By Dean Geoghegan
In central London on
Good Friday April 22nd 2011 a group of horror enthusiasts gathered to watch a
double bill of “Classic” horror films – Night Of The Demon and Vampire Circus.
Some had travelled from as far away as Wales to attend this event and as the
rest of London sweltered in a combination of scorching and pleasantly
unseasonable Easter weather and Royal Wedding preparations they sipped cold
beers and celebrated the first event to be organised by the campaign to bring
classic horror double bills back to the BBC. The event had been advertised on
Facebook and the details were as follows:
This event will take
place on Good Friday 22nd April starting at 3pm and will feature the classic
horror fan favourite “Night of the Demon” followed by Hammer’s “Vampire Circus”
which has gained a large cult following in the years since its release.
The screening will
take place at the Roxy Bar & Screen on Borough High Street in London close
to London Bridge and tickets cost just £5 per person on the door. This unique
and popular venue is the perfect setting for the first in a series of events
celebrating classic horror in the tradition of the BBC’s iconic horror double
bill seasons of the 1970s and ‘80s.
The Classic Horror
Campaign was set up by Richard Gladman in order to persuade the BBC and other
television networks to bring these legendary films back to our screens so that
they may be shared and appreciated by a whole new generation.
The campaign is being
fronted by UK Scream Queen Emily Booth and is currently supported by various
celebrities including Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman, Reese Shearsmith, actress
Eileen Daly, best-selling author David Moody and Hammer Horror stalwarts Shane
Briant and Caroline Munro.
The campaign hopes to
convince the BBC to once again show films from the 1930s to the 1980s which are
almost impossible to see on cable and satellite and difficult to obtain on DVD.
The petition asking for signatures reads as follows; -
“Television has
become so bland in the last decade that it has become impossible to find any of
the classic old horror films being screened anywhere, even on the BBC. Years
ago, BBC2 would screen regular horror double bills on Saturday nights which
featured cult movies from Universal, RKO, Hammer Films and beyond. If you’d
like to see these films back on the box, please sign this petition and tell
your friends to do the same!”
Names were exchanged,
films enjoyed and the hard work of the organisers applauded but underlying the
event, which was great fun, was a serious intention to get the BBC to show
double bills of classic horror once again.
Sign the petition here and help us bring classic horror back to network television.
