Vengeful female ghosts are a staple in folklore, horror fiction and cinema. Disembodied and freed from the patriarchal grasp and domination of the female body, they are empowered to avenge those who wronged them when they were alive. The Lady in White, The Slit-Mouthed Woman, La Llorona, Bloody Mary… they’re all versions of the same figure. We take over the Masonic Temple to explore this recurring ghostly figure.
Saturday 21st April
12.30 The Uninvited + panel discussion
US 1944
Director: Lewis Allen
With: Ray Millard, Gail Russell, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp
While holidaying in Cornwall, American composer Rick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) fall in love and buy an abandoned 18th-century manor, Windward House. Very soon after moving in, strange occurrences start happening and the siblings must confront the house’s history. One of the first film to take ghostly apparitions and possession seriously, this American chiller remains seriously creepy.
In this panel discussion, The Final Girls will dive into what are the cinematic archetypes for female ghosts, and their hidden feminist power.
16.00 Kuroneko
Japan 1968
Director: Kaneto Shindo
With: Nobuko Otwoa, Kiwako Taichi, Kichiemon Nakamura
This cinematic retelling of the venerable Japanese folktale A Cat's Revenge is set in the 12th century. After Yone (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law Shige (Kiwako Taichi) are raped and killed by renegade samurai warriors, they come back to life as ghosts to seek revenge on them and all samurais.
Sunday 22nd April
13.00 The Others
Spain 2001
Director: Alejándro Amenábar
With: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan
At the tail end of WW2, Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her two children retire to a mansion on Jersey, where they wait for her husband to return from war. Eager to shield her photosensitive children from the outside world, Grace runs the house with strict and strange rules, which will be broken when she hires a group of servants for them and her daughter Anne starts claiming she is seeing ghosts.
15.00 Whispering Corridors
South Korea 1998
Director: Park Ki-hyung
With: Choi Se-yeon, Kim Gyu-ri Lee Mi-yeon
A teacher in an an all-female high school, Mrs. Park (Yong-nyeo Lee) discovers that her former student Jin-ju is "definitely dead, but still attending school". The next day, she is found brutally murdered by three students, who must deal with a sadistic teacher, teenage bullying and a violent ghost.
This event is in partnership with East End Film Festival