Aftermath - Jameson Cult Film Club @ The Royal College of Surgeons

Last night we were over at our second Jameson Cult Film Club event (after last autumn's 'Chills in the Chapel') to see Gareth Edwards incredible low-budget masterpiece, 'Monsters', set in the rather creepy surroundings of the Royal College of Surgeons on Lincolns Inn Fields in central London.



As with the Club's last outing, they'd gone to great efforts to set the scene -  as we entered we were manhandled by people wearing biological protection suits and gaskmasks, and menaced by a swarthy rebel toting an AK47. Going further inside, the bar areas were festooned with thick foliage, and there was even a little Mexican street cart selling nachos (you could tell it was Mexican because of the sombrero perched on top of it...). After a decent interval for us to imbibe some courage-giving Jameson cocktails we followed some signs to find a door barred before us, where we were told to turn around and head over into the 'Infected Zone' to view the film!



Entering the large hall we settled ourselves down next to some nice folk from the film company responsible for 'Monsters', Vertigo Films, and after a short while (and to great fanfare) Gareth Edwards himself was ushered on to the stage for a brief chat with one of the reporters from Empire Magazine. It's always interesting to attend screenings where the director is present, because they're inclined to give away dirty little secrets about their film-making process, and Gareth was no different - we discovered that the working title used throughout the shooting phase of the film was 'Far From Home' - a deliberate ploy to allay people's fears about the content of the movie when the crew were looking for filming locations and also, if you think about it, not a bad title in itself given that it decribes the plight of the principal actors and the aliens themselves...

From Jamesons Cult Film Club March 2011

Yesterday evening was another fantastic experience - check out the Jameson Cult Film Club website and their Facebook and Twitter pages to grab tickets for the next London event. Just remember to get your request for tickets in early, and turn up an hour or so before on the night if you can, because these events are becoming madly popular with London film-goers. If you didn't manage to get along last night but happen to find yourself in the area and at a loose end, you can also examine the jars of organs and preserved skeletons and cadavers in the Hunterian Museum which you'll find in the building. That will give you the shivers even if 'Monsters' didn't!