Appointments With Fear (or, "Never 'eard of it, Guv...")

Following the welcome release of Lindsey C. Vickers’ THE APPOINTMENT as part of the BFI Flipside Blu-ray range, it has been gratifying to see the response from long-time fans of the movie, appreciative of the work done by Vic Pratt and team to get this thoroughly deserving item into the public eye after all these years.

What has been particularly noticeable, in examining comments made by many purchasers online, is that THE APPOINTMENT is new to most - even keen horror fans are stating that they haven’t seen the film before, which is understandable given its poorly-distributed video rental release forty years ago, and the scant late-night television airings it managed to receive some time later. What has surprised me most, however, are the statements from several buffs who say they have never even heard of the film! While THE APPOINTMENT hasn’t been widely seen, it has certainly received coverage in books and magazines - I know this for a fact, having reviewed the film for ‘Fantasynopsis’ fanzine issue 5 (published February 1993) and also having included reviews by Steven West and Paul Higson in my book ‘Dead or Alive: British Horror Films 1980-1989’.

It therefore occurred to me that if there are people out there who have never heard of THE APPOINTMENT, then perhaps there may be other British horror movies of the era that are unknown to them. I’ve picked a handful out of the pages of ‘Dead or Alive’, and jotted a few brief notes down on some of them, in the hope that this will introduce some new movie material to those who might glean the most from it. Some of these titles are already available on Blu-ray or DVD; others languish in the vaults, but are fully deserving of being hauled into the light of day and introduced to a new audience. I hope you enjoy the following run-down, that you attempt to seek out any of these films that you may be unfamiliar with, and that our beloved Blu-ray boutique labels make the effort to track down the rights and the source materials to get some of these 80s British gems onto the shelves and into your homes.

THE GODSEND

Viktors Ritelis’ THE CORPSE/CRUCIBLE OF HORROR is a huge favourite of mine, and ten years later the producers of that minor classic reconvened for THE GODSEND, a screen adaptation of Bernard Taylor’s novel, taking the concept of the cuckoo giving birth in the nests of other birds and applying it to human characters, thereby setting up a ‘deadly child’ situation at the time when that theme was all the rage; though, as Paul Higson commented in ‘Dead or Alive’, “the premise was a humdinger even in the wake of a raft of ‘killer kid’ movies.” Paul also pointed out that Gabrielle Beaumont’s place in the director’s chair was a rare, almost unique, occurrence for a female filmmaker in British horror at the time, adding that the movie offered “a more typically English lore and view of superstition” than the prevalent Hammer fare of the preceding quarter-century.

DÉJÀ VU

An overused title and a soapy, transatlantic feel probably contributed to this Jaclyn Smith vehicle getting lost in the pack, and to be honest it has a tendency towards the histrionic; but Anthony Richmond’s DÉJÀ VU is a British contribution to genre cinema’s occasional venture into the cultured world of ballet, sitting between SUSPIRIA and BLACK SWAN and not entirely disgracing itself. An Alan Garner-like parallel timeline element and a gleefully crazy performance by Shelley Winters make it worth your while. I dismissed much of the content in ‘Dead or Alive’ but found time to praise the use of “elements such as the Daily Mail, an impaled ginger tom, a gleaming and vicious-looking carving knife, and unexplained nightmare visions of a beckoning crimson phantom floating on a bed of dry ice”

SPHERE: THE SPORES OF DOOM

An ambitious semi-pro, forty minute production emerging from the National Film and Telelvision School, this one received coverage in ‘Starburst’ magazine during the mid 80s but then promptly vanished. A clandestine, hush-hush screening took place in the north of England in late 2021 and enthralled the handful of festivalgoers fortunate to witness it. SPHERE is a folk-horror fan’s dream, a sinister tale of wizardry, magic mushrooms, and mind control, all leading to a disturbing closing image. Our intrepid researcher Paul Higson managed to track down an extremely rare copy and reviewed the film in glowing terms for ‘Dead or Alive’, hitting the mark with the comparison “it feels like we are being thrown into an episode of Richard Carpenter’s ROBIN OF SHERWOOD television series”. Paul added that the young key characters are powerless against the strong will and magic of the wizard, and that “the ‘doom’ in the title is palpably correct”.

MURDER ELITE

Tyburn Films’ Kevin Francis has become notorious for keeping his product under wraps for decades - fans everywhere are desperate to see the likes of THE GHOUL and LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF make it to Blu-ray. MURDER ELITE is a lesser-known title from the stable, a mid-80s psychodrama directed by Claude Whatham and with Hywel Bennett reprising the type of twitchy character he occasionally played to great effect in similar fare from the late 60s and early 70s. This opens with a sequence proving that the UK could do tense ‘slasher in the woods’ stuff every bit as well as the US or Canada, before the main body of the plot features twists and turns amid the horsey community (see what I mean by ‘stable’?) - all ends chillingly, you’ll be glad to know. In ‘Dead or Alive’ I remarked that it “has hidden depths. It might well pass for a cosy, Sunday afternoon small-screen thriller, were it not for its violent slasher movie opening and the demented revelations at the close”.

THE HOUSEKEEPER

Rita Tushingham has made a couple of spectacular comebacks to the world of horror recently via THE OWNERS and the superb LAST NIGHT IN SOHO. Hammer’s STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING riffed beautifully on her ‘Northern wallflower in London’ typecasting, and THE HOUSEKEEPER - based on Ruth Rendell’s ‘A Judgement in Stone’ - does likewise. This Canadian/UK hybrid plays like a made-for-TV thriller at times, and its nearly-but-not-quite-incest subplot is pretty icky, but Tushingham dominates in the title role, as mousy and dyslexic domestic help Eunice, with a glazed glint in her eyes and a line in bumping off her employers and their nearest and dearest. Reviewing this one for ‘Dead or Alive’, I commented on how “the screenplay makes constant, nagging references reminding us about Eunice’s inability to read - every other scene seems to take a dig, which serves to force the viewer into the housekeeper’s state of mind and her increasingly desperate bids to cover up her educational failings. We’re not allowed to forget this, and so come to realise that she must have thoughts of the deficiency buzzing through her head, all day, every day”.

IN THE SHADOW OF KILIMANJARO

Not the most savage UK/Kenyan co-produced exploitation picture of the 1980s (that prize has to go to the jaw-dropping RISE AND FALL OF IDI AMIN!), but a solid runner-up, as thousands of killer baboons go on the rampage with only John Rhys-Davies and Timothy Bottoms standing in their way. Your pals who love ‘when animals attack’ pulp paperbacks and worship at the altar of bare-chested Leslie Nielsen in DAY OF THE ANIMALS would love this, and have more than likely overlooked it. Fraser Burnett summed it all up neatly in his ‘Dead or Alive’ review: “Whether the baboons are actually killing people for food, for available sustenance or for just plain evil ape reasons is never made explicit as they appear to be motivated by all of the above - Gagnon (Jim Boeke) is attacked to be eaten, the driver of the provisions lorry is attacked to gain access to his cargo and Lucille Gagnon (Patty Foley) is attacked by a baboon that has the insight to sneak aboard a plane and stay hidden until the craft is airborne and maximum havoc can be caused…”

MOONSTALKER aka PREDATOR: THE QUIETUS

Cliff Twemlow is one of Northern England’s cult sensations of the 1980s. Even if he had only been “the guy who wrote ‘The Pike’” his credentials would make him a legend, but those in the know are aware that despite failing to bring his hit novel to the screen, Cliff did star in a series of ultra-low budget marvels that fell onto the next level below ‘straight to video’. Astonishingly, MGM remastered MOONSTALKER in HD a few years ago - did they do so by accident, mistakenly thinking it was a sequel to Schwarzenegger’s PREDATOR?! Whatever the cause, how great to know that there’s a super-duper version of this odd monster/action combo out there somewhere, with Cliff, naturally, as the hero, taking on a werewolf-type creature based loosely on true-life tabloid tales about ‘the Beast of Exmoor’ and the like. Gavin Whitaker’s piece in ‘Dead or Alive’ displayed a sneaking regard for this one, and reported from the film’s belated UK premiere held in a room above a pub in Salford. “If the true litmus paper test of a film’s entertainment value is how it plays before a live audience, then this one passed with flying colours. Proving a real crowd pleaser, MOONSTALKER had its audience laughing along with its knowingly implausible storyline, while even the slightest hint of an upcoming action scene was greeted by enthusiastic yells of “Go on Cliff!” Methinks Mr Twemlow would have approved”. I’m planning to screen MOONSTALKER at this year’s Festival of Fantastic Films on Cliff’s Manchester home turf - be there and join in the fun.

LOVE POTION

The ‘Monty Python’ movie that you probably haven’t seen. Well, sort of. Backed by Graham Chapman and directed by regular Python editor Julian Doyle (later to helm Bruce Dickinson’s crazy CHEMICAL WEDDING), I’m amazed that this one fell into obscurity - I can well imagine this being a sleeper cinema hit in the late 80s, had it been given the chance. The strange saga of a rehab clinic where the patients may be falling victim to doctors performing weird experiments and stealing body parts, it all climaxes by pulling the rug from beneath the audience in astounding fashion. Paul Higson covered this one for ‘Dead or Alive’, revealing that “the movie’s first half hour is largely given over to the treatment with only the occasional hint of the direction it will take into horror; the suspicious behaviour of members of staff, an unseen mystery ‘designer’ drug user tucked away in a room in the basement, and ominous talk of losing one of the patients when we have just seen a second experience a violent fit”.

HAND OF DEATH PART 25 and DEADLINE/MURDER ON LINE ONE

Few UK-based filmmakers specialised in horror or made a name for themselves via the genre during the 80s, but Anders Palm snuck a brace of titles in right at the decade’s end, and both are worthy of celebration. Vinegar Syndrome have exhumed HAND OF DEATH PART 25 (aka UNMASKED PART 25 or JACKSON’S BACK) from the vaults with a US Blu-ray release, showing it to be an entertaining meta-slasher and something of a precursor to the satirical likes of MAN BITES DOG, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, and BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON. British cinema tended to steer clear of imitating FRIDAY THE 13TH and its ilk, but this genuinely amusing and affecting spoof, featuring a hockey-masked killer talking us through his day-to-day activities (and managing to enjoy a romance with a feisty, visually-impaired lover), is a treat. In ‘Dead or Alive’ Steven West claims that “HAND OF DEATH PART 25 plays better today than it ever did. It’s more consistent than earlier 1980s cheap-and-cheerful spoofs like STUDENT BODIES and WACKO, both of which lacked the courage of their convictions. Crucially, it more confidentally balances graphically gory murders with an endearing central characterization and an often-funny demolition of slasher codes and conventions”.

DEADLINE aka MURDER ON LINE ONE followed swiftly on its heels and took a much harsher tone, its baseball-bat-wielding chief menace bludgeoning entire families to death and leaving enticing clues for the investigating authorities. This one really does set the tone for the likes of the BBC’s MESSIAH, and all of those 9pm ITV police procedural shows, which somehow managed to offer the combination of name stars and graphic gore of a type that would have caused establishment outrage a few years previously. My assessment in ‘Dead or Alive’ included the following: “Within a ‘wrongly convicted innocent’ storyline we are offered severed heads, cut-out eyes, torsos with oozing red canal lines sliced across them, words like ‘Bitch’ etched in crimson across every available surface, but all presented as clues in a puzzle, never as a depraved climax to in-view butchery. This may have harmed the movie’s chances at the time, but in retrospect shows it as cannily predicting the genre’s future”.

Also recommended:

THE SENDER (Roger Christian 1982)

SLAYGROUND (Terry Bedford 1983)

UNFAIR EXCHANGES (Gavin Millar 1984)

OUT OF THE DARKNESS (John Krish 1985)

BORN OF FIRE (Jamil Dehlavi 1987)

THE GIRL IN A SWING (Gordon Hessler 1988)

APARTMENT ZERO (Martin Donovan 1988)

LIVING DOLL (Peter Litten and George Dugdale 1989)

STAR TRAP (Tony Bicât 1989)

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER (John Clive 1989)