LONDON: The Horse Hospital

Wednesday 29th November, 2023

8:30pm

Event information

Independent animation is an art form that continues to thrive and develop as a breath-taking medley of styles, materials, techniques and production – from hand-drawn, paint on glass, collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppets, abstract to some of the more interesting developments in CGI – all of which can be seen at this year’s London International Animation Festival (LIAF).

This programme is a celebration of our 20th anniversary with the 10 best horror films screened at LIAF over the years.

Horror! At its most profound; it's most clenching and suffocating foundation, horror is fundamentally a state of mind. Experienced at full volume, horror grips the brain and ignites some of the simplest animal-level emotions and responses that have been hardwired into our circuitry since before we could see, hear or think, shutting down most other functions in the process. Different from ‘frightening’, horror forces itself into our minds like a poisonous gas that seeps in, no matter how carefully we try to stop the gaps.

The best horror reminds us that a monster lurks within us and lurks within the person sitting next to us. A fright is one thing, but coming face to face with that escapee is the horror. And so this is the dark-matter that fuelled the selection process for this very special programme. If words struggle to adequately describe ‘the horror’ then pictures must step up. And what better pictures than those crafted by some of the most creative imaginations on the planet.

In our 20-year history we have screened hundreds of films that fall into the ‘horror’ category. We have hand-picked 10 of the big audience favourites with a couple of our favourites thrown in for good measure. We could have gone for cheap thrills and the sudden shock. But we want something more valuable than your nervous laughter. We want you to leave a small part of your soul behind in this cinema. We want you to leave having felt The Horror.

For full programme information please visit the LIAF website at www.liaf.org.uk