TERRIFY and thrill yourself with a journey through the darker side of British cinema.
Watch Dracula rise from his coffin and The Mummy stalk his victims through the night during a creepy celebration by the British Film Institute (BFI).
Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film will explore the genre – rooted in literature and art – that gave rise to some of the silver screens most filmed characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde.
The curtain will rise at the British Museum on August 29 for Monster Weekend, presenting three films from the golden age of British horror.
Events will continue throughout the UK until January and include 1,000 screenings, talks, an exhibition, fancy dress and iconic characters, who just refuse to die, on screen and in person.
Special guests will include Academy award-winning American film producer, director and actor Roger Corman, Night of the Living Dead director George A Romero, and Jane Goldman who wrote the screenplay for The Woman in Black and is married to presenter Jonathan Ross.
BFI creative director Heather Stewart says: “Gothic has never been more potent or popular, reflecting the turbulent times we are living in, our deepest fears and hidden passions.
“The British discovered sex in vivid Technicolor through gothic. With a new generation gripped by the post-modern gothic world of Twilight’s ‘vegetarian’ vampires, Harry Potter’s spells and EL James’s 50 Shades, its meaning has mutated yet again.
“It’s now time to look back into the deep dark beating heart of gothic film and give audiences the authentic thrill of this shape-shifting, perennially popular genre.”
The BFI project focuses on four key themes – The Dark Arts, Haunted, Love is a Devil and Monstrous.
The British Museum will display some of the most iconic characters – Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde and Frankenstein – in all their gore and horror by tracing back their dark roots right to their very birth here in Britain.
Horror favourites Night of the Demon, The Mummy, Throne of Blood and The Shining will be screened outdoors and the National Trust will take you to the UK’s most historic and haunted places including Calke Abbey, Derbyshire and The Sticklebarn Pub in the Lake District.
l Details at www.bfi.org.uk