Ben Wheatley, the British film-maker known for his genre-hopping work from Kill List to Meg 2: The Trench, has programmed a 12-hour sci-fi movie marathon for The Guide. The marathon, inspired by his latest film Bulk, features eight films that blend paranoid, sci-fi and noir elements, all made with limited resources.
Bulk is a DIY sci-fi-noir-paranoid-thriller starring Sam Riley as a journalist rescuing a scientist from a malfunctioning multi-dimensional creation. The film is currently touring independent cinemas across the UK and Ireland, with screenings in Liverpool, Lewes, Dublin and Cork.
Wheatley’s marathon line-up includes Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and Hammer’s Quatermass 2. He recommends starting at 7am rather than midnight, saying, “Don’t start at midnight – everyone would be knackered.”
Of Alphaville, Wheatley notes it is “set in the future but shot in the then-present day of Paris in the 60s. It’s a confidence trick.” Tetsuo he describes as a film where “you could make it yourself, effectively, if you had the chops,” and Quatermass 2 offers “a paranoid feeling that I quite enjoy.”
