Day of the Triffids is a 1962 alien-invasion/ apocalypse horror, staring the incomparable Howard Keel and smouldering Nicole Maurey. After a meteor shower blinds most of the world, the few left with their sight intact struggle to survive the takeover of Earth by cannibalistic Triffid plants. Naval officer Bill Masen and student Susan leave desolated London in search of survivors, while biologists on an offshore lighthouse try to find the Triffids’ weakness. 

Based on the novel by John Wyndham, this sci-fi horror has a long-lasting imprint on horror cinema, and many interesting parallels with Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. In this episode, we look at this unique film as an adaptation including the many changes, that famous scene of empty London, what worked and what didn't, and finally why this underdog film made it into horror history.

This season is all about London horror films adapted from books, beginning with the 1977 "Full Circle" starring Mia Farrow and Keir Dullea (known for 2001: A Space Odyssey).  This is a beautiful adaptation of Peter Straub's haunting story "Julia". After the death of her daughter, Julia Lofting moves into a new home, which is haunted by the ghost of a little girl. Julia is torn between the girl’s violent history while alive and her motherly instincts.  

To kick off season three I have a very special guest joining me from America, my brother Chris! We talk about Edgar Wright's remarkable and hilarious "Shaun of the Dead", the Cornetto Trilogy, "American Werewolf in London", London Horror, and why there has yet to be a truly brilliant Jack The Ripper movie.  Sit back, relax (maybe get a pint at the Winchester) and join us for this special episode crammed full of the best London horror cinema has to offer.

Intro/Outro sound design by Curcurbit.

For the final episode of Season 2 we look at a handful of other films where people are trapped in the underground; even if that isn't a main feature of the film.  This includes Godzilla-inspired horror Gorgo, Hammer classic Quatermass and the Pitt,  Tobe Hooper's space-vampire film Lifeforce, and the recent haunted horror Woman In Black II.  All these films draw on the very real-life threat of being trapped on the underground by evoking imagery and the experience of World War II. 

We go into the deleted scene archive this episode for Danny Boyle's 2001 "28 Days Later", an icon of London Horror Cinema. Starring Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) and Naomi Harris (Skyfall, Spectre) as survivors in a post-apocalyptic, Rage-infected London. The film has been talked about in many ways, but rarely considering how Boyle uses the 'safe space' of the underground. I will dive in to consider what it adds to the film - with and without the deleted scene - and share in the abandoned eerieness of this uncanny world.

For this episode, we go to Old Street Station in the 1998 horror Tale of the Mummy.  With a surprisingly star-studded cast (including Christopher Lee, Shelley Duvall, Gerard Butler, Sean Pertwee, Honor Blackman, and Michael Learner) this under-the-radar mummy movie is a wild and crazy ride. Archeologists discover the cursed tomb of the Egyptian ruler Talos precariously suspended over a pit of death. They bring Talos' cursed remains for display at the British Museum, only for Talos' spirit to awaken in the form of cursed mummy wrappings, which proceed to go on a murder spree throughout London. With a complex plot and a lot of nineties moxie, the film is jumbled but charming.

A deep cut of London Horror, "The Deaths of Ian Stone" is a hidden gem for those who loved other popular films of the time like "Constantine" or "Gabriel" but sought a less-religious and more dangerous angel.  Starring Mike Vogel (American Horror Story), Christina Cole (Jane Eyre, Poirot ), and Jamie Murray (Castlevania), the strong cast shines in this slow-burn fantasy in which average man Ian wakes up in the middle of a new life every time he dies, and no one seems to notice.  

In horror a character on the underground can be like a rat in a maze: lost, confounded, and inevitably trapped.  We've seen it in other episodes, but perhaps the most intensely shot example is in John Landis' American Werewolf in London.  This 1981 comedy horror is a classic. It won an academy award for Best Makeup and took home Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film and Best Makeup and it has even been adapted into a radio programme on BBC 1 Radio. Heck, Edgar Wright has sighted it as a major influence on Shaun of the Dead. You probably have seen this movie before, but I encourage you to watch it again, not just because it's an amazing film but because it created one of the most claustrophobic chase scenes in cinematic history where a lone passenger on Tottenham Court Road station tries to outrun the werewolf, and the underground doesn't seem to be on his side.

When does the underground become more than just a way to transport people in a city?  In this week's post-apocalyptic monster movie Reign of Fire (2002), the underground bookends the film as a symbolic space where young Quinn is forced to reckon with his past in the form of a dragon.  Starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, this is an unusual horror film in some ways but is also a callback to the monster movies of the  1930s and 40s with killer special effects.

Going deeper into the Underground, we go deeper into ourselves.  That is the psychological highlight of Episode 4 where we dig deep into the climactic underground scene in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later.  A sequel to the Danny Boyle film, 28 Days Later, Fresnadillo's film used pioneering camera techniques and a robust cast (including Robert Carlyle, Imogen Poots, Jeremy Renner, and Rose Byrne) winding their way through London hoping to escape a new outbreak of the Rage virus. For all the thrills in this action-heavy horror, its most intense and horrific moment happens on the platform of Charing Cross Underground.