reDiscover Haunted

Tales of ghosts and the supernatural have proved a popular cinematic subject since the medium's inception. One of the early cinema's most influential pioneers was the former stage illusionist Georges Méliès, whose effects-laden short films presented magic in motion. Producer Val Lewton, head of RKO Pictures' horror unit in the 1940s, firmly believed the suggestion of unseen terrors could induce jitters far more effectively than any palpable bogeyman. The technique of sinister suggestion owes much to a literary tradition popularised by such late-Victorian and Edwardian-era short story writers as Edith Wharton, Rudyard Kipling and M. R. James. All our film selections owe much to the literary gothic; you won't be short-changed on big empty houses, sinister servants, or rolling mists. But, whereas all their protagonists are haunted by the suspected encroachment of something uncanny and unearthly, they are haunted equally by the demons within. Guilt, self-doubt, sexual neurosis, and childhood trauma play havoc with the nerves. Are the ghosts that hover around them the embodiment of malevolent forces from beyond, or are they the projections of their own psyches? And which of those alternatives is the worst?

THE LINE-UP

The Haunting

From 03 Nov

Night of the Demon

From 11 Nov

The Innocents

From 19 Nov

Crimson Peak

From 24 Nov
For our season finale, we leave behind the subtle and restrained occult ambiguities of our first three offerings to embark upon an exhilarating rollercoaster ride through blood-soaked gothic romance and Grand Guignol excess.