Pearl & Dean Screen Advertising Ad 1: Want to be really annoying for the next two hours? Go and buy an enormous vat of popcorn from the overpriced hotdog stall in the foyer, then sit through the upcoming movie chomping loudly on a big handful of the contents every two minutes. Ad 2: Got a camera? Live in London? Now there's the perfect excuse to go exposing yourself up some obscure London backstreet in the name of art. Why not go snap a few photos of Pickering Place this weekend, then send off your best shots to the capital's great new photoblogging site? It's fun, it's free, it's perceptive, it's The Way We See It!
Coming soon to this movie theatre Coming soon 1: The Magic Roundabout movie (released today - I really wouldn't bother) Coming soon 2: The League Of Gentlemen movie (arrives at local cinemas on April 22 - can't wait)
And now our main feature presentation What would you do if you found yourself trapped alone on an underground platform after the last train had gone? That's the dilemma faced by heroine Kate in Creep, the new horror Britflick from director Chris Smith. You'd probably try to get back to the surface, or contact the overnight security guard, or settle down on a plastic seat and try to sleep the night away. What you probably wouldn't do is climb on board a mysterious deserted train and then get yourself stuck halfway down a tunnel with a rapist and a deranged killer. Which is where Kate goes wrong. Things then go from bad to worse as she stumbles around various underground passages, loses her stilettos, meets up with a succession of semi-appealing characters who look like they might be able to help her but then meet bloody ends, and finally comes face to almost-face with her psychotic nemesis. Just another normal night on the Jubilee line, then.
As scary films go, Creep is more shock than horror, and no opportunity is lost to splash a bit of gore around. The plot moves on apace but without a great deal of depth, so you never quite endear yourself to the characters before each one is despatched. But eventually it's the sheer variety of atmospheric subterranean locations (further information here) that wins out and makes the whole thing worth watching. Tube afficionados will be delighted to note that the first half of the movie has been filmed on and around the unused Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross, which is an excellent way to see what they used to look like. Even better, the inevitable bloodbath of a finale looked like it was shot inside claustrophic DownStreet station, closed to the public over 70 years ago. Not that Charing Cross and Down Street are actually next to each other in real life (there's Green Park in the way) but why let geography get in the way of a decent film location or two? All in all it's not a bad 90 minutes of undemanding entertainment, although you may never feel totally comfortable travelling underground again. Me, I travelled to the cinema by tube but I rode home by bus. Roll credits. Please take your rubbish with you.
