Talk by film writer Jon Dear on how Highgate Cemetery has been used as a setting in horror films, with Hammer and Amicus.
Jon Dear returns to Highgate Cemetery on Tuesday 17 November with Beyond the Graves, a talk on cemeteries in horror films. It's a sequel to a popular session he gave in January, and it picks up where that one left off, with Highgate Cemetery itself as the starting point.
The whole thing is built around the idea that Highgate has served as a setting for countless horror films over the years. It's not just a few cameos, either: both Hammer and Amicus filmed some of their most iconic scenes right here off Swain's Lane, so the cemetery has a genuine history as a cinematic shorthand for the gothic and the macabre. From there, Dear looks at how cemeteries have been used across the horror genre more broadly.
Dear is a writer on film and television who's worked extensively with the BFI and Hammer, and he's the one who produced The Quatermass Experiment 70th anniversary event at Alexandra Palace. His first book, No Digging – The Story of the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas, is due out in 2026, so he knows his way around the intersection of British television and the supernatural.
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The talk is held in the Highgate Cemetery chapel on Swain's Lane, London N6 6PJ. It starts at 7.30pm, with doors open from 7.00pm, and tickets are £10.
