British Theatrical Horror Shorts

I've seen very few of them, or at least I don't remember them even though I saw quite a few of the main features on original release. I think I only ever saw the Stanley Long ones in the Screamtime compilation. Although wild horses could not have dragged me to see Saturday Night Fever, I think I saw Panic at the cinema but I have no idea what it might have accompanied. Sredni Vashtar was also excellent.

I have dim memories of a (long-ish, I think) short that doesn't seem to appear here. All I can really remember of it is that at least part of it was set in the country and there's a scene where a chicken has its neck wrung but it doesn't die, just goes around with a stretched neck. I hadn't yet gone veggie but I found it very disturbing. I think there might have been an implication that such a fate would befall one of our characters. Does that ring a bell with anyone? Might it have been The Cottage? I definitely saw Poltergeist at the cinema so there's a fair chance I saw that short.

Thanks so much for unearthing this, mal - a great read, and going into more detail than I did in Short Sharp Shocks last year (though I covered a far wider period). I've emailed Sim to tell him how much I enjoyed this.

He's forgotten to mention that THE DUMB WAITER originally played with Badham's DRACULA in 1979. Nice to see that I'm quoted here and there, and it amazes me that my reminiscences of certain titles now seem to stand as the major evidence that they ever existed in the first place! Am I really the only person to recall VAMPYR or RETRIBUTION? (not that I recall them particularly well!!)

By my count I saw eight of these shorts theatrically (I'd completely forgotten the one alongside BRIMSTONE & TREACLE and will look at it on YouTube later); I've seen four of them in cinemas in more recent years; and I've seen a further seven on Blu-ray extras or on YouTube. Nineteen in total.