Britgeek here.
Last night, London made history as the first city to host an exclusive Ain't It Cool News event in the UK. Held in the luxury industry screening room in the belly of the five-star Charlotte Street Hotel, SINISTER, directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written by Cargill (AICN's own Massawyrm), was met with an excellent reception from a full house in attendance.
Thanks so much to everyone who came out for the screening. It was a big success, and thanks to you, AICN events in the UK look to have a bright future. One guest had made a 200-mile round trip just to be there. Thankfully, he enjoyed the film.
We have some dodgy cell phone footage of my intro to boot:
Guests were surveyed on their SINISTER experience and the response was exceptionally positive. Here are a few reactions:
“Best horror of last few years”
“Quite a shocking start, good scare factor. The entire [audience] did also jump from their seats a few times in certain unexpected scenes!”
“Brilliant, finally a scary film that is scary”
“Great, left an unsettling feeling once it had finished!”
And my personal favourite:
“It did its job... I crapped myself.”
I'm so glad that folks enjoyed the film as much as I did. Despite the fact that I knew all the beats from when I saw it back in August, SINISTER absolutely holds up to a second viewing. It harbours this dark, grim and unrelenting power that just grips you. It's very much a supernatural horror movie, but it has this truly horrific realistic edge to it that is incredibly disturbing, right from the very first frame. For a mainstream genre film, it's the opposite of everything so frustrating and unlikeable about the vast majority of Hollywood horrors.
SINISTER is released in cinemas across the UK tomorrow, October 5, so be sure to catch it. And if you attended the AICN screening, I hope you enjoyed it enough to want to see it again!
My Twitter has been blowing up with great messages about the event and if you were there, you would have heard about the #SurviveSINISTER hashtag. Simply sell the film as best you can in one tweet (you can do this as many times as you like) and you could win a private screening of the film for you and 20 of your friends.
But that's not all. From 1pm today, follow @SINISTER_UK and tweet using #SurviveSINISTER to chat all things horror – in real life and the movies – to get you in the mood to check out the movie this weekend. There are going to be fresh topics every half an hour or so and a multitude of prizes, from posters to DVDs and Blu-rays, so be sure to get involved and make your Friday afternoon a rather horrific one.
1.00pm – What moments in film have made you really jump?
1.30pm – What makes you jump in real life?
2.00pm – Who is the scariest character in film (Candyman, Freddy Krueger, etc)?
2.30pm – Which horror films have disturbed you the most?
3.00pm – Are there any films you're too scared to even watch?
3.30pm – Have you used horror films for successful dates?
4.00pm – Have you ever been in a haunted house or had something happen to you?
4.30pm – What do you want out of SINISTER tonight/this weekend and who will you take?
5.00pm – Have you been lucky enough to see SINISTER at one of the previews?
Again, many thanks to all those who attended, not to mention Fetch and Momentum Pictures... and I'll see you at the next one!
