Theatre Of Blood
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Fri 17 June 2011 // 20:00
(Fri 17th / 8pm / £5/4)
(Douglas Hickox / UK / 1973/ 105 minutes / Cert 15)
Sumer is icumen in, so it’s time to push aside the blockbusters and engage with some Friday night retro fun of the finest calibre, as we welcome the one and only Mr Vincent Price, alongside a fine cast of veteran Brit character actors (Arthur Lowe, Michael Hordern, Eric Sykes), into the Theatre of Blood. A fine piece of vintage UK horror served up with a generous helping of pitch black humour and creepy camp.
Price stars as the hammy, self regarding Edward Lionheart, a thespian who refuses to play anything other than Shakespeare. Angered by a circle of equally snooty critics, whose scathing reviews he feels have denied him his rightful place in the pantheon, he fakes his own suicide and returns to avenge them one by one in parodies of some of Shakespeare's most grisly set pieces, ably assisted by his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), and a gaggle of down-and- out accomplices.
Literate but never taking itself too seriously, camp without ever falling into the pit of self parody, Theatre of Blood is a minor key classic from the heyday of the British horror film. They sure don't make 'em like this any more. So, sharpen up your sword, grab yourself a bottle of meths, then come on down and catch these scamps in the creaky confines of the Cube, with extra crimson.
(Douglas Hickox / UK / 1973/ 105 minutes / Cert 15)
Sumer is icumen in, so it’s time to push aside the blockbusters and engage with some Friday night retro fun of the finest calibre, as we welcome the one and only Mr Vincent Price, alongside a fine cast of veteran Brit character actors (Arthur Lowe, Michael Hordern, Eric Sykes), into the Theatre of Blood. A fine piece of vintage UK horror served up with a generous helping of pitch black humour and creepy camp.
Price stars as the hammy, self regarding Edward Lionheart, a thespian who refuses to play anything other than Shakespeare. Angered by a circle of equally snooty critics, whose scathing reviews he feels have denied him his rightful place in the pantheon, he fakes his own suicide and returns to avenge them one by one in parodies of some of Shakespeare's most grisly set pieces, ably assisted by his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), and a gaggle of down-and- out accomplices.
Literate but never taking itself too seriously, camp without ever falling into the pit of self parody, Theatre of Blood is a minor key classic from the heyday of the British horror film. They sure don't make 'em like this any more. So, sharpen up your sword, grab yourself a bottle of meths, then come on down and catch these scamps in the creaky confines of the Cube, with extra crimson.