What The Film Club is finally back after our Summer break with a lot of news and updates about our upcoming programme.
Firstly, in order to make things more accessible for our screenings we’ve created a new ticket type when booking any of our films called Accessible Seating – this is just something that lets us know how many spaces we need to set-up for anybody using a wheelchair or other mobility aid. As we move forward we might refine this method but hopefully it will make things a little bit smoother going forward.
Film wise we’re kicking the second part of our Leeds programme off at Archive on 27 August with a screening of one of our favourite dumb movies; the rarely screened 1980’s schlock action nonsense, Mind Trap. It’s a film we found by acccident a while back and while it’s possibly technically the worst film we’ve shown so far (not including Surfer…) there’s something extremely endearing about it. If you liked Samurai Cop, definintely check this out.
Scalarama Leeds 2023 & VideoTrash
We’ll be following this with a screening for Scalarama Leeds 2023 Film Festival that also kicks off our new programme, VideoTrash. VideoTrash is a mini programme series dedicated to celebrating and sharing zero budget horror films, often shot on VHS that peaked late 80s early 90s. To start we’re showing Things, one of the more famous films from that era that really has to be seen to be believed. We’ll be using a brilliant new venue for these screenings called Freedom Mills, located near Archive on Kirkstall Road, to give a different vibe for these, slightly stranger screenings. More info about the programme and other titles willl be announced before the screening of Things on 5 September.
We’re back in Archive on the 24 of September though for another Scalarama Leeds screening, this time showing the recently restored cult gem, New York Ninja. Abandoned after being filmed in 1984, the soundless, unedited negatives sat on a shelf until they were found by Vinegar Syndrome in 2021. There “re-director” Kurtis M. Spieler edited the footage, without script or storyboard into a fantastic love-letter to 80s B movies, with dialogue being dubbed by legends of the scene. It’s a must see for those interested in the genre, not only for it’s impressive backstory but also for its fun, ass-kicking end result.
Halloween Double Bill
For Halloween, we’ll be doing a double bill special of Howling 2: Your Sister Is a Werewolf and Howling 3: The Marsupials which are two, equally trashy sequels that are entertaining in very different ways. Howling 2 is a cheesy, high camp horror starring bad-movie all star Reb Brown and the horror legend Christopher Lee. It’s followed by an even stranger follow-up which takes the action “down under” in this aussie flavoured marsupial werewolf mess. Both films were directed by Phillipa Mora. Tickets will be launched soon so keep an eye out.
Christmas Special Extravaganza
We’ll be taking a break in November during the Leeds International Film Festival (we watch good films too you know…) but will be coming back for a very special Christmas screening. After years of hope, we’ll finally be showing one of the very first films we wanted to screen, Riki-oh: The Story of Riki on 2 December at Hyde Park Picture House as part of their Creatures of the Night programme. Riki-oh is one of the most fun films we’ve ever seen and it’s been a dream to be able to bring the extremely rarely screened film to the big screen in the UK. It may not have anything to do with Christmas but who cares? This is our Christmas present to ourselves and trust us you will have an absolute blast. We’ll announce more about it soon and will have tickets on sale in the coming weeks but genuinely, don’t miss this. (We always say that and it’s always true but this time it’s MORE true.)
So stay tuned for a lineup of super fun films, social screenings and of course lots of dumb raffle prizes in the second half of 2023 – and we’ve even got some special screenings brewing for 2024….oh and we still haven’t done a podcast….
See you soon!
What The Film Club
