The Prince Charles Cinema

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Mulholland Dr.
2001 147mins USA, France (15) Neo Noir
Directed by David Lynch Starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux

A dark-haired woman (Laura Elena Harring) is left amnesiac after a car crash. She wanders the streets of Los Angeles in a daze before taking refuge in an apartment. There she is discovered by Betty (Naomi Watts), a wholesome Midwestern blonde who has come to the City of Angels seeking fame as an actress. Together, the two attempt to solve the mystery of Rita's true identity. The story is set in a dream-like Los Angeles, spoilt neither by traffic jams nor smog.

Gothic
1986 88mins United Kingdom (18) Psychological Horror
Directed by Ken Russell Starring Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson

Living on an estate on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lord Byron is visited by Percy and Mary Shelley. Together with Byron's lover Claire Clairmont, and aided by hallucinogenic substances, they devise an evening of ghoulish tales. However, when confronted by horrors, ostensibly of their own creation, it becomes difficult to tell apparition from reality.

Cure
1997 111mins Japan (15) Horror
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa Starring Kôji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki

A detective starts spiraling out of control when a wave of gruesome murders with seemingly similar bizarre circumstances are sweeping Tokyo.

Eraserhead
1977 89mins USA (18) Mind F**k
Directed by David Lynch Starring Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph

First time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child. David Lynch arrived on the scene in 1977, almost like a mystical UFO gracing the landscape of LA with its enigmatic radiance. His inaugural work, "Eraserhead" (1977), stood out as a cinematic anomaly, painting a surreal narrative of a young man navigating a dystopian, industrialized America, grappling not only with his tumultuous home life but also contending with an irate girlfriend and a mutant child.

Rear Window
1954 111mins USA (PG) Thriller / Mystery
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

The Lair of the White Worm
1988 93mins United Kingdom (18) Supernatural / Horror
Directed by Ken Russell Starring Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi

On a farm owned by Eve Trent and her sister Mary, young archaeologist Angus Flint discovers a large and inexplicable skull, which he soon deduces belonged to the D'Ampton Worm, a mythical beast supposedly slain generations ago by the ancestor of the current Lord D'Ampton. The predatory Lady Sylvia Marsh soon takes an interest in both Flint and the virginal Eve, hinting that the vicious D'Ampton Worm may still live.

The Thing
1982 108mins USA (18) Sci-Fi / Horror
Directed by John Carpenter Starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David

In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot (Kurt Russell) and the camp doctor (Richard Dysart) lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one.

One Cut of the Dead (Kamera o tomeru na!)
2018 96mins Japan (15) Comedy / Horror
Directed by Shinichiro Ueda Starring Takayuki Hamatsu / Mao / Harumi Shuhama / Kazuaki Nagaya

Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie film in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility when they are attacked by real zombies.

The Tingler
1959 82mins USA (15) Sci-Fi / Horror
Directed by William Castle Starring Vincent Price, Philip Coolidge, Judith Evelyn

A pathologist experiments with a deaf-mute woman who is unable to scream to prove that humans die of fright due to an organism he names The Tingler that lives within each person on the spinal cord and is suppressed only when people scream when scared.

Jennifer's Body
2009 102mins USA (15) Teen / Horror
Directed by Karyn Kusama Starring Megan Fox, Adam Brody, Amanda Seyfried

When a demon takes possession of her, high-school hottie Jennifer (Megan Fox) turns a hungry eye on guys who never stood a chance with her before. While evil Jennifer satisfies her appetite for human flesh with the school's male population, her nerdy friend, Needy (Amanda Seyfried), learns what's happening and vows to put an end to the carnage.

Tetsuo : The Iron Man
64mins Japan (18) Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto Starring Shinya Tsukamoto, Tomoroh Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka, Naomasa Musaka, Renji Ishibashi

A "metal fetishist" (Shin'ya Tsukamoto), driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman (Tomorowo Taguchi) and his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.

Manhunter
1986 117mins USA (18) Horror / Crime
Directed by Michael Mann Starring William Petersen, Kim Greist, Brian Cox, Joan Allen

An FBI Agent is called out of early retirement to catch a serial killer. He asks for the help of his arch-nemesis, Dr Hannibal Lecter.

Nosferatu
1922 94mins Germany (PG) Horror
Directed by F.W. Murnau Starring Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim

This performance will feature a live score performed by Hugo Max.

"I first saw Murnau’s Symphony of Horror when I was nine years old. The film’s expressionistic images continue to haunt me, the chiaroscuro compositions tapping vividly into timeless subconscious fears.

My improvisations on viola and piano draw inspiration from the leitmotifs and sound effects of 70s horror soundtracks and the languages of Second Viennese School composers contemporary to Murnau, also Jewish Traditional Music that informs my personal approach to creating a score for the film." - Hugo Max

Please view this YouTube video for a sample of Hugo's work.


Photo Credit - Richard Ecclestone

An iconic film of the German expressionist cinema, and one of the most famous of all silent movies, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror continues to haunt — and, indeed, terrify — modern audiences with the unshakable power of its images. By teasing a host of occult atmospherics out of dilapidated set-pieces and innocuous real-world locations alike, Murnau captured on celluloid the deeply-rooted elements of a waking nightmare, and launched the signature "Murnau-style" that would change cinema history forever.

In this first-ever screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, a simple real-estate transaction leads an intrepid businessman deep into the superstitious heart of Transylvania. There he encounters the otherworldly Count Orlok — portrayed by the legendary Max Schreck, in a performance the very backstory of which has spawned its own mythology — who soon after embarks upon a cross-continental voyage to take up residence in a distant new land... and establish his ambiguous dominion. As to whether the count's campaign against the plague-wracked populace erupts from satanic decree, erotic compulsion, or the simple impulse of survival — that remains, perhaps, the greatest mystery of all in this film that's like a blackout...

Friday The 13th
1980 95mins USA (18) Horror
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor

A group of teenage camp counselors attempt to re-open an abandoned summer camp with a tragic past, but they are stalked by a mysterious, relentless killer.

I Saw the TV Glow
2024 100mins (15) Horror / Drama
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun Starring Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman

Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen's view of reality begins to crack.

Perfect Blue
1997 81mins Japan (18) Anime
Directed by Satoshi Kon| Toshi Starring Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji

"THE COLOUR OF ILLUSION IS PERFECT BLUE"

A young Japanese singer is encouraged by her agent to quit singing and pursue an acting career, beginning with a role in a murder mystery TV show.

Faust (1926)
1926 115mins (PG) Fantasy
Directed by F. W. Murnau Starring Gösta Ekman

F. W. Murnau’s 1926 reimagining of the Faustian legend narratively draws upon the dramas of Goethe and Marlowe while blazing with a singular visual power. Epic in scale and breathtakingly fantastical, Faust is propelled by tragic urgency and romance. An ode to the triumphant power of love, this film explores themes that permeate and unite Murnau’s oeuvre. My viola soundtrack combines the expressionistic gestures of central European music from the 1920s with references to the treasure trove of Faust-inspired compositions.


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Max Plays Murnau – UK Tour 2025

Join Hugo Max as he accompanies a daring triptych of films by F. W. Murnau (1888-1931) this spring with live soundtracks on solo viola.

Following the success of his 2024 UK Tour, Max improvises scores to Murnau’s classic Nosferatu (1922), chamber drama The Last Laugh (1924) and epic Faust (1926) at cinemas across the UK. His vivid performances breathe new life into Murnau’s expressionistic imagery.

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A film from the holdings of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung (www.murnau-stiftung.de) in Wiesbaden.

The Silence of the Lambs
1991 119mins USA (15) Horror / Thriller
Directed by Jonathan Demme Starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney

Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

The Wicker Man - The Final Cut
1973 94mins UK (15) Horror
Directed by Robin Hardy Starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento

A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.

Prince of Darkness
1987 101mins USA (15) Horror
Directed by John Carpenter Starring Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker

Poking around in a church cellar, a priest (Donald Pleasence) finds an otherworldly vial filled with slime. Frightened, he brings his discovery to a circle of top scholars and scientists, who eventually learn that the strange liquid is the essence of Satan. The slime then begins to seep out, turning some of the academics into zombified killers. As the possessed battle the survivors, student Kelly (Susan Blanchard) is infected by a large quantity of the liquid and becomes Satan personified.

In the Mouth of Madness
1994 96mins USA (18) Horror / Fantasy
Directed by John Carpenter Starring Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, Sam Neil

When horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow) goes missing, insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) scrutinizes the claim made by his publisher, Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston), and endeavors to retrieve a yet-to-be-released manuscript and ascertain the writer's whereabouts. Accompanied by the novelist's editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), and disturbed by nightmares from reading Cane's other novels, Trent makes an eerie nighttime trek to a supernatural town in New Hampshire.

Psycho
1960 108mins USA (15) Horror
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles

Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel and meets the polite but highly strung proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother.

American Psycho
2000 101mins Canada, USA (18) Horror
Directed by Mary Harron Starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Chloe Sevigny

A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.

The Evil Dead [1981]
1981 85mins USA (18) Horror
Directed by Sam Raimi Starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor

Ashley "Ash" Williams (Bruce Campbell), his girlfriend and three pals hike into the woods to a cabin for a fun night away. There they find an old book, the Necronomicon, whose text reawakens the dead when it's read aloud. The friends inadvertently release a flood of evil and must fight for their lives or become one of the evil dead. Ash watches his friends become possessed, and must make a difficult decision before daybreak to save his own life in this, the first of Sam Raimi's trilogy.

Evil Dead II
1987 85mins USA (15) Horror / Comedy
Directed by Sam Raimi Starring Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks

Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) returns to battle horrifying demons at a secluded cabin in the woods. After discovering an audiotape left by a college professor that contains voices reading from the Book of the Dead, Ash's girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) becomes possessed by evil spirits that are awakened by the voices on the tape. Ash soon discovers there is no escaping the woods.

On Sunday 6th October, the short film THE HECKLER (2024) will be presented prior to EVIL DEAD II. 

THE HECKLER
Director: Scott Castles & Chevy Mclaren
Starring: Ginnia Cheng, Edward Mannion, Ricardo Freitas, and Chevy Mclaren
UK / 2024 / Comedy/Horror

A failing Stand-up comedian is accosted by a demon Heckler.

Army of Darkness
1992 96mins USA (15) Horror / Comedy
Directed by Sam Raimi Starring Bruce Campbell, Bridget Fonda, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie

Ash is transported back to medieval days, where he is captured by the dreaded Lord Arthur. Aided by the deadly chainsaw that has become his only friend, Ash is sent on a perilous mission to recover the Book of the Dead, a powerful tome that gives its owner the power to summon an army of ghouls.