CLUB IMAGINE

A foster mom seems a tad too friendly in this new horror hit from the Philippou brothers. 

After a domestic incident, Andy and his sister Piper, who is visually impaired, are placed in the home of their new foster mother, Laura. Laura is very, extremely, horribly happy to see them. Strange events in the house suggest that this new mom may have something else in store. 

Following up on their smash hit Talk to Me (2022), the Philippou brothers – known for their popular YouTube videos – are back with a new, disturbing horror installment from A24. Actress Sally Hawkings, who rose to fame with her heartwarming, quirky roles in Happy-Go-Lucky, Paddington and The Shape of Water, goes dark with her version of the foster mom from hell. Through impressionistic VHS flashbacks, we get to know more about Laura’s past and an ominous sect with some very strange rituals. As always, Hawkins gives an amazing performance as an unstable mother figure with a deadly grin. 

• Director: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou 
• Country: Australië
• Year: 2025
• Runtime: 99 min
• With: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Sally Hawkins 

A lonely space trucker searches for love in this Ukrainian scifi.  

Floating somewhere near Jupiter in his worn-down space truck after the world’s exploded, Andriy Melnyk believes he’s the only human being left in the universe. When he receives an unexpected radio signal from a French scientist called Catherine, Andriy and his robot Maxim set on a quest to find her.  

Ukrainian scifi U Are the Universe looks stellar and will move even the most cynical viewer. It shouldn’t even exist because of the war but that doesn’t show in the slightest. This is a relatable, existential tragicomedy about loneliness and love, comparable to Hollywood blockbusters about lost astronauts like The Martian or Gravity. U Are the Universe turned heads at TIFF and Fantastic Fest and won several awards, including Best Picture at the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival. 

• Director: Pavlo Ostrikov 
• Countries: Oekraïne, Frankrijk, België
• Year: 2024
• Runtime: 90 min
• With: Alexia Depicker, Volodymyr Kravchuk, Daria Plakhtii 

A fascinating look at Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki, with an emphasis on nature as inspiration. 

For more than forty years, Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki has been enriching the world with his beautiful work. Films like My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and most recently The Boy and the Heron have made him the absolute superstar of modern animation. But Miyazaki the man is as mysterious as his films are famous.  

Through conversations with Miyazaki, his son, friends, collaborators and philosophers like Timothy Morton, Miyazaki – Spirit of Nature offers a closer look at the modest genius and his inner universe. The documentary centres on his work on Princess Mononoke (1997), where we join him at the drawing board until he experiences a creative turning point that, backed by Disney, catapults him from Japan to the rest of the world. As Miyazaki matures and his artistic vision darkens, so do his films. Though populated with cute spirits and cat buses, in Miyazaki’s work the real world of human folly, wars and pollution is right under the surface. 

• Director: Leo Favier 
• Country: Frankrijk
• Year: 2024
• Runtime: 82 min

A sun-drenched classic where beauty, envy and murder intertwine on the Italian coast. 

Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to persuade a wealthy playboy to return home but instead becomes dangerously captivated by his glamorous lifestyle. As desire curdles into obsession, Tom’s grip on reality and morality begins to slip. 

René Clément’s seductive 1960 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley comes to Club Imagine in a stunning 4K restoration. Set against dazzling Mediterranean backdrops and laced with tension, Plein soleil is both a gripping thriller and a chilling portrait of identity, deceit and desire that cannot be missed. 

• Director: René Clément
• Country: Frankrijk
• Year: 1960
• Runtime: 118 min
• With: Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Marie Laforêt

The slasher returns with a vengeance in this violent, fun tale of teenagers vs a deadly clown. 

When Quinn is forced to move to the tiny town of Kettle Springs for a fresh start, she starts hanging out with a group of teens who just want to have fun – much to the dissatisfaction of their parents. Then Frendo the Clown, an evil local mascot, decides to join the mayhem. 

Based on Adam Cesare’s acclaimed YA series, director Eli Craig’s fantastic reinvention of Clown in a Cornfield is a bloody, entertaining, in-your-face slasher that’s doesn’t let up. Taking its cue from 80’s classics like Funhouse and The Burning, the film reinvigorates the genre by looking at Midwest America through the lens of a failing economy: Frendo the Clown is motivated by a desire to revive a dying town as well as a gleeful lust for blood. Building on the legacy of brilliant classics, Clown in a Cornfield is a must for fans of a fun, gory time at the movies. 

• Director: Eli Craig
• Country: US
• Year: 2025
• Runtime: 96 min
• With: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso

In the midst of an escalating series of holistic treatments, two young parents fight for the future of their unborn child.  

When they learn their unborn baby has a mysterious birth defect, two young parents turn to alternative medicine. A holistic midwife promises a solution. But innocent organic treatments soon turn to life-threatening rituals, leading the parents to risk it all to save their child.  

Kind (Child), Dutch filmmaker Jan Verdijk’s debut feature, is best classified as a psychological thriller in which the parents slowly start to question their midwife’s good intentions, and each other. As the situations they find themselves in become increasingly inexplicable and dangerous, all control is lost. Through subtle and expertly controlled tension, Verdijk makes us wonder how far we’re willing to go for the health of a child.  

This world premiere of Kind will be accompanied by a Q&A with director Jan Verdijk, writer Paul de Vrijer and actors Vincent van der Valk and Tamar van den Dop.  

• Director: Jan Verdijk
• Country: The Netherlands
• Year: 2025
• Runtime: 80 min
• With: Noortje Herlaar, Vincent van der Valk, Tamar van den Dop

Moody folk tale about the loss of innocence in a medieval village. 

Mister Kent is the new, inexperienced landlord of a peaceful village in the Scottish Highlands, filled with ancient traditions such as masked bonfire dancing and smashing children’s heads on rocks. But the arrival of a trio of strangers leads to an eerie situation, pitting the villagers against each other.  

What was lost with the arrival of modernity? Harvest is a gorgeous tale of corruption, greed and the loss of innocence, based on Jim Crace’s novel of the same name. The film marks the feature debut of Greek weird wave director Athina Rachel Tsangari, known for Attenberg and Chevalier, and her producing credits for Yorgos Lanthimos. The wonderful 16mm cinematography was done by Sean Price Williams, who presented The Sweet East at Imagine 2023 as a director. A tragicomical folk horror sans explicit horror, Harvest feels like it came straight from the 1970s school of The Wicker Man or Witchfinder General. 

• Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari
• Countries: UK, Germany, US
• Year: 2024
• Runtime: 131 min
• With: Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling, Rosy McEwen

A VR Game created by students from the HKU in collaboration with Imagine. Free to experience during Club Imagine.

Looking for a cure, the only hope you have left is the abandoned Library of Knowledge, but who knows what lurks within… 

A sickness and no cure. That’s the reality that’s been slowly sinking in. You’d almost accepted that you were not going to be long for this world, until a friend found something online: an abandoned library, with supposed knowledge on everything in the world, even things that did not exist. You were skeptical, but decided to go take a look anyway. You have nothing left to lose. Who knows what this library could offer? Only one way to find out… 

Friday 20 June 18.00 – 21.30
Saturday 21 June 16.30 – 21.30
Sunday 22 June 15.30 – 19.00