Penda’s Fen
Our Halloween screening is an under-seen folk horror classic – an extraordinary exploration of paganism, sexuality and the British countryside.
Below the slopes of the Malvern Hills, a clergyman’s 14-year-old son experiences a bizarre series of encounters with angels and demons, the composer Edward Elgar and King Penda, the mythical last pagan ruler of England. These encounters – whether real or imagined – force him to question his religious beliefs, his politics and his sexuality.
Made for the BBC’s Play for Today strand, the drama’s low budget didn’t constrain its ambition one bit. You are unlikely to see anything more imaginative, strange or unnerving. This is not the kind of horror that scares you for just a moment, but gets under your skin, haunts your dreams and makes you think.
UK 1974. Director Alan Clarke. With Spencer Banks, John Atkinson, Georgine Anderson. 89 mins. 12
With thanks to the BFI National TV Archive
Tickets from £5. 10% off for BAC Supporters
Special offer
Buy tickets for 5 or more films and receive a 25% discount.
All tickets will need to be purchased at the same time. This offer only applies to full priced tickets in the Sep-Dec 2025 programme and cannot be used in conjunction with other offers (eg BAC Supporters’ discount). Offer excludes Metropolis and Met Opera broadcasts.
Reviews
★★★★★
Remarkable
An unforgettable hybrid of horror story, rites-of‑passage spiritual quest and vision of an alternative England that has been hailed as one of the most original and vauntingly ambitious British films of the last half century.
Staggering in its richness and ambition.