Rent Short Sharp Shocks: Vol.1 (1980)
2.9 of 5 from 16 ratings
3h 36min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
This compelling collection revisits the heyday of the supporting programme with a compendium of eerie and eccentric British short films presented for the first time in High Definition. Settle in for a strange cinematic journey through uncanny stories, twists in the tale, low-budget weirdness and oodles of atmosphere.
Lock Your Door (1949)
Master storyteller Algernon Blackwood relates his own tale of an elderly spinster overcome by ghostly voices and a creeping sense of horror in a remote country cottage.
The Reformation of St. Jules (1949)There's something strange in the sky as sci-fi and religious revelation collide - and only legendary Weird Fiction writer Algernon Blackwood can suggest an explanation.
The Tell-Tale Heart (1953)
Stanley Baker gives a virtuoso performance by candlelight as Edgar Allan Poe recounting his classic tale of horror.
Death Was a Passenger (1958)
A chance encounter with an enigmatic nun on a train evokes eerie, half-forgotten memories of a perilous wartime escape attempt in occupied France.
Portrait of a Matador (1958)
An artist becomes unhealthily obsessed with his painting of a dead bullfighter in this bizarre tale of romance, intrigue, insanity and auto-suggestion.
Twenty-Nine (1969)
Promiscuous young man Baird (Alexis Kanner) wakes up in a strange flat, wearing clothes that don't fit, with a hangover and a half-remembered memory of a visit to a strip club. What happened last night?
The Sex Victims (1973)
The bizarre sight of a naked woman on horseback leads an unwary truck driver into a supernatural spiral of pursuit and destruction in rural England.
The Lake (1978)
The tranquil stillness of a romantic picnic for young lovers Tony (Gene Foad) and Barbara (Julie Peasgood) is threatened by echoes of the horrific violence that happened nearby in this hauntingly evocative ghost story from Lindsey Vickers (The Appointment).
The Errand (1980)
A soldier at an elite military institution is sent on a strange and increasingly nightmarish mission in this full-on fever-dream thriller from long-time Pete Walker collaborator David McGillivray (House of Whipcord).- Actors:
- Dorothy Alison, Peter Ashley, Brian Attree, Maurice Blake, Tom Bowles, John Collin, Peter Howell, Alan Jones, Edward Kalinski, Philomena McDonagh, Timothy Morand, Ray Roberts, Algernon Blackwood, Stanley Baker, Terence Alexander, Roland Brand, Alex Gallier, Armand Guinle, Harriette Johns, Michael Lewis
- Directors:
- Nigel Finch, Anthony Gilkison, J.B. Williams, Theodore Zichy, Brian Cummins, Derek Robbins, Lindsey C. Vickers
- Producers:
- Isadore Goldsmith, Theodore Zichy, John Lambe, Peter Shillingford, Derek Robbins, Christopher B. Warburton, Godfrey Kirby
- Writers:
- Algernon Blackwood, Edgar Allan Poe, J.B. Williams, George Barraud, Walter Stanley, Douglas Sturgeon, Brian Cummins, Derek Robbins, Lindsey C. Vickers, David McGillivray
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Horror, Thrillers
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 23/11/2020
- Run Time:
- 216 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Various
- Colour:
- Colour and B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Man With a Movie Camera (2020, 42 mins): interview with Twenty-Nine producer Peter Shillingford A Crazy, Mixed-up Kid (2020, 43 mins): interview with David McGillivray, writer of 'The Errand'
- Telling Tales / Arthur Dent and Adelphi: Films in the Family (2020, 37 mins): Kate Lees, of Adelphi Films, discusses the family business and the discovery of 1953 short 'The Tell-Tale Heart', long believed lost
- Almost Thirty (2020, 15 mins): interview with Renee Glynne, script supervisor on 'Twenty-Nine' Splashing Around (2020, 18 mins): interview with Julie Peasgood, star of 'The Lake' and 'House of the Long Shadows'
- Image galleries for 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Lake' and 'The Errand'
- Script galleries for 'The Lake' and 'The Errand'
- Gallery of the original short story 'The Errand'
- Disc 1:
- This disc includes the following episodes:
1. Lock Your Door
2. The Reformation of St Jules
3. The Tell-Tale Heart
4. Death Was a Passenge
5. Portrait of a Matador
- Special Features - Disc 2:
- This disc includes the following episodes:
6. Twenty Nine
7. The Sex Victims
8. The Lake
9. The Errand
- Special Features
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Reviews (1) of Short Sharp Shocks: Vol.1
Many Perspectives - Short Sharp Shocks: Vol.1 review by CH
Varied in time and manner, these are sometimes ineteresting, even enjoyable tales of enigma. The two opening items from the Forties , for example, have the curiosity value of being told beside a fireplace by their author Algernon Blackwood who was then around eighty. As such, they are filmed radio readings, for his presence is not that of a Welles. And there is a variant of a railway film, which combines a commuter route and one in wartime France a decade earlier. The Lake (1978) hints at a malign presence while leaving much obscure but with plenty to enjoy during these thirty-three minutes.
As it is, the adiding effect is of snacks rather than courses in a meal.
All well worth exploring for oneself: others will find different pleasures in it, perhaps. And even seek out the other two sets of two discs under this title.
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