We're headed into Halloween and one Merseyside institution is packing its schedule with all manner of monsters, vampires, buttoned-eyed parents and other disgusting gribblies to mark the occasion.
A lot of horror stories begin with the unsuspecting victim wandering off down a dark alley and this is no exception as the Bijou cinema, officially a hidden gem, is down a dark alley in Southport.
A lot of people don't even know it exists and if you're one of them you've been missing out. It's been going for four years now and has built up a loyal community who enjoy watching classic movies with a bottle of local Sandgrounder bitter and for cheap prices (£^ a ticket for none members, £5 for members).
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Recent special events have included watching all three extended edition versions of the Lord of the Rings movies on the same (beginning before noon and ending in the early hours), as well as the slightly less bum-numbing Back to the Future trilogy.
Next week (Sunday, Oct 22) they are showing the Universal classics Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939) beginning from noon, with tickets available for each individual film.
Also part of their horror season is classic science gone wrong story Quatermass and the Pit (1967), scary kids animation Coraline (2009) from the mind of Neil Gaiman, the delightfully painful Hellraiser (1987) (original story by Liverpool's own Clive Barker), 80s teen vampire flick the Lost Boys (also 1987 and which nearly ruined egg fried rice for me), and Sam Raimi's gonzo horror-comedy Evil Dead 2 (again 1987, AKA the best Evil Dead). They finish up with The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), silent movie The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho (2021), Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Pan's Labyrinth (2006) from Guillermo Del Toro.
Bijou cinema Andy Harrison said: "Having opened in late October originally, and being a personal favourite genre of lots of the staff, the Bijou has always had a close personal connection to Halloween, and is always a favourite with our customer base.
"With plenty of Halloween decorations in our lobby and the cinema all spookified, our loyal fans feedback how much they love the atmosphere and fun in the Bijou around this time of year.
"Films like the black and white Universal classics, such as Frankenstein, are a great example of how the Bijou helps audiences to look back to a great era of cinema and celebrate what it created, and we're so grateful to both be supported by the community of Southport, but also to be a part of offering these pieces of cinema history to first time viewers."
For more details on the Bijou, including where to find it, membership details. and film times go here and for our feature on the cinema go here. They don't show adverts so make sure to get there on time!
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