Running from Thursday May 24 to Saturday May 26 at Odeon Covent Garden and the Italian Cultural Institute, the sixth annual Cine-Excess gathering takes as its theme ‘Transglobal Excess: The Art And Atrocity Of Cult Adaptation’. Kicking off with a ‘Script To Scream’ seminar hosted by Time Out, the schedule boasts two UK theatrical premieres: Giorgio Amato’s adaptation of his own novel Closed Circuit Extreme, about two students who hide webcams in the home of a suspected serial killer, and Welsh filmmaker Julian Richards’ first US feature Shiver, starring Danielle Harris (of various Halloween sequels/remakes fame), Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers) and John Jarratt (Wolf Creek).
The event’s special guests are veteran directors Sergio Martino and Enzo G Castellari (whose 1978 war flick The Inglorious Bastards was of course a titular influence on Quentin Tarantino). The former will be on hand to introduce his giallo thriller Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key and psychedelic horror All The Colours Of The Dark (both from 1972); the latter will present his late period spaghetti western Keoma (1976) and post-apolcalyptic sci-fi 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982). Martino and Castellari are also set to take part in a panel discussion titled ‘The Years With(out) Lead: Bodies, Bullets And The 1970s Italian Extreme’.
Further highlights include rare screenings of legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff’s controversial 1974 oddity The Freakmaker (aka The Mutations), starring Donald Pleasance and a barely recognisable Tom Baker, plus Mario Andreacchio’s outback Ozploitation picture Fair Game (1986). You can watch a bespoke trailer for the whole programme below, and be sure to check the Cine-Excess website for more information.
