Bad Film Club: This club was created as a place where like-minded people can gather and enjoy the guilty pleasure of good bad movies. Creating the living room atmosphere of a group of friends, the polite shackles of cinema are discarded in favour of jeering, heckling and participating with the film. Nicko and Joe will talk you through the film pointing out the worst plots, terrible dialogue, dreadful acting and cringe-worthy special effects. Over the years their performance has become legendary with them performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Cigarette Burns: Specialising in horror in all its forms, this film club screens both 35mm and 16mm films at a wide range of venues including The Barbican Centre, Regent Street Cinema, The Rio Cinema and various festivals. They also host discussions with directors and authors.
Cinema Museum, Kennington SE11: This museum building used to be a workhouse where Charlie Chaplin and his brother stayed off and on when times were hard. Here the golden age of cinema is kept alive, a huge collection of memorabilia of early cinema and Hollywood fill the rooms of this building. Long before the days of the multiplex and broadband the cinema was perhaps the principal entertainment for the public where the magic of the flickering screen would transport them to a better world. An authentic recreation of the history of the cinema. It also screens a programme of films which includes both classic films alongside modern ones.
French Film Fanatics: A group for everyone who loves “arty, deep and sophisticated” French films.
Gaucho Film Club, W1: The Gaucho Restaurant in Charlotte Street, W1 brings you a series of film cult classics with a twist. You will get the opportunity to immerse yourself in the film and if it’s on the screen, it’s also in your glass or on your plate. Showing a couple of festive favourites over the Christmas period (Elf, Home Alone), you can enjoy food, drink and film.
Gothique Film Society, Holborn, WC1: This club hosts “films for the connoisseur of the macabre”, keeping the cinema of fantasy, mystery and horror alive. It is possibly longest running specialist film club in the UK evolving out of the genre fanzine Gothique created in 1965. Newcomers are welcome.
National Film Theatre, Southbank, SE1: As the ‘home’ of the British Film Institute, this is the premier UK venue for all things film. With a four-screen cinema it shows an incredible range of classic and contemporary films every year. It regularly has film seasons with director and actor retrospectives carefully curated to demonstrate the very best of film. It also shows new and re-releases. There is also a cafe, a bookshop and a library making it a great day out, as well as a place to see films.
PFA Film Club, SW1: The Philosophy for All (PFA) film club meets every third Wednesday of the month at the Two Chairman pub in SW1. THe PFA are an association that is open to all who are interested in philosophy. Choosing films that provoke lively philosophical debates and discussions between professional and non-professional philosophers.
Secret Cinema: Secret Cinema has “taken the world of immersive experiences by storm.” Screening films in new and sometimes challenging environments, they create 360-degree immersive participatory Secret worlds where the boundaries between performers and audience, set and reality are constantly shifting. Their aim is to fill the void “left by an over-saturated technological world.” They never reveal the location or the film beforehand but create a totally immersive experience so you can ‘live’ inside a film in a truly unique way.
The Art House Cinema Meetup: This group usually attends Sunday afternoon screenings of art house films from around the world. Taking in new releases and repertory screenings, they meet afterwards to discuss what they’ve viewed.
The Duke Mitchell Film Club, W1: This club specialises in screening obscure and ‘odd ball’ films. ‘The Duke’ is the resident host showing a range of films including shorts, B-movie trailers, exploitation soundtracks and more. They meet on the last Monday of every month, “bringing London the weirdest in cult films since 2007.”