The Queen's Film Society upcoming events

FILM AS ART: Bedlam (Mark Robson, US 1946) (29 Sep 2026)

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Bedlam (Mark Robson, US 1946, 79 min.)

In 1760s London, an actress campaigns to reform a horrific hospital for the insane, but instead finds herself committed to the institution by the corrupt head of the asylum. The final thriller from the Val Lewton production unit at RKO Studios, which gave us Cat People, Isle of the Dead and I Walked with a Zombie, Bedlam is one of the only films to have acknowledged not a novel, play or short story as the source material, but a visual image. The credit reads: "Suggested by The William Hogarth painting 'Bedlam' Plate #8 The Rake's Progress." It's also based, loosely, on a true story.

Reviews:

"A smash surprise climax! Karloff gives a brilliant portrayal."

--The Record American

"Far above the usual level of 'horror' films."

--The Daily Worker

“Several cuts above the average run of so-called horror films… As the sadistic chief warden of Bedlam, Boris Karloff is completely at home and is his usual sinister self.

--The New York Times

“Its tale of the celebrated 18th century madhouse is both intelligently written and admirably acted… Few Hollywood films ever had such ambition.”

--Time Out

"Well done! Excellent acting by Karloff!"

--South Bend Tribune

"It will shock you... Well above the average period movie."

--The Toronto Star

“Creepy, atmospheric, yet underrated Val Lewton thriller.”

--San Francisco Examiner

Clip

FILM AS ART: Sinners (Ryan Coogler, US 2025) A Members/PVFA College Community Only Event (30 Sep 2026)

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sinners (Ryan Coogler, US 2025, 137 min.)

A QFS members/A&M College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts Community only event.

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan in an Oscar winning performance) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.

A short lecture by art historian Kris Belden-Adams will precede the screening.

Reviews

"Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a big-screen exultation — a passionate, effusive praise song about life and love, including the love of movies.

--The New York Times

“Both a wildly ambitious meditation on American history and a rip-roaring good time."

--Slate

"An awe-inspiring ode to what music means to communities and cultures."

--Chicago Reader

Rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content and language.

Trailer

POSSESSION Director's Cut/4K Restoration (Andrzej Żuławski, France/West Germany 1991) (6 Oct 2026)

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

POSSESSION (Andrzej Żuławski, France/West Germany 1991). Director's cut/4K restoration.

Reserve your tickets now

Banned in the United Kingdom and delayed for two years (and severely cut) before being distributed in the United States, Andrzej Żuławski’s highly choreographed nightmare of a marriage unraveling is an experience unlike any other film. Professional spy Mark (Sam Neill) returns to his West Berlin home to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani, in a role that earned her Best Actress at Cannes) insistent on a divorce. As Anna’s frenzied behavior becomes ever more alarming, Mark discovers a truth about her far more sinister than his wildest suspicions. With its pulsating score, visceral imagery, and some of the most grueling performances ever captured on screen, Possession, restored and uncut, is cinematic delirium at its most intoxicating.

Reviews

“Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 masterpiece is like no other film before or after it, a swirling, hallucinatory portrait of a marriage in shambles and a wife, husband, and lover ensnared in a stew of passions that lead only to Armageddon. There’s a frightening majesty to its lunacy.”

—Nick Schager, Esquire

"Isabelle Adjani, crowned best actress at Cannes, gives the performance of a lifetime — a veritable aria of hysteria — as an increasingly distraught, unfaithful wife."

—J. Hoberman, LA Weekly

“There are plenty of movies which seem to have been made by madmen. Possession may be the only film in existence which is itself mad: unpredictable, horrific, its moments of terrifying lucidity only serving to highlight the staggering derangement at its core.”

—Tom Huddleston, Time Out

"Possession’s bewildering complexities and unnerving overtures render it a singular work, crazier even than Lynch and Cronenberg.”

—John Serba, Decider

"A primal scream of psychosexual horror."

—Kris Moyse, Starburst

"Remarkable... Amazingly gripping and erotic."

—Christopher Potter, The Ann Arbor News

"Cunning camera work, large doses of ambiguity and Adjani's frighteningly mesmerizing performance make this one of the most bizarre, stylish and fascinating of horror films.

—Alex O. Williams, Daily Utah Chronicle

Trailer