Between his Irish folktale feature debut The Hallow, The Conjuring franchise hit The Nun, and his work on this year’s must-see TV series Gangs Of London, Corin Hardy is one of the most exciting British filmmaking voices around right now – and, like all of us, he’s also just a massive fan of cinema. Which is why, at a time when film venues across the country are struggling amid the Coronavirus pandemic, with limited new releases on the schedule, he’s putting together a special screening season for his local cinema. The Picture House in Uckfield (note: not part of the Picturehouse cinema group, whose venues are all temporarily closed) will be playing a selection of Hardy's favourite films, with some familiar friendly faces involved too.
Fittingly for Hardy’s horror roots, the series launches on Friday 13 November with a screening of John Landis’ An American Werewolf In London. The night after, he’ll screen Sam Raimi’s comedy-horror classic Evil Dead 2, joined by none other than Edgar Wright. And on Sunday 15 November, he’ll be screening John Carpenter’s The Thing. More films and special guests will be announced in due course.
“To draw an audience out without the appeal of a new release, we needed an angle that was unique to being out at the cinema and would make each screening a one-off experience,” says Hardy. “So I called on a number of my filmmaker friends to select films that inspired them and then to introduce the movies with me at The Picture House in person, or for those in Hollywood or outside of the UK, to introduce them live through Zoom. I’m thrilled to report that my friend Edgar Wright was the first to respond to my call to arms, with a solid 'Of course', and have a very exciting line up to follow!.”
The Picture House is a cinema particularly close to Hardy’s heart – not just a historic independent venue, but his local childhood cinema, and one that he still frequently visits today. “I’m not giving up without a fight,” says its owner Kevin Markwick. “This cinema has been in my family for 56 years and an important part of the community for 100 years. It would be an impoverished world without the joy of real cinema.”
Tickets for the screenings will be available at picturehouseuckfield.com from midday on Friday 30 October – and if you’re far away from Uckfield but want to support your local cinema, independent or otherwise, here’sEmpire’s guide on how you can help them out in this time of need.