THERE BE MONSTERS:
THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS + ILLUSTRATED TALK ON ANIMATION IN HORROR 

Saturday 25 Apr 2026 

Dydd Sad 25 Ebr 2026 

8:30pm • Chapter Cinema 2

60 mins | 18+ ​​​​

60 mun | 18+ 

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​This event will have Live Captions by Sheryll Holley 

Bydd gan y digwyddiad yma Gapsiynau Byw gan Sheryll Holley.

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£7/9 or included in Festival Pass

£7/9 neu wedi’i gynnwys gyda Phas yr Ŵyl

In The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié USA 1953), a giant dinosaur awakens from the depths of the arctic ocean following a nuclear bomb test. In this now landmark, low budget, spectacular monster-movie, Ray Harryhausen used stop-motion and split-screen effects to bring the dinosaur to life and stage a series of increasingly destructive encounters between humanity and the monster from the deep. 

The film remains a wonder to behold. Heavily-influenced by Willis O’Brien’s work on King Kong, Harryhausen would continue to create monsters for fantasy, science fiction, and horror cinema and inspire generations of special effects artists. The screening of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms will be followed by an illustrated talk by Professor Stacey Abbott (Northumbria University) on the pivotal role that animation has played in the horror genre, from vampire bat transformations to mythic, alien, and supernatural monsters to  the excesses of body horror.  

Stacey Abbott is Professor of Film and Television at Northumbria University and a member of their Horror Studies Research Group. She is a recognised expert on the horror genre, regularly appearing on radio, television, and podcasts, and has given public lectures on horror and Gothic film at the British Film Institute, the British Library, The Old Operating Theatre London, St. Bart’s Pathology Museum, and the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies.  Her research focuses on horror across film and television, with a particular interest in the evolution of the vampire and zombie on screen. She has written on the role of special effects in horror, science fiction, and cult film and television.  She is the author of the BFI Film Classic on Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark (Bloomsbury 2020), Celluloid Vampires (2007), and Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century (2016). She is currently writing a book on Horror Animation. 

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Yn The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié UDA 1953), mae deinosor enfawr yn deffro o ddyfnderoedd cefnfor yr Arctig yn dilyn prawf bom niwclear. Yn y ffilm anghenfil ysblennydd cyllideb-isel yma, sydd bellach yn ffilm nodedig, defnyddiodd Ray Harryhausen effeithiau stop-symud a thorri sgrin i ddod â’r deinosor yn fyw a llwyfannu cyfres o gyfarfyddiadau cynyddol ddinistriol rhwng dynoliaeth a’r anghenfil o’r dyfnderoedd.

Mae’r ffilm yn rhyfeddol hyd heddiw. Dan ddylanwad trwm gwaith Willis O’Brien ar King Kong, byddai Harryhausen yn parhau i greu angenfilod ar gyfer sinema ffantasi, ffuglen wyddonol ac arswyd ac yn ysbrydoli cenedlaethau o artistiaid effeithiau arbennig. I ddilyn y dangosiad o The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms bydd sgwrs ddarluniadol gan yr Athro Stacey Abbott (Prifysgol Northumbria) ar y rôl hanfodol mae animeiddio wedi’i chwarae yn y genre arswyd, o drawsffurfiadau ystlumod fampir i angenfilod chwedlonol, estron a goruwchnaturiol i eithafion arswyd corff. 

Mae Stacey Abbott yn Athro Ffilm a Theledu ym Mhrifysgol Northumbria ac yn aelod o’u Grŵp Ymchwil Astudiaethau Arswyd. Mae hi'n arbenigwr cydnabyddedig ar y genre arswyd, gan ymddangos yn rheolaidd ar y radio, teledu a phodlediadau, ac mae wedi traddodi darlithoedd cyhoeddus ar ffilmiau arswyd a Gothig yn Sefydliad Ffilm Prydain, y Llyfrgell Brydeinig, The Old Operating Theatre Llundain, Amgueddfa Patholeg St. Bart, a Sefydliad Astudiaethau Arswyd Miskatonic.  Mae ei hymchwil yn canolbwyntio ar arswyd ar draws ffilm a theledu, gyda diddordeb arbennig yn esblygiad y fampir a'r sombi ar y sgrin. Mae hi wedi ysgrifennu ar rôl effeithiau arbennig mewn ffilmiau a theledu arswyd, ffuglen wyddonol, a chwlt.  Hi yw awdur y llyfr BFI Film Classic ar ffilmiau Kathryn Bigelow, Near Dark (Bloomsbury 2020), Celluloid Vampires (2007), ac Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century (2016). Mae hi wrthi’n ysgrifennu llyfr ar Animeiddio Arswyd.