Independent Cinema for Everyone

A chance to see one of cinema’s scariest films in recent years in one of the city’s scariest places.

Plympton St Maurice’s historic Guildhall will be the setting for the Haunted Cinema Screening of The Woman In Black on Saturday 29 November.

Photos: Belinda Dixon Media

According to the website Mystic Devon, this interesting old building is “well known locally for its paranormal activity”. The Upper Council Chamber was once used as a Courtroom and those found guilty, of what nowadays would be considered very minor crimes, would be despatched to the next world outside the back door. Various places within the building are noted for the possible existence of energies, including the chamber, the staircase and the balcony.

Starring Daniel Radcliffe and based on the novel and play by Susan Hill, horror thriller The Woman in Black is set in a desolate house cut off at high tide. The house of the dead in the film is full of unexplained noises and unexpected appearances. The screening, with the addition of props and actors, promises the same.

The film will be preceded by two Film Walks around Plympton at 11am and 3pm. These guided walks, created by Belinda Dixon Media and BBC Radio Devon’s Jo Loosemore for Plymouth Arts Centre, merge a murder mystery with a spooky story. Set in historic Plympton St Maurice, the Film Walks play with archive film. Footage from the South West Film and Television Archive has inspired an event which takes walkers from the present back in time to the 1860s and forward again to the 1960s.

“The South West Film and Television Archive clips we’ll be playing are compelling,” says Jo. “And because you’re watching them ‘on location’ in such atmospheric settings, they’re even more powerful. Hopefully you’ll feel as if time is sliding backwards and forwards. That’s when really interesting things begin happening.”

The event has been part-funded by the British Film Institute and form part of the Walk On Exhibition brought to Plymouth thanks to a partnership between Peninsula Arts: Plymouth University, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and Plymouth College of Art Gallery.

Tickets for the film cost £7.50 (£6.50 conc) and £4 (£3 conc) for the walks. Booking is essential for the Film Walks and advisable for the Film on 01752 206114 or online here.

Kate Foster