A delectably macabre and delightfully eerie mash-up of unsettling screenings and events, from murder and mayhem, mind control and body snatching.

Saturday 4th - Sunday 5th July

Words by Andrew Simpson (East End Film Festival): "A line up of amazing films and events within the confines of an atmospheric, hidden Masonic Temple. From 16mm screenings of classic horror films to a day of brainwashing cinema, and from a live Puppini Sisters performance recorded onto Soviet X-Rays to our very own Masked Masquerade Ball complete with a host of macabre performance, live music and mystery."

Line-Up (Saturday 4th July):

1:00pm | Electric Sheep Presents: The Dead Eyes of London + Talk

Director: Alfred Vohrer | USA | 1961 | 104 min

Nothing is as it looks in this murder mystery lead by a mysterious reverend. Followed by a special talk on krimi cinema hosted by Electric Sheep’s Alex Fitch, who will be joined by author and critic Kim Newman, and author Jim.

Miskatonic Graduation

A ceremony for the graduates of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London.

4:00pm | Cigarette Burns Presents: The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail (16mm)

Director: Sergio Martino | Italy | 1971 | 90 min

This deliciously macabre setting paired with a lustrous 16mm projection make this a rare opportunity to sample this devilishly entertaining 70s thriller as a millionaire dies in a mysterious freak accident leaving his widow set to enjoy the rich spoils.

8:00pm | Macabre Masonic Masquerade + Screening of Judex

Director: Georges Franju | France | 1963 | 98 min

Come join the macabre night of ballroom play, immersive cinema and murder mystery masquerade featuring a screening of Favraux’s thrilling pulp-hero remake of the 1916 French film serial of the same name.

Line-Up (Sunday 5th July):

Deprogramme: A Mind Control Experiment

From the outer perimeters of cultism to the inner workings of governmental institutions bent on controlling their citizens, Deprogramme invites you to test your own capacity for mind control. Across a whole day, EEFF will be communicating with you through a series of screenings, talks and interactive indulgences. They will investigate the stories behind some of history’s most renowned sects, whether their leaders were eccentric megalomaniacs or at the centre of government control.

From the process of indoctrination to the terrible results of mind control, Deprogramme will lead you into thought experiments of the darkest order. It is your choice whether you follow.

Highlights include: An ex-cult member re-enacts their own past in Moonchild, a vicious act of violence on the Japanese metro in the shocking documentary A, a special insight into the world’s most famous deprogrammer, and an array of dissonance, public information films and subliminal messages. Further information to be communicated to you by telepathy, listen for the white noise... 

12:00pm | Cigarette Burns Presents: The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (16mm screening)

Director: Don Siegel | USA | 1956 | 80 min

One of the most iconic horror classics ever made, Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers sees the sleepy California town of Santa Mira invaded by the ‘pod people’, duplicate replacement humans grown from plant pods from outer space. When a local doctor discovers the plot to replace the human race, he must race to stop the invasion before it’s too late. A brilliantly tense portrait of mass indoctrination and control, screened on gloriously atmospheric 16mm.

2:00pm | East End Film Festival Presents: A

Director: Tatsuya Mori | Japan | 1998 | 136 min

Aum Shinrikyo, the Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway, becomes the subject of this riveting, horrifying documentary. Delve into the world of extreme brainwashing for dark, violent ends, and the code that lead to a group of people carrying out one of the most infamous terror attacks in recent history.

4:00pm | East End Film Festival Presents: Moonchild

Director: Anne Makepeace | USA | 1983 | 60 min

Former cult members play versions of themselves in Moonchild, a very special kind of horror cinema in which art imitates life. Chris Carlson is invited to a sleepy retreat in California by a friendly woman he meets, and finds himself slowly being indoctrinated by the Moonies, led by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Turned into an automaton by his new leaders,a  group of ‘deprogrammers’ attempt to rescue him from this dar world of brainwashing. But what path will he choose?

Followed by a discussion the mechanics of brain washing, mind control and deprogramming by experts in the field, covering issues such as secret CIA mind control experiments and cults such as those explored in Moonchild and A.

6:00pm | East End Film Festival Presents: Day Night Day Night

Director: Julia Loktev | USA, Germany | 2006 | 94 min

A 19-year-old girl prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. Of unknown origin, she speaks with a nondescript American accent. We never learn why she made her decision, only that she seems to be carrying out her attack with the cold precision of an acolyte. Perhaps the most definitive film made wince 9/11 on the subject of modern political violence, this is an unmissable, little-seen drama of nail biting tension, indoctrination and belief, which challenges our expectations of where ‘terrorists’ might come from, and dangerous meaning of ‘programming’ in the modern age; all ending in Times Square, at the moment of truth.