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”.

 

When: 8.30pm, Saturday 25th January 2025

Location: Cube Microplex, 4 Princess Row Kingsdown BRISTOL BS2 8NQ

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

 

An unprecedented––and wholly unpredictable––action-adventure, Roar follows wildlife preservationist Hank (The Exorcist producer Noel Marshall in his sole and career-derailing turn as an actor and director), who lives harmoniously alongside a menagerie of over 100 untamed animals, including cheetahs, elephants, lions and tigers on a preservation in the African plains. When his wife and children arrive (real-life wife Tippi Hedren, The Birds, and step-daughter Melanie Griffith, Working Girl, and his sons John and Jerry Marshall) for a visit, a long-brewing battle for dominance between the lions erupts and threatens their very lives.

“It’s like Walt Disney went insane and shot a snuff version of Swiss Family Robinson.” Hitflix

“Like watching a live-action Lion King as Mufasa holds a switchblade to your throat.” Complex

“To see this 1981 lion drama is to become a dog person.” The Guardian