Keith and Paddy’s MovieFest brings Halloween early to Alexandra Palace

MovieFest Poster at Alexandra Palace (Image: Archant)

Halloween comes early to Muswell Hill when comics Keith Lemon and Paddy McGuinness bring their vampire-themed MovieFest to Alexandra Palace.

The event includes a screening of 1987 horror comedy The Lost Boys, an 80s DJ set, plus a free bottle of Champagne for the best spooky costume. Dan Splarn asked the stars of Keith & Paddy's Picture Show some questions:

Q: Where did the idea for Moviefest come from?

PM We've been mates for over 10 years and share a love of film. Having done countless movie parodies for TV we knew this would be a lot of fun along with the chance of interacting with a live audience.

KL: I guess it's a progression of what we did with Keith and Paddy's Picture Show. We wanted to show our version of Gremlins and the original Gremlins at the cinema last year, and bring Zach Galligan over who played Billy in the original. Anyway that didn't happen for certain legal reasons, then the Luna Cinema partnership happened - we showed Dirty Dancing in Tatton Park and it was brilliant! We basically host the evening from our fictional video shop where we only rent out 80's movies. I remember being overjoyed with the whole thing. I said to Paddy we've got do this forever!

PM: The only worry was the good old British weather. I hired a Shaman to do a sun dance before each gig. No need for that at the Ally Pally though, we're indoors!

Q: Why The Lost Boys this time?

PM: It's a classic and has all the ingredients we look for in a MovieFest film. Great music, memorable characters and lots of quotable lines.

KL: I'm really excited. I'm a massive fan of the film, I have all the jackets. Not the actual ones but replicas. So we're all set for costumes. I recently met Kiefer Sutherland and showed him a picture of me dressed as him (David) in The Lost Boys, he thought it was awesome! Chris Moyles had him on his radio show and he sent me a video message. He's a really nice guy. I introduced him on stage at Soho House where he was playing a gig, yep he's a musician too as well and an actor! A rad actor! The Lost Boys is my favourite all time vampire movie and also features music from my favourite band INXS. All the elements of it are just so perfect. There's a book that was released about the making of it recently called Lost in the Shadows by Paul Davis. I wrote a little piece in that about my experience of seeing it for the first time at the cinema when I was 15. I'm a massive film nerd. Especially films from the 80's.

Q: What can people expect from the night?

PM: Along with watching a classic there's live elements, we play games onstage with the audience, and at the end we turn our hand to DJing.

KL: We come on stage and host from our video store where we have a special guest, we show the film, have a poo and a pint break half way through, play the rest of the movie, then we have a massive party at the end in which me and paddy DJ playing only 80's music and tunes from movies. Did I mention we're gonna have prizes for best costumes? It's gonna be a like a massive pre-Halloween party! I hope people get dressed up!

PM: The bigger the better!

KL: It's just a bit a fun isn't it? I like dressing up, it's almost Halloween so what better excuse? Or don't, but I will be! And so will McGuiness!

Q: Why do you think the event is suited to Ally Pally?

PM: Atmosphere is key and after seeing the darts there we thought we'd tap into a bit of that.

KL: Well it's indoor and as it's October it's gonna be better than sat outside freezing ya bits and parts of. It's quite a gothic building so it suits a Halloween bash.

MovieFest is at Alexandra Palace Theatre on October 18.

alexandrapalace.com