In collaboration with the Abbeydale Picture House, Reel Steel present a Hammer Horror weekender, featuring a series of standout titles from a period in cinema where British horror changed the shape of the genre.
These screenings will take place alongside a special cinema poster exhibition at the Abbeydale Picture House – featuring original cinema release quad posters from a private collection (gathered since the 1960s) – presenting rare original film posters from across Hammer and the wider horror genre, exhibiting this period in which the horror genre dominated cinema.
Featuring two evening double-bill screenings (each from 6pm) across the weekend:
Saturday November 19th
The Plague of the Zombies (1966)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Sunday November 20th
The Gorgon (1964)
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
with the exhibition running 12pm-4pm each day (free entry).
Saturday November 19th will see a “Dark Magic” double-bill screening: released two years before George A. Romero’s landmark Night of the Living Dead set the template for the modern zombie genre, The Plague of the Zombies (1966) was Hammer’s only zombie film, and one of the last to portray the dead rising from the grave through the dark magic of voodoo.
In The Devil Rides Out (1968), Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) arrives at a party, and soon realizes that the party is in fact a gathering of a Satanic cult, that plan to initiate the unsuspecting. It’s up to de Richleau to defeat the devil-worshiping sect and save others from a terrible fate – starring Hammer Horror stalwart Christopher Lee, The Devil Rides Out is widely considered a highlight in the Hammer Horror filmography.
Sunday November 20th will see a “monsters” double-bill screening: in the early 20th century, a village experiences a series of inexplicable murders, where all the victims are young men who have been turned to stone. A ‘Gorgon’ has taken a human form, and is turning everybody who comes its way into a stone figure. Featuring Hammer Horror’s first female monster, director Terence Fisher’s The Gorgon (1964) stars Hammer Horror legends Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
Then, the evening follows the story of two couples traveling through eastern Europe, who are dropped outside a village by a coachman terrified at the approach of the night. They find themselves at the local castle, and are surprised at the hospitality extended by the sinister Klove, Dracula’s servant.
Considered a classic of the genre, Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) stars Christopher Lee in his iconic role as Count Dracula.
See full details via Reel Steel.
This activity is supported by and taking place as part of the BFI’s In Dreams Are Monsters season.
Due to renovation building work taking place in the Abbeydale Picture House auditorium, this screening will take place in the venue’s Fly Tower Cinema. This cinema space is not wheelchair accessible.
Booking in advance is recommended.
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