On Saturday, I headed down to London to see the UK premiere of the latest Dario Argento film, Dark Glasses, which was being shown at FrightFest. We booked tickets as soon as it was announced, and then they announced the man himself was going to be there to introduce the film as well as take part in a Q+A afterwards.

As we were heading down to London anyway, it made sense to make a full day out of it. I always enjoy walking around the capital. In the end I did around 29,000 steps/12 miles, according to my watch at least. We arrived at Euston at around half nine in the morning, and walked up to Camden. A couple of months ago we briefly went to Camden market, but wanted to explore it fully. It’s a really cool place, with lots of different stalls/shops to explore. It’s a little quirky, even if you see the same t-shirts hanging in every other store. After that we walked down Regent’s canal from Camden locks until the path disappeared, somewhere near Islington. It was the perfect day for the walk, it was a little busy, but besides some low bridges that I had to duck a little to walk under, it was nice. We walked past a pretty cool looking book shop that was in a canal boat, but didn’t stop to really look through it. As we were reaching the end we did stop for some of the nicest ice cream I’ve had in a while and it was getting pretty hot by this point, and I’d forgotten sun-cream which is becoming a bit of a trend for me this year. I did pop into Boots to get some, so I’m not as burnt as I could have been.

We then took a very long-winded way to the Thames, walking past St. Paul’s Cathedral and then across the Jubilee bridge. At this point it was early afternoon, and it was quite busy. Still a very beautiful day for walking. In the end it was all a very roundabout way of getting to Trafalgar Square, where we rested for quite a while as it was a long day by this point and I think all of our feet were tired. There’s so much to explore and things to find in London. We try not to get the underground each time we go, just to find more places to explore. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of walking around the city.

After our pit stop we made our way to the cinema to actually see the film, the whole reason we were there. It was incredibly busy inside, and a little overwhelming with not really knowing where to go, but eventually we made our way to our seats and waited for Argento’s arrival.

After watching Suspiria early last year and many of his other films in the months since, Argento has become one of my favourite writers/directors. I love Suspiria, and his ‘Animal’ trilogy, as well as Deep Red. Saying all of that, he’s a frustrating director for me as well, since I want to love everything he’s done, but there’s a lot of rubbish, especially in his more recent output. Thankfully, Dark Glasses was a lot better than his previous film, Dracula 3D (2012), but still not as good as his work from the 70s. It’s over-the-top, silly, and has a score that feels like you’re in a rave (I have a full review coming soon). He also announced a new film is in the works, which I was surprised by since there was a gap of ten years between Dracula and this one. This time around he’s remaking a 1940s Mexican film, but didn’t announce the title. I couldn’t name a single 1940s Mexican film, so it’ll be a surprise for me whatever it is.

Some more photos from the day: