Working the Blue Rose Case

I’m pleased to announce that I’m part of the autumn season of lectures organised by the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies in London.

MIHS is a ‘community-based organisation that offers university-level history, theory and production-based workshops for people of all ages. The Miskatonic is a non-profit endeavour through which established horror writers, directors, scholars and programmers/curators celebrate horror history and culture with a unique blend of enthusiasm and critical perspective.’

Here’s the blurb for the autumn schedule:

Mark Pilkington (Owner of Strange Attractor Press, writer/director of MIRAGE MEN) launches the season in September with his lecture “Rituals in the Dark: Evoking Magic on Film”. From the grit of medieval grimoires and spellcraft to the spiritual liberation of mid twentieth century witchcraft, this lecture will look at a number of representations of magic on film, from the silent era, through Expressionism, B-movies, the avant garde and into the mainstream. He will be followed in October by visiting instructor Daniel Bird, whose studies in Poland led to his becoming the pre-eminent biographer of both Walerian Borowczyk and Andrzej Zulawski. In “Vulgar Structures; or Andrzej Zulawski’s Love Triangles”, he will use his intimate knowledge of the late Zulawski’s work to look at the love triangle fundamental to all of Zulawski’s films, and to square it with this remarkable director’s life and loves. In November, Warwick University scholar Catherine Lester will present“Little Terrors: Children’s Horror on Film and Television”. This class will explore in detail the area of horror films and television programmes created specifically for children in the UK and the US, with an emphasis on programming from the 70s and 80s. And to close the season, the Horse Hospital turns into The Black Lodge when acclaimed horror author Maura McHugh visits from Ireland to bring us “Working the Blue Rose Case: Signs, Codes, and Mysteries in David Lynch’s FIRE WALK WITH ME”

My talk will take place from 7pm – 10pm on 8 December 2016, in the Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD.

Tickets cost £10 advance / £11 on the door / £8 concs / £35 full fall semester ticket.

It will be a good time to re-familiarise yourself with the weird occupants and sinister goings-on in the Twin Peaks world in advance to the next series of the show, which will be broadcast in 2017.