Category: Alchemy Recommends

The Royal Armouries is one of the oldest museums in the world, founded in the 1400s in London’s famous White Tower, viewable by appointment only. By 1660, paying members of the public were invited to visit this extensive Royal collection of arms and armour. In 1991 a major shake-up was begun, and much of the collection moved to a purpose-built museum in the northern English city of Leeds, which opened to the public five years later. In recent years, the Armouries generated some controversy when they began to acquire weapons used on iconic TV shows and films, such as LORD OF THE RINGS and STAR WARS.

Every November, our resident horror fanatic Gavin Baddeley makes an annual pilgrimage to Aberystwyth on the Welsh coast to attend the Abertoir Festival. While not the biggest or longest established of the UK’s horror festivals, Gavin assures us that it’s among the best. It features theatre performances, themed club nights, site visits, talks, live music and more. But the backbone of the six day event remains the film screenings, with 26 horror movies shown in 2017, including vintage classics and exclusive premiers of the best forthcoming features. We asked Gavin to pick out a few of the most bizarre, scary and entertaining upcoming horror films he’d seen there, for horror fans to look out for on cinema screens, in the DVD racks, and on streaming services in the coming months…

Set in a disturbingly plausible near future, where our obsession with celebrity has – almost literally – taken on the lethally contagious character of a virulent plague, Antiviral is chillingly compelling filmmaking. For those tired of predictable thrillers and brainless horror sequels, this bleak, original movie is both thoroughly thought-provoking and effectively stomach-churning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZb50HiBCo

The English ambient-electronica-neoclassical act In the Nursery, centred on the twins Klive and Nigel Humberstone, have been making mesmerising, intelligent and often sinister music for over three decades. They have a particular affinity for soundtracks, but also like to experiment, as demonstrated by their latest project, The Calling, which sees them collaborate with best-selling crime author Simon Beckett to create a musical exploration of his grisly ‘Hunter’ series of novels.

After the recent deluge of bloodsuckers, from Twilight to True Blood, even the most fervent fang fan could be forgiven for feeling a little vamped out. If so, the new film Midnight Son could be just the fresh plasma you need, a gritty indie horror flick with brains and heart as well as guts, this is a nasty, clever twisted love story that makes Bella and Edward look anaemic by comparison.