London's New Grindhouse Cinema Is Bringing Sex, Sleaze And Slasher Back To The Big Screen

It's uncertain when exactly the Grindhouse revival began, or if this cult community has existed ever since the conception of the genre in the 1970s. Coined to describe a low-budget type of horror-sleaze film that capitalised on the ghastly and the shocking, Grindhouse is known for comical scripts and terrible effects. But the art of the cinema lies in building something entertainingly raw, unapologetically unpolished and brash in all the senses.

Now, London is getting it's very own independent Grindhouse cinema, for fans of the B-films that lurked under Hollywood's radar for decades, like a grotesque monster too fascinatingly ugly for the light of day. For those who love watching the freakish and explicit, The Nickel exists to celebrate a genre of film that joyfully beats against the rules of acceptance.

"The Nickel was born out of an all-consuming obsession with cinema. Movies were always the thing I loved more than anything else. Like a lot of cinephiles who grew up in the 90s, I lived amongst stacks of VHS, DVDs, posters, programme notes, magazine clippings and ticket stubs," says Dom, founder of The Nickel.

"I cut my teeth visiting The Prince Charles, the ICA and the NFT - and later when I travelled I would always seek out the local repertory cinemas, like the Cine Doré in Madrid, Spectacle in New York or The New Beverly in Los Angeles. These theatres felt like places of worship to a shared obsession."

Akin to these hallowed cinemas, Dom wants to grow an avid community of Grindhouse lovers around the space, offering people the opportunity to contribute through live performances, screening short films, curating programmes and writing for their upcoming monthly zine.

"We came close to losing The Prince Charles Cinema. Thankfully that was avoided, but it isn’t just enough to protect our existing arts venues, we need to build new ones. I like to believe we can still make these things happen in London. And if we can’t - fuck it, I’m leaving."

To celebrate the newest addition to London's independent cinema landscape, we've selected five films from The Nickel's June programme to go and see:

1

Vice Squad (Saturday 14 June)

Slide into the gutter for this turbo-charged sleazefest directed by Gary Sherman from the neon-stained underbelly of early ’80s L.A.

2

Tough Guys Don't Dance (Saturday 14 June)

Strap in for Norman Mailer’s utterly deranged, booze-soaked, brain-melting descent into neo-noir insanity.

3

Truck Turner (Wednesday 18 June)

This film starring American musician Isaac Hayes is a blistering, bullet-riddled, funk-fuelled, cult classic that redefined bad-assery.

4

Milano Calibro 9 (Friday 27 June)

Directed by Fernando Di Leo and soaked in style, sleaze, and cynicism, Milano Calibro 9 is a hard-boiled masterpiece of the Italian poliziotteschi wave.

5

The Sadist (Saturday 28 June)

Directed by James Landis, The Sadist is a lost American horror-noir classic, loosely inspired by the real-life killing spree of Charles Starkweather.

Get ready to join the gore community and find the full programme here.