian government tightens its grip on the country, forcing him into the path of a growing resistance movement. Reluctantly drawn into a conflict he never sought, Smith finds himself at the centre of a struggle that threatens to erupt into civil war.

Based on C. K. Stead's novel Smith's Dream, Sleeping Dogs is widely regarded as the film that launched the modern New Zealand film industry. Directed by Roger Donaldson and featuring Sam Neill in his first leading screen role, the film combines political thriller, action cinema and dystopian speculation to imagine an alarmingly plausible slide into authoritarianism. Decades later, its portrait of democratic institutions under pressure remains as compelling as ever.

CRASH

(1996, Canada/UK, David Cronenberg)

After surviving a devastating car accident, film producer James Ballard is introduced to a clandestine subculture whose members derive erotic and psychological fascination from automobile collisions. As Ballard and his wife become immersed in this increasingly obsessive world, the boundaries between sex, technology, violence and desire begin to dissolve in ways that challenge every conventional notion of intimacy.

Adapted from J. G. Ballard's controversial novel, Crash is one of David Cronenberg's most provocative and uncompromising films. Rejecting sensationalism in favour of clinical detachment, Cronenberg explores the relationship between modern technology, the body and human desire with unsettling precision. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the film sparked fierce debate upon its release and remains one of the defining works of transgressive cinema.

SINGAPORE SLING

(1990, Greece, Nikos Nikolaidis)

A wounded private detective, searching for a missing woman, stumbles into the decaying estate of a mother and daughter whose lives revolve around sadistic ritual, role-play, and psychological domination. Captured and subjected to their shifting fantasies, he becomes an unwilling participant in a closed-loop world where grief, desire, and violence merge into a delirious theatricality. As identities blur and power dynamics mutate, the house transforms into a claustrophobic arena of obsession and irreversible degradation.

A defining entry in the extreme European underground of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Singapore Sling fuses film noir tropes with surrealist melodrama and confrontational exploitation aesthetics. Nikolaidis deploys high-contrast black-and-white cinematography, mannered performances, and deliberately disorienting tonal shifts to create a work that is both perversely stylised and defiantly abrasive — a meditation on mourning and madness rendered through operatic excess.

MYSTERY MOVIE

Not for the easily offended, and strictly programmed for adult audiences only - our mystery films are eye-popping forays into the bold and bonkers world of psychotronic cinema. Expect the unacceptable.

Please consider yourself forewarned that these films may (and probably will) contain offensive and upsetting content. Do not attend if you are of a sensitive disposition.

CASSANDRA CAT

(1963, Czechoslovakia, Vojtěch Jasný)

A magician living in a small Czech town discovers that his cat possesses a strange power: whenever people look at it while wearing special glasses, their true personalities and hidden desires are revealed in bursts of vivid colour. The cat’s arrival throws the town into chaos, exposing hypocrisy, jealousy, and repression among its respectable citizens.

Blending fantasy, satire, and children’s fable, the film uses playful visual experimentation to critique conformity and social performance. Its shifting colours and whimsical tone mask a sharp commentary on authority, desire, and the fear of emotional honesty.

EXISTENZ

(1999, Canada, David Cronenberg)

Game design as body horror; virtual reality as wetware infection. David Cronenberg’s late-century provocation drops us into a near-future where entertainment isn’t streamed or projected but surgically plugged into the spine. Organic consoles pulse like exposed organs, bio-ports gape in the lower back, and reality itself flickers under interrogation.

This is conspiracy thriller reduced to viscera: guns grown from bone, fast-food mutations, corporate espionage played out in abattoirs and back rooms. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s celebrity game designer navigates shifting layers of simulation with manic conviction, while Jude Law plays the neophyte dragged — willingly or not — into recursive worlds where authorship, agency, and even identity are up for grabs.

Cronenberg treats technology not as sleek futurism but as penetrative biology. Every interface is sexual, every system unstable. eXistenZ doesn’t ask whether we’re inside a game; it suggests the question is already obsolete.

TENEBRAE

(1982, Italy, Dario Argento)

A series of brutal murders terrorizes a small Italian town, leaving the police baffled and the community in fear. A young woman becomes the focal point of the investigation as strange occurrences and mysterious figures point toward a supernatural presence, suggesting that the killings may be linked to dark, hidden forces rather than ordinary criminals.

Dario Argento delivers a masterful giallo that combines intricate murder mysteries with visually stunning set pieces and suspenseful camerawork. The film’s stylish violence, eerie soundtrack, and tense pacing create a hypnotic, unsettling atmosphere that has cemented it as a cornerstone of Italian horror cinema.

THEY LIVE

(1988, USA, John Carpenter)

Arriving in Los Angeles in search of work, drifter John Nada stumbles upon a pair of sunglasses that reveal a hidden reality. Through their lenses, advertising slogans become commands, money displays subliminal messages, and a significant portion of the population is exposed as alien beings disguised as ordinary humans. As Nada attempts to understand the scale of the deception, he becomes involved with an underground resistance movement determined to expose the forces manipulating society from behind the scenes.

Released at the height of the Reagan era, They Live combines science fiction, action cinema, and political satire to critique consumer culture, economic inequality, and the influence of mass media. Adapted loosely from Ray Nelson's short story Eight O'Clock in the Morning, the film translates Carpenter's recurring interest in outsiders and hidden power structures into one of his most overtly political works. Although initially received as a genre curiosity, it has since become a widely discussed text of late twentieth-century American culture, with its imagery and slogans continuing to resonate far beyond their original context.

THE WICKER MAN

(1973, UK, Robin Hardy)

When a devout Christian police sergeant travels to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, he encounters a close-knit community whose pagan beliefs and seasonal rituals stand in stark contrast to his own. As his investigation deepens, every answer seems only to raise more disturbing questions, leading him towards a revelation he could never have anticipated.

Directed by Robin Hardy from a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, The Wicker Man overturns the conventions of the traditional horror film, replacing monsters and haunted houses with folklore, religious conflict and mounting psychological unease. Christopher Lee considered Lord Summerisle to be his finest performance, while Paul Giovanni's extraordinary folk-inspired soundtrack became inseparable from the film's haunting atmosphere. Initially released in a heavily truncated version, it has since been restored and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest British horror films ever made.

THE CREMATOR

(1969, Czechoslovakia, Juraj Herz)

Karel, a mild-mannered crematorium worker, becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea of “cleansing” humanity through death, aligning his private rituals with the rise of Nazi ideology. As his moral compass erodes, he descends into madness, turning the people around him into victims of his delusional sense of duty.

A darkly comic and chilling horror, The Cremator blends psychological terror with surreal satire, offering a haunting meditation on complicity, obsession, and the banality of evil.

SUPERVIXENS

(1975, USA, Russ Meyer)

After a violent confrontation leaves his wife dead, restless drifter Clint Ramsey flees across the American Southwest, drifting from one bizarre encounter to the next with a succession of larger-than-life women. As Clint attempts to outrun both the law and his own misfortunes, his journey becomes an increasingly surreal blend of sex, violence and absurd comedy.

Written and directed by Russ Meyer, Supervixens is one of the defining works of the filmmaker's outrageous blend of sexploitation, satire and cartoonish Americana. Made in the wake of the commercial success of The Seven Minutes, the film sees Meyer return to the anarchic style that made him famous, combining kinetic editing, exaggerated performances and comic-book excess with a gleeful send-up of American machismo. It remains one of the most exuberant and influential films in the history of exploitation cinema.

BLUE MONDAY - MYSTERY XXX CINEMA

Blue Monday presents undisclosed selections from the deepest recesses of horny cult cinema - encapsulating everything from erotic thrillers, carnal noir, golden age porno and transgressive sleaze from both the underground and the mainstream.

This screening will feature adult-themed content, including sexually explicit and risqué material. Please consider yourself forewarned that these films may (and probably will) contain offensive and upsetting content. Do not attend if you are of a sensitive disposition.

Adults only.

GAME OF DEATH

(1978, Hong Kong/USA, Robert Clouse)

Martial arts superstar Billy Lo finds himself targeted by a powerful criminal syndicate determined to exploit his fame for their own gain. Refusing to submit to intimidation, Billy is forced into a deadly confrontation that culminates in an ascent through a towering pagoda, where each level presents a formidable new opponent testing a different style of combat.

Left unfinished following Bruce Lee's death in 1973, Game of Death was eventually completed by Golden Harvest using body doubles, archive footage and newly shot material under director Robert Clouse. Although the finished film differs dramatically from Lee's original vision, its climactic pagoda sequence—featuring unforgettable encounters with masters including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dan Inosanto—remains among the most celebrated martial arts scenes ever filmed. The film's yellow-and-black jumpsuit has since become one of the most enduring images in action cinema.

THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE

(1980, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Joseph Kong, Nam Gi‑Nam)

A brilliant professor uses cells from the recently deceased Bruce Lee to create three fully grown clones, each trained in martial arts and sent out to battle crime and corruption across Southeast Asia. One clone infiltrates a film production tied to a gold smuggling racket, while the others are dispatched to stop a mad scientist’s sinister plans, leading to a series of increasingly absurd fights and confrontations before the chaos finally resolves itself.

The film is a wild, over-the-top example of Bruceploitation, packing nonstop kung fu action, outrageous stunts, and madcap sci-fi elements into a delightfully ridiculous package. Its sheer audacity and campy energy have earned it cult status among fans of 1970s and 80s martial arts cinema.

TIMES SQUARE

(1980, USA, Allan Moyle)

Runaway teenager Pamela Pearl escapes from a psychiatric hospital and forms an unlikely friendship with Nicky Marotta, a rebellious streetwise girl surviving on the margins of New York City. Reinventing themselves as the punk duo "The Sleez Sisters", the pair become underground sensations, but their growing notoriety brings them into conflict with parents, police and the institutions determined to separate them.

Released at the dawn of the 1980s, Times Square captures the final years of Manhattan's most notorious era, transforming the decaying streets of Midtown into the backdrop for an exuberant celebration of youth, rebellion and self-invention. Directed by Allan Moyle and featuring an iconic soundtrack packed with new wave and punk artists including Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Lou Reed and The Ramones, the film initially struggled at the box office before becoming a beloved cult classic and an enduring portrait of New York's vanished underground.

FLESHPOT ON 42ND STREET

(1973, USA, Andy Milligan)

Working as a stripper in the heart of New York's infamous Forty-Second Street, Dusty navigates a world of hustlers, performers, lonely regulars and fleeting romances while searching for something beyond the grind of daily survival. Rather than building towards sensational violence or exploitation, the film drifts through the lives of its characters with surprising tenderness, capturing an overlooked corner of the city on the eve of profound change.

Long believed lost before being rediscovered and restored decades later, Fleshpot on 42nd Street occupies a unique place between exploitation cinema and American independent filmmaking. Directed by Andy Milligan under the pseudonym Kelly Gordon, it strips away the lurid expectations of its title in favour of an unusually compassionate portrait of New York's sex industry and Times Square's disappearing grindhouse culture. Today it stands as one of the most distinctive and emotionally resonant films in Milligan's remarkable body of work.

KAMIKAZE GIRLS

(2004, Japan, Tetsuya Nakashima)

Obsessed with Rococo fashion and the fantasy of an aristocratic eighteenth-century France, solitary Lolita Momoko lives a life of elaborate daydreams in rural Japan. Her carefully constructed world is disrupted when she forms an unlikely friendship with Ichigo, a foul-mouthed member of an all-female biker gang. Despite their opposing personalities, the pair embark on a series of misadventures that gradually reveal an unexpected bond.

Adapted from Novala Takemoto's novel, Kamikaze Girls established Tetsuya Nakashima as one of Japan's most inventive visual stylists. Blending hyperactive editing, pop-art imagery and irreverent comedy with genuine emotional warmth, the film celebrates individuality, female friendship and the liberating power of subculture. Since its release, it has become a modern cult favourite and one of the defining cinematic portraits of Japan's Lolita fashion movement.

Programmed and introduced by illustrator and animator Kassia Karras.

MERMAID LEGEND

(1984, Japan, Toshiharu Ikeda)

After the sudden death of her husband during a night fishing trip, Migiwa Saijima begins to suspect that the incident was not an accident but the result of corruption involving local businessmen and powerful figures along the coast. Isolated and struggling with grief, she gradually uncovers signs that her husband’s death was tied to a larger conspiracy connected to land development and criminal interests in the region. As the truth becomes clearer, her sorrow transforms into a fierce determination for revenge.

Taking advantage of local folklore surrounding a legendary sea spirit, Migiwa begins a calculated campaign of retaliation against the men she believes responsible. Using the image of a vengeful mermaid to spread fear and confusion, she lures her targets into increasingly dangerous situations, turning the coastal landscape into the setting for a series of violent confrontations.

Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda, Mermaid Legend blends elements of revenge thriller, folklore, and exploitation cinema into a dark story of grief and vengeance set against the stark beauty of Japan’s coastal fishing communities.

ROAR

(1981, USA, Noel Marshall)

Tippi Hedren and Noel Marshall star as a couple living on a sprawling estate filled with over 100 untrained lions, tigers, and other big cats. Their idyllic life takes a dangerous turn when their family is threatened by external forces, and the unpredictable animals begin to attack. In a chaotic mix of comedy, drama, and sheer animal mayhem, the family must navigate life alongside some of the most dangerous predators on Earth.

Roar is infamous for its on-set hazards, with actors and crew sustaining real injuries during filming. Beyond the spectacle, the film portrays the complex bond between humans and animals, highlighting both the majesty and unpredictability of wildlife while capturing the unrelenting energy and peril of living in close quarters with wild creatures.

DEVIL STORY (DUBBED)

(1986, France, Bernard Launois)

On a storm-soaked night in the countryside, a series of violent and inexplicable events ensnares a stranded couple who stumble upon a masked killer, a restless undead horse, and a curse older than the crumbling manor that looms over them. As chaos spreads, the boundaries between superstition and reality collapse, leaving them trapped in a looping nightmare that defies reason.

A delirious mix of pulp horror and surreal chaos, Devil Story embraces its own madness, transforming camp and terror into a fever dream of curses, creatures, and uncanny atmosphere. The film lingers as a gleefully unhinged reminder that not all nightmares follow logic.

THE ELEPHANT MAN

(1980, UK/USA, David Lynch)

In Victorian London, surgeon Frederick Treves discovers Joseph Merrick, a severely disfigured man being exploited as a travelling sideshow attraction. As Treves offers Merrick refuge within the hospital, their relationship reveals a man of remarkable intelligence, sensitivity and dignity, while exposing the cruelty and prejudice of the society that has long treated him as a curiosity rather than a human being.

Directed by David Lynch and based on the life of Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man marked a striking departure from the surrealism of Eraserhead while retaining Lynch's distinctive sensitivity to outsiders and hidden emotional worlds. Shot in luminous black and white and featuring acclaimed performances from John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins, the film received eight Academy Award nominations and remains one of the most moving and humane works in modern British cinema.

EL TOPO

(1970, Mexico, Alejandro Jodorowsky)

Across an arid, hallucinatory desert, a black-clad gunslinger undertakes a brutal spiritual odyssey—duelling mystical masters, confronting his sins, and descending into a world of outcasts who worship him as a messiah.

A feverish collision of western, religious allegory, and psychedelic ritual, El Topo reshapes myth into a violent dreamscape. Jodorowsky’s vision is both sacred and profane—a cosmic fable of enlightenment through blood, sand, and transformation.

MYSTERY MOVIE

SUNDAY SABBATH - MYSTERY HORROR MATINEE

Sunday Sabbath presents undisclosed deep cuts from the history of horror cinema.

From forgotten masterpieces and overlooked oddities to international nightmares and independently made cult classics, each screening offers a surprise journey into the darker corners of the genre. Expect the unexpected: supernatural terror, psychological unease, grisly slashers, Gothic chillers, folk horror, creature features and everything in between. The only thing we can guarantee is that you'll leave having discovered something you never knew you needed to see.

Adults only.

LOVE EXPOSURE

(2008, Japan, Sion Sono)

Raised under the suffocating expectations of his widowed priest father, teenager Yu Honda embarks on an increasingly outrageous quest for sin, redemption and love. His journey leads him into a whirlwind of martial arts, upskirt photography, religious guilt, cults and mistaken identities, where every absurd twist only deepens an epic story of obsession, faith and self-discovery.

At nearly four hours in length, Love Exposure is widely regarded as Sion Sono's masterpiece and one of the defining achievements of contemporary Japanese cinema. Inspired in part by real-life upskirt photographers, the film effortlessly shifts between romantic comedy, action, melodrama and psychological drama while exploring religion, sexuality and the search for identity. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, it has become an enduring cult classic celebrated for its boundless energy, emotional ambition and fearless originality.

This screening will have a 15 minute intermission.

SÉRIE NOIRE

(1979, France, Alain Corneau)

In the shadowy outskirts of Paris, a desperate door-to-door salesman crosses paths with a mysterious young woman trapped in a grim world. As his obsession deepens, his grip on reality begins to slip—and the line between escape and destruction starts to blur.

Série noire adapts Jim Thompson’s A Hell of A Woman to the banlieues of Paris: in an astonishing performance, Patrick Dewaere (Themroc) attempts to save a young girl from prostitution, with murder the only solution.

Guest programmer Eva Yelmani will introduce this screening.

2 GIRLS 1 FILM CLUB PRESENTS: CULT SHOOT ERUPT

A frenzied selection of underground cult productions by the most explorative filmmakers who hold in-ignorable reputations among B-movie lovers speaking the other side of the continent- Bio Toilet Releasing, Person Universe, and Ahodaruma - invited by Fiona, 1/2 of your favourite 2 Girls 1 Film Club.

In 4 shorts vocabulated by myths, beliefs, and mortality(in the cultist way ever), there is a fresh rawness that feels almost like a decapitation investigating bodily realisations like a sequence of vigorous eruptions shoot to be the most unexpected. That young Fiona bumped into online that she wishes to infect a greater lot in the last warm breath of August.

FACES OF DEATH (2026) + Q&A WITH DANIEL GOLDHABER + ISA MAZZEI

(2026, USA, Daniel Goldhaber)

Inspired by the legendary 1978 shocker of the same name, Faces of Death is reimagined for a digital generation. Written by Goldhaber & Mazzei based on The Gorgon Series Faces of Death, the film stars Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria), Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things), Josie Totah (Saved by the Bell), with Jermaine Fowler (The Blackening), and Charli XCX (The Moment).

In Faces of Death, the exploration of the original film’s infamous “is it real or not?” concept continues as a woman (Ferreira) working as a content moderator for a major video platform discovers what appears to be re-enactments of murders from the original film. In an online world where nothing can be trusted, she must determine whether the violence is fiction, or unfolding in real time. As she races against the clock, her search for the truth begins to attract a dangerous observer.

We're delighted to welcome writer/director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei in person for a Q&A after the film.

FACES OF DEATH (2026) + INTRO WITH DANIEL GOLDHABER + ISA MAZZEI

(2026, USA, Daniel Goldhaber)

DRACULA IN ISTANBUL

(1953, Turkey, Mehmet Muhtar)

A young lawyer travels from Istanbul to Romania to complete a legal transaction with the mysterious Count Dracula, despite warnings about his host's sinister reputation. After returning home, he discovers that Dracula has followed him to Istanbul, where the Count begins preying on those closest to him, prompting a desperate effort to stop the vampire before more lives are lost.

While closely following the broad outline of Bram Stoker's novel, the film relocates the action to contemporary Turkey and adapts the story through Ali Rıza Seyfi's unauthorized 1928 novel Kazıklı Voyvoda. It is notable for introducing several elements that later became closely associated with Dracula on screen, including prominent fangs and the Count scaling the walls of his castle.

ŞEYTAN

(1974, Turkey, Metin Erksan)

A 12-year-old girl named Gül becomes possessed by Satan after experimenting with a Ouija board. As her condition worsens and medical explanations fail, her desperate mother turns to a psychiatrist and an experienced exorcist, who join forces in an attempt to save the girl through a dangerous ritual.

As an unofficial Turkish adaptation of The Exorcist, the film closely mirrors the broad structure of William Friedkin's original while relocating the story to contemporary Turkey. Despite its modest production, it has become a cult curiosity for its earnest reinterpretation of a landmark horror film within the context of 1970s Turkish genre cinema

RED SPIRIT LAKE

(1993, USA, Charles Pinion)

A young woman inherits a secluded house beside Red Spirit Lake after the murder of a relative. When her friends arrive to help her settle in, their stay is interrupted by a series of brutal killings carried out by a group of violent locals, forcing the survivors into a desperate struggle to uncover the secrets surrounding the lake and stay alive.

Blending backwoods slasher conventions with no-budget underground filmmaking, the film mixes graphic violence, occult overtones, and abrasive punk aesthetics into an intentionally raw and confrontational horror experience. Its fragmented structure and DIY style have made it a cult title within American underground cinema.

TWISTED ISSUES

(1988, USA, Charles Pinion)

A teenage skateboarder is murdered by a gang of local punks, only to return from the grave on his skateboard to exact revenge on those responsible. As his killing spree unfolds, the story collides with live punk performances, skate culture, surreal comedy, and bursts of graphic gore, creating an increasingly chaotic portrait of late-1980s underground youth culture.

Rather than following a conventional slasher structure, the film functions as a DIY snapshot of the Gainesville, Florida punk scene, mixing horror, music, satire, and experimental collage. Its anarchic editing, homemade effects, and regional soundtrack give it the feel of a time capsule as much as a revenge film.

ELEVATOR GIRLS IN BONDAGE + MYSTERY SHORT

(1972, USA, Michael Kalmen)

The underpaid female staff of a rundown San Francisco hotel discover the writings of Karl Marx and begin organising a revolt against their exploitative employers. Led by elevator operator Maxine, the workers fight back against low wages, poor conditions, and the abusive behaviour of the hotel’s management in this anarchic underground comedy.

Created by members of the legendary San Francisco drag and performance collective The Cockettes, Michael Kalmen’s film is a surreal mixture of camp, queer underground cinema, political satire, and sexploitation. Its deliberately chaotic style, gender-bending performances, and Marxist-inspired rebellion make it a unique artefact of the early 1970s counterculture scene.

Preceded by an outrageous 30 minute shot-on-video bizarro sci-fi fetish film...

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MYSTERY EROTIC THRILLER

Mystery Erotic Thriller presents undisclosed deep cuts from the genre’s overheated history - from neon-soaked 80s neo-noir and glossy 90s studio sleaze to forgotten direct-to-video delirium. Expect dangerous affairs, obsessive desire, double-crosses, voyeurism, murder and exquisitely bad decisions, as sex becomes a weapon and nobody proves quite as innocent as they first appear. Come blind, surrender to the mystery and discover a film you may never otherwise have thought to see.

These screenings are strictly for adult audiences and may contain explicit sexual content, violence and other potentially offensive material. Do not attend if you are of a sensitive disposition. Adults only.

WISE BLOOD

(1979, USA, John Huston)

Returning from military service to a transformed American South, Hazel Motes arrives in a small Georgia city determined to reject the religious convictions that shaped his childhood. Proclaiming himself the founder of the "Church Without Christ", he embarks on a furious campaign against belief, attracting a succession of eccentric followers, opportunists, and would-be prophets. As Hazel's crusade against faith grows increasingly obsessive, his attempts to escape spiritual certainty lead him toward acts of self-destruction that mirror the fervour he claims to oppose.

Adapted from Flannery O'Connor's 1952 novel, Wise Blood occupies a distinctive place within John Huston's later work, combining Southern Gothic, black comedy, and religious allegory. Filmed in Georgia near O'Connor's home territory and closely preserving the novel's dialogue and structure, the film translates her world of preachers, charlatans, and spiritual seekers into a landscape where belief and disbelief become equally consuming forces. Anchored by Brad Dourif's remarkable performance, Wise Blood explores evangelical culture, American individualism, and the uneasy relationship between modernity and faith, resulting in one of the most unusual literary adaptations of the 1970s.

Introduced by regular programmer and filmmaker Craig Williams

JUBILEE

(1978, UK, Derek Jarman)

After an encounter with the occult philosopher John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I is transported from the sixteenth century into a near-future Britain marked by social collapse, media saturation, and authoritarian control. Arriving in a London populated by punk gangs, aspiring pop stars, political extremists, and cultural opportunists, she witnesses a society in which traditional institutions have disintegrated and power has been absorbed by entertainment, violence, and spectacle. Moving between squats, wastelands, recording studios, and ruined urban spaces, the film unfolds as a series of encounters rather than a conventional narrative.

Widely regarded as the first British punk film, Jubilee emerged directly from the cultural ferment of late-1970s London and features appearances from figures associated with the punk and post-punk scene, including Toyah Willcox, Jordan, Adam Ant, and Gene October. Rather than functioning as a celebration of punk culture, Derek Jarman's film subjects both the establishment and the counterculture to sustained scrutiny, presenting a vision of Britain shaped by commodification, nationalism, and social decay. Combining historical fantasy, political satire, and experimental filmmaking, Jubilee remains one of the key cinematic responses to the economic and cultural crises that transformed Britain during the 1970s.

DRILLER KILLER

(1979, USA, Abel Ferrara)

A struggling painter in downtown Manhattan finds his creative frustrations compounded by financial pressure, intrusive roommates, and the relentless noise of a neighbouring punk band. As his psychological state deteriorates, the boundaries between artistic desperation and personal collapse erode, culminating in nocturnal escapades of violence that steadily overwhelm his grip on reality.

Positioned at the intersection of no-budget punk cinema and urban psychodrama, Driller Killer captures late-1970s New York at its most frayed—tense, impoverished, and artistically volatile. Ferrara’s portrait of creative burnout situates horror within the material conditions of the city, reflecting the economic precarity and cultural fragmentation that shaped the downtown scene.

VIDEOHEAVEN

(2025, USA, Alex Ross Perry)

A cultural history of the video rental store told entirely through its appearances in film and television, tracing how the rise of VHS transformed the way audiences discovered, consumed, and thought about movies. Drawing on hundreds of clips spanning decades of popular culture, the documentary charts the birth, evolution, decline, and lasting legacy of the video store as both a physical space and a cinematic icon.

Rather than relying on interviews, the film unfolds as a feature-length visual essay, using an expansive collage of archive footage, commercials, and scenes from Hollywood and independent cinema to examine how video stores shaped movie culture. By treating the video shop as a social space, a workplace, and a recurring screen setting, it becomes both a history of home video and a reflection on the changing relationship between audiences and cinema.

TAKING OFF

(1971, United States, France, Miloš Forman)

A teenage girl runs away from home, prompting her worried parents to search New York City for her. In the process, they become involved with a support group for parents of missing children and begin rediscovering themselves as they struggle to understand the widening gap between their generation and their daughter's.

Blending improvisation, gentle satire, and musical interludes, the film captures the cultural upheaval of early 1970s America with warmth and humour. Rather than taking sides, it observes both parents and teenagers with sympathy, finding comedy and poignancy in their mutual misunderstandings.

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS

(1970, USA, Leonard Kastle)

A lonely nurse in upstate New York becomes involved with a charismatic con man, and together they embark on a crime spree targeting lonely, overweight women through personal ads. As their partnership intensifies, their relationship becomes as unstable and destructive as the murders they commit.

Leonard Kastle’s film takes a stark, almost documentary approach to true-crime material, stripping away glamour in favour of procedural detail and emotional bleakness. Its restrained style and focus on character dysfunction give the story a cold, matter-of-fact brutality that contrasts with more sensational crime dramas.

SISTERS

(1972, USA, Brian DePalma)

A newspaper reporter witnesses what appears to be a brutal murder in the apartment across the courtyard from her own, but when the police arrive, every trace of the crime has disappeared. Determined to prove what she saw, she launches her own investigation, uncovering a disturbing connection between a young model, her ex-husband, and a long-buried medical secret.

Beginning as a murder mystery before spiralling into psychological horror, the story draws on voyeurism, paranoia, and fractured identity to continually undermine certainty. Its inventive visual style and escalating sense of unease transform a seemingly straightforward investigation into one of the defining American thrillers of the 1970s.

DOGFIGHT

(1991, USA, Nancy Savoca)

A group of young United States Marines on leave in San Francisco before shipping out for Vietnam take part in a cruel contest known as a "dogfight," in which each man competes to bring the least attractive date to a party. When Eddie Birdlace invites an awkward but kind-hearted waitress and aspiring folk singer named Rose, what begins as a humiliating prank gradually develops into an unexpected connection that forces him to confront his own behaviour.

As their night together unfolds, the story moves beyond its provocative premise into a compassionate portrait of two young people on the cusp of adulthood. Balancing romance with the looming shadow of Vietnam, it explores masculinity, vulnerability, and the possibility of personal change with uncommon warmth and emotional honesty.

Introduced and programmed by Abby Spira

NIGHT TIDE

(1961, USA, Curtis Harrington)

A young sailor on shore leave meets a woman who performs as a mermaid in a seaside carnival and quickly falls in love with her. As their relationship deepens, he learns of a local legend claiming that she is descended from a race of sirens whose lovers are doomed to die, and a series of mysterious deaths begins to make the story increasingly difficult to dismiss.

Set among the piers, sideshows, and cafés of Santa Monica, the film unfolds as an atmospheric blend of romance, psychological mystery, and supernatural suggestion. Rather than relying on conventional horror, it sustains its tension through uncertainty, allowing myth, obsession, and loneliness to blur into one another as the mystery slowly takes shape.

BLACK MAGIC RITES

(1973, Italy, Renato Polselli)

A group of vampires keeps the body of a witch named Isabel hidden in the cellar of an old castle, seeking to resurrect her through a series of black magic rituals requiring the blood of young virgins. When a group of visitors arrives at the castle, they become caught up in the occult ceremonies and the supernatural forces surrounding Isabel’s return.

Renato Polselli’s bizarre slice of Italian horror pushes gothic atmosphere, erotic exploitation, and surreal imagery into increasingly dreamlike territory. More interested in mood, ritual, and visual excess than conventional narrative logic, the film has become a cult curiosity among fans of extreme 1970s Euro-horror.

DISCREET CINE PRESENTS: GIRLFRIENDS

(1978, USA, Claudia Weill)

A young woman working as a photographer in New York City finds her life changing when her closest friend and roommate gets married and moves away. Left to navigate her career, friendships, and romantic relationships on her own, she begins to reconsider what independence and adulthood mean for her.

A key work of American independent cinema, the film offers an intimate portrait of female friendship, creative ambition, and the challenges of building a life outside traditional expectations. Its naturalistic performances and observational approach capture the everyday struggles and small victories of a young woman finding her own voice.

Programmed and introduced by Agnė Qami

Runtime: 86 mins

Certificate: 15

Wednesday 9/9

Bar 6pm

Film 6:30pm

Digital

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BODY DOUBLE

(1984, USA, Brian DePalma)

A struggling actor recovering from a breakup and a failed career opportunity takes care of a luxurious Hollywood Hills house while its owner is away. While watching a beautiful woman perform a private dance through a telescope, he becomes obsessed with her and is drawn into a mystery involving voyeurism, deception, and murder.

Blending elements of Hitchcockian suspense, film noir, and Hollywood satire, the film explores obsession, performance, and the act of watching itself. Its stylised use of Los Angeles locations, erotic tension, and self-conscious references to cinema create one of Brian De Palma’s most elaborate examinations of illusion and desire.

WILD THINGS

(1998, USA, John McNaughton)

A high school guidance counsellor in a wealthy Florida community becomes the target of a sexual assault accusation made by two students. As a police investigation begins, a series of revelations, betrayals, and hidden agendas emerge, turning the case into a complex web of manipulation involving students, law enforcement, and local power figures.

A late-1990s neo-noir thriller, the film plays with unreliable characters, shifting alliances, and elaborate twists, using its glossy Florida setting to heighten the contrast between surface respectability and corruption beneath. Its deliberately provocative mix of crime, eroticism, and dark humour has made it a cult favourite of the era.

FOR Y'UR HEIGHT ONLY

(1981, Philippines, Eddie Nicart)

A diminutive secret agent known as Agent 00 is sent on a mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist and stop the evil warlord Mr. Giant from using a powerful invention to take over the world. Equipped with an array of gadgets and relying on his martial arts skills, Agent 00 battles his way through a series of villains in this Filipino spoof of the James Bond films.

A wildly eccentric piece of Filipino exploitation cinema, the film plays as a low-budget spy adventure packed with action, comedy, gadgets, and absurd set pieces. Built around Weng Weng’s unique screen presence, it became an international cult curiosity and one of the most unusual James Bond-inspired films ever made.

MYSTERY MOVIE

COLD MAGAZINE PRESENTS: VIDEODROME + VOYEURISM READINGS

(1983, , David Cronenberg)

A cable television programmer discovers a mysterious broadcast called Videodrome, which appears to feature real acts of violence and torture. As he investigates the source of the signal, he becomes drawn into a conspiracy involving media manipulation, hallucination, and a disturbing transformation of his own perception of reality.

David Cronenberg’s body horror classic examines the relationship between technology, entertainment, and human desire, imagining a world where television can reshape both the mind and the body. Blending psychological horror, science fiction, and surreal imagery, it remains one of the most influential films about the effects of mass media and sensory overload.

These screenings will be introduced by film editor for Cold Magazine, Valeria Berghinz - and presented with a selection of voyeurism themed readings in our basement bar between 7.30pm-9pm.

Runtime: 87 mins

Certificate: 18

Saturday 12/9

Bar 5pm

Film 5:45pm

Digital

Book here

SUNDAY SABBATH - MYSTERY HORROR MATINEE

UNDER THE VOLCANO

(1984, USA/Mexico, John Huston)

On the Day of the Dead in 1938, Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul living in a small Mexican town, drifts through the final day of his life in an alcoholic haze. The unexpected return of his estranged wife Yvonne offers the possibility of reconciliation, while the arrival of his half-brother Hugh reopens old tensions and regrets. As political anxieties gather on the eve of the Second World War and the festivities of the holiday unfold around him, Geoffrey moves through cantinas, streets, and memories, unable to escape either his past or his addiction.

Adapted from Malcolm Lowry's long-considered "unfilmable" 1947 novel, Under the Volcano was one of John Huston's most ambitious late-career projects. Filmed on location in Mexico and anchored by Albert Finney's Oscar-nominated performance, the film translates Lowry's dense modernist work into a meditation on self-destruction, mortality, and political uncertainty. Rather than treating alcoholism as a social problem or moral failing, Huston presents it as part of a wider tragedy unfolding against a landscape haunted by death, memory, and impending historical catastrophe. Widely regarded as one of Huston's finest later films, it remains a singular literary adaptation and one of cinema's most powerful portraits of addiction.

THE SWEET EAST

(2023, USA, Sean Price Williams)

During a school trip to Washington, D.C., teenager Lillian becomes separated from her classmates and drifts through a series of encounters across the American East Coast. Moving between political extremists, online radicals, aspiring artists, wealthy intellectuals, and lost idealists, she navigates a fragmented landscape of competing fantasies and ideologies. What begins as an accidental detour gradually becomes an episodic journey through contemporary American life, observed through the perspective of a protagonist who remains both participant and detached witness.

The feature debut of cinematographer Sean Price Williams, The Sweet East combines road movie, picaresque comedy, and social satire to construct a deliberately unstable portrait of the United States in the digital age. Shot on 16mm and written by critic and filmmaker Nick Pinkerton, the film draws on traditions of American independent cinema while reflecting the disorienting overlap of internet culture, political performance, and regional identity. Its succession of encounters functions less as a conventional coming-of-age narrative than as a survey of the myths, anxieties, and self-inventions that shape contemporary America. Starring Talia Ryder, Simon Rex and Jacob Elordi.

GIRL INTERNET SHOW

(2022, USA, Kati Kelli)

Meet Kati Kelli, the late outsider video artist whose subversive online uploads pushed the boundaries of the digital form. GIRL INTERNET SHOW: A KATI KELLI MIXTAPE unearths and reintroduces a surreal, singular body of work by the enigmatic artist. For nearly a decade before her passing in 2019, Kelli ran “Girl Internet Show,” a YouTube channel, parasocial experiment, and epically deranged one-woman universe built from scratch in her bedroom.

This hand-made mixtape from Jane Schoenbrun (I SAW THE TV GLOW) and Jordan Wippell features a lovingly curated selection of Kelli’s online work, unreleased videos, and TOTAL BODY REMOVAL SURGERY—her first (and final) short film opus.

BLUE MONDAY - MYSTERY XXX CINEMA

SMOOTH TALK

(1985, USA, Joyce Chopra)

Fifteen-year-old Connie spends a hot Northern California summer escaping family tensions through beach trips, shopping malls and flirtations with boys. Restless, self-conscious and eager to enter the adult world, she catches the attention of Arnold Friend, a charismatic older stranger who arrives at her house while she is alone. What begins as smooth-talking seduction gradually develops into something far more threatening.

Adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’s short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, SMOOTH TALK gave Laura Dern her first leading role, opposite a deeply unsettling Treat Williams. Director Joyce Chopra captures both the excitement and danger of adolescent sexual awakening, shifting almost imperceptibly from sun-drenched coming-of-age drama into a tense and deeply ambiguous psychological thriller. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1986 Sundance Film Festival.

THE BLACK ROOM

(1982, USA, Elly Kenner, Norman Thaddeus Vane)

A serially unfaithful businessman rents a secret room in a Hollywood Hills mansion from a brother and sister, intending to use the space for his extramarital encounters. Unaware that his landlords are serial killers, he soon discovers that the women he brings to the room are being murdered as part of their own sinister scheme.

A strange hybrid of psychological thriller, horror, and erotic exploitation, the film combines sexual obsession, voyeurism, and gruesome violence with a bizarre blood-transfusion plot. Its low-budget atmosphere and unusual premise place it firmly within the oddball American exploitation cinema of the early 1980s.

THE FEMALE HAMLET

(1976, Turkey, Metin Erksan)

A young woman named Hamlet returns home after studying drama in America to discover that her father has been murdered by her uncle, who has married her mother. After seeing her father’s ghost and learning the truth behind the crime, Hamlet decides to pretend madness in order to uncover the conspiracy and take revenge.

Metin Erksan’s adaptation transforms Shakespeare’s tragedy into a surreal Turkish revenge drama, replacing the Prince of Denmark with a female protagonist and relocating the story to a contemporary Turkish setting. Blending melodrama, experimentation, and elements of Yeşilçam cinema, the film offers a highly unconventional interpretation of one of literature’s most famous revenge stories.

OH, BELINDA

(1986, Turkey, Atıf Yılmaz)

A young theatre actress named Serap agrees to appear in a television commercial for a shampoo called Belinda. During the production, she suddenly finds herself transported into the life of the character she was portraying, becoming Naciye, a housewife with two children. Unable to convince those around her that she is actually an actress named Serap, she struggles to understand her new reality and find a way back to her former life.

A surreal blend of comedy, fantasy, and social satire, the film uses its body-switching premise to explore identity, gender roles, and the expectations placed on women in Turkish society. Its shifting between performance and reality creates an unusual and often unsettling examination of how easily personal identity can be shaped by external roles.

BLONDE DEATH (ON VHS)

(1984, USA, James Robert Baker)

Shot on consumer-grade video and circulating for decades as a near-mythic underground tape, Blonde Death follows the runaway odyssey of Tammy, a teenage misfit fleeing an abusive home with two queer outsiders who christen themselves her new family. Their improvised road trip blends impulsive romance, petty crime, and manic self-invention, gradually collapsing into violence as the trio drifts further from stability. The film’s messy exuberance is threaded with a growing sense of doom, capturing the volatility of youth pushed to the margins.

A seminal artifact of queer DIY cinema, Blonde Death fuses melodrama, punk energy, and camp excess with unexpectedly sharp social commentary. Director James Robert Baker — better known for his incendiary fiction — uses the limitations of shot-on-video production to amplify the film’s immediacy and emotional rawness. The result is a rare, transgressive work whose jagged form reflects the precarity, rebellion, and desperation of its characters, standing at the intersection of outsider art and queer counterculture.

Introduced by Dominic Hicks

THE BEAVER TRILOGY

(2000, USA, Trent Harris)

In 1979, filmmaker Trent Harris encounters an eccentric young man named Groovin’ Gary in Beaver, Utah, who invites him to film a local talent show where he performs in drag as Olivia Newton-John. Fascinated by Gary’s personality and performance, Harris later recreates the story twice more: first with Sean Penn in Beaver Kid 2 (1981), and then with Crispin Glover in The Orkly Kid (1985). The three films are combined into a single work that explores the life, dreams, and outsider identity of its central figure.

Part documentary, part fiction, and part experimental investigation into the act of filmmaking itself, the trilogy examines how a real person’s story changes when filtered through different performers and interpretations. A unique piece of underground cinema, it became a cult landmark for its strange blend of humour, empathy, performance, and questions about identity and representation.

FRINGE! PRESENTS BANG!

BANG!
Close this long hot summer with a steamy selection of sexy shorts; our legendary program returns to serve up the politics of queer pleasure, from dyke cowgirls on the run, to stoned ass worship from the closet. BANG presents a whole spectrum of bodies, genders and kinky desires. Expect bold desire, filthy fun, and the tenderness of queer encounters.

NB! This shorts programme has two screenings, one screening at 6:30pm and a repeat screening at 8:45pm.

Runtime: 95 mins

Certificate: 18

Friday 18/9

Bar 6:00pm

Film 6:30pm

Digital

Book here