BBFC & The Cube presents ROAR at The Cube
Headfirst Editor's Pick

"Sell out warning! Before Tiger King, before Grizzly Man, there was Roar: a crazed and misguided culmination of a Hollywood big cat breeding obsession that should never have been allowed. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to a safari snuff film, from megalomaniac furry (and director of The Exorcist) Noel Marshall in association with the cultural anarchists at Bristol Bad Film Club."

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See event details

A event held at The Cube on Saturday 25th January. The event starts at 21:00.


Dir: Noel Marshall, 1985 (rereleased 2015), USA, 95mins, PG

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Sat 25 January // 20:30

Tickets: £5 (full)

New year, new fear. Bristol Bad Film Club and The Cube present Roar as the second part in a flesh devouring double bill with introduction by BBFC organiser and Roar scholar, Timon Singh. While not typically held up as a horror film, Roar will have you more palpably scared for the character's safety than just about any other film you care to name.

Everyone loves cats, but there’s a limit to how far you can take your adoration. Tippi Hedren and her husband/manager Noel Marshall took their obsession to the absolute limit.

Whilst touring Africa, the pair became devoted to raising awareness about the overhunting of wild lions, tigers and jaguars. Roar soon became a passion project for the duo, which they hoped would help to raise awareness, however the animal trainers they approached were less convinced and called the idea “brainsick” and “completely and utterly insane.”

Undetered, Hedren and Marshall soon learned that lions would never get along socially unless they were raised together, so they secretly began to adopt and breed lions within the grounds of their Beverly Glenn home. For close to a decade, Hedren, Marshall, Melanie Griffith (Tippi Hedren’s daughter) and Marshall’s three sons all lived, slept and ate with an ever-growing pride of lions.

Their menagrie soon grew to over 100 animals, so the family created Shambala, a nature preserve 40 miles north of Los Angeles. It was there that they filmed Roar.

"No animals were harmed in the making of this movie. 70 members of the cast and crew were."

Due to their familiarity with the animals, the entire cast was comprised of Marshall, Hedren, their four children and a few seasoned animal trainers. European cinematographer Jan de Bont (who would later direct Speed and Twister) was recruited to shoot the film, his first American production.

The shoot took five years and has been called “the most terrifying and dangerous film making ever committed to celluloid”.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions

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