ECO-HORROR & CLIMATE FICTION | Offscreen
In the wake of the unprecedented pandemic, we plunge headfirst into the toxic ooze of the "anthropocene", an epochal description of the last two hundred and fifty years, during which mankind has disrupted the climate and despoiled every last inch of Earth's natural landscape.
Despite historical outliers - such as Japan's Godzilla films - ecological horror films only really began to hit home in the 1970s. With the rise of environmental activism, an increasing number of films adopted the theme of nature's revenge against man's abuse of the ecosystem. The so-called "Nature Strikes Back" and "Animal Attack" films tackled the environmental fears of the era by way of rampaging wildlife, poisonous outbreaks and natural catastrophes.
After the first great eco-horror film boom of the 1970s, it wasn't until the turn of the century that the genre made its mainstream comeback via blockbuster hits like The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and other special effects extravaganzas. The genre has evolved to reflect our own guilt and fear about the damage we have inflicted on nature, and the consequences we are already suffering. Even revenge from the animal kingdom seems muted next to the terrifying realisation that man is the deadliest animal of all.
Our programme includes no less than thirty films, divided between Cinema Nova and Cinematek. From an out-of-control climate (The Last Winter), retribution from the animal world (Long Weekend) and plagues of arthropods (Kingdom of the Spiders, Phase IV) to pandemics (The Andromeda Strain), pollution (Frogs) and overpopulation (Soylent Green), it will be a dark trip through cinematic depictions of climate fear, at the point where the dystopian sci-fi of the first ecological genre films of the 1970s is increasingly becoming a dangerous and tangible reality.
THE BIRDS
Tippi Hedren gets dive-bombed by seagulls and stalked by crows at the behest of a sadistic director at the top of his game. Hitchcock’s thriller is all the more troubling in its refusal to offer a tidy explanation for the deadly avian attacks on farmers and schoolkids in the small coastal town of Bodega Bay.
LONG WEEKEND
An Australian couple tries to fix their marriage with a camping trip to the beach in this Ozploitation classic. But they unthinkingly trash the environment - killing a kangaroo, starting fires, hacking down trees - so, after a tense build-up, nature gets its revenge via insects, birds and a literally creepy dugong.
PHASE IV
Restored version.
Two scientists investigating unusual ant activity in the Arizona desert find themselves under siege when the colony’s hive mind fights back. The only full-length feature directed by famed credits designer Saul Bass combines eco-horror thrills with awe-inspiring footage of antlife. Bow down to your insect overlords!
With an introduction by Frank Lafond.
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: ALL HELL IS ABOUT TO BREAK LOOSE: ECO-HORROR, ENVIRONMENTAL ANXIETY AND GENRE CINEMA
Genre cinema has a long and varied history of engaging with ecological concerns. Sometimes these interventions are nuanced and subtle, but more often they are bombastic, brash and unfailingly in-your-face. The symposium unpacks the ways in which a traditionally maligned form of cinema has, in fact, taken a variety of approaches to address socially and culturally important environmental issues.
NO BLADE OF GRASS
A virus spreads from China to destroy the world’s crops in this terrifying adaptation of John Christopher's prescient novel, resulting in food shortages, curfews, and civilisation in tatters. A middle-class British family heads for the hills to escape the riots in London, but runs into even more danger on the road.
GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER
It’s a clash of titans! Toxic sludge forms itself into Hedorah, a flying amphibian behemoth that feeds off pollution, dissolves human flesh, and invades a psychedelic disco. Thousands die. Japan’s last hope is Godzilla, who takes on the upstart in a Mount Fuji death match. Preposterous, enthralling and oddly moving.
PHASE IV
Restored version.
Two scientists investigating unusual ant activity in the Arizona desert find themselves under siege when the colony’s hive mind fights back. The only full-length feature directed by famed credits designer Saul Bass combines eco-horror thrills with awe-inspiring footage of antlife. Bow down to your insect overlords!
KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS
The peerless William Shatner plays a vet investigating livestock deaths in rural Arizona. His flirtation with a visiting lady arachnologist is rudely interrupted when they realise pesticides have upset the balance of nature, sending an unstoppable army of slow-moving but deadly tarantulas towards the nearby town.
PRINCESS MONONOKE
Set in magical 14th century Japan, Miyazaki’s bewitching animated epic tackles the nature-vs-technology theme with thrilling complexity. A prince travels west to seek a cure for a fatal curse, and finds himself caught up in the conflict between an enlightened industrialist and the ancient spirits of the forest.
DAY OF THE ANIMALS
Depletion of the ozone layer suddenly turns all animals at high altitude into killing machines. Bad news for a bunch of backpackers setting off on a hike through the Sierra Nevada, where they're attacked by lions, wolves, hawks, grizzlies and a demented pre-Airplane Leslie Nielsen at his most entertainingly OTT.
STALKER
In a dystopian future, a "stalker" leads a writer and a professor through a polluted environment into a heavily guarded Forbidden Zone to search for a room that may grant wishes. A visionary work by a master filmmaker weaving camerawork and design into an extraordinary meditation on faith, dreams and desire.
WATERWORLD
The polar icecaps have melted, flooding the planet. A samurai-like mariner (Kevin Costner) sails in search of mythical "Dryland" while Dennis Hopper and his band of chain-smoking pirates cause trouble. Unfairly dismissed as a turkey on its release, this blockbuster B-movie delivers aquatic action aplenty.
THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE
Dr Nils Hellstrom (played by an actor) claims insects are poised to inherit the Earth in this faux-documentary full of extraordinary nature footage. The hypothesis is all too credible, though Hellstrom himself, whose "experiments" include hiding bugs among supermarket produce to scare shoppers, is clearly quite mad.
SOYLENT GREEN
In 2022, Charlton Heston plays a cop whose investigation into a lawyer’s murder uncovers an unpalatable truth. This adaptation of Harry Harrison’s Make Room! Make Room! tackles pollution, overcrowding, social inequality - and adds a secret ingredient to the mix! Edward G Robinson is very moving in his final role.
SILENT RUNNING
Earth’s plantlife is dying, and a fleet of spacecraft carries all that remains of the planet’s flora. Bruce Dern plays the only crew member who cares about the cargo, so when an order comes through to destroy it, he rebels. A melancholy, visionary film, and a stunning directing debut for effects wizard Trumbull.
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