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Closeup: Kneel Through The Dark

Kneel Through The Dark is part of our April 16th lineup. Get your advance tickets now and we’ll see you there!

In January, we did something we don’t normally do. We showed a trailer (watch it above) for one of the films we’d be showing at our next screening. It was a pretty assaultive clip from James Batley‘s Kneel Through The Dark, a sort of experimental horror film shot on 8mm film. To be completely honest, it’s a bit of a departure for us. But I’m always glad to try something new and our audiences continue to be amazing and supportive of the directions we’ve been taking them.

James’ journey as a filmmaker is worth exploring. Completely self-taught, he didn’t even have a computer to edit his first short film (Bad Owl and the Fox Boy). “I’d just record onto VHS and film it back through the TV,” he says. Nevertheless, the film was accepted by the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. In 2013, Cannes also accepted Kneel Through The Dark, a bewitching piece of film that references infamous English occultist Aleister Crowley. As such, it brings to mind the work of experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger.

After its Cannes premiere, the film made its London premiere in a disused World War II bunker on Friday the 13th of September. We’re posting this on a similarly scary Friday the 13th but we can’t promise that sort of haunted atmosphere at our screening. Fewer rats, a comfortable seat in a fully-licensed cinema, and a selection of other great films will just have to do. Join us!

Some more images from the film:

Still from Kneel Through The Dark

Still from Kneel Through The Dark

Still from Kneel Through The Dark

Still from Kneel Through The Dark