Film: It Lives Inside

Today, I succumbed to the pressure, and joined The Hideout: Horror SciFi Club London for the Frightfest at Cineworld Leicester Square, where we saw It Lives Inside, an Indian possession horror. Yes, a morning film - ah well, they have a huge schedule to pack in. I groggily took a couple of buses - the second, unfortunately, I rode facing backwards, which I hate: so I was a bit worse for wear when I reached my destination. Where the cinema wasn't open yet - cue lots of people in black t-shirts, many with appropriately horrific logos on them, wandering aimlessly around Leicester Square on a sunny Friday morning. To the bemusement of tourists.

I found the organiser in due course, and after some time, we were indeed let in. (There's quite a cool moving graphic on the stairs, but I couldn't get a good shot.) I bought some chocolate to keep me going - which turned out to be in an unopenable pack. Which problem was solved when he decimated the pack.. to be fair, there wasn't much option. We turned out to be in the big screen - nice - and of course, my grey QR code wouldn't scan; the usher suggested it might be because the phone was in dark mode and lo, that did indeed solve the problem! You live and learn..

Now, some of the film is in Hindi, with English subtitles - fine, if we could have seen them, but at the beginning, the bottom of the screen cut them off! Happily, most of the film is actually in English, being set in the States - and by the time they were speaking Hindi at the end, the issue had been fixed.

I've seen some Indian horror before, and wasn't massively impressed - so I was pleasantly surprised by this. Our protagonist is trying to fit into American society - not doing too badly, really - but it does mean she's rather disconnected from her Indian heritage. So I guess you could call it karma when she finds herself facing a demon straight out of Indian legend..

I think there was a general consensus afterwards that we preferred the bits where the demon was invisible - it did seem to be able to turn that on and off as required. Certainly, I have a personal fondness for people being lifted into the air and such, by an invisible agent. This is also one of those demons that seems to prefer darkness - so, keep those lights on.. 

Only one of the group was massively impressed - but I certainly liked it. The jump scares - as usual - are annoying, and I perhaps would have shot it a bit differently. But I did like the whole element of using traditional folklore to vanquish a demon - for an exorcism, it's bell, book and candle; for this pishach, an offering of meat seems to placate it, and there's a kind of prayer of stillness you can use to keep it at bay. By the way, that jam jar it's kept in - initially, at least - isn't a fabrication; my first ever Meetup was a demonic conference, organised by ASSAP, and one of the presenters described how that is exactly the way to trap a demon..

In short, definitely worth checking out if you're into demons..

Afterwards, we repaired to Clubhouse 5 - where management had kindly reserved the entire upper section of the ground level for us!

Well, my tummy wasn't quite up to eating - so I drank instead. I was last back from the bar - so I missed the kickoff of the match of the day! See, we had a rather passionate Italian member of the group with a particular (anti-Trump) leaning - can't blame her for that, personally. Unfortunately, upon meeting someone who lived in America, she asked her whether she was pro- or anti-Trump. And upon hearing that, ahem, she was a Trump supporter, the vehement anti-Trump person.. suffered quite a violent reaction. Probably hasn't met a lot of them, I suppose. Anyway, after a dramatic rant - she flounced off. Out of the bar, out of the group. Didn't even finish her drink. Crikey, she wouldn't want to be doing that too often.. and it's a pity, because she seemed interesting. Well, we stayed on, a couple of other people arrived, and we had a nice afternoon. With a mixture of chat about horror films and, eh, politics - predictably, I guess..

Food-wise, I just had chips. Which, I have to say, were very nice.

Frightfest didn't have anything I really fancied seeing tonight - just as well, because tomorrow morning, I'm back at last with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners! This walk is called Filthy River.. and I'm now paying him by bank transfer, at his suggestion - much handier than having to find change all the time. Then I'm racing across town for another Hideout social at Clubhouse 5. Hopefully without the drama. Frankly, you'd prefer a ghost dropping by..

On Sunday, meeting Ivan and James again, for our monthly get-together - this time, moving closer to where I'm now living, we'll be in the Dean Swift.

On Monday, back at Clubhouse 5 with the Hideout - social, plus we're heading to a retrospective of It Follows, at the Cineworld. So, a very sociable long weekend! They're also heading to the extended cut of The Exorcist that evening, introduced by Mark Kermode - sadly, by the time I thought of going, it was sold out.. but I have seen that cut before anyway.

On Tuesday, I tried to book a place on a walk with Mandy and London Herstory Walks - this one is Fleet Street Femmes. But she's disabled the PayPal link on her Meetup page because Meetup takes a hefty chunk of it - instead, I've booked through her own website. Where the walk turned out to be on sale anyway!

On Wednesday, heading to La Bamba - a musical at the Peacock. The matinee, since I have the choice - cheaper tickets that way.

On Thursday, back on another of Barrie's walks with the 45+s - this time, it's Mile End. Some more have booked now, yay.. 

Next Friday, back with Laurence and the 45+s, yet again - couldn't resist a walk around Glorious and Grimy Gray's Inn Road! Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.

On the 4th, I've signed with London Socials again - I wouldn't count on me going, mind. Still, you never know.. this time, they're off to listen to some music in the Archway Tavern.

On the 5th, I've finally booked to see Dr. Semmelweiss, at the Harold Pinter. Cheapest tickets I found were with What's on Stage, who sent me off to Love Theatre..

On the 6th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Sara and Cariad's Weirdo's Book Club - a live version of the podcast by Sara Pascoe and Cariad Lloyd - at 21 Soho. Tickets from Ticket Text.

And on the 7th, back for the first time in months to Watkin's Bookshop, for an author talk: this is Pagans by Ethan Doyle White.