“BAR TRASH is one of the most welcoming, friendly and fun places in London. Token Homo actively promotes community and makes each attendee feel wanted.” (Audience Review)
Weekly cult film show BAR TRASH is “London’s most fun and informative film night” (Sean McGeady) and one of Time Out’s “50 fun things to do in London for less than the price of a pint” (our most popular ticket is just £3.50!).
Hosted by cult film fanatic Token Homo and friends, we are stupidly proud to announce our 11th sensational season will be SYNTHETIC FLESH!, a tribute to more than 100 years of monster makeup FX.
Showcasing more than 30 prosthetic pioneers, SYNTHETIC FLESH! features makeup from Hollywood’s early innovators to the 1980s’ FX riot of rubber, and beyond. The film programme embraces fan favourites, dime store monstrosities, awards-worthy creations, and rarely-screened world cinema gems. Our QUEER MONSTROSITY sidequest opens the closet on queer/coded monsters that stretch the boundaries of identity. Thanks to National Lottery funding from the BFI Film Audience Network, we will also be joined by a series of special guests to help bring the season to monstrous life.
Opening night will be George A Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD (1985), celebrating its 40th Anniversary on Wednesday 24 September at 8:45pm at Genesis Cinema. The season will also feature a landmark silent cinema screening of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) with a new live score by returning artiste Maxim Melton for its 100th Anniversary. And because it’s BAR TRASH, we’ll also be showcasing DIY / lo-fi regional wonders from around the world like Fred Olen Ray’s Florida splatter epic, THE ALIEN DEAD (1980). More titles to be revealed on opening night!
“As a horror film loving, VHS renting, isolated queer kid in the toxic 1980s, practical monster makeup effects made me think I could literally be anything I wanted to be. Whether they were the big-budget, bulging transformation sequences that 1980s horror cinema indulged in, or the more personal creations of the early cinema pioneers, special makeup effects showed me that identity was both endlessly malleable and something you could literally craft with your own hands. They became my passport to another world, one of imagination and self expression, and I would mimic the effects I saw on screen at home with a can of shaving cream and a mirror as I dreamt of being me. Perhaps more than any previous season of BAR TRASH, this one is entirely personal as the monsters of horror cinema – and the special effects makeup artists who made them from wax, latex and lube – quite literally transformed my life. I can’t wait to be back in the darkness to share some of my favourites with you all!”
Token Homo
In numbers, SYNTHETIC FLESH! be feature 26 films across 3 venues and 3 bloody months. And because we firmly believe gathering in the darkness can do some good ✊, we’ll also have 2 epic fundraisers (for trans+ legal rights and World AIDS Day) at Genesis Cinema and Beer Merchants Tap.
SYNTHETIC FLESH! will screen every Wednesday at Genesis Cinema, and on alternate Sundays at Finsbury Park Picturehouse (in their newly refurbished bar) and Beer Merchants Tap, from Wednesday 24 September to Wednesday 17 December 2025. Tickets on sale soon. THx
Programme supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. www.filmlondon.org.uk/film-hub-london
