Capital Celluloid - Day 261: Tuesday September 20

Thundercrack! (McDowell, 1975): The Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury, 6.30pm

This is part of the Scala Forever season, a programme of 111 films and events at 26 venues through to October 2 that will celebrate the wonderful Scala cinema at King's Cross which closed in 1993. Here is an article I wrote in the Guardian on the history of the cinema and the season and here are the details of all the movies and special events on offer, via the Scala Forever website.

Here is the Scala Forever website introduction to what promises to be a special night: Electric Sheep, a deviant view of cinema, is the online magazine for lovers of offbeat, left-field and cult cinema. It celebrates the celluloid dreams of the most outlandish, provocative and visionary directors, the marginal and the transgressive, the poetic and the punk.

Recently publishing a book of film essays The End with Strange Attractor Press, they have joined forces to celebrate the legendary Scala Cinema with a screening of demented horror porno-comedy Thundercrack. The screening will be preceded by a discussion, hosted by Virginie Selavy, from Electric Sheep, about the life and times of the Scala with Jane Giles, former Scala film programmer and currently Head of Content at the BFI, horror maestro Kim Newman and Mark Pilkington, publisher of Strange Attractor Press and a regular Scala visitor. Taking place at the Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury’s home for the avant-garde since 1993.

Time Out review:

'The cult classic of weirdo hardcore, an irresistibly infuriating bad taste whip of raunch and skewed melodrama, like a very horny Soap, that quite literally leaves you unsure of whether you're coming or going. Often seen cut, but in the full-length version there's more of George Kuchar's parodically overripe dialogue, tracking the convergence of storm-tossed travellers (a gorilla included) on cackling Gertie's Old Dark masturbatorium, and giving a slower fuse to the series of casual libidinous explosions there. But there's also more of Kuchar's truly brilliant trash-noir lighting through which to peer at the pickles, the puke, and the polymorphs.' Paul Taylor


Here is the opening.