Talk: World's Weirdest Deaths, horror walk, pub: Sir John Oldcastle, & Films: An Taibhse & Sleep

Hallowe'en is always an important night for me to plan - I had dreadful trouble this year finding something, though. But then, London Social Detours finally posted something for the day - a lunchtime talk about the World's Weirdest Deaths (happening at the Guildhall Library), followed by a mini horror walk. I booked it, and booked the time off work.. wanted to wait until I had a good reason.

On my way out, the day started in suitable fashion - with two pumpkins and a matching cat!

Got my hair cut first - at last, I had the time! and the beneficial effects were immediately evident, as it was a breezy day, and I now had less hair to blow around. It wasn't a long walk from the salon to the Guildhall - of course, I'd forgotten to bring cash, but there are plenty of ATMs en route. And I made it in good time. We were early for the talk itself, affording some time to look around:

And it was lovely to see the Guildhall had gone to some effort, for the day that was in it!

The talk was an entertaining one - as he explained at the start, he'd begin chronologically, with historical deaths, then relate more modern ones that were connected. I have to say, his opening example, of Aeschylus, who died when a hawk dropped a turtle on his bald head, thinking it was a rock (thereby to break the shell), is truly deserving of a place in history.

He moved on to royals, which I tend to be more familiar with, before ending on the present day. And I have to say, my favourite of all had to be the poodle that, left alone when his family went out, managed to get over the balcony, which they'd thought he couldn't, and promptly fell off. He landed on someone's head and killed her. To complete the event, a member of the crowd that gathered to look was killed by the speeding ambulance. Gee, just not a good spot to hang around, eh!

Afterwards, we headed off for a short horror tour - not a lot here that was new to me, but it's good to revisit the highlights. We started with Christchurch Greyfriars, famous as the burial place of Isabella, the "She-Wolf of France". Other princesses were buried there too - it must have been a marvel in its day: the second-largest church in medieval London, it seems!

We crossed the road to see three sites at once - the Viaduct Tavern is, of course, a Hallowe'en staple, reputedly the most haunted pub in London! 

It's right beside St. Sepulchre's - we could only gaze from afar, as they were busily digging up the graveyard. As you do. The door was open, but we discovered it was closed to the public for a private event.

The third of the historic buildings on the spot was, of course, the Old Bailey:

This being the Central Criminal Court, we had plenty of material for stories of wickedness, which nicely tied in with the theme of the day. And so on, to finish with the Golden Boy of Pye Corner, adjacent to Cock Lane, and thus we had the story of Scratching Fanny. Yep, just the perfect spot for a walking tour stop!

Now, we were supposed to be heading to the Crosse Keys - but our organiser figured that was too long a walk from where we were. So we decamped to the Sir John Oldcastle. Many of the group had something to eat, here - I would have myself, except I had other plans! which also required me to cut the social short. Still, it was good to see the group again - I don't get to do things with them often enough.

That evening, the London Irish Centre (LIC) had a showing of the first ever Irish language horror film, An Taibhse (The Ghost)! So, I booked for that too.. Eating beforehand in The Blues Kitchen Camden. So I had to watch my time.. and indeed, I did get held a little longer chatting than I'd have liked. But never mind, I only ended up about five minutes late for my meal.

..and then was kept waiting 10 minutes, while they cleared a table for me and then didn't have time to tell me which it was! As soon as I was seated, I ordered.. and I was so glad I'd come early, in anticipation of a small trek to the LIC. My food was 15 minutes in coming - and with a 15-minute walk ahead of me, that left me with half an hour to eat it. I didn't get the fries finished, sadly - but made sure to polish off the chicken, and even had time to nip to the loo..

Returning to the table, I spotted the waiter and asked for the bill. I stood to glug down the last of the wine - I do hate to rush, but this was an emergency. I was putting my coat on by the time he brought the bill. And there followed a mad dash to the LIC, passing en route a pumpkin that seemed to have had enough already:

In the LIC, I just dashed in to the function room, where I've been a few times before, and so I knew where it was, and figured this was the venue. And lo, so it was - and mercifully, although I was five minutes late, I didn't miss anything - they'd been making some kind of speech, and were only just getting ready to start. I had taken a seat in the front row and turned my phone to silent by the time the film actually started.

I'd met a couple of people who'd seen this at Frightfest - and it had been described to me as well-made, and very dark. Yes, and yes - I agree. It's filmed at Coollattin House, which fits the period (post Famine), and did indeed belong to the Fitzwilliams - I will point out a couple of bloopers related to this film though, as I saw a fan in a window, which device wasn't invented until 1900. Not to mention a modern light fitting - and I'm sure, as our female character runs through the basement, she passes a fusebox, and there's a light switch in her room, methinks! Electricity wasn't in general use at the time this is set, y'know.. and on a completely different note, if she's sleeping in the servants' quarters, what's a doll's house doing in her room?! Damn big windows she has there too, for servants' quarters..

Now, leaving that aside: it's very overwrought. Starting at the end and working backwards, I can say that, by the last third of the film, the exaggerated anxiety has been earned, and the premise is fantastic. Very good use of symbolism, quite engaging. It's just - we spend the entire film on edge. I can kind of see why they played it like that, but it's a long time to build suspense. But hey, the last half hour or so does redeem it. Unfortunate, therefore, that their internet died at about the start of that last bit.. oh, we've all been there, where it suddenly stops working for no apparent reason. And it took them a good 10 minutes to fix it, while we all followed their progress onscreen - with neither staff nor public WiFi available, they resorted to using someone's phone! Yay, they did get it working - only for the battery to drop to a dangerously low level, five minutes before the end: cue someone racing across the back of the room with a charger.. Oh, and as to the language - yes, I speak Irish: but this is a Northern Irish dialect, so I'd have had some trouble without the subtitles.

I didn't fancy staying for the Q+A. Instead, I took a very comfortable armchair in the hall to decide what to do next, all the while eavesdropping on the horror-themed table quiz happening in the front room. (And who would have thought that It was the highest grossing horror film of all time?!) Now, Heretic was showing widely - but I was already booked to see that yesterday. And the only other horror film on locally wasn't on until really late. I then had the bright idea of checking out Curzon Home Cinema - and lo, they were showing Sleep, which I'd never seen! So I took myself home and poured myself some wine to watch that. Admiring several excellent Hallowe'en outfits on the way - and dodging several extremely drunk people on my walk for the last part of my journey..

It's a South Korean film, about a charming young couple who are expecting their first baby. Except the husband suddenly develops a sleep disorder - he not only sleepwalks, he sleep eats (messily, and disgustingly), sleep scratches himself to the point where his acting job is cancelled because it's so unsightly: and that's just the start. I won't go into what happens, but it gets bad enough that the wife starts to worry for the safety of her unborn baby. And so the search for a cure begins.. but as the occurrences get weirder, what is she to do?

It's a lovely film - plenty of humour, although we never lose sight of the fact that this is a serious situation. The characters are very likeable. And the ending is completely potty. But it has a very satisfying conclusion - yes, this was a great way to end the day! Meant I didn't have time to blog, though..

See the next post for the continuing saga..