Film Reviews by NP

There were so very many interesting films released in the early 1970s, especially those from in and around Europe, it’s inevitable that some escape the attention they may deserve. As a personal observation, I can’t believe it has taken until 2022 for me to see this extraordinary and decidedly odd little UK/West German coming-of-age production.

Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski gives us an accurate look at London at the tail end of the swinging sixties, even though large portions of the film were shot in Munich. Beautiful people John Moulder-Brown and Jane Asher play Mike and Susan, who appear to be on course for a rocky love affair. Of course, things aren't as simple as that. Diana Dors is also excellent in a sensual role that reinvigorated her career.

Scenes were carried out with only a loose script, encouraging improvisation which gives a raw, sometimes awkward set of performances. The characters also come across as completely naturalistic, even if - as was common practise back then - many of the lines of dialogue were redubbed.

A heady slice of apparently small-time adolescent melodrama, this nevertheless becomes increasingly unsettling as it goes. It never becomes a horror film, but certainly has trappings of that genre. I absolutely loved it.

An out-of-season funfair by the sea makes for a nicely spooky setting for this slow-to-start story. Certainly, the cast don't immediately arrest the attention in a slew of average to amateur performances. Somehow though, as the 93-minute runtime rolls on, the endear themselves.

Like many Norman J Warren films, this is difficult not to like, despite, or possibly because of, its offbeat, low-budget loopiness – however, the never-ending mishaps and madness, with only the vaguest covering explanation, can get somewhat wearisome. The music, however, by Cry No More, is great. My score is 7 out of 10.

This film has prompted the need for a shower after watching, according to some reviews. It's easy to see why. The overall story is grubby and disturbing. The pacing is very very slow. The titular creature, who spends most of its time in Philip's (Sean Harris) holdall, is simple and genuinely frightening. Sometimes it looks real; other times, like the prop it is.

Alongside Harris's non-smiling persona, is Maurice, played by Alun Armstrong. Armstrong has made a career of playing off-the-wall, often quite abrasively lovable, characters. Here, he relishes every filthy, murky, horrific aspect of the character he plays.

Director Matthew Holness doesn't seem interested in a sprawling storyline; rather, he is interested in an immersively murky atmosphere, and this works really well. An almost David Lynch level of horror is grafted onto the story of the shunned Philip's existence, trying to rid himself of a malignancy that refuses to let him go.

The wonderful incidental score is provided by the Radiophonic Workshop, formerly under the umbrella of the BBC, and responsible for - among many other things - the theme music for Doctor Who.

Penny Irving, for many years a sexy maid or secretary in no end of UK sit-coms, here plays French Ann-Marie Di Verney, the unfortunate heroine in this story. Producer, director and co-writer Pete Walker - who made a series of provocative films during the '70s and '80s in order to 'ruffle a few feathers' - has said that Irving needed a lot of direction. The results prove all was worth it - she turns in a terrific performance, and makes me sad she didn't pursue more serious roles.

The question is, did House of Whipcord inspire the mighty Australian drama Prisoner Cell Block H? It stands a chance,; although this is hardly the first 'women in prison' film, it's one of the most powerful. SDadistiuc warders, a corrupt system, innocents being incarcerated, sadism and repressed sexuality in the form of discipline: it's all here.

The cast is excellent, the story simple but powerful, and the writing is tighter than on some of Walker's other projects. All performances are terrific, but special mention should go to Barbara Markham , Patrick Barr, Robert Tayman and Sheila Keith as the wonderful antagonists.

‘This film is dedicated to those who are disturbed by today’s lax moral codes and who eagerly await the return of corporal and capital punishment ….’

Three ex-college associates meet up for a reunion. Two of them (Duller and McFayden) are deeply unpleasant, waspish bullies, and the third (Talbot) is chirpy, upbeat and, after a while, deeply irritating! Vivian MacKerrell, Murray Melvin and Larry Dann play these roles brilliantly.

The stunning location in 1920s England was mainly filmed in India, and many of the cast and crew became unwell during recording. It's directed by Stephen Weeks who also directed the Christopher Lee film ‘I, Monster (1970)’ at the age of only 22.

Marianne Faithful is very impressive as Sophie. Faithful was going through troubled times at this point in her life, which might have fuelled her performance. Leigh Lawson, Penelope Keith and Barbara Shelley are some of the more well-known names also involved.

Apart from Weeks' effective direction, which makes great use of a limited budget, former Pink Floyd collaborator Ron Geesin provides a truly unnerving soundtrack which conveys the horrific nature of events - especially during the shaving scene. You'll know when you get to it!

The enigmatic Hugh (Michael Petrovitch) makes a rather creepy pass at Anna (Susan Hampshire), and rather than walking away, she falls for his stilted charms and they are soon embarking on a relationship. She is married, she tells him, as they stroll through idyllic Jersey, but the marriage is failing. Hampshire is wonderful as Anna, who clearly needs someone in her life. Imagine then, her heartbreak should tragedy come a-calling.

This Tigon film is based on a book by former newsreader Gordon Honeycombe. His story lends itself very well to the horror/romance treatment, but director Fred Burnley seems determined to tone down the chilling aspects of the tale. All we really get is Petrovitch's increasingly robotic performance; this is understandable given the circumstances, but he was hardly animated when we first met him.

Frank Finlay plays Hugh’s repressed brother George, and one-time Doctor Who companion Michael Craze does his best as Collie, but it is a thankless role.

The film's title was changed to ‘The Exorcism of Hugh’, possibly to cash in on the then-current William Blatty film.

After a moody establishing opening, it quickly becomes apparent that this is a low-budget slow burner with a lot of the failings of such productions. Namely - a lot of the acting is very weak. I've seen worse, but a quiet chiller/tragedy like this depends on the performances to sell the emotion, and they just aren't strong enough here, with the exception of Lexi Hulme as Eve Turner .

The location is the winner here, and director Lawrie Brewster achieves some stunning shots that convey both the beauty of the Scottish Highlands, and the isolation too. James (Euan Douglas) inherits a sprawling mansion, and despite being told not to visit, he feels compelled to return, to see if he can identify what troubled him so when he was a child.

Gradually, James learns of the cult of Moloch, and Sarah Daly's story then takes on decidedly MR James turns.

If you're not put off by the slowness of the mood piece, you'll find that the less-than-stellar acting doesn't matter so much. The story, the mood, the atmosphere, the location, the direction and the occasionally glimpsed Owlman are all terrific. The film won two awards at the 2013 Bram Stoker International Film Festival – one, an audience award, and the other for Lexi Hulme’s performance.

Greek director Niko Mastoriakis tried to ruffle as many feathers as possible in this wonderfully perverse exploitation 'video nasty'. The beautiful backdrop of Mykonos provides an exotic canvas for the heady concoction of rape, torture, kinky sex and bestiality that goes on between Christopher (Bob Bellings) and his partner Celia (Jane Lyle) - and the other unfortunates dragged into their depravity.

Apart from Bellings and Jessica Dublin, who plays Patricia, no other cast members are professional actors. Yet no one lets the story down. In fact, in the case of Lyle, whose line delivery is sometimes stilted, it adds to the character's idiosyncracies - aside from her perversions, she seems uncomfortable among other people.

This is an excellent film. Simply told in many ways, the approach lets the deviant proclivities of the main characters play out without fanfare or unnecessary glamour. My score is 9 out of 10.

Of the many HP Lovecraft adaptions over the years, this Spanish (though English-speaking) version is my favourite to date. In fact, this is superb, although the story is really an adaption of HP’s ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth’ than ‘Dagon’.

The uneasy atmosphere of a ruined fishing village is chillingly conveyed; the community of locals, with their subtly off-human appearance, is decidedly creepy.

A word too for Macarena Gómez as Uxía Cambarro, who combines intense beauty with startling and exotic vampire-like persuasiveness as she convinces hero Paul (Ezra Godden) that his fate and hers are unavoidably intertwined. This, and some very good effects, combine to ensure she is truly demonic.

‘This looks like a really skill place to play hide and seek,’ says our heroine about a deserted railway station at one point. Why don’t people talk like that anymore?

Anna Madden (Charlotte Burke) suffers from persecution at school, feinting fits and a mother who displays some of the most wooden acting in the film. Bored and off school, she retreats into drawings. Her dad (Ben Cross) is away a lot, and occupies her dreams - but not as her charming, benevolent father.

The imagery is the winner here . The swirling, delirious story premise swims from tragedy to child-nightmare to life-affirming, with only occasional moments where the sometimes awkward acting prevents things from becoming as emotionally moving as they might have been. A nicely directed dark fantasy.

This is quite a frustrating film to watch, so why do I keep coming back to it? The locations and cinematography are excellent. The main vampire, Corvinus, is great fun. The kills are samey, but well staged. The band of 'heroes', however, are woefully inactive and - possibly because most are required to speak in English which isn't their first language - the acting is stilted and listless. There is virtually no plot. There are similarities between Corvinus and another, cowled figure who makes several repetitive attacks. Turns out the second fellow is Dracula himself.

There are many strangely contradictory online reviews – either 5/5 proclaiming 'Grate fun', or 'It's good! It's great! It's super!!!!' (the vast majority of them are written in pigeon English) - or 1/5 proclaiming this as the worst film they have ever seen (these critiques sometimes consist of as many as one or two words). I wouldn't wish to cast aspersions about 'Dracula Reborn's' cast and crew writing favourable reviews, but the extreme difference of opinion makes oddly hilarious reading. I'm not sure the film is quite as entertaining, but it has its moments. Like the reviews, these moments lurch from one extreme to another. My score is 6 out of 10.

‘Reeker’ doesn’t start well. A family are driving down a desert highway, and the little boy is so nauseating, the viewer is instantly longing for him to come to a sticky end. Sadly, while his mother and father (and dog) are duly despatched after hitting a deer with the family car, the little angel’s demise is unrecorded.

In the end, only Gretchen and Jack survive their meeting with Reeker. As they are driven away by the police, they see their camper van on its side, the remains of their friends’ bodies scattered around it. Despite the creature’s attempts to kill them, they could not die because they didn’t cry in the original crash. The film doesn’t go out of its way to explain the true nature of Reeker, nor the unfortunate events that befall the luckless travellers; the tale is enigmatic but well worth your time.

Considered a lost film since its last showing on television in 1983, this carefully paced, deeply atmospheric tale is only beginning to find a new level of appreciation since its rediscovery. Peter Vaughn, often cast as ‘heavies’ at the time is quietly menacing as Brady, the ‘odd job man. Lorna Leilbron, who was so good in ‘The Creeping Flesh’ plays Anne, eminently sensible and unflappable. And, providing an amazing performance, Angel Pleasance plays Helen, who lives in her huge inherited estate in the middle of the secluded English countryside, convalescing from some undisclosed breakdown and yet still clearly suffering. Whilst not quite as other-worldly as she was in ‘From Beyond the Grave’ earlier in the year, her more subtle playing of quiet madness reveals itself as the story plays on.

The storyline is thin and it comes as a huge non-surprise to find the deranged killer on Anne and other sundry characters is Helen. And yet the fact that Brady is too obviously a red herring (although hardly unimpeachable) doesn’t disappoint because Pleasance plays it so fascinatingly well.

A sequel to Dracula without Bela Lugosi seems unthinkable, but that is what happened - his corpse is represented by a wax model seen for seconds before being extinguished on a pyre presided over by a haunted, dewy-eyed woman claiming to be his daughter.

Gloria Holden plays Contessa Marya Zeleska with a skillful mixture of the sinister and vulnerable. Edward Van Sloan is back from Dracula, although his character is now known - inexplicably - as Prof Von Helsing, and it is his job to wade through the bland veneer of officialdom to continue his pursuit of the undead.

Irving Pichel plays Zeleska's servant Sandor with spine-chilling vigour, all lurking and muttering apocalyptic words of doom as only the best creepy servants do.

My favourite character is Lili, played by Nan Grey, and her plight echoes Zaleska's own. The way the loss of Lili is treated so insignificantly makes her story a real tragedy. Poor little blighter!

This is a modestly budgeted, black-and-white film directed, produced, written by and starring Herk Harvey. Often, when an entire production is placed in the hands of one person, the results can be questionable, with no-one available to advise the auteur that his ambition may need fine-tuning. Happily, this is far from the case here. 'Carnival of Souls' has gained a huge cult following over the years, and quite rightly: it is excellent.

The direction is first-rate. Not only is a seaside town given a genuinely unnerving atmosphere, but the finale, filled with stuttering, staggering undead figures emerging from the abandoned carnival stays in the mind long after the credits have rolled.

If you have an interest in horror, you owe it to yourself to see this.