The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London Reopens September 10th
Debi Moore
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You may recall that last year The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies opened a London branch based at the heart of the city’s underground culture, the Horse Hospital, and it was such a rousing success that they’re back at it again this year! Read on for the official details.
From the Press Release:
After a successful pilot season, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London returns to the Horse Hospital for another semester of intensive film classes on a wide range of arcane topics by some of the horror world’s most renowned critical luminaries – and you can win a season pass courtesy of AV Geeks, one of the world’s foremost archives of 16mm educational film.
The BFI’s William Fowler launches the season in September with his lecture “Freaks, Hippies and Witches” on British filmmaker and William S. Burroughs collaborator Antony Balch, in association with Scalarama 2015. He will be followed in October by Kier-La Janisse, Gavin Baddeley and David Flint, who will be collectively addressing the Satanic hysteria of the 1980s, based on their new book Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s. In November, visiting lecturer Jim Harper will present “Shadows and Fog”, a look at Krimi films, the German Edgar Wallace adaptations of the 1960s. And we’ll be closing the season with a live reading of sci-fi/horror master Nigel Kneale’s lost drama The Road, followed by discussion with Jonathan Rigby, Kim Newman, Stephen Volk and other authors who contributed to the forthcoming book about Nigel Kneale from Spectral Press, We Are the Martians.
Named for the fictional university in H.P. Lovecraft’s literary mythos, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is a non-profit, community-based organization that started in Canada, founded by Kier-La Janisse in March of 2010. Miskatonic London operates under the co-direction of Kier-La Janisse and Virginie Sélavy.
Registration for the full fall semester is £35. Individual class tickets are £10 advance / £11 on the door / £8 concessions and will be available 30 days in advance of each class. To enter the drawing for a full season pass, just email miskatonic.london@gmail.com with “AV GEEKS CONTEST” in the subject line. The winner will be drawn and notified on Friday, September 4th.
See below for the full course descriptions.
Info:
The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London
Fall 2015 Semester: Monthly classes from September to December 2015
Dates: 10 September, 8 October, 12 November, 10 December
Time: 7-10pm
Venue: Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD
FREAKS, HIPPIES AND WITCHES: THE STRANGE, SALACIOUS CINEMA OF ANTONY BALCH
10 September, 2015 – 7-10pm
Instructor: William Fowler
Tickets available here
As part of Scalarama 2015, our first class of the fall semester features William Fowler talking about Antony Balch, an extraordinary figure of 1960s-70s British film, best known for directing Secrets of Sex (1970) and Horror Hospital (1973) and for his collaborations with William Burroughs. As a cinema manager and film distributor, he also released European exploitation films with new unusual titles (e.g., The Weird Weirdo) and secured the first ever UK release of Tod Browning’s Freaks. Selected short films by Antony Balch will be screened as part of the evening.
SATANIC PANIC: POP-CULTURAL PARANOIA IN THE 1980s
8 October, 2015 – 7-10pm
Instructors: Kier-La Janisse, Gavin Baddeley and David Flint
In 1980s North America, everywhere you turned there were warnings about a widespread evil conspiracy to indoctrinate the vulnerable through the media they consumed. This percolating cultural hysteria, now known as the “Satanic Panic,” was both illuminated and propagated through almost every pop culture pathway in the 1980s, from heavy metal music to Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games, Christian comics, direct-to-VHS scare films, pulp paperbacks, Saturday morning cartoons and TV talk shows —and created its own fascinating cultural legacy of Satan-battling VHS tapes, music and literature. As the hysteria moved overseas to the UK, Australia and South Africa, its life extended into the 1990s – and some say it never went away. From con artists to pranksters and moralists to martyrs, this lecture – based on the instructors’ book of the same name, which will be available at the screening – aims to capture the untold story of the how the Satanic Panic was fought on the pop culture frontlines and the serious consequences it had for many involved.
SHADOWS AND FOG: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF THE GERMAN EDGAR WALLACE KRIMI
12 November, 2015- 7-10pm
Instructor: Jim Harper
Between 1959 and the early 1970s, German film companies released more than fifty low-budget crime thrillers inspired by the works of British writer Edgar Wallace. Featuring some of Europe’s most well-known cult and horror actors (including Christopher Lee, Klaus Kinski and Gert Fröbe) the Edgar Wallace krimi combined fast-paced action, surprising violence and zany humour. Sold en masse to US television and shown in an edited and badly dubbed form, these films have rarely received the attention they deserve. Jim Harper explores the background and history of the Wallace krimi, from their beginnings to their long-term influence in Germany and beyond, discussing the charm and appeal of these quintessential European cult favourites.
LIVE FROM MISKATONIC: NIGEL KNEALE’S ‘THE ROAD’
10 December, 2015 – 7-10pm
Instructors: Stephen Volk, Jonathan Rigby, Kim Newman, Neil Snowdon
In 1950 Thomas Nigel Kneale won the Somerset Maugham Award for his prose collection TOMATO CAIN & OTHER STORIES. In 1953 he changed the face of British Television with THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT. Public houses across the country emptied as each installment of this thrilling new story went out live to the nation. Never before had a television drama become a national event, and few enough have had such an impact since.
His adaptation of NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR would raise questions in Parliament, such was its power, while original dramas like THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS accurately predicted, and indicted, the sensationalism of ‘Reality TV’ and the passivity of the society that produced it. In the years that followed QUATERMASS & THE PIT, THE STONE TAPE, MURRAIN, BEASTS, THE WOMAN IN BLACK and more would influence successive generations of authors, filmmakers and screenwriters. From Russell T. Davies to The League of Gentlemen, John Carpenter to Stephen King, Chris Carter, Peter Strickland, Ramsey Campbell, China Mieville and more…
Jacques Derrida may have coined the term, but it is Kneale – in his style, themes, and the unique tone of his work – who provides a touchstone for the Hauntological movement which has pervaded our culture in recent years. To mark the launch of WE ARE THE MARTIANS, a new book of essays about Kneale and his work from Spectral Press, The Miskatonic Institute presents a unique celebration of the work of Nigel Kneale.
A rehearsed reading of Kneale’s lost drama THE ROAD (featuring Jonathan Rigby and others) will be followed by an in-depth discussion of Kneale’s work and influence by some of the book’s authors, including screenwriter Stephen Volk (GHOST WATCH, AFTERLIFE, THE AWAKENING), author and critic Kim Newman (ANNO DRACULA, NIGHTMARE MOVIES), editor Neil Snowdon and others to be confirmed.
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