The London Horror Festival Presents Five Weeks of Theatrical Terror

By Doctor Gash
October 10th, 2011

What does your average film festival run for? A weekend, maybe a full week? Across the pond at the London Horror Festival, they're giving you five weeks of madness from October 25 through November 27 (thus, their Halloween is only the beginning tagline). Oh, and one other thing ... they're acting it out live every night! Any festival can pop on a movie reel, sit back and relax. These blokes have to dig down deep for every single performance ... three shows a night!

I've never heard of a five-week horror-based theatrical event, but I think it's a bloody great idea! Why do we always need the folks from the UK showing us how to do things properly? If it's not Simon Cowell or that Piers Morgan dude trying to set us straight, then it's Gordon Ramsey gagging on our inferior cooking or "Supernanny" Jo Frost whipping our kids into shape. Come on, America, let's get our heads out of our asses!

Okay, maybe that's a bit much; the good ol' USA still kicks major ass, but the Theatre of the Damned, who organizes this event, is certainly on to something here. Aside from the live performances, they've also got some special events scheduled throughout the run of the festival, including an appearance by the one and only Lloyd Kaufman for a screening of Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.

Check out the official London Horror Festival website to get all the information on the event, whether you're across the pond and plan to attend or just want to get some inspiration to create your own theatrical horror event Stateside. These guys have it all figured out!

From the Press Release
London Horror Festival is London’s independent festival of horror in the performing arts. Bringing together a thrilling selection of theatre, comedy, music and performance from across the UK, it seeks to showcase the wide range of talent and imagination which the genre can inspire.

The Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton, in collaboration with Theatre of the Damned, have developed a programme which reflects the power of the macabre to shock, to move, to titillate and above all to entertain. In its inaugural year the festival contains disturbing adaptations of classic horror fiction, bold new writing which stretches from slapstick to psychodrama, from grisly comedy and the blackest of humour to shocking revivals from across the history of onstage horror. The dead shall rise, the guilty will batten on the innocent and the people in the front rows may leave splattered in gore.

With three shows running each evening and a host of special events to be announced, we hope you’ll join us for London’s first winter of horror. This year Halloween is only the beginning.