About

Reel Life Monsters, in collaboration with the BFI's Too Much: Melodrama on Film season, will be putting on a day festival of the most melodramatic, over the top body horror films out there. For the day we will be running an exclusive art market area filled with local LGBTQ+ artists. We will also have creepy face painting available during the afternoon with Body Painting by Cat, and a body horror prosthetics demonstration by local artist Anna Randall (Generation Z, House of the Dragon), along with a presentation on body horror and the transgender experience by Sal Creber, and introductions to:

Tetsuo: The Iron Man by our regular artist Zoe Burgess, who did her dissertation on Shinya Tsukamoto and subversive sexuality.

Frankenstein by Jays Hawke, whose incredible 'Queer History of Frankenstein' essays are available to read on the RLM blog.

The Fly by Allie Quinn, our resident reporter in the field for Bristol-based events, and independent horror film director.

Each chosen film features wildly over the top, heightened performances from the protagonists and surrounding actors, with a focus on fraught and tangled personal relationships. The visuals, from the prosthetics, to the sets, to the striking cinematography, are all heightened well beyond the bounds of realism or kitchen sink drama. Each of these films focuses intently on interpersonal obsession and extreme fetishism, for science, for the human (or non-human) body, and for the extremes of sensation. Every single aspect of a good body horror film brings melodrama in the best way: from the jarring, ear-splitting audio of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, to the skin-crawling dehumanisation of Frankenstein. They are all deliberately designed to invoke an emotional and physical response from the audience – be that one of disgust, terror, or arousal (often all three).
Made possible with funding from the National Lottery, awarded by the BFI.
With thanks to FilmHub South West, Film Bank Media, FilmBath, Safe Space Bath, Queer Coffee Bath, Burdall's Yard, and Chris Baker.