This programme is a celebration of our 20th anniversary with the 10 best horror films screened at LIAF over the years.
Doors: 8.30pm [programme starts at 9pm]
Tickets: £8 [£6 concession]
Independent animation is an art form that continues to thrive and develop as a
breath-taking medley of styles, materials, techniques and production – from hand-
drawn, paint on glass, collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppets, abstract to some of the
more interesting developments in CGI – all of which can be seen at this year’s LIAF.
This programme is a celebration of our 20th anniversary with the 10 best horror films
screened at LIAF over the years.
Horror! At its most profound; its most clenching and suffocating foundation, horror is
fundamentally a state of mind. Experienced at full volume, horror grips the brain and
ignites some of the simplest animal-level emotions and responses that have been
hardwired into our circuitry since before we could see, hear or think, shutting down
most other functions in the process. Different from ‘frightening’, horror forces itself
into our minds like a poisonous gas that seeps in, no matter how carefully we try to
stop the gaps.
The best horror reminds us that a monster lurks within us and lurks within the person
sitting next to us. A fright is one thing, but coming face to face with that escapee is
the horror. And so this is the dark-matter that fuelled the selection process for this
very special programme. If words struggle to adequately describe ‘the horror’ then
pictures must step up. And what better pictures than those crafted by some of the
most creative imaginations on the planet.
In our 20-year history we have screened hundreds of films that fall into the ‘horror’
category. We have hand-picked 10 of the big audience favourites with a couple of
our favourites thrown in for good measure. We could have gone for cheap thrills and
the sudden shock. But we want something more valuable than your nervous
laughter. We want you to leave a small part of your soul behind in this cinema. We
want you to leave having felt The Horror.
Invocation | A grotesquely surreal deconstruction of the guts of stop-motion animation. [UK, 2013 | Dir: Robert Morgan | 3’00]
Happy End | A black comedy about death with a happy ending. A splendid chain of unlikely
encounters. Hunters, a tractor driver, a disco boy, and a corpse. [Czech Republic, 2015 | Dir: Jan Saska | 5’40]
Underlife | Can man be free from the impact that time and place of birth have on his life? A
metaphorical tale of a baby stroller, inspired by Krzysztof Komeda’s “Lullaby.” [Poland, 2010 | Dir: Jaroslaw Konopka | 8’30]
Stand Up | Car-crash comedy at its most compulsive. Told through a single stand-up comedy
routine, John J Jones performs to an unforgiving audience. As he loses their interest,
his body rebels against him, and the truth behind the one-liners leaks through the
cracks. [ UK, 2007 | Dir: Joseph Pierce | 6’55]
Chaud Lapin | A corny but passionate love story featuring the forgotten art of model shipbuilding.
[France, 2014 | Dir: Geraldine Gaston, Floria Andrivon, Alexis Magaud, Mael Berreur &
Soline Bejuy | 5’20]
Teeth | A look inside a mouth punished through the years by caramel apples, fist fights, and
painful dental visits. Narrated by Richard E. Grant. [UK/Hungary/USA, 2015 | Dir: Daniel Gray & Tom Brown | 5’55]
Face | A twisted, spectacular depiction of a face trapped in a dangerous prison of the mind. [France, 2007 | Dir: Hendrick Dusollier | 5’45]
Angry Man | A film about family secrets that shouldn’t be secret. [Norway, 2009 | Dir: Anita Killi | 20’00]
The Labyrinth | The mind is a labyrinth of pathways and corridors, each one reacting differently to
being locked up and trapped. [Belgium, 2013 | Dir: Mathieu Labaye | 9’20]
Johnno’s Dead | Serving twelve years behind bars for a crime you didn’t commit focuses the mind. A terrifying and twisted tale of obsession, destruction and revenge. [UK/France 2016 | Dir: Chris Shepherd | 8’25]