Playing on a bi-monthly basis from 16 April, CERT.X presents a series of films from the dark corners of cinema history. Before becoming entirely associated with pornography, the X-certificate used to mean adult films of a different kind. These were audacious movies that offered an alternative to staid mainstream productions, pushing against the boundaries of conservatism and established taste cult
ures. These were the films they didn’t want you to see, from grindhouse classics cut to ribbons by US censors, to banned video nasties that caused a moral panic in 1980s Britain. The films in our collection are indeed controversial, but in their evocative nature have become a rich source of debate for critics, theorists and cinemagoers alike. Whether trash or treasure, extraordinary or exploitative, CERT.X gives you the chance to decide in this unique big screen experience. The series begins with Italian director Dario Argento’s Deep Red, an operatic horror masterpiece that takes us into a dizzying world psycho killers and twisted mysteries. As if this weren’t enough, the film will be accompanying be a screening of Carl Shanahan’s short film Eat, alongside music and much more. It promises to be an unmissable night for fans of horror, cult cinema and the curious not easily offended. On 18 Jun alongside Arrow Film we’ll present a newly restored print of The Witch Who Came from the Sea, a disturbing slice of American exploitation banned across the world but here restored to its widescreen and uncut glory for the first time ever. This will be followed on 20 August by 1981s gloopy Lovecraftian horror Possession and our tribute to the film’s director Andrzej Zulawski, who sadly passed away earlier this year. But X is not just about blood and scares and future events will navigate through the weird world of midnight movies, mondo trasho, Euro sleaze, Blaxploitation baadassssses, kung fu killers, pink samurais, sadistic westerns, arthouse oddities and offbeat classics from the vault. Certificate X is not for the faint-hearted, but, for those brave enough, promises to be an exhilarating ride into an unseen cinema where anything can happen.
