In the run-up to Halloween, and beginning next Wednesday, the Health Humanities Group will be running a film festival on the theme Monsters.
Date: Wednesday 11, 18 and 25 October 2017
Time: 7pm
Venues:
11 & 18 October: Minghella Building;
25 October: Palmer Building G10
In the weeks leading up to Halloween, the Heath Humanities research network invites you to (re)discover classic monsters films. Victims or fiends, the protagonists in these interwar films challenge us to question our perceptions of monstrosity but also of normality. The three screenings will be introduced by film experts.
THE GOLEM (1920)
An immediate success upon its release in 1920, The Golem is a seldom-screened Gothic horror gem from Germany’s Weimar era. Set in the 16th-century, it is based on the legend of a rabbi who creates the Golem – a giant creature made of clay – in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution. The film showing will be preceded by a talk on ‘Visualising Monstrosity in Early Gothic Cinema’ by Xavier Aldana Reyes, author of Horror Film and Affect and the forthcoming Gothic Cinema.
NOSFERATU (1922)
Based on gothic classic Dracula, Nosferatu is an early horror masterpiece. The film will be introduced by Evan Hayles Gledhill, researcher of monstrosities and masculinities at the University of Reading.
FREAKS (1932)
Tod Browning’s controversial classic features real actors from carnival shows and asks vital questions about cultural perceptions of ‘normality’ and ‘monstrosity’. The film will be introduced by Evan Hayles Gledhill, researcher of monstrosities and masculinities at the University of Reading.
Ticket prices £5
No booking required
For more information contact Dr Marjorie Gehrhardt at m.i.s.gehrhardt@reading.ac.uk