Join us on the 10th for our final fearful adventure for the year.
We'll revisit a film that was released 20 years ago but tapped into our timeless fear of what we can't comprehend.
We'll be chilling in the second room of Long Play and discussing what we have watched over the last month from 6'ish - come and say hi!
Bob, David, Mel, Adam & Sam
PS Society membership is required to attend the film screening, memberships can be purchased on the night starting at $10.
November Screening - The Brood
Horror is often the practice of ingesting our collective anxieties and regurgitating them back at us in a more palatable form. With The Brood, David Cronenberg stewed his own mental anguish from a recent relationship breakdown in a broth that included a dollop of his usual fascination with the human body. Into that he mixed contemporary societal anxiety about psychiatry driven by tragic outcomes from experiments with psychopharmaceuticals such as those at Oak Ridge in Ontario. Having aged for 40 years, this stew is ready for another tasting.
Join us on the 26th and decide for yourself whether or not Cronenberg succeeded in the kitchen.
We'll be chilling in the second room of Long Play and discussing what we have watched over the last month from 6'ish - come and say hi!
Bob, David, Mel, Adam & Sam
PS Society membership is required to attend the film screening, memberships can be purchased on the night starting at $10.
July Screening - Pontypool
Starting a 3 part series looking at films which intersect ideas of infection and possession comes the Canadian Film Pontypool. Based on the novel Pontypool Changes Everything a shock rock DJ is alone in the booth as calls start coming in about strange behaviour, murder and infection.
Trailer in the comments and remember, kill is kiss.
Join us on the 3th, we will be having dinner in the second room of Long Play and discussing what we have watched over the last month. We will be around from 6 pm. Facebook event here
Bob, David, Mel, Adam & Sam
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
WOMEN IN HORROR MONTH: THE BIRTHDAY PARTY AND OFFICE KILLER
Nik McGrath
Still of Carol Kane as Dorine Douglas in OFFICE KILLER, 1997
Women in Horror Month turns 10 this year! On 12 February I screened short film THE BIRTHDAY PARTY directed by Annie Clark, co-written with Roxanne Benjamin, from 2017 all-female horror anthology XX; followed by 1997 feature OFFICE KILLER, directed by Cindy Sherman, story by Sherman and Elise MacAdam. I think it’s interesting to compare these films, made 20 years apart. Both films at their core have a relationship between a mother and daughter. THE BIRTHDAY PARTY is from the mother’s perspective and OFFICE KILLER is from the daughters. That’s not why I chose to show these films together, they share something else in common. See the films, if you haven’t already, I’m interested in what you think.
Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, made her directing debut with THE BIRTHDAY PARTY. St Vincent is a musician based in New York, who says she’s “really caught the bug” and hopes to direct again in the future.
St Vincent prescribes to the Nick Cave method of making music, working from 10am to 7pm, experimenting and writing until something good comes out. She’s a gifted guitar player. She started playing when she was 12 years old. St Vincent listens to a Bowie track every day. Check out the J Files - St Vincent podcast from 2017, it doesn’t cover her film, but has interesting insights about her creative process.
Still of Melanie Lynskey as Mary in THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, 2017
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY stars Melanie Lynskey, who Clark chose for this role. Clark said, "She’s truly one of my absolute favourite actors of all time.” XX features 3 out of 5 stories about mothers and their children. Lynskey plays a mother, Mary, who is trying to make a perfect birthday party for her daughter Lucy, until things go horribly wrong.
Shock Waves interviewed 3 out of the 5 directors of XX in episode 38. Can’t rave about this episode enough - it’s a true insight about the challenges female filmmakers face in a male dominated industry. Clark wasn’t one of the 3, but Roxanne Benjamin who co-wrote THE BIRTHDAY PARTY is. Clark was a bit of a wild card as a musician who had never made a film. Clark was excited to make something creative, even on a small budget. Interestingly, Clark is not a horror fan.
OFFICE KILLER is directed by one of our greatest living photographers, Cindy Sherman. Sherman’s work as a photographer is cinematic, featuring herself as the model, using costumes and dramatic lighting, often in her home studio, to create subversive female characters. Her work as a photographer translates beautifully to film.
Untitled #122, Cindy Sherman, 1983
I discovered Cindy Sherman’s photographs in high school. I was obsessed with photography, I spent lunchtimes in the darkroom - it was one of my favourite place to escape. Sherman was an inspiration because her work commented on the portrayal of women in mass media.
If you’re interested in learning more about Sherman’s work, I recommend a doco, Nobody’s Here But Me from 1994 available on YouTube. Sherman states: “Movies are one of my biggest influences. Many of my favourite movies are horror movies. I just like being scared, I guess. It creates an adrenaline rush that’s like being on a rollercoaster ride. Terrifying on the one hand, but you feel this ride eventually stops and you can get off and go home. It was a movie, and it was all fake blood. There’s something calming about it. Something that makes you feel secure with your life cause you can experience this horror that perhaps we all have about death and violence, and somehow come to terms with it”. Sherman became obsessed with death and violence after moving to New York.
My introduction to Sherman’s photographs was around the time her film was released back in 1997. Sadly the film didn’t reach Australia, which is a shame, because I would have loved to see this in the cinema, especially at a time when I was just beginning to learn about Sherman’s work. The film didn’t receive much attention by critics until a book was published in 2014, CINDY SHERMAN’S OFFICE KILLER ANOTHER KIND OF MONSTER by Dahlia Schweitzer. Schweitzer’s analysis of the film includes some interesting observations. She argues that OFFICE KILLER is a mix of three genres - horror, noir, and comedy. She blames the fusion of genres for OFFICE KILLER’S lack of commercial success.
Sherman doesn’t like art historians and critics dissecting her work. She says that she works intuitively. She’s not interested in theories about the intentions behind her photographs, but finds it amusing how far critics will go to make their theories fit her work.
Carol Kane stars in OFFICE KILLER as Dorine Douglas, a magazine editor. I find her eyebrows unnerving, they add to her performance. Costume designer Todd Thomas created Dorine’s costume, but Sherman drew on Dorine’s eyebrows.
Still of Carol Kane as Jill Johnson in WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, 1979
Carol Kane was not new to horror when she played Dorine Douglas in 1997. In 1978 she starred in THE MAFU CAGE, also directed by a woman, Karen Arthur, and in 1979 she starred in WHEN A STRANGER CALLS. Her big eyes are perfect for horror, they are so expressive.
Molly Ringwald plays Kim Poole. In a recent interview at The Broad, an art museum in LA, Ringwald said the budget for costumes was $15 per character, so she bought her own wardrobe of black office wear to the set. Sherman said, “no no no, Kim is all colour”. Ringwald went on to say that “most of the direction I got from her was visual. We were a photograph come to life; because of Cindy’s eye, and because she is an artist, it became a piece of art.”
REFERENCES
Art History Babes (8 June 2018), Cindy Sherman, [podcast], https://www.arthistorybabes.com/episode-89-cindy-sherman/
BBC Arena (1994) Cindy Sherman - Nobody’s Here But Me, [documentary] https://youtu.be/UXKNuWtXZ_U
Loughrey, C (2017) St Vincent interview: Annie Clark on all-female horror anthology XX, plus Danny Elfman’s dead cat, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/xx-annie-clark-st-vincent-interview-dvd-release-date-the-birthday-party-directorial-debut-melanie-a7717906.html?amp
Pike, G (10 August 2017) The J Files - St Vincent, [podcast], https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/programs/the-j-files/st-vincent/10274468
Schweitzer, D (2014) Cindy Sherman’s Office Killer Another Kind of Monster, Intellect, Bristol
Shock Waves (10 February 2017), Episode 38: The Directors of XX, [podcast], http://podbay.fm/show/1109880594/e/1486728000?autostart=1
The Broad (n.d.), Molly Ringwald on the Office Killer film, [podcast], https://www.thebroad.org/content/office-killer-molly-ringwald
Women in Horror Month: The Birthday Party & Office Killer
As part of Women in Horror month Nik McGrath will be screening short film THE BIRTHDAY PARTY directed by Annie Clark and co-written with Roxanne Benjamin from all-female horror anthology XX (2017) followed by feature OFFICE KILLER (1997) directed and co-written by Cindy Sherman. THE BIRTHDAY PARTY stars Melanie Lynskey, who plays a mother, Mary, who is trying to make a perfect birthday party for her daughter Lucy, until things go horribly wrong. Carol Kane stars in OFFICE KILLER as Dorine Douglas, a magazine editor who is underestimated by her co-workers with murderous consequences.
We'll be around from 6pm.
Bob, David, Mel, Adam & Sam...and Nik!
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
November Screening - Pontypool
Pontypool, a kind of zombie film...or is it an infection film?
Pontypool is the kind of film that is best going in blind, there will be no description or trailer. Come along and see a very interesting Canadian take on a very played out genre.
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
Halloween Screenings - Murder Party, Cooties, Down & Slither
Well kids, it's that time of the year again...Halloween. Sure, we get the short end of the stick living in Australia but we're doing our bit to keep it spooky. This year we will be doing 2 double features on a Sunday evening - the first of which will be Murder Party and Cooties on the 21st of October followed by the Dutch horror film Down and Slither on the 28th.
Happy Halloween…
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
August Screening - Pregnancy in Horror: IT’S ALIVE!
We prayed for Rosemary’s baby in July, and now... it’s time to scream when you see “its” face!
Join us on Tuesday, August 28th for IT’S ALIVE!
Both frightening, and heartbreaking, Larry Cohen’s horror deals with the gore of birth, anxieties around abnormality & what it means to love unconditionally.
Kick off will be at the usual time of 7:30pm.. We look forward to seeing you there!
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!l
July Screening - Pregnancy in Horror - ROSEMARY’S BABY
After the success of David’s technology in horror program, I (Mel) certainly have big shoes to fill! But after being the resident girl of the MHFS group for the past two years, I’ve gone and become a total clich’e and am now expecting my first child in September, so in keeping with the theme, for the next two months, I’ll be screening films focused on Pregnancy in Horror.
Join us on Tuesday, July 31 for the first installment - ROSEMARY’S BABY
The theme of pregnancy opens itself up perfectly for representation in horror (because to be honest, the whole thing is pretty bloody horrific!), but it was hard to go past this classic film, particularly with 2018 being its 50th anniversary.
The night will kick off at 7.30 with a short introduction discussing the history of pregnancy on screen, cultural attitudes toward the pregnant female and how these have changed (or not changed) over time.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!l
June Screening: Bells
Winter is upon us and that damn phone keeps ringing... Join us for the last of our Technology in Horror Films, focussing on Telephones. I will give a brief chat about the film and then screen Bells a.k.a. Murder By Phone from 1982. Starring Richard Chamberlain and Sara Botsford.
Join us on Tuesday 24th to enjoy a relatively unknown film, that influenced films for years, some in name only, we'll be around from 6pm. Facebook event here
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
May Screening - One Missed Call
This May the 29th join us at Longplay for the screening of One Missed Call (2003) directed by Takashi Miike. We are continuing our theme of Technology in Horror Films, focussing on Telephones.
One Missed Call, People mysteriously start receiving voicemail messages from their future selves, in the form of the sound of them reacting to their own violent deaths, along with the exact date and time of their future death, listed on the message log. The plot thickens as the surviving characters pursue the answers to this mystery which could save their lives.
Dir. Takashi Miike, is a prolific director and has 102 films under his directing belt. He is known for his bizarre, twisted bent way of storytelling. His films are often violent, scary and full of dread. I ( David) will be doing a small talk before the film and we will be moving to the second room at Longplay once the film is over as a group has booked the cinema after us, to chat about his films and more on Telephones in films.
Join us on Tuesday 29th to enjoy a relatively unknown film, that influenced films for years, some in name only, we'll be around from 6pm.
Facebook Event here
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
An Interview with Moorhead and Benson
Interview by Ben Buckingham @dissolvedpet
The Endless, screening in select cinemas around Australia, is the third film by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, a duo who are shaking up indie & cosmic horror. All-rounders, who take the piss out of their co-directing/writing/lensing/editing/acting/did-I-forget-anything in this hilarious promo short, Moorhead & Benson make the complex seem straight-forward, divising fascinating narratives filled with the kind of characters one lovingly remember years after viewing & cannot wait to return to. If you haven't had the pleasure of their essential debut, RESOLUTION, or their powerful follow-up, SPRING, now is the time to investigate now. These are movies for now, & for the future, building new possibilities for one of the oldest genres, layering in the uncanny, the monstruous, and, above all else, the humanity that confronts such things with emotional maturity & intelligence.
1 What are the strongest influences on your aesthetic, both in cinema and in other art forms?
Our films aren’t very referential to other works of cinema if we can avoid it, but we have ungodly respect for the DIY filmmakers that have paved the way for us to hopefully someday break out to a larger audience. Trailblazers like Soderbergh, Amy Seimetz, the Duplass brothers, Greta Gerwig, anyone who seemed to have picked up a camera and started shooting and let the details fall into place naturally. They just make their movies for a small enough budget that there’s no compromise, they do as much as they can themselves, and they consistently make great cinema.
In literature, it’s not so much Lovecraft as people would suspect, but rather, those who read Lovecraft. Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Mark Danielewski. Also, deep-dives on fringe culture in Wikipedia have populated our most unsavory nights.
2 There has been a lot of discussion online of what precisely is a horror film, with many attempting to slice films out of the genre as it gradually shifts away from the dominant forms that developed in 60s and 70s America. Have you personally experienced a sense of this change, in your own creative process, or from the films and filmmakers you have come into contact with?
The debate of “what is a horror film” has been alive since we became filmmakers. For example, when people say they don’t like horror films, what they often mean is they don’t like slasher films -- a very narrow subgenre that has co-opted the word “horror” in many peoples’ minds. So, audiences are surprised when a film doesn’t do exactly that, and the debate rages on.
Our films have always been on the cusp of being considered “true” horror or not, and sometimes derided for not having enough violence. This is ridiculous. The genre label should only be applied in order to have a way to be talking about the same thing — descriptively. But sometimes fans get caught in a trap, making it something prescriptive instead: “it’s only good IF it hits these checkboxes”, rather than “it hits these checkboxes, therefore it is horror”. It doesn’t take the movie as it comes on its own, it’s placing a framework the unwatched movie must subscribe to.
For us, genre’s just a label that’s applied by the marketing department at a distribution company. We want to make films that give you a true sense of being frightened, but sometimes we want to spend time with our characters or dive into our environment, things that can emotionally build the scares when they come but aren’t directly frightening themselves. All that said, the majority of our viewers connect with the film because they subvert genre expectations, not in spite of it.
3 When making an independent film there are always uncontrollable elements, which are often multiplied when you take on so many varied roles in the production. What was something that was beyond your control but ultimately helped create the final product in a positive way, like a happy accident?
So much of the making of our movies happens in pre-production, and our producer Dave Lawson is so amazing, that we’ve never really had anything happen that was beyond our control besides weather. It’s not all that interesting of an answer, but something we’ve learned is that in no budget indie filmmaking, maybe the best thing you can do is just prepare. Have everything you can, especially script, performances and shot lists, dialed in before you start shooting and time is ticking away. It doesn’t mean some magical jazz won’t happen, and when it does you’ll still get to make your day and finish the movie without compromise.
4 Narrative progression both as structure and motif has been integral to all of your films so far, with even the titling suggesting stages of a journey (Resolution, Spring, The Endless). Your characters often become lost within the narratives that they construct around themselves. Were you cognitive of this in your creative process, and if so, what influenced this direction?
Not something we’ve been doing consciously, but we do know that sometimes people describe our movies as “meta”, which is unintentional, but maybe that’s why it seems to usually be something that people reference in a positive light. We’ve theorized that maybe “meta” only really works when you don’t know you’re doing it. Also, as we’ve gotten involved with a lot of projects that work more traditionally within the industry development process, it’s interesting to see how many traditional rules we’ve been breaking and didn’t really know it. Some of it we knew, but there’s always something from like a screenwriting book or something that you never read that gets used as the vocabulary of development and it’s honestly just interesting. It’s cool to learn why movies that go through the traditional business filters turn out the way they do, for better or worse, and to know that in working outside the system you’ve learned that there’s other ways of doing things.
5 Have you ever been a member of a cult? If not, would you consider joining or starting one, and if so, what would your ideal cult be?
Never been involved with a small spiritual group with a charismatic leader or anything like that, but being a cinephile sort of has cult-like things about it -- having a huge, arguably excessive admiration for these very specific, often esoteric films and everything affiliated with them. Don’t think we’d be very good at starting a film cult of our own though, because we really actually love film, and it seems that cult leaders who truly believe their own dogma tend to not do as well. Aleister Crowley truly believed in magick and died broke and nearly alone. Also, you probably get very little rehearsal and prep time for sermons, and anyone who has ever seen us try to improv know this is a very bad idea.
The Endless is currently screening at Cinema Nova.
March Screening: Green Room
After two amazing screenings during Women in Horror month, we're returning to our survey of the films of director Jeremy Saulnier with a presentation of his 2015 survival horror, Green Room.
Telling the story of a punk rock band forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a backwoods skinhead bar. This film packs a visceral punch and the believable actions of the protagonists suck you right into the extreme stress of the situation. This is film as weight loss remedy.
Join us on Tuesday 27 March to sweat a few grams, we'll be around from 6pm.
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
Newcomers, LongPlay has a dedicated cinema with a great size screen and the front bar offers tasty food and beverages that will be available on the night..
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30.
Women in Horror Month Pt 2: Jennifer Lynch's BOXING HELENA
For the second of our special Women in Horror Month screenings for 2018, we are very privileged to have esteemed writer & critic Sally Christie presenting Jennifer Lynch's 1993 thriller, BOXING HELENA.
Starring Sherilyn Fenn, Julian Sands and Bill Paxton, this hard to find title perfectly encapsulates the women in horror ethos, not only being directed by a female, but also the portrayal of titular character Helena, by the amazing Sherilyn Fenn.
We're excited to be kicking off the night with an informative introduction from Sally at 7.30 on Tuesday the 27th of Febuary, which you won't want to miss, so make sure you get in early to get a seat for this one!! 🖤
Bob, David, Adam & Mel
https://www.facebook.com/events/195381911045646/
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
Newcomers, LongPlay has a dedicated cinema with a great size screen and the front bar offers tasty food and beverages that will be available on the night..
Remember: memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for just $8.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $25.
Women in Horror Month Pt 1: Ingrid Bergman in SPELLBOUND
For the first of our Women in Horror Month events, we are very privileged to have guest programmer Terri Berends stepping in for the night and bringing her wealth of horror knowledge and strong feminist views to the Melbourne Horror Film Society - well, she always brings that when attending screenings but will be taking centre stage to do so, for the second consecutive year for WIHM.
This year, Terri has expertly selected Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND (1945), and before you start writing any comments, yes we know Hitchcock is a male; Terri will be focusing on many key concepts of women in horror, including the depiction of women (now and then); the film being based on story written by a female (under a pen name); psychoanalysis; and the casting of "controversial" actress Ingrid Bergman.
We absolutely can't wait for this screening and hope you're excited also 🖤
Bob, David, Adam & Mel
The screening will kick off at 7:30pm on
Tuesday, Feb 20.
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
Newcomers, LongPlay has a dedicated cinema with a great size screen and the front bar offers tasty food and beverages that will be available on the night..
Remember: memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for just $8.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $25.
Women in Horror Month Pt 1: Ingrid Bergman in SPELLBOUND
For the first of our Women in Horror Month events, we are very privileged to have guest programmer Terri Berends stepping in for the night and bringing her wealth of horror knowledge and strong feminist views to the Melbourne Horror Film Society - well, she always brings that when attending screenings but will be taking centre stage to do so, for the second consecutive year for WIHM.
This year, Terri has expertly selected Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND (1945), and before you start writing any comments, yes we know Hitchcock is a male; Terri will be focusing on many key concepts of women in horror, including the depiction of women (now and then); the film being based on story written by a female (under a pen name); psychoanalysis; and the casting of "controversial" actress Ingrid Bergman.
We absolutely can't wait for this screening and hope you're excited also 🖤
Bob, David, Adam & Mel
The screening will kick off at 7:30pm on
Tuesday, Feb 20.
https://www.facebook.com/events/416930198740051/
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
Newcomers, LongPlay has a dedicated cinema with a great size screen and the front bar offers tasty food and beverages that will be available on the night..
Remember: memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for just $8.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $25.
January Screening - Blue Ruin
Happy New Year!
Join us in late January as we commence a dedicated squizz at the films of Jeremy Saulnier, starting with the horrific revenge thriller, Blue Ruin. We'll follow that up with a screening of Green Room in March and finish this mini retrospective by showing Murder Party during our weekly Halloween celebrations in October.
For mine, Blue Ruin is Saulnier's most beautiful and interesting film and offers plenty of fuel for contemplation within its brisk 1h30min running time. So do come along on Tuesday 30 January and join us as we consider whether violence is ever justified and ponder the absolute fucking mess that ensues whenever it is perpetrated.
We look forward to seeing you all on the night.
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
Newcomers, LongPlay has a dedicated cinema with a great size screen and the front bar offers tasty food and beverages that will be available on the night..
Memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for $10.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $30.
Interview with Ludo Mortuus - Horror and Tattooing
Adam Knehans
I recently had a chance to chat with Melbourne Horror Film Society member Ludo Mortuus, a tattooist who is not only passionate about horror movies but about inking horror onto peoples skin. We spoke about how she got into horror films, tattooing and the kind of work she is hoping to do.
Adam - How long have you been tattooing and what drew you to it?
Ludo - To be honest I am not sure what drew me to tattooing. Ever since I can remember I've been drawn to it and have always been interested in it. Some old friends I've been in touch with over the years have told me "congratulations, you're doing exactly what you wanted. I remember you were talking about wanting to tattoo back in high-school! " so it's been a very ongoing thing. It wasn't until I was in my last year of university that I decided it was really what I wanted to do for my entire life. There were other things I also wanted to do but Tattooing was the top. So after some bumps and adventures I managed to move here to Aussie land and tattoo. I've been tattooing about 3 years now.
Adam - How long have you been into horror films, how did you get into them and what are some of your earliest horror memories?
Ludo - This is kind of hard to answer because I don't really remember. All I can say for sure is that the first 'horror' movie I saw was The Picture of Dorian Gray and I was around 10 or 11 I think. The ending scared me to bits haha. Then The Ring, I think i was around 12 or 13 when I saw it and my mom took me to see in in the cinema. I was really scared and that night I couldn't sleep and I woke my mom up and everything, but that didn't stop me from seeing more or her from letting me so I guess that was the start of my fascination with these scary movies which then took me into more. I didn't really dive deep into them until I moved to London and my ex was showing me all of these more underground movies like Toxic Avenger even though that's not really horror i guess...I was around 19 when I started watching all of the less mainstream ones.
Adam - In what way do you draw on horror films and related media as inspiration for your work?
Ludo - So because of my music taste (predominately black and death metal) I prefer to create things which have something to do with those themes as well and they kind of go hand in hand in my opinion. Not the actual music and movies but the subject matter. Zombies, or demons and monsters from different dimensions, the supernatural; occultism etc. Having always been interested and attracted to the strange, the hidden and the different it was natural for me to take inspiration from horror movies. More gore, blood, guts severed heads, demons, evil etc. Just always been inspired by the dark aspects of life and fantasy.
Adam - What are a few of your favourite horror films?
Ludo - Oh there are so SO many favourites!! One of the most recent ones is The Void, very Lovecraftian (my favourite author of course). Alien along with Aliens and Prometheus, the latest one (Covenant) was pretty good but not among my favourites, still really enjoyed it though. Dawn of the Dead, I love The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The VVitch was also a beautiful movie, Carrie, The Conjuring, Evil Dead. Holidays was brilliant, and of course The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I have to say that the new IT is right up there too. Any good zombie movie as well. Love em! The Thing is definitely one of my favourite!
Adam - What are some of the most memorable horror tattoos you have done?
Ludo - Unfortunately because people who are into all of this horror and darkness are not really all that many, considering, I have not had much of a chance to do many. I got to tattoo one of my designs earlier this year at the tattoo convention in April. I had drawn a girl smoking with tentacles exploding from her head, one of my favourite pieces to date. I recently also got to tattoo another one of my favourite designs; a skull with a burning church underneath and i am very happy with the outcome. One more that I did a year or so ago was a Cthulhu, the customer was into all of the horror. Other ones I've done have been Lovecraft related - always with tentacles. It's a theme I follow through out a lot of my work. They are so fun to create.
Adam - Is there a horror tattoo you would love to do?
Ludo - In terms of what horror tattoos I'd like to do.. well.. I would actually love to tattoo something from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Ryuk the demon from Death Note, The Thing, and The Void. Those have got to be on top! In reality any tattoo that is related to horror I'm so down for. That is my goal. Anything horror related and you've got my attention, and my eternal love haha. Preferably something to do with my favourite movies you know. Zombies, aliens, blood dripping from hands or mouths. Witches and demons are among the subject matter that I would love to tattoo.
To finish off this interview Ludo has a special offer for Melbourne Horror Film Society members wanting to get some horror ink.
Ludo - If anyone who reads this is interested in getting a horror related tattoo they can first follow me on Instagram: @Ludo_Mortuus, and on FaceBook: @Ludo Mortuus Tattoos, share my page, and DM / email / message me with their idea, and they will get %20 off their tattoo.
The only rule is that their tattoo has to be a decent size (at least A5) with enough detail and be horror related.
September Screening - Banshee Chapter
“I shall never permit anything bearing my signature to be banalised and vulgarised into the flat, infantile twaddle which passes for ‘horror tales’ amongst radio and cinema audiences.”
- HP Lovecraft to the poet Richard Morse
To close our series of Lovecraftian and Cosmic Horror films we will be screening Blair Erickson's Banshee Chapter. Where the thematic elements of cosmic horror can be inferred on films like Event Horizon other films build their narratives upon Lovecraft's themes of cosmic indifferentism and cosmic horror, films such as Banshee Chapter.
A reporter is investigating a group of people experimenting with the drug DMT-19, the drug synonmous with Project MKUltra (a CIA mind control program), open themselves up to horrors lurking just outside of reality. Mixing cosmic horror and conspiracy theories Banshee Chapter will close the Lovecraftian series. Next up, our Halloween screenings...
We look forward to seeing you all on the night..
Bob, David, Mel & Adam
**PLEASE NOTE** LONGPLAY BAR SEATS A MAXIMUM OF 25 PEOPLE, SO GET IN EARLY!
Newcomers, LongPlay has a dedicated cinema with a great size screen and the front bar offers tasty food and beverages that will be available on the night..
Remember: memberships are required to attend our screenings and will be available to purchase on the night.
Mini memberships give you access to 3 screenings for just $8.
Full memberships cover you for 12 screenings and will set you back $25.
Lurking Within
Once a fortnight I will be posting an interactive article about Horror Movies in Horror Movies. It will include a brief synopsis of the scene, with hints plus pictures so you guess what film it is from. The answer will be on the next page so once you think you have it you can click on it to see if you were right.
Its a cold, misty evening and Charlie is up quite late even though it's a school night. The reason he is up so late is so he can spy on his new neighbours, who have been keeping him preoccupied much to the annoyance of his girlfriend Amy. Whilst he is eating some chips and getting an eye full from next door there is a movie playing on the TV in his bedroom which he is missing out on watching, the film is...