I headed off in good time - on the bus, I was sat beside a couple having a conversation about relationships, so interesting that I really had to restrain myself from chipping in.. When I reached my destination, I passed the street with the Horse Hospital in it and had to backtrack slightly. There is a sign for it, but only visible as I was turning back! It wasn't hard to find after that - sure enough, the queue down the middle of the road was a good indicator. You see, as a sign on the door indicated, doors didn't open till 7. Uhh.. I couldn't see any messages on the Meetup page, and once I'd checked with the only people around that looked like they might be the ones I was looking for (which they weren't), I just left a message and took my place in the queue. And yes, it was cold.. at least once the car we were standing beside drove off, we could queue by the wall, out of the road finally!
At about 10 to, the door opened and we all looked expectantly at the guy who poked his head out. He turned to look at the queue, now stretching around the corner, remarked, "Oh f***!", and disappeared back inside, closing the door behind him. He didn't re-open it for another 20 minutes or so, when he was sporting a clipboard with a checklist of our names. Inside at last, we found not stairs down, but a ramp - for the horses, I guess! A queue at the bottom turned out to be for people who had signed up for a season ticket, and could collect them there. In the room proper, the seats were comfy enough - although the one I ended up taking had an unfortunately leaning back, so I ended up slouched forward for most of the evening, to compensate. By this stage, the room was too crowded to have any chance of finding the rest of the group - it was almost full.
On the left, a Turkish version of The Exorcist. As the speaker remarked, this was played quite straight, with Islam substituted for Christianity - the possessed little girl is holding a Satanic idol of some kind, which in the original film was substituted for the crucifix with which she stabbed herself. The exorcist in the film is an imam.
On the right, we see a still from a Pakistani version of Dracula. The Dracula part of the talk was actually my favourite - it was hilarious to see the different versions, some most comical - and there was a very interesting Powerpoint presentation illustrating the spread of the meme across the world.
At the interval, I checked my phone - and there were messages that had been posted before the talk, but hadn't come through by the time I turned off my phone! So it seems that one of the group spent his time waiting in the pub across the road, and the organiser was sporting a grey NASA rucksack. I had another look around, but couldn't see such a thing - and had little chance anyway, with the crowds queuing for the "bar" - a counter behind the screen, complete with a fridge and supplies of drink. It was proving very popular.
The second half concerned itself with Indian and Pakistani film - and the speaker expressed his astonishment that India, so well known for other remakes, was hardly known for horror! We saw a bit of Aatank, a version of Jaws, and also of the Indian version of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Clips were shown throughout, of course - it's a shame that they kept freezing. The trailer that proclaimed the film so shocking that - they couldn't show any scenes from it - was hilarious! But I'm afraid the films themselves left me pretty cold - very much B-movies. Still, interesting to see what other cultures made of the Hollywood blockbusters. He has a book, by the way, which you can get from the speaker direct for £10..
As the talk progressed, I began to feel the desperate cold seep in from outside. I was frozen by the time I got up - and frozen walking all the way back to the bus stop. I was so lucky that my bus came almost straight away! Tomorrow, I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. And on Monday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Pinter at the Pinter again! This is Programme 5 - The Room / Victoria Station / Family Voices. And this evening includes a free Q+A with the cast.
No comments:
Post a Comment