SCI-FI-LONDON the UK’s only dedicated SF and Fantastic film festival, 26 – 30 April 2006

Over the last 4 years SCI-FI-LONDON has proved to be a hit with its audience bringing exciting, challenging and interesting premieres to the UK along with a programme of rarely screened classics. Our website now attracts over 60,000 unique visitors a month and festival attendance is set to top 10,000.

The festival takes place at the fantastic new APOLLO WEST END cinema in Lower Regent Street, central London. This five-screen state-of-the-art venue is fully licensed and the audience can take their drinks in with them, so expect some champagne screenings!

MOVIES ALREADY CONFIRMED INCLUDE:

FIRST ON THE MOON (Russia 2005, Dir: Aleksey Fedortschenko)

THE PLACE PROMISED IN OUR EARLY DAYS (Japan 2005, Dir: Makoto Shinkai)

SUBJECT TWO (USA 2005, Dir: Philip Chidel, 93mins, Colour)

SURVIVE STYLE 5 (Japan 2003, Dir: Gen Sekiguchi, 120mins, Colour)

CSA: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (USA 2005, Dir: Kevin Wilmott)

TETSUJIN 28 (Japan 2004, Dir: Shin Togashi, 105mins, Colour)

DIE YOU ZOMBIE BASTARDS (USA 2004, Dir: Caleb Emerson, 97mins, Colour)

LOGAN’S RUN (USA 1976, Dir: Michael Anderson, 120mins, Colour)

SEKSMISJA (Sex Mission) (Poland 1984, Dir: Juliusz Machulski, 117mins, Colour)

ALL NIGHT:

The first SCI-FI-LONDON saw us bring the all-nighter back to London screens, and they have proved popular at every festival. With 8 hours of movies, free Redbull, coffee, ice cream and breakfast, it challenges the mind, body and spirit. As part of our FIFTH BIRTHDAY celebration we will be holding the notorious ANIMÉ ALL-NIGHTER (Featuring the UK Premier of KARAS:THE PROPHECY) along with a night of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (featuring an exclusive “making of TIME CHASERS”) and our BLOODLUST ALL-NIGHTER, which features Guillermo Del Toro’s CRONOS and the amazing Russian epic NIGHT WATCH.

NOT JUST MOVIES:

First and foremost we are an international film festival but we also understand the value of a great atmosphere.

We are honoured to be the official home of the Douglas Adams Memorial Debate, which takes a serious yet wry look at a variety of topics. These have included SF film vs literature, predicting the future, and sex with robots! For 2006 the INSTITUTE OF IDEAS will curate this event, the topic; POSTHUMANISM

We are very proud to announce that ‘the Booker of the SF world’; the Arthur C Clarke Award for Literature comes to SCI-FI-LONDON. This award is one of the most prestigious book awards in the world and we are honoured to be asked to host the award ceremony. Shortlist available at www.sci-fi-london.com.

About the Awards:
The SCI-FI-LONDON Awards have been in place since the first festival back in 2002. Originally just awards for Best Feature and Best Short, they have grown to include over 20 awards and the coveted AUDIENCE AWARD. Previous movie winners have included: Mamoru Oshii’s AVALON and Shane Caruth’s PRIMER. Previous personalities include: VINNIE JONES for Best Newcomer to SF in the movie, SLIPSTREAM.

The SCI-FI-LONDON Audience Awards presented by Rogue TrooperTM will be announced after the festival. Full details of all the awards are available at www.sci-fi-london.com.

More information on the festival can be obtained from www.sci-fi-london.com

SCI-FI-LONDON movie list

UK PREMIERES:

SUBJECT TWO (USA 2005, Dir: Philip Chidel, 93mins, Colour)

High atop the world in his remote mountain cabin, Dr. Franklin Vick is engaged in highly unethical medical research. His field of expertise: resurrection. His test subject: Adam Schmidt - a troubled medical student who volunteers to be killed again and again in the name of science. Together, the doctor and his new assistant work in snowbound isolation, perfecting their death tactics before unleashing their discovery to the world. But there's a problem: Death has side effects...

Shot entirely on location in Aspen, Colorado, SUBJECT TWO is beautifully shot and looks fantastic. Something of a re-working of the classic Frankenstein tale, the movie has great tension and suspense – no excessive goryness or over the top effects, the movie is very claustrophobic and posses some big questions on what it means to be alive and should we use technology to tamper with nature. Reminiscent of FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY, with Michael Sarrazan, SUBJECT TWO is a smart monster-movie – and long overdue.

PUZZLEHEAD (USA 2005, Dir: James Bai, 81mins, Colour)

Set sometime “after the decline”, in a dreary, depopulated world where technology has been outlawed, a reclusive scientist named Walter secretly creates a self-aware android in his own image, affectionately calling him Puzzlehead. Walter finds him useful - as a project, a companion, a housekeeper, and his connection to the outside world.

Like a child, Puzzlehead develops his own personality and self-awareness through his experiences, ultimately leading to a curious love triangle when Puzzlehead meets Julia, a woman whom Walter has yearned for but never dared to approach. When Walter impersonates Puzzlehead to pursue Julia himself, the android and his maker are drawn into a sinister spiral of passion and betrayal. Does creating something in our own image mean transmitting intrinsically violent and emotional human flaws?

PUZZLEHEAD is to robot movies what PRIMER is to time travel – a sci-fi movie for grown ups that explores the uneasy relations between man and machine.

SURVIVE STYLE 5 (Japan 2003, Dir: Gen Sekiguchi, 120mins, Colour)

Five fantastical tales of crime and mayhem intersect in this absurdist Japanese comedy that has more inventive storytelling and surreal imagery than a dozen Miike movies. From the lunatics who bought us ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000v and ICHI THE KILLER comes a fabulously eccentric movie.

This is neo avant-garde cinema at its finest and nothing like you have ever seen before. Starring SONNY CHIBA and VINNIE JONES the movie twists, turns and leaps between five different stories; the businessman and his family, the stage hypnotist, the murderer, the burglars and the advertising executive – whose lives are all eventually touched by the assassins.

If you thought there were clever cuts in PULP FICTION and MEMENTO, forget it. SS5 offers something fresh, funny, ultra-violent, sexy and completely riveting This is what film was made for, cool, funny, meticulously designed and with an impeccable soundtrack.

CSA: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (USA 2005, Dir: Kevin Wilmott, 89mins)

Sci-Fi isn’t just about space travel and aliens, it’s about ideas and hypothesising alternative realities or possibilities, and if it has a strong political, social, philosophical or religious message behind it, so much the better. Confederate States of America has no spaceships but the ‘reality’ it portrays seems quite alien. What the film does is to take the classic starting point of “what if” and present it as a documentary. While some may call it a mockumentary, it is a serious, and powerful, piece of satire that uses the documentary format to give it credence.

The conceit behind this film is that the Confederates won the American Civil War and that not only is slavery correct and proper but the Negroes are better off because of it. The film is presented as an entire television programme created by the British Broadcasting Service, complete with a warning to viewers of its controversial nature, and commercial breaks for products such as Darky toothpaste and slave insurance. Although the director makes a joke out of the broadcast being of a banned foreign film, “unsuitable for children or servants”, the BBC4 documentary series, “The Power of Nightmares” by Adam Curtis, which exposes the US government as the inventors of Al Quaeda, and of having a long history of creating a state of fear (or terror if you like) in the US, has been completely banned from broadcast there, and that is no joke.

Apart from the fact that the racist attitudes alluded to still prevail in many areas of the US, it is the cleverly scripted voiceover and believable authority of the talking heads, similar to those that appear in ‘real’ documentaries, which give it its power. Coupled with the use of actual historical footage, photographs and paintings, whose meaning are completely altered by the accompanying dialogue, you are left wondering what is real and what is invented. Even the ‘historical’ scenes and public information films that have been recreated are made to look as if they were contemporary with faded colours and film scratches, further adding to the illusion.

Like any good satire, it does make you laugh, cautiously, because it is outrageous in every sense of the word, but its impact comes from its message. And, given recent events in the US (i.e. New Orleans), this is a timely reminder of US human rights issues and the fact that they are not the great democracy they claim to be.

This is the stuff of the most thought-provoking Sci-Fi.

FIRST ON THE MOON (Perviyje na lune) (Russia 2005, Dir: Aleksey Fedorchenko, 75mins Colour & b/w)

A wonderful “alternative history” told with style, this "mockumentary" mixes facts and fantasy, vintage footage, and fake footage to show the successes and failures, the injustices and contradictions in Stalinist Russia, using the space program as the basis.

The film begins in the spring of 1938, in the mountains of northern Chile, where a flying object fell, in flames. Investigation by a film crew uncovers a secret space program developed in the Soviet Union before World War II. Scientists and military authorities, the film would have you believe, had developed a spaceship 23 years before Yuri Gagarin ever went to space.

The perfect timing of each scene, the meticulous attention to detail, the amazing amateur cast (none of the actors have appeared in a film before) the deadpan voice-over, the humour, and even the surprisingly moving tragic scenes - if you know anything at all about Russia, there's everything to guarantee that you'll love this film.


TETSUJIN 28 (Japan 2004, Dir: Shin Togashi, 105mins, Colour)

Just as Godzilla was the first of Japan's giant monsters, Tetsujin-28 was the first of Japan's giant robots – though he is better known in the west as GIGANTOR. Tetsujin-28 is a breath of fresh air: a movie with optimism and great scenes of giant robots slugging it out in the heart of downtown Tokyo. A throwback to a time when families stuck together, and giant robots just needed their fists and a 12 year-old kid is our only hope.

Invented during World War II to defeat the Allied forces, the mighty mechanical warrior, Tetsujin-28, was bombed into oblivion before he could be unleashed, but was found unharmed years later by the son of his inventor, Shotaro Kaneda (Shosuke Ikematsu).

The live-action movie version of Tetsujin-28 kicks off when the mysterious Black Ox, a giant robot with detachable limbs and a bad attitude, begins to terrorize Tokyo. No one can stop him...except maybe Tetsujin-28. But the poor robot has been trapped underground, rusting away into nothingness ever since his inventor, and Shotaro's father, disappeared.

Now, Shotaro's grandfather brings the kid to the underground lab and forces the remote control into his hand telling him he must pilot the robot. This might be the chance for Shotaro to get his on back on the school bullies as well as save Tokyo.

Unconventional and surprising, this brightly-coloured comic book of a movie reminds us of what it was like when we believed in the future. Intoxicating nostalgia, taken shaken not stirred.

AINOA (Austria 2005, Dir: Marco Kalantari, 95mins, Colour)

The year is 2078 and a female android, Ainoa, developed to maintain the balance actually starts ‘the great nuclear war’. The members of a resistance group believe in a prophecy that ‘one’ among them will find Ainoa and reprogramme her so she can send a message to her creator – telling of the global devastation the war brings. It is said she knows how to find the Oracle and send messages into the past. The resistance steal Ainoa and Yuri, their leader, takes her on a journey to find the Oracle – along the way the two are drawn to each other and Ainoa starts to develop human feelings. If they change events in the past will they still be together in the present?

Ainoa is an interesting and beautiful science fiction fairy tale and love story, which questions how we actually affect each other, in the past and in the future. Epic in its visual style, with just a few naff Star Wars rippoffs, it is a well delivered movie from a country little known for producing sci-fi.

PLACES PROMISED IN OUR EARLY YEARS (Japan 2005, Dir: Makoto Shinkai, 90mins)

In an alternative reality, the end of World War II sees Japan is split into separate states; the Union and the Alliance. Two science students, Takuya and Hiroki, spend their time building a jet that they will take them to a mysterious tower that appeared on an island on the Union side of the border.

One of the stars of PLACES is the backgrounds. An incredible amount of care and detail is in every location. From sweeping grassy plains with epic cloud formations to the light and shadow falling across the baggage rack in a train, Shinkai grounds you in his world where the everyday is simply beautiful. By lingering on these places, Shinkai seeks to draw an emotional response from the viewer.

PLACES is ultimately a tale of friendship and loyalty, with overtones which reassure that what is lost can be regained. Shinkai meshes landscapes, characters and emotions with such elegant craft that places his work as some of the finest coming out of Japan. This is proof that MIYAZAKI is not the only animé director capable of producing truly majestic visions.

INSECTICIDAL (Canada 2005, Dir: Jeffery Lando, 85mins, Colour)

Cami, an unpopular science student living in a sorority house, accidentally loses one of her genetically altered insects, her housemates spray them with bug-spray to kill them, only to find they grow to human size!

Insecticidal is cheesy and low-tech and it’s not afraid to admit it. It’s a hilarious film that doesn’t take itself seriously, and flaunts its exploitative low-grade science fiction your face almost non-stop at every possible occasion… not that we’re complaining, mind you.

This is a true schlock movie - boobs, bugs, blood, guts, knives, a Jacuzzi and pizza! The B-movie is back and as great as ever!

LONDON PREMIERES:

DIE YOU ZOMBIE BASTARDS (USA 2004, Dir: Caleb Emerson, 97mins, Colour)

Red Toole is a lovable serial killer whose wife is captured by evil Baron Nefarious, who is of course planning to take over the world. Our hero dons his cape of human-flesh (from his own victims) to rescue the love of his life… Awwww.

On his quest he encounters mad dog-men, giant mosquitoes from space, robots, ninjas, porn stars and rockabilly guitarist Hasil Adkins – did we leave anything out? Oh yeah, we forgot the white hot molten cheese and the half-naked zombiechicks.

Tagged as “The world's first serial killer superhero rock'n'roll zombie road movie romance!” DYZB is funny, gory, and outrageous. It also has a superb soundtrack featuring THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS, COUNT SMOKULA and THE PHOTON TORPEDOES.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (Spain 2005, Dir: Carlos Atanes, 82mins, Colour)

In the future, Europe is ruled by an oppressive matriarchal society, The Sisterhood of Metacontrol, who forbid any kind of physical contact between the sexes on the grounds of hygiene. Angeline is inducted into the Sisterhood. Nono, her ‘houseboy’ and a servant to the Sisterhood spends much of his time in cyberspace viewing forbidden images of sensuality. The two of them travel together to one of the few remaining fertile areas in the North Pyrenees. But on the way back Nono stumbles into one of the illegal sexual broadcasts being taped by insurgents and they are arrested.

Atanes has an eye for unusual imagery - Anne-Céline Auché being inducted into the Sisterhood where the other women then put on rubber gloves and masking tape across their mouths before kissing her; the militant feminist sisterhood decide to blow up the Eiffel Tower because it is a phallic symbol; or where the hero comes across the revolutionaries making porn movies in the desert, with the lead actor (Antonio Vladimir) demanding motivation for his character.

Imagine Goddard’s ALPHAVILLE (1965) in high-colour or Lucas's THX 1138 (1971) conducted as a French art-house movie. FAQ is a cold dystopian film.

WHITE SKIN (Canada 2005, Dir: Daniel Roby, 92mins, Colour)

Thierry – a white, student from rural Quebec and Henri – a black, urban musician are roommates in Montreal. Out for a night on the town Henri purchases ‘intimate services’ for the pair of them.

Thierry hears screams of pain coming from Henri’s room down the hall and, kicking the door in, finds Henri fighting off his knife-wielding escort and bleeding profusely from a gash across his neck.

Soon after, Thierry meets Claire. He is fixated by the red headed musician and they begin an passionate relationship. Thierry is ecstatically happy until he meets Claire’s family and recognises her sister as Henri’s attacker. Thierry starts to understand how little he knows about Claire and her mysterious blood ties.

Beautifully shot and well performed this film is fresh and unique genre movie. Starting as a chilly meditation on race and skin colour, White Skin twists into something very unexpected.

CLASSICS:

LOGAN’S RUN (USA 1976, Dir: Michael Anderson, 120mins, Colour)

It is the 23rd Century. People live lives of languid pleasure in vast domed cities - the only catch no one is allowed to live beyond thirty. But there are those who refuse to accept death and become ‘Runners’, seeking the mythical place of asylum known as Sanctuary. An elite force, known as Sandmen, has been created to hunt the Runners. The city's controlling computer accelerates the lifeclock of 26 year old Sandman Logan and sends him to find Sanctuary. With the help of Jessica, he runs. While being pursued by his best friend and comrade Francis, Logan escapes outside the city, and soon they realise the true nature of their world.

This was a major studio movie when it was released and anyone who loves classic 70’s sci-fi should see this movie on the big screen.

SEKSMISJA (Sex Mission) (Poland 1984, Dir: Juliusz Machulski, 117mins, Colour)

Two scientists are placed in cryogenic hibernation planned to last three years. However, whilst in suspension World War III breaks out and life have been wiped out of the surface of the Earth. They wake up 50 years later to find they are the only living males in a new, underground society run exclusively of women. Their fate is to be decided.

The leaders, thorough system of propaganda, human control and changed history, focus on how "males" were evil - at one point the two are told that "Einstein was a woman" and "one man named Cain invented murder and tested it on his sister Abel". However, they manage to instil doubt in one woman and with her help discover that not everything is as it seems.

One needs to get beyond the comedy and excessive nudity in this movie to see it is a perfect satire of all totalitarian regimes and blind fanaticism.

AMERICAN ASTRONAUT (USA 2001, Dir: Cory McAbee, 91mins, B/W)

Imagine Laurel and Hardy in a western directed by Jim Jarmusch and you will still not be able to fully describe this movie. A pure example of how great independent cinema can be, and one of the most cinematically luscious films shot in B&W and on 35mm.

Space is a lonely town. Samuel Curtis, an interplanetary trader, sets forth through a rustic and remote solar system, unaware that his old friend Professor Hess is trying to kill him.

An avant-rock musical staged on the set of a Poverty Row noir, Cory McAbee's debut film (with music by his band the Billy Nayer Show) is an utterly unique experience and possibly the most delightfully idiosyncratic science fiction movie since John Carpenter's Dark Star.

The was the first movie screened at the first SCI-FI-LONDON – “didn’t I tell you…it’s my birthday”

ALL-NIGHTERS

ANIMÉ-ALLNIGHT:

An infamous part of London’s nightlife, the annual animé all-nighter is again set to be a sell-out event. A feast for the eyes we bring some amazing movies. Come on the journey from midnight to morning, along the way we can travel underwater, into the future and to the farthest galaxies.

PLACES PROMISED IN OUR EARLY YEARS (as above)

GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE
(Japan 2004, Dir: Mamoru Oshii, 100mins, Colour)
A classic sequel to a classic film. Innocence is a film of extraordinary beauty and hauntingly meditative reflection on the nature of humanity and the artificial. Sit back and let your eyes enjoy.

KARAS: THE PROPHECY
(Japan/USA 2006, Dir: ,80mins, Colour) – UK PREMIERE

Karas, (The Crow) is best described as Batman with a Samurai Sword or a Cyber-punk version of The Crow. Karas takes place in Tokyo, a city populated by both humans and ghostly beings. They exist in two dimensions; seen and unseen- spirits, apparitions and demons. Karas is the city’s guardian, and Tokyo is thrown into disarray as a former Karas named Eko attempts to seize power and bring order to the streets through force. An entity named Yurine, who represents the will of the people, stands in Eko’s way with her newly risen Karas. Now two Karas emerge to destroy either all of the demons or destroy all humanity. Which Karas will prevail?

This movie raises the bar even higher for Animé – a mix of 2D/3D styles this is amazing eye-candy. Remember how everyone bragged about seeing AKIRA at the cinema – Karas is surely the next “must-see”

This dubbed version is voiced by Jay Hernandez (Hostel, Crazy/Beautiful), Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby Doo 2) and Piper Perabo (Cheaper by the Dozen, Coyote Ugly)

FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENT CHILDREN
(Japan 2005, Dir: TETSUYA NOMURA, 100mins, Colour) - UK PREMIERE
Based on the hugely popular gaming franchise, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is an epic animated adventure set against the backdrop of a world dominated by the corrupt Shinra Inc.

Set two years after the events of the Final Fantasy VII computer game, Cloud Strife, a former soldier for Shinra, now leads a solitary life travelling the Planet as a transporter, still burdened with emotional scars from his last battle. Weighed down by memories of loved ones he has lost, he is devoid of hope as he ventures to save the children struck down with the deadly disease Geostigma. We follow Cloud on his journey to uncover the truth about the origins of this plague. As destruction reigns in the city and our heroes are locked in battle, a familiar face returns – Sephiroth.

This is truly breathtaking animation.

THE MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 – ALLNIGHTER

MST3K, ran from 1988 – 1999 in the USA and became a cult comedy classic. The format basically features a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a satellite in space and forced to watch particularly bad movies. During its eleven years and 198 episodes (including one feature film), MST3K attained a fiercely loyal fan base, and much critical acclaim.

Try to explain what MST3K is and you either confuse them or start to sound like a weirdo. Truth is those that get it love it. This is the stuff of a perfect all-nighter! Join us for some classic movies and some brilliantly funny dialogue. The four movies we have selected are:

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE (USA 1962, Dir: Joseph Green, 82mins, B&W)
When a brilliant surgeon crashes his car and his fiancée is decapitated, his research with rejuvenation - far from complete - is put to the test. Managing to keep her head alive, his focus becomes finding an appropriate donor body to make his fiancée whole. His quest takes him deep into the world of seedy nightclubs and artists models.

SPACE MUTINY (USA 1988, Dir: David Winters, 93mins, Colour)
The starship "Southern Sun," is looking for a new planet to colonise, but the ship's security crew, lead by the evil Kalgan, are growing restless, not wanting to live out their lives in space. They plan a mutiny; it’s up to pilot Dave Ryder, Doctor Lea, and the rest of the crew to stop Kalgan. Plenty of railing deaths and the slowest vehicle chase on film!

PRINCE OF SPACE (Japan 1959, Dir: Eijiro Wakabayashi, 121mins, B&W)
Spacemen from the planet Krankor (who look chickens with antennas on their heads) are led by their leader, Phantom, to invade Earth. They kidnap the world’s best (but most boring) scientists and hold them hostage. Prince of Space arrives and with the help of three kids, who were formerly boot-blacks, tries to save the day. One of the worst Japanese movies ever it is completely endearing – a classic MST3K episode “We like it very much”

TIME CHASERS (Canada 1994, Dir: David Giancola, 89mins, Colour)

Plucky Nick Miller is a physics expert and invents a way to make his ultra-light plane travel through time – the future looks bright. He invites TransCorp to a demonstration of the device and signs over the plans. He gets romantically involved with Bonnie, a local journalist and takes her on a trip into the future only to find it has changed into something from Mad Max. Later he discovers that TransCorp’s CEO is using the machine for, you guessed it, evil.

This is a brilliant MST3K episode and we are delighted to be able to screen an exclusive “Making of TIME CHASERS” from the movie’s Director, David Giancola.


BLOODLUST ALLNIGHTER
what would an all-nighter line-up be without a little something to scare your rigid? Remember to bring silver bullets, garlic, crosses and holy water – you never know who will be sitting next to you?

INNOCENT BLOOD (USA 1992, Dir: John Landis, 112mins, Colour)

Marie (Anne Parillaud, LA FEMME NIKITA), a sexy vampire only kills the scum of the city and controls vampire overpopulation by blowing the heads off her victims with a shotgun after feeding!

One night she “fancies an Italian” and attacks a gang of mobsters accidentally turning mob moss Sal 'The Shark' (Robert Loggia, INDEPENDENCE DAY) into a vampire. Sal realises his new power and creates a gang of bloodsucking gangsters. It's up to Marie and cop Joe Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia, WITHOUT A TRACE) to stop them.

Funny, scary, sexy and the best use of handcuffs in a movie – ever!

PRINCE OF DARKNESS (USA 1987, Dir: John Carpenter, 102mins, Colour)

A sinister secret has been kept in the basement of an abandoned Los Angeles church for many years. With the death of a priest belonging to a mysterious sect, another priest opens the door to the basement and discovers a vat of green liquid. The priest contacts a group of physics graduate students to investigate it. Unfortunately, they discover that the liquid contains the essence of Satan himself, intent of returning to Earth. Will they be able to stop him? One of Carpenter’s finest and a really scary movie to boot.

NIGHTWATCH (Nochnoi Dozor) (Russia 2004, Dir: Timur Bekmambetov, 114mins, Colour)

Among us live the "Others", beings with supernatural powers, some good and evil. Several centuries ago, after a devastating battle, a truce was called. With the ‘forces of light’ governing the day while the night belongs to their ‘dark’ opponents. In modern day Moscow the dark “Others” roam the night as vampires while a "Night Watch" makes sure they don’t get too out of hand. Anton is no-angel and a new recruit to the Night Watch, will his past be his undoing and will it upset the balance?

If you missed this on its limited theatrical run then here is your last chance for a while, and this movie HAS to be seen on the big screen. Stylish and visually stunning.

CRONOS (Mexico 1993, Dir: Guillermo del Toro, 94mins, Colour)

In 1535, an alchemist builds an extraordinary mechanism encapsulated into a small golden scarab. The device gives eternal life to its owner but the youthful vigour it brings is countered by a vampire's need for blood. However, the promise of eternal life has become an obsession to old and sick Mr. De la Guardia. He and his nephew (Perlman) will do anything to get the "Chronos Invention".

A winner of over 20 awards including a special award at Cannes in ’93 - Del Toro delivers a stylish and inventive reinvention of the vampire legend.