Show Me Your Teeth

A season of horror films 'with bite' comes to Warwick Arts Centre

31 Oct to 7 Dec 2022

There's something horrific about to happen at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, with the arrival of Show Me Your Teeth - a film season with a bite.

Show Me Your Teeth screens as part of In Dreams Are Monsters, a major BFI UK-wide cinema film and events programme celebrating the horror genre supported by the BFI Film Audience Network, which awards funds from the National Lottery to projects that aim to reach wider audiences across the UK.

Running from 31 October 2022 to 7 December 2022, the Show Me Your Teeth film season explores our enduring fascination with the sharp toothed vampire, and specifically, the female vampire.

With cinematic classics, blockbusters and lesser-known gems, the season starts with The Hunger (Mon 31 Oct), Tony Scott's 1983 erotic tale starring French actress Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, and the '00s Hollywood cultural phenomenon that redefined the genre, Twilight (Wed 2 Nov).

Blood continues to flow with Guy Maddin's expressionistic Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary (Tue 15 Nov), which combines film and ballet for a gorgeous adaptation of Bram Stoker's original Gothic tale; 1973's Ganja And Hess (Wed 16 Nov), a stand-out and revolutionary exploration of desire, religion and racial identity from the so-called Blaxploitation era; and first time director Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone A Night (Tue 29 Nov), which has been described as "the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western."

The season concludes with 1936's Universal classic, Dracula's Daughter (Sun 4 Dec), and the loose adaptation of novelist Anne Rice's Queen Of The Damned (Wed 7 Dec), featuring a mesmerizing performance from the late R&B singer, Aaliyah.

Complimenting the screenings are an exclusive zine (featuring work from Midlands artists, and available to cinemagoers at each screening), which delves deeper into the veins of the season.

Meanwhile, the screening of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Tue 29 Nov) is accompanied by a panel discussion exploring the representation of women in vampiric tales. Hosted by award-winning producer Jennifer Handorf, guests include University Of Warwick Professor Helen Wheatley and film critic and writer Dr Sabina Stent. Both the film and the panel discussion will be captioned.

Discussing the season, Melissa Gueneau, Warwick Arts Centre's Cinema and Screen Producer, said: “We’ve curated a season we think everyone can engage with, whether they are a horror buff or not. The vampire is a popular creature and over the years, its nature has evolved alongside society’s approach to gender, race and desire in particular. We’ve tried to bring together titles that really explore that evolution and that showcases different experiences and voices too.”

Show Me Your Teeth is at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, from Monday 31 October to Wednesday 7 December 2022. For tickets and more information, see: warwickartscentre.com