BLACK HOLE REVIEWS

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

(1964, UK)

Gorgeous, colourful, complex, bloody, Roger Corman adaption of Poe

The Masque of the Red Death is a costumed ball held in a castle fortress for the rich landowners, while all around the villagers are dying of a mysterious plague. With a captive audience, Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) can indulge in a wild party and even a little black magic without anyone complaining. Spurning his beautiful wife (Hazel Court), he kidnaps and attempts to lure a young christian (Jane Asher) to defect and worship Satan...

Roger Corman directed a series of the best ever adaptions of Edgar Allen Poe, while remaining true to his stringent budget guidelines. How he successfully managed to sell these movies to teenagers at the same time as the beach party films, I'm not sure. Poe's poems and short stories needed expert scriptwriters (such as Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont) to remain true to the gothic sensibility while expanding the material to feature-length. The themes of plague, evil, class and religion make for a rich set of subtexts for a period horror film.

For the first time, Corman increased his budgets in order to get colour cinematography for these Poe films. The rich look was complemented by Daniel Haller's imaginative and psychological production design. The casts were usually headed by Vincent Price, grateful for material with some literary kudos.

For newcomers to these films, I wouldn't start with Corman's first Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher. The Poe films shot in America are characterised by endless creeping around cobwebbed corridors waiting for Vincent's dead wife to pop up. The Pit and the Pendulum is my favourite of these, for the magnificent finale and the dark presence of Barbara Steele. But Corman shot two Poe films in England, resulting in lusher and more ambitious productions. The Tomb of Ligeia even has exterior locations, at odds with the usual claustrophobic atmosphere of the series. The Masque of the Red Death is therefore my recommended starting point.

It has intertwined subplots, making for repeated payoffs, gets more than a little violent and subtly focusses on the battle between satanism and christianity. Prospero's repeated blasphemies are veiled in fancy words, but even the current home video version is missing gobbets of dialogue based on past censorship cuts. The oblique references to the outrageous sexual behaviour of his guests remain.

The production is entirely set-bound, but this is the best-looking Roger Corman Poe. The colour-coded sets, costumes and death scenes still look gorgeous, in no small part due to cinematographer and future director Nicolas Roeg (Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell To Earth).

Vincent Price is once again matched by a strong female lead, the late Hazel Court (The Curse of Frankenstein, who looks rudely ravishing, and relishing an evil role (rather than her usually cheerful romantic lead). She'd previously appeared opposite Ray Milland in Corman's gloomy adaption of The Premature Burial. and his Poe spoof, The Raven.

The rival of her affection is played by a young Jane Asher (here aged about 18) surrounded by professional thespians and having to do nude scenes. She'd later appear in Alfie (1966)and star in the recently restored Deep End (1970). She'd already been a child actress, unrecognisable as the little girl who meets the monster in The Quatermass Xperiment(1955).

The large cast is bolstered by many other British actors, best of all Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange, Tales From The Crypt) as the queasily curious Duke Alfredo. Skip Martin gets a meaty role as Hop-Toad the vengeful dwarf - who also appeared in a string of horror movies (Vampire Circus, Horror Hospital, Corridors of Blood). For added gravitas, there's Nigel Green(The Ipcress File, Jason and the Argonauts)in a too-small role.

For years I watched The Masque of the Red Death with the sexual and violent scenes cut out, with the 2,35 frame cropped savagely to fullframe 4:3. It's now on anamorphic widescreen DVDs in the UK and US, but it's been noticed that some older censor cuts are still in place. The film was last spotted uncut on TV in the 90s, with a couple of extra short scenes (the two little people discuss running away, and when Asher says she "slept badly"), extra blasphemy (Asher calls to God and Price assumes she's addressing him), as well as a glimpse of nudity (Asher being thrown in the bath). This BBC showing was of a print that started 'Anglo Amalgamated Presents' and had George Willoughby credited as producer, rather than Corman. To my eyes, the 'dream sequence' that Hazel Court endures was also a notably different colour, much more blue than the greener hues of the DVD transfers.

More details about the various versions here on the Classic Horror Film forum.

These cuts are annoying but negligible (Skip Martin's scenes with his love interest are unintentionally creepy as she's played by a little girl, her voice dubbed in by an adult (unconvincingly). The veiled, blasphemous dialogue remains mostly intact, as are the scenes of violence. Of the two DVDs, I'd recommend the US DVD (the MGM Midnite Movie double-bill) for having richer colours, which this movie definitely needs. The low-light scenes with mist and smoke still struggle desperately with the DVD compression and it screams for a Blu-ray release. The MGM UK 2005 DVD is also anamorphic but doesn't include the trailer.

Here's Jane Asher's own website!

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE(1958, UK)

Hammer films opened the bloodgates of sadistic melodrama!

A sadistic doctor is using 'lunatic asylum' patients for his merciless experiments – trying to separate human bloodtypes into categories in order to aid successful transfusions, utter madness!

This doesn't rate as a horror movie by modern standards, but pushed the boundaries in a different era. It's a useful indicator of the changing perception of violence. This was once a censors' nightmare but now appears on DVD uncensored and PG rated. Does this mean that in fifty years time the gory shock value of Hostel and Saw will be treated just as lightly?

For fans of early Hammer films, this is a must-see, especially as it's written by Jimmy Sangster who also scripted many of the first successful Hammer horrors, helping launch the studio worldwide. While this doesn't have the supernatural atmosphere, it's interesting for a story which concentrates more on the sex and violence that Hammer was vilified for.

Dr Callistratus is forced to eat at his desk

This could be classified as an Eros Film, the distributor used by this production team (Monty Berman and Bob Baker) who also made lower budget horrors The Trollenberg Terror, Jack The Ripper (1959) and The Flesh and the Fiends before successfully producing most of the jewels of ITC's TV hits like The Saint, The Champions and The Persuaders.

I'm a quality whore. My opinion of the film has changed now that I've seen a decent remastering of the film. It looks better than it ever has, less seedy, badly-shot and grainy than on tape and TV. Now it looks closer to an expensive, quality production, with lavish sets (far roomier than Hammer) and impressive matte paintings. The amount of sex and bloody violence for the mid-fifties makes this a worthy companion to Hammer's Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula, whose violent thrills it carefully emulates (a shot in the eye and a head in a jar, like Curse, a bloody staking like Dracula), presumably to sneak past the censors as much as possible ('well you allowed this when they did it').

The story is even a mix of Frankenstein and Dracula, a crossbreed of elements which is by definition supernatural but plays mainly as a nasty adventure in medical experimentation. OK, now we know he wasn't a mad doctor, he was on the right track. But his methods are a little unorthodox...

Sir Donald Wolfit (who you can also see in Lawrence of Arabia!) took a break from performing Shakespeare in British repertory, but still plays to the back of the movie theatre as the obsessive Dr Callistratus. He’s far better here than he was in the first colour version of Svengali (1956) and certainly makes this more enjoyable.

He's upstaged by his psychotic hunchbacked assistant, providing comedy actor Victor Maddern with a chance to both evoke sympathy and overact wildly. The hunchback provides a chronological bridge between between Bela Lugosi’s Ygor (Son of Frankenstein, 1939), and Richard O’ Brien’s Riff Raff (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975).

Besides Wolfit, the best reason to see this is Barbara Shelley, one of the most accomplished actresses to appear in Hammer Films. Particularly Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966) and Quatermass and the Pit. She hasn't much of a character, but ably endures many difficult scenes, being ravished and ogled by the bad guys.

The original publicity photographs have long teased followers of this film since appearing in sixties monster mags. The photo of the flogging victim was strong stuff even in black and white. But some of these images used in the UK and US were of scenes specifically shot to spice up the film for the less censorious countries of continental Europe, like France, Italy and Germany. Extra scenes that would only have been included in their versions. Cheeky to use these photos to push the film elsewhere.

Hand-coloured lobby card - a scene still missing from all versions

As a result, we're still waiting to see these missing scenes and characters, though I think the US and UK DVDs now represent what was submitted to the censors back in 1958. Any cuts have been reinstated and I don't think we'll see any new footage until the 'Continental Version' is unearthed. Even then, they won't have English audio tracks.

Blood of the Vampire first surfaced on DVD in thisregion 1 release (from Dark Sky) as a double-bill with The Hellfire Club. Itincludes the censor cuts, but they are jumpily integrated into this print. Besides film weave and an unavoidably grainy image, this version is compromised by a zoomed-in image on several scenes,cropping off the bottom and sides of the picture. For the most part, the framing is acceptably tightened to 16:9 from 1.66 (the original ratio shown in the opening titles).

Some of the additional shots (that I hadn't seen on earlier TV screenings) reinstated here are of a head in a jar, and some spurting blood being decanted during a transfusion (this last glimpse is still cross-faded out in the UK DVD).

There's a jovial and informative commentary track, Hammer historian Marcus Hearn getting the most out of writer Jimmy Sangster and producer Bob Baker.

A young Barbara Shelley and Sir Donald Wolfit

While the comparison review (below) sides with the region 1 release, I really prefer the UK DVD from Simply Home Entertainment. The image is similarly grainy but has slightly more depth to both detail and colour. I'm not suggesting anyone double-dips as the difference is subtle, but certainly don't opt for the US version if you live in the UK. While the image suffers too much digitalscratch-reduction on both discs, I'm not expecting a practically unknown film to look any better without a ton of far more expensive restoration work.

The UK version is better framed overall, with none of the strangely zoomed-in scenes of the US DVD. The visual composition is a little tight at the head of the frame (on both), but is edge-matted throughout to better approximate 1.66. The opening scene and titles are better presented, full height and less cropped, on the US disc. Both DVDs are presented anamorphically for 16:9 screens.

Barbara Burke on the slab - a scene seen only in the UK DVD

The UK DVD has an entire extra scene with the housekeeper strapped to the operating table, though nothing scandalous happens. As far as I could tell, the other censor cuts have been restored, apart from the blood spurting into the jar!

The UK disc lacks any extras, sadly missing the commentary track. But most of the information that was discussed is included in a packed colour 16-page booklet of information, posters and photos.

For frame grabs and an alternate opinon of the DVD comparisons, see this page from Mondo Esoterica...

More examples of the fantastic lobby cards,here on Four Color Comics...

(Updated to include a review of the UK Simply Home Entertainment DVD - my initial review of the Dark Sky US DVD first went online on 30/03/2007).

THE HITCHER

(1986, USA)

Memorable shocks in the intelligent, original road movie horror

A young man (C. Thomas Howell) is making some extra cash by delivering a new car by driving across several states. In a torrential downpour, he obligingly picks up a hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer). As they start chatting, the details of the hitcher's stranded story don't quite add up. So he ditches the stranger as soon as possible. But this chance meeting leads into a nightmare of murder and unrelenting paranoia...

While 1980s horror films were awash with breakthroughs in prosthetic gore and wise-cracking paedophiles from hell, the most shocking moments in those films were often censored for both the big screen and the small. Watching horror movies on home video rarely delivered shocks based on explicit violence because those moments had been edited down (or completely cut out).

One movie that still made an impression was The Hitcher. Despite being panned and scanned from 2.35 widescreen in the cinema down to 4:3 on videotape (the way I first saw it), the story's power was increased by deliberately avoiding always showing the gore while suggesting very violent scenes. Aided by the suspense and emotional impact on the characters, the film was memorably surprising and chilling without troubling the censors.

Between a truck and a hard place

The simple premise is elaborately crafted by scriptwriter Eric Red, who seemed to specialise in mixing the horror genre up with car action (see also Near Dark and Body Parts). Although he delivered a violent story with a high bodycount, director Robert Harmon then had to reassure ace cinematographer John Seale (Witness, The Perfect Storm) that he wasn't out to make gory exploitation, and intended to use a subtler approach to horror and an attempt to shoot action scenes in more unusual and original ways.

Revisiting this on DVD, an overdue chance to see it widescreen, I was rewarded with a horror film that was an old friend, as well as a worthy road movie, with dreamy atmospheric cinematography and suitably muted moody music (from Mark Isham) that befits the genre, beauty and isolation of wide open spaces.

In the cast, a sad reminder of the early promise of C. Thomas Howell (The Outsiders) before he became synonymous with direct-to-video. Rutger Hauer elevates the film as the enigmatic murderer - a villain of the most dangerous kind, fiercely intelligent. Anyone wanting more of the Hauer we got in Blade Runner will enjoy this.

Along the way, a young woman inevitably gets drawn up in the events, played by a young Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female, The Hudsucker Proxy) we benefit from getting a tough, cautious, realistic character rather than an annoying love interest.

There's not a weak link in the cast, and I retrospectively recognised Jeffrey DeMunn from The Walking Dead as the confused Police Captain trying to pick through the carnage.

I watched this on a US DVD (pictured at the very top) and then checked the UK 2-disc Special Edition (above) which added a great making-of documentary, with interviews with most of the principal cast and crew. But this newer transfer was marred by a standards-conversion that kept adding annoying 'kicks' in the long smooth camera moves. It looked like the film had also had some 'restoration' - so now there are compression problems from digital video noise reduction fighting against the film grain, as well as the rain and smoke in some low-light scenes. Until a Blu-ray happens, I'd favour the older US release, which happily is also anamorphic widescreen.

THE HITCHER II: I'VE BEEN WAITING

(2003, USA)

I was interested in seeing the grown-up C. Thomas Howell in the belated sequel, but was immediately was daunted by the opening credit 'Home Entertainment Production', indicating that this was primarily made for home video. The very opening scene with a CGI plane in a CGI rainstorm also unimpressed.

C. Thomas Howell's character is now an adult, obviously haunted by his bad experiences with road trips. Despite the lesson he learned the hard way, he winds up picking up another hitcher with plenty of baggage.

The story adds some new twists, racks up a high bodycount and some impressively staged stunts. But with a story that keeps quitting the road, and a numbing fast-edit approach to action scenes, it's more action than horror. It should be so very easy to make Jake Busey into a memorable psycho, but this somehow doesn't manage it.

THE HITCHER

(2007, USA)

Won over by Sean Bean's rounded performance in Game of Thrones, I even tried out the recent remake.

Whereas the original movie took a more oblique approach to the gore and the stunts, the remake takes a hard line on getting the most violence and suffering out of the plot, but only as far as the 'R' rating will allow. The action and momentum of the story is more straightforward than the meandering sequel, but less complex and less mystical than the original. And Sean Bean is no Rutger Hauer. He a plot device propelling the movie, rather than a believable antagonist.

There's still much to enjoy, with new twists and turns in the road, and some fantastic shock moments that ejected me from my seat. Great to see the amazing car stunts being done for real rather than cheated with CGI.

The underused Neal McDonough carves an interesting role out of very little as the police captain in charge of the chase. When he gets angry, it occurred to me he'd have made a far more interesting Hitcher than Sean Bean.

But! It took a while to impress. For the sake of an elaborate long tracking shot, the opening shot uses CGI animals. I then didn't connect very well with the two young leading actors. Perhaps I was distracted by the opening half hour of the movie using a barrage of forgettable soft rock music.

Worse still, using that Nine Inch Nails track that backed the opening titles to Se7en is the clunkiest way to spoil the best action scene in the film. The soundtrack abruptly opts out of Steve Jablonsky's score like a bad playlist.

Also, the editing and staging of two of the stunts sequences included shots that completely 'crossed the line' (a basic rule of visual editing). I was so confused about 'who was going where' that I had to backtrack to get my bearings. Action on a long straight road shouldn't be that hard to follow.

Overall, a good-looking, action-packed shocker. A very different film, less elaborate, less atmospheric than the original. But more brutal rather than more cleverer.
I watched the US version on an HD/DVD combo disc. Looked good, with some interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes.

LUCKY LUKE

(2009, France/Argentina)

Cowboy spoof, action comedy, more fun than The Artist

Lucky Luke, cowboy, sharpshooter, drifter, do-gooder... Renowned for his heroics across the wild west, Luke is summoned by the President of the United States to help unite the country by clearing the last obstacle to the trans-American railroad - the lawless Daisy Town. But this may prove too big a job for just one cowboy...

Like Tintin, Lucky Luke started as a Belgian comic strip. First appearing in 1946, the character became hugely popular across Europe, but not so much in the UK or US. It spawned cartoon series, two live-action movies (1991) and a TV series (1992) aptly starring spaghetti western veteran Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity).

Also like Tintin, the cartoon character has had to move with the times. But the movie playfully references many of his earlier traits, like the cigarette that used to hang from his mouth... Writer/director James Huth also humorously turns many movie western cliches on their heads.

At times, he uses brash colour schemes, like early comic books, for certain scenes and even single shots, making it look almost experimental at times. Comic book humour extends to visual gags as wild as the silent movies. I loved the President's train carriage with it's thick, static ceiling of smoke, and the population of terrified townspeople hiding and moving around in upturned water barrels.

The range of bizarre characters and offbeat approach to the cowboy genre, where half the population (somehow) have hearts of gold, reminded me of Gore Verbinski's similarly enjoyable Rango. Calamity Jane looks more cowboy than cowgirl, Billy The Kid is a childish adult and Jesse James is a failed actor, with a magnificently overlong longcoat. Even Luke's horse is a character.

The desert location work (shot in Argentina) and impressive scale of the film makes this one very overlooked movie. For me it was a far more rewarding experience than The Artist, perhaps because that was overhyped and this was underhyped. This is funner, but not Jean DuJardin at his funniest. You need the two OSS 117 films, Cairo - Nest of Spies (2006) and Lost In Rio (2009) to see his full comic range.

The cover art for the UK DVD sneakily presents DuJardin in black and white, alluding to The Artist, but this movie is totally drenched in colour. It's presented in French with English subtitles and no extras. If Amazon.fr is to be trusted, the Blu-ray sold in France also has English subtitles on it.

Lucky Luke comics website (in French).

The extensively restored Jaws Blu-ray is almost with us, along with a new feature-length documentary The Shark Is Still Working.

So far, my coverage of Jaws has turned into, well, a bit of a monster. So here's a summary of everything Jaws-related to be found here in the Black Hole...

The making of Jaws - a round-up of books and documentaries, old and new, about the making of the film.

My 2011 photo-tour of Jaws filming locations around the island of Martha's Vineyard:
- part 1: Edgartown - capital of Amity Island
- part 2: Katama Bay, Quint's shack, Amity billboard
- part 3: North and East - Brody's house, State Beach and "the pond"

My review of Jaws 2, contrasting seeing it recently and in the summer of 1978.

Reviews of movies inspired by Jaws:
Alligator (1980) - killer gator, in the sewers!
The Car (1977) - killer car, possessed by the devil!
Grizzly (1976) - early out of the gate, claws!
The Host (2006) - a river monster from South Korea
Tentacles (1977) - killer octopus from Italy, with Henry Fonda!

BLADE RUNNER

(1982, USA)

"You're talking about memories..."

Wednesday, August 15th, marked the thirtieth anniversary of my first experience of Blade Runner. Thanks to Starburst magazine, readers were invited to a special preview screening three weeks before it premiered in London on September 8th.

Cutting out a coupon from this issue of Starburst got you preview tickets to see an advance screening at 11am on August 15th 1982 - in the West Gate Road Cinema in Newcastle, the Bristol Road Cinema in Birmingham and the ABC Shaftesbury Avenue in London, where I saw it.

Blade Runner had had a mixed critical reaction (Films and Filming magazine gave it one star out of five!) and a poor box office opening in the US, so it was a reasonable idea to aim the UK release at sci-fi fans. The London screening was certainly packed out, with the audience respectfully quiet during the film. I was stunned by it, from the very first shot.

To me it was a realistic vision of the future, with flying cars and new technology, but in a world blighted by pollution, acid rain and the near-extinction of animals. Also, the most likely chance I'd get to see the future. The production design looked totally functional, the dense cinematography appeared to show the air around the characters, the special effects depicted a city as far as the eye could see, the music was incredible... The complex emotional ride of the story, with the replicated characters, supposedly the villains, all fighting for their lives made just as much impact as the technical achievements.

It's one of those rare movies that I stumbled out of (I had a similar experience with Brazil at the same cinema), feeling like I'd just been hit, somewhere inside my head. I've studied Blade Runner extensively ever since and it's still my favourite ever movie. Despite the sad state of that future world, I'd even like to live in it.

Scott Weller (@koolaficionado on Twitter) pointed out that not everyone got in to see the London preview that day. I was lucky, but also completely unaware that my future husband was also present in the audience, though I didn't actually meet him for another eight years. This makes our watching it again together, thirty years later to the day, special.

It was also an opportunity to watch the original version again. The UK initially got the International Cut, otherwise referred to as the European Cut. These first releases of Blade Runner had the 'happy' ending and Deckard's voiceover in several scenes throughout the story. But the International Cut was also more violent than the one seen in the US.

For ten years, this was the version of Blade Runner I remembered and enjoyed, seeing it again in the cinema, on TV and on VHS. The initial impact it had on me was from this particular 'cut'. In 1992, the 'Director's Cut' was released in cinemas - the voiceover was removed, as was the ending. The unicorn was the only additional shot. Shorter than the original versions, it was basically an amended version of the censored US release, with the two most violent scenes toned down. It was good to see it in the cinema again, but it definitely wasn't the same film I'd fallen in love with.

The Director's Cut heralded the start of fifteen years when the International Cut disappeared from home video (apart from the Criterion laserdisc), eventually resurfacing in the 2007 Box Set. The specially made 'Final Cut' takes elements from all the versions, restored the film for for High Definition, and also fairly subtly uses CGI to update the unavoidable special effects and continuity errors, like a stuntwoman's face being clearly visible, and the cables supporting the full-size on-set flying police cars. It was interesting to see all these faults again by watching the original. I spotted some of these problems at the time, but they didn't spoil the film.

I'll continue to watch the different cuts, but the original is still the best.

The 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition is almost upon us, but I can't detect any video content additional to what was in the 25th Anniversary collector's set, but it does include a tempting new heavily-illustrated book .

Twilight Time only started releasing DVDs and Blu-rays last year, aiming for classic older movies that the big studios have neglected. Their remit has stretched to titles as recent as As Good As It Gets (1997) and the original Fright Night. It's surprising that the studios don't think Ray Harryhausen films still sell, for instance.

Twilight Time are particularly interested in the widest of widescreen movies getting the best presentation possible, on Blu-ray. In the 1950s and 1960s, hugely expensive epics were filmed in the new process of Cinerama and other aspect ratios of around 2.35:1, to make movie-going more immersive with bigger-than-ever screens (to combat the rivalry from television). The spectacle wasn't just used on westerns and Roman historical epics, but action (like Grand Prix) and comedy (Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World). Viewed on a big screen, DVDs struggle to offer enough detail for these aspect ratios, and for some movies these Blu-rays offer their widescreen debuts on home video.

Obviously I've pounced on their monster movies. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) can't compete with Jurassic Park, but was the equivalent family adventure of the time. Some, not all, of the special effects still work. The spectacular production design offers imaginative large-scale sets, expanded by imaginative matte paintings. For two hours you can almost believe it's possible to hike to the Earth's core!

This science-fantasy is a fairly faithful adaption of Jules Verne's novel. But pandering to fans of the book means a fairly slow slog before the journey downwards begins and the small-scale melodrama turns into a unique cinematic adventure. Bizarrely, there's even a song to clog up the early proceedings, reflecting perhaps what was then expected of family entertainment.

Disney had previously made 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954), epitomising the approach to family adventure stories for years to come. Another Verne adaption, it starred James Mason as Captain Nemo, no doubt making him a must for the leading role of Lindenbrook.

Amongst the colourful stalactites and giant mushrooms, there are dinosaurs and a rival expedition to compete with. I was surprised to see a couple of story details pre-empting Raiders of the Lost Ark. A configuration of the Sun's rays leading the way, and a large rolling boulder chasing our heroes.

As the unlikely band of explorers descend into the Earth, I'm pleased to say there are no children or teenagers in the ranks. But bizarrely there's a duck. Called Gertrude. Somewhat of a trendsetter, later pioneers took pets with them - the visitors to The Lost World (1960) a poodle, and The City Under The Sea (1965) a chicken...

Like The Lost World adaption the following year, the dinosaurs are portrayed by live lizards, but here a little more convincingly. The dimetrodon attack still looks pretty frightening. Am I going soft!

To contrast with the family-friendly wholesomeness, the amount of beefcake is a little surprising. As the expedition gets closer to the Earth's core, it gets pretty warm, so both Pat Boone and Peter Ronson get half-naked, revealing a smouldering amount of tanned manflesh, and get racily drawn towards the maternal figure of Arlene Dahl.

The experience is that much more impressive due to an awesome soundtrack from Bernard Herrmann, only a year after he scored Vertigo.

It's certainly lightweight, but mounted on such an impressive scale that it remains epic fun!

Stranger still, that this Ray Harryhausen spectacular, Mysterious Island (1961) should be released by an independent. It features a wide range of iconic Harryhausen creations - the giant crab, giant bees, a prehistoric chicken (a phororhacos) and more! Like many unknown island stories, the plot is skimpy, building up with episodic encounters. The lengthy set-up of the explorers escaping from a military prison during the American Civil War has no real bearing on the rest of the story. But there's an enjoyable twist, a tremendous Bernard Herrmann soundtrack and many examples of Harryhausen's unique special effects sequences.

This release improves on the cramped aspect ratio of the previous (2002) DVD release, with fuller colour and more picture visible at the top and bottom of frame, closer to the 1.66 aspect ratio. And of course it's now high-definition. Sorry to tell you that both Mysterious Island and Journey to the Center of the Earth are now sold out.

A longer review of Mysterious Island on Blu-ray over at Black Gate.

Can't wait to see what else Twilight Time release...

THE SPACE CHILDREN

(1958, USA)

Love me, love my blob...

At a top secret military missile project, some of the worker's children spot a light from the sky that adults can't see. Following it down, they discover a glowing brain in a cave by the sea. Telepathically, it begins to communicate with them, bringing them into conflict with their parents.

After It Came From Outer Space, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Tarantula, and The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Space Children is probably the least well known of director Jack Arnold's films, in a magnificent run of iconic fifties sci-fi for producer William Alland.

While this is less elaborate than the previous films, it's rich in ideas and tougher on 'message'. Radiation hazards and damaged ecology figured in the background of the earlier films, but here the danger is spelled out. There are also children battling their parents, at a time when movie teenagers were only just attempting freedom from their families. Like The Day the Earth Stood Still, this is about extra-terrestrials (and scriptwriters) who aren't very happy with nuclear proliferation.

The telepathic abilities of the children aren't as creepy as in Village of the Damned, but the story elements were certainly similar. John Wyndham's book 'The Midwich Cuckoos' had only been published the year before... Hmm. There's even a throwaway reference that other groups of children are acting the same way in other parts of the world. Standing shoulder to shoulder against their parents, and the Army (!), I was strongly reminded of Children of the Damned.

But of course, an invisible alien is no good to 1950s' American sci-fi, they wanted visible aliens! A theme that continued throughout The Outer Limits. Sci-fi couldn't be sci-fi without a monster of the week! And what better fifties' alien could there be than a giant, pulsing glowing brain. Previous movies had featured bodiless brains, sitting in fish tanks, causing telepathic mayhem. They even glowed, purely for cinematic effect rather than any logical reason. This one glows very brightly because it's from outer space (I guess). It glows and grows, resembling a rival to The Blob, born the same year. This creature is less agile, but not without a few surprises up its sleeve...

Among the space children, Sandy Descher had already had a memorable sci-fi role as the little girl who staggers out of the desert screaming "Them!" (in Them!). Also fun to see Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan) with hair, well some hair.

This is a small, atomic age sci-fi, gently hard-hitting (somewhere between anti-military and child-beating) but presumably much more anti-establishment at the time. Strange that this should beat Arnold's far more famous classics to Blu-ray (though Creature from the Black Lagoon is about to hit and in its original 3D). But The Space Children never hit DVD, and for years has only been seen on the receiving end of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 drubbing. Depending on mood, I can enjoy many of the MST3K targets in either their original form, or I can enjoy them being ripped.

The Space Children is presented on Blu-ray as 16:9, occasionally looking tight at the top and bottom of frame, but not a problem though. There are no extras, but it's not an expensive release either. I'm just happy to see it again, non-MST3K.

Olive Films have also released the lumbering but ultimately touching The Colossus of New York and William Castle's semi-animated, sci-fi oddity Project X from the same era, both also on Blu-ray.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

(1978, USA)

A San Francisco health inspector (Donald Sutherland) and a friend at work, an analytic scientist (Brooke Adams), begin to start encounter people who've undergone a radical personality change. Despite calling in expert opinion from a psychiatrist buddy (Leonard Nimoy), they suspect that this creeping change throughout the city could be connected with a new strain of plant life. They missed the movie's prologue, where these strange new flowers grew from seeds that drifted from another planet...

Jack Finney's 1954 story The Body Snatchers, (probably influenced by Heinlein's 1951 novel 'The Puppet Masters') was quickly adapted as the 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers directed by Don Siegel. Itself a hugely influential movie across several genres, sparking discussion as to which particular political threat it might have been highlighting.

After Star Wars (1977), the science fiction movie genre was largely derailed into emulating its success, but without the budget or the creative and technical talents. It also gave me an appetite and expectation of huge dollops of space-fantasy and special effects in anything described as sci-fi.

I was also reluctant to see this new version of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, when it was released at the cinema, because I hadn't yet seen the original, even on TV. I'm glad I decided to though, the shock moments have haunted me since. While I keep rewatching it partly out of nostalgia, I honestly think it's a fantastic adaption, if not the best.

It's excellent in conveying the growing paranoia and increasing panic that 'they're all out to get me' as the situation worsens. Donald Sutherland is about as far away from an modern action hero as you can get. Just an intelligent, normal guy in a surreal situation. I love his gasp when he sees a road accident - a realistic, relatable performance. Brooke Adams and Veronica Cartwright (just before she appeared in Alien) portray the feeling of revulsion and loss of control. Leonard Nimoy is at pains to demonstrate he could play non-aliens, just before he sucked back into the Star Trek universe. An early, typical Jeff Goldblum performance is comfortably at home in the rambling, post-hippy mindset of self-help San Francisco.

While the long hair and floral furnishings date the movie (as do the overuse of camera zooms), the fashion is back in vogue now. Not that we've macrame hanging on the walls, just yet.

The organic special effects aren't overused and fairly low-budget, though largely convincing and imaginative, serving the story perfectly. At their best, you still can't quite work out what you're looking at. Particularly brilliant are the early stages of the seeds (all handmade effects, none of it taken from stock footage of nature). Some of the make-up effects are gloopy enough to prefigure David Cronenberg's 'body horror' cycle (in which Jeff Goldblum would again appear, in The Fly. Hmm, Art Hindle would also star in Cronenberg's The Brood).

The horror of the scenario is elevated by Ben Burtt's sound design. Hot off Star Wars (1977), but decades before Wall-E, his sound effects and mix maximise the experience of panic right up to the iconic closing scene. (To my ears, there's a little bit of T.I.E. Fighter in there.)

While this was a fresh adaption of the novel, it echoes the 1956 film and does what many remakes fail to, it pays homage to the success of the earlier version, with two brilliant cameos. I need to revisit Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers (1993), but remember it as very different, story-wise. I found The Invasion (2007) the least interesting - but it's approach is possibly a clue as to what the Videodrome remake will turn out like - a more action-oriented chase movie, thin on the essential paranoia.

The US blu-ray showcases Invasion of the Body Snatchers as well as possible, despite the low-light cinematography sometimes delivering an excess of film grain. But half the creepy fun is from the 5.1 DTS sound, that enhances one of the scariest ever horror soundtracks. Great retrospective interviews with the director Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff), actors, Ben Burtt and more. Director's commentary track too.

Downside is the cover art that attempts to confuses this with the two, more modern adaptions when it should be pushing it as the best of them all.

Jack Finney's novel re-published

Late 1970s means Fotonovels!

GYO: TOKYO FISH ATTACK!

(2012, Japan)

Don't gyo anywhere near the water...

The DVD cover art makes this look like a Sharktopus derivative (and nowadays, ripping off Roger Corman would be a very low stoop). But it's actually a most welcome feature-length anime adaption of Junji Ito's 2001 manga story, Gyo. Animation makes for a faithful realisation of his visual style and unreal world.

Three students are spending a study vacation on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. But what they think is a rat running around inside their beach house turns out to be a fish... on legs... stinking like a corpse. Outside, the ocean appears to be emptying - every kind of sea creature is running up the road. Their holiday ends abruptly when a shark appears at their window...

As the creepy crawling catastrophe heads for the cities, humanity gets infected and slaughtered in an escalating variety of nasty...

While a possible root cause is discovered (for me, it doesn't hold enough water), you're invited to revel in the bizarreness and grotesquerie of Ito's nightmare visions.

Ito has written and drawn my favourite scariest manga stories, also inspiring the live-action movies of Uzumaki and the Tomie series (currently numbering nine). The Uzumaki manga is my favourite ever manga story (published in three translated volumes by Viz). But Gyo topped it for gruesomeness and I thought it would defy adaption. While a live-action Gyo would 'out-gross' The Human Centipede, anime is a logical option.

From Junji Ito's original 2001-2002 manga story, Gyo

Anyone new to Juni Ito's stories, or even Japanese horror, needs to be warned that this isn't a traditional disaster/invasion movie. The authorities aren't going to turn up at the end and clear it all up. One hero isn't going to set everything straight. These are explorations of Ito's fears, in this case the ocean, taken to logical extremes, but following dream-logic. The hallucinatory climax brings some of Ito's best work to life in glorious colour...

Some of the isolated weirdness that happens in Gyo has more context in the manga, and could be mistaken for story-points (like the floating fish corpse in the binbag). But they're just extra bizarre ideas that Ito wants to freak us out with.

The anime is quite short (at 71 minutes) but runs at a very fast, multi-legged pace. The chronological events of the manga are slightly scrambled, making the character's logic even harder to follow. Some of the horrors are reassigned to different and new characters (horror-reassignment?), and the scuttling escalation is now rushed and out of sequence. (If the town's overrun by walking fish, I wouldn't stick around...). Initially, the media seems unconcerned, transport runs smoothly, and some of the streets remain strangely clear of ambulatory sea life.

Besides the altered timeline, another deviation from the manga is the addition of more female nudity, sex, and low-angle crotch-shots. Mixing up soft-porn titillation with sexual violence is still a regular trait of adult anime, but the one-sided sexual victimisation of only the female characters really needs to move on and challenge the genre stereotype that has dogged anime, ever since the infamous Legend of the Overfiend followed Akira into international consciousness.

The 3D animation of the fish, sharks and other unearthly creations clashes with the 2D characters as usual, but seeing these creatures so vividly portrayed is a surreal treat.

Early, publicity artwork

I'm delighted that Terror Cotta have released this so quickly (on a region 2 PAL DVD in the UK), rather than the years-long wait we normally have to endure for translated Japanese movies. The extras include an interview with creator Junji Ito, who I'd like to hear a lot more from! The English subtitles are pretty good, but could have done with a spell-checker. There's no option of an English-language dub, which I personally don't miss. But as I've said, the cover art (seen at top) looks like an Asylum movie (and I'd have really liked a reversible option). Though I'll admit that while I liked the original artwork, it's equally misleading.

An anime expansion of the world of Uzumaki would be next on my Ito wishlist...

Here's a short taster of Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack on YouTube...

Other movies based on Junji Ito manga:

Tomie (1998) and her first seven sequels

Tomie: Unlimited (2011) - a review of the ninth live-action Tomie adaption

Uzumaki (2000) - movie review

CORMAN'S WORLD:

EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL

(2011, USA)

Who's Roger Corman? You're kidding me...

The name Roger Corman no longer ignites the interest of young moviegoers that it used to. His name can now easily draw a blank expression. Casual film fans remember directors' names rather than producers, and Roger Corman hasn't directed since 1990 (an adaption of Brian Aldiss' Frankenstein Unbound). His recent regular producing credits are on such products as Sharktopus, which probably wouldn't inspire anyone to even read the credits...

Roger Corman, shooting on the run

But his legacy includes the Death Race and Piranha franchises. He produced the original templates in the 1970s. His direction hasn't an auteur's style, he's more dedicated to the script and the players. His Edgar Allen Poe adaptions are still highly regarded enough to stay in circulation, but these hits are just snapshots from his fifty years of movie-making.

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) - not as simple as it sounds

This documentary takes us through his life story using a fantastic roll-call of interviewees and choice clips. Starting young in a big studio, he soon had his work taken away from him and he quit, instead making his own films independently. Not easy, back in the 1950s, but he hasn't looked back.

The hugely popular Edgar Allen Poe cycle, directed by Corman (1961)

Most of his films are entertaining exploitation, honing a formula that have kept him working far longer than so many others in the industry, and always profitable (with one noble exception, The Intruder, which has surely made its money back by now). Once again always making a profit. In this business! His films, even their titles and posters, may be scoffed at, but his finely-honed formula has taken him through every shift in taste and technology.

Roger Corman directs, William Shatner stars (1962)

He keeps budgets down by not having big stars, but by recognising new talent. Or by using names that used to be big. If there are good-looking sets somewhere, write a script around them. Can't afford a camera truck for road shoots? Just find a car with a big boot! Not sure if the audience is interested? Choose the name and have a poster painted before you make the movie!

Directed by Corman in 1967, written by Jack Nicholson

He gets his ideas from current events and trends, but gets productions into action within months, before Hollywood has time to react. Like Asylum Studios do now, but with far more panache. Well at least he used to have panache - I can't say I've seen too much of his recent work.

Jack Nicholson in The Terror (1963)

But even if you don't like his low budgets and sensationalist concepts, his story is still astonishing as he became an extraordinary springboard for so many major Hollywood players. A place for young filmmakers and artists to get a start in an old man's industry. Hence the extensive interviews with Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme... A pity that Francis Ford Coppola isn't in there too.

Jack Nicholson bares all in Corman's World

This short documentary is a great introduction to Corman's world and could have been twice as long for my money. For established Corman fans, some of the stories are very familiar, but given a boost by the impressive interviewees who tell them.

Sylvester Stallone in Death Race 2000 (1975)

Currently on blu-ray and DVD in the US and UK. My only complaint is that I'd have loved a trailer reel, in order to revel in his back catalogue...

More Roger Corman in Black Hole Reviews...

The Haunted Palace (1963)

Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Death Race 2000 (1975)

Dinocroc (2005)

TALES FROM THE CRYPT

(1972, UK)

Another look at the first EC horror comics movie

To mark the 40th year of Amicus Films' Tales From The Crypt, I watched the recently released Australian blu-ray, a very welcome HD upgrade. With so many darkly-lit horror films, there's sometimes 'picture lag' on DVD, where the shadows and darker areas freeze and shift, moving differently to the lighter foreground. Probably a combination of DVD compression and viewing it on an LCD screen, made even more noticeable by a larger screen-size. Blu-ray lessens the problems with its higher storage capacity.

Roy Ashton make-up study

There's a little grain, as expected, and the print seems to have been in good condition. It's a slightly lighter presentation than I'm used to, Peter Cushing's 'black eye' masks are even more noticeable now. Of course, it's easy enough to adjust the contrast and brightness at home to make the scene suitably murky. Grimsdyke's scenes are so brief, I wish they'd just painted his eyes black and guided Cushing into doing the scenes completely blind. Okay, I think about that scene too much... but it's still one of the greatest-looking zombie make-ups.

The dead walks!

Tales From The Crypt of course has other undead characters... Plus of course the glorious, restored, censor cut that appeared in all the DVD versions. It used to be a huge jumpy film splice when it screened on TV in the 70s and 80s.

Late 1970s TV Times clipping

The Joan Collins segment really grabbed me. My first taste of a yet-to-be-named 'home invasion' story. Almost a silent movie, the story unfolds as we share her character's thoughts, communicated through some great visual storytelling. She discovers there's a raving lunatic just outside the house (dressed as Santa Claus), and quickly has to secure the house, barring the windows as he stalks around looking for a way in. All this is conveyed through her eyes and reactions. There's no dialogue, just an ironic roster of jolly Christmas carols playing on the radio.

Publicity foldout, and the original paperback novelisation

It's not the only story with effective, lengthy, wordless scenes. Ian Hendry's Maitland stalks around after a car crash, but we only see the horror develop through his point-of-view. In the final story, Major Rogers runs a home for the blind by skimming the money for himself. He pays for his crimes, locked in a solitary cell, again with no-one to talk to. Along with him, we experience his punishment gradually and silently.

While the original EC Comics stories would have a cruelly witty captioned commentary from the Crypt Keeper, the film presents him as a character inside the action, rather than a TV host. He's presented as a marvellously mysterious and ambivalent figure. What's missing in this early visualisation of Tales From The Crypt is humour, but that's certainly a benefit. Without the release of laughter, each ghastly twisted ending remains more haunting.

What a knight for a Crypt Keeper...

While IMDB currently lists the UK release as "October 1972", the UK premiere was September 28th (according to a contemporary issue of Films & Filming). In London that month, Crypt was up against John Boorman's wilderness classic Deliverance, Michael Ritchie's brutal Prime Cut and Ken Russell's angrily artful Savage Messiah. Tough, grim competition, but Crypt continued the success of the many short story horror films from Amicus Productions.

Australian Blu-ray, but the title heading is from the TV series

I was initially reluctant to order this Australian blu-ray, released by Shock Entertainment, because of the mixture of right and wrong artwork on the sleeve. There are photos from both the 1972 film and the 1990s US TV series. On the front cover is the poster from the film, but the typeface and green gloopy art is from the TV series. The front cover gives 50/50 odds as to which movie it contains. Thankfully, it's the Amicus film, but these confusing errors must have lost them sales.

More lobby cards, more facts, more of a review about Tales From The Crypt in Black Hole Movies here

The 1964 Ballantine reprint

In other trivia, the Wikipedia piece on the movie reports that writer/producer Milton Subotsky based most of his script on this 1964 volume of reprints because the original comics weren't available. Explaining the coincidence of why this paperback (published in the UK and US) has four out of the five original comic strips. (The fifth story was picked from the 1965 Vault of Horror reprint).

More about Grimsdyke's simple but effective make-up on the Peter Cushing blogspot and Grimsdyke rises again (publicity photo)...

Tales from the Crypt is uncut on DVD in the US and UK

Tales From The Crypt on DVD in the UK, pictured at the top

Tales From the Crypt on DVD in the USA, double-bill with Vault of Horror

1972 Jack Oleck novelisation, back cover

Martin Landau in conversation

Q&A at the BFI South Bank, October 9th, 2012

I've been watching Martin Landau for decades in TV and film. As a teenager, I was scared by him as 'The Man Who Never Was' in The Outer Limits and impressed by his leadership of Moonbase Alpha as Commander Koenig in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Space: 1999. It has remained a treat to see him in everything from religious epics to sleazy horrors. Even after winning an Oscar in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994) he's never stopped working - more recently cropping up in The X-Files movie (1998) and Sleepy Hollow (1999). A chance to see him in person wasn't to be missed...

As the closing event of the BFI South Bank's Alfred Hitchcock celebration, Martin Landau appeared in a conversation that raced through his incredible acting career. The initial reason being that his first big screen role was as James Mason's henchman in North by Northwest (1959).

But Brooklyn-born Landau had started off as a fan of comic strips, becoming an amateur artist while soaking up the wide range of international accents in his local neighbourhood. Landing a job at a New York newspaper, he could have had a cushy career caricaturing stars of the stage by attending every major opening night at the theatre. But realising that this could be a lifelong rut, he turned down the job (leaving his mother in shock) and instead turned to acting. However, he still carries a sketchpad and pens (which he flashed from inside his jacket) and continues to draw.

With James Dean

On his doorstep was The Actor's Studio where he was deemed talented enough to rub shoulders with Lee J Cobb, Elia Kazan and his new best friend the young James Dean! Even now, he still enjoys giving his time to there, now as a tutor rather than a student. He also helps choose the new faces lucky enough to be enrolled out of thousands of applicants.

Back in the 1950s, a hit play took him to the west coast of America, where Alfred Hitchcock caught a performance and cast him in North by Northwest. Landau defended the director's cheeky comment that "actors are like cattle" and praised his hands-off approach, enabling actors to flesh out roles for themselves. Open to their ideas, Hitchcock would only interject when he didn't like something.

With James Mason in North By Northwest

In the role of the sneaky Leonard, Landau wanted a motivation for his hatred of Eva Marie Saint's character, and suggested to Hitchcock that he infer that his character was gay. Subtly suggested in his performance, at a time when the subject was still relatively taboo, the tactic imperilled the sexuality of James Mason's character!

A later question from the audience tested whether Landau considered his method acting was better than Cary Grant's more traditional approach. But Landau only had praise for the star's hard work (always available for long rehearsals) and professionalism (like being generous to other actors).

Two other major roles, in the epics Cleopatra and The Greatest Story Ever Told, should have cemented Landau's movie career. But Cleopatra flopped, lambasted because of its bloated budget, and many major scenes, most of Landau's best, were cut completely when Cleopatra was reduced from two three-hour movies, down to one four-hour movie. He noted that they were hardly going to cut out anything with Richard Burton or Elizabeth Taylor, who were scandalising the world's press with an openly extra-marital affair.

With Peter Graves and Barbara Bain
in Mission: Impossible

Instead, he settled down to a long run of quality TV work. His continued enthusiasm for science-fiction started with roles in The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. But he talked about turning down the role of Mr Spock in the original Star Trek (!!!) because he didn't want to play a character who had no emotions. Also, he would have had to turn down Mission: Impossible (that also started in 1966), which gave him the chance to play two (or more) characters every week, as master of disguise, Rollin' Hand. He noted that the Tom Cruise films are nothing like the TV series, each episode resembling "a puzzle".

With Catherine Schell and Barbara Bain in Space: 1999

His other big TV series was Space: 1999 (that started in 1975). A later question from the audience prompted him to confirm that he enjoyed the first season far more. Although it was cancelled after two, he said he would have stayed on for a third season if it had returned to the hard sci-fi stories of the first, rather than the less consistent approach backed by Fred Freiberger (a producer who also oversaw the demise of the original Star Trek).

After that, roles in the 1980s weren't so good for him, with a run of low budget movies and far less TV work. This 'fallow period' was broken by his Oscar-nominated work for Coppola's Tucker: The Man and his Dream (1988) and Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Landau finally won a supporting actor Academy Award in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.

Researching his role as Bela Lugosi, Landau surprised me with his incisiveness. Recognising that so many of Lugosi's films were available on home video, the audience might know more about the actor than him. Landau therefore watched over thirty Lugosi movies, as well as any available newsreel footage. Despite the awfulness of some of Lugosi's work (he cited the 1952 Brooklyn Gorilla), Landau praised the actor's continued dedication and seriousness in any role. He also visited all the places that Lugosi lived, noting the steady reduction in the size of the houses as his career dwindled.

A couple of hilarious clips from Ed Wood reminded us of its brilliance. Landau noted how Burton may have cast him knowing that the actor had himself been through bad times as well as good. I can't wait to see it again.

Landau provides the voice and mannerisms
of Frankenweenie's Mr. Rzykruski

He's back in London for the premiere of the new Tim Burton film. The feature-length version of Frankenweenie, Landau providing the voice for an animated character. Look out for interviews with him in the press and on TV over the next few days. This weekend he'll also appear over the weekend at Autographica at the Birmingham NEC.

Now 84, he needed a little help to ascend the three steps onto the stage, (there was no banister). He may carry a walking stick, but his energy sustained us all for two hours. He loved impersonating the actors and directors he'd worked with and mentioned many other names, to remember them rather than 'name drop'. Film clips were also shown from the Mission: Impossible pilot episode, the opening titles of the very first Space: 1999, Tucker, and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Unusually, the interview wasn't filmed by the BFI, so don't expect a record of the event to appear on their website.

Martin Landau interview in Movieline about his role in Frankenweenie...

The legend continues...

The London Film Festival screened this smartly-produced new documentary at NFT3 last night. I went in almost completely 'cold', knowing only that one of the Lutz family children was interviewed. Hoping that it would expose the original Amityville horror as a hoax, once and for all, I was in for a few surprises.

If you haven't seen the The Amityville Horror (1979) or remake (2005), here's the story so far... In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered the six members of his family that he lived with. The following year, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the same house in Amityville, Long Island. There, loud noises, swarms of flies, eerie figures (and much, much more) disrupted their lives. They only stayed a few weeks, before fleeing in the middle of the night, leaving all their belongings behind. Their short stay became national news, selling magazines, books and then a series of films - all of which blurred the real events with constant retellings. Throughout it all, George and Kathy Lutz stood behind their original story until they both passed away.

Daniel (left), George and Kathy Lutz

With interviews old and new, relevant video and audio archives interviews and carefully chosen photographs, we now hear the story from the perspective of the eldest of the three children.

Daniel Lutz, now in his forties, confirmed many of the famous supernatural events from the original book. He'd the seen the swarms of flies, he'd been thrown up a flight of stairs, he'd seen the fanged pig with glowing eyes, his bed had levitated... I was immediately confused. I'd assumed the parents had concocted the stories to get out of debt, and kept the children away from the press to leave the story-telling to the adults.

Once again, we're presented with an enigma. Someone deadly convincing that they're telling the truth. This time, with seemingly nothing to gain, no movie rights, no book to sell. Living a life where the continuing attention has only made his life harder.

With no hard evidence, we only have the witnesses. The other two children wouldn't be interviewed for this film. Every supernatural event in the house left no useful trace and no convincing photographs. As he tells it, even the dead flies conveniently, immediately disappeared.

But Daniel also has further twists and revelations to add to the tale - events from before and after he moved into the house with the spooky eyes...

Eric Walter - writer, director and courageous interviewer

Young filmmaker Eric Walter was at the screening, telling us how he'd always been fascinated by the Amityville horror story, and extensively studying the evidence of it as a genuine paranormal event, particularly in online forums. He talked about the huge divide between the believers and disbelievers that still exists today. An insightful parallel is the divide between Christians and atheists - and this viewpoint is particularly relevant in one scene in the documentary.

Walter, describes himself as an agnostic with regards to religion and takes the same stance with his approach to the Amityville house. I don't think Daniel, who contacted him through the website, would have agreed to be interviewed and filmed if Walter was a firm disbeliever. But who in their right mind would tell Daniel to his face that they didn't believe him? He's very intense and intimidating, to say the least.

Daniel Lutz as he appears in My Amityville Horror

From the moment that George Lutz entered his life as a stepfather and forced his surname on the whole family, Daniel disliked him. Arguing with and antagonising him, even running away from home. If half the things in the book are true about George's behaviour in 'that' house, being possessed and acting erratically, forcing the family to march around, ten-year old Daniel would have reason to be scared as well as angry.

My own take can only be based on intuition - Daniel may have been thrown up the stairs, smacked across the hands and knocked around his bedroom, but by George, not by demons...

I think it would be in Daniel's greater interest to expose it all as a hoax. To finally unveil the mysteries of the Amityville horror. That would be a better, more saleable story than supporting the same events over again. The mystery here is as strong as ever. He's a very convincing spokesman. But that makes no sense to me.

He's interviewed by a psychologist, a reporter who has followed the story since the beginning, and by the director (Daniel looking straight to camera), an approach that made me feel quite uncomfortable, like I'd been locked in a room with him for two hours.

After over thirty years of Amityville horror books and films, the documentary assumes that the audience knows a little about the basis for the story. It doesn't waste time telling it all over again, but may confuse newcomers a little.

Currently appearing in festivals - it's too early to know what kind of wider release this will get in cinemas or on video. So keep following their updates...

http://www.amityvillemovie.com/

I'll talk more about my own take on The Amityville Horror phenomenon, starting back when I first saw it in the cinema in 1980, and looking at how it's been sold as "a true story"...

ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR II

(1976, USA)

A 90-minute documentary feature attempting to cover the whole of World War II, all set to songs of The Beatles.

Not a completely crazy idea after the acclaimed documentary Buddy Can You Spare A Dime? (1975) had taken a similar approach to America's Great Depression. But closer comparison could be the That's Entertainment compilations that made use of studio archives to create new movies - the cinematic equivalent of a TV 'clip show'.

In the UK in 1977, I only knew the movie because of the vinyl double-album cluttering up the soundtrack section of the record shops. Being at school, I wasn't about to be tempted into the cinema for a history lesson, not that I ever noticed it playing anywhere locally. Ironically, this was around the same year that I'd stop studying history. At my school, the only way to learn about 20th century history was to take the 'A' level, which I didn't. Decades later, I decided to fill in some of the vast gaps in my education, particularly the World Wars, by watching two extensive documentary series (The World At War and The Great War).

Despite a generous budget, All This and World War II wasn't at all popular, with no known home video release and only a few TV showings. Luckily a truncated version recently appeared on YouTube, otherwise I'd never have seen it. For this to get a DVD release would require a huge outlay for music rights from a wide range of record companies, not to mention clearance of the movie clips.

I was mainly curious about the music, all Beatles songs, but cover versions from a wide range of rockers. The results are far more successful than the hideous treatments trotted out in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (which I narrowly avoided in 1978 and, again, only caught recently). So many good tunes murdered... it was a musical massacre.

Again, The Bee Gees are in there, but there are also great covers by Elton John (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds), Helen Reddy (The Fool on the Hill), Bryan Ferry (She's Leaving Home), Jeff Lynne (of ELO), Tina Turner, Frankie Valli and many more! The soundtrack album made more money than the movie...

With a backdrop of Beatles' songs, the entire film is made up of newsreel and movie clips, at a time when music video had hardly started as a form. Synching footage to existing music was still a novelty or an interlude. The cover versions are given a cinematic boost by being backed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

The opening reel worked best for me, with the grim descent into war portrayed without commentary as Nazi Germany sweeps across Europe invading country after country, poignantly set to 'The Long And Winding road'. The editing complements both the music and lyrics, the choice of newsreel footage pertinent and often fascinating.

But after a great start, there's more and more use of spoken word, with Presidential speeches, lightweight interviews and movie stars enlisting. What I wasn't expecting was the extensive use of clips from wartime movies, blurring the difference between real and recreation. The cutting speed also slows down and the flow of music is interrupted. worse still by funny clips and an over-reliance on excitement from epic movies like Tora Tora Tora and The Longest Day. Hollywood spectacle and propaganda at odds with the reality of the war. I'm also very confused by the use of 'I Am The Walrus' over the attack on Pearl Harbor...

The lyrical juxtaposition could have been weightier. Simply portraying Hitler as a 'Fool on the Hill' is consistent with him being a figure of fun at the time, with most TV comedians. For the dictator to be used for comedy nowadays is seen as risk-taking and edgey, as in South Park. I prefer it when filmmakers attack Hitler with more enthusiasm, like Quentin Tarantino did in Inglourious Basterds.

But I guess this was a family-friendly lesson in who-invaded-who. Despite The Beatles involvement and playing out with 'Give Peace a Chance', this is less anti-war than most dramas of the time. Peace also wasn't an option with the Axis forces set on world domination. In the end the most stirring passages are the propaganda and heroism from the movie clips, especially Dana Andrew's terrific climactic speech from The Purple Heart. I don't even think you can spot any dead bodies. Some war.

In contrast, TV documentary The World At War (1973) had already shown dead bodies, horrific piles of them, many of the diverse horrors of war from the testaments of eyewitnesses. The difference in approach is obviously stark. Showing soldiers marching to war, but not what can happen to them? Hearing about the war from a Prime-Minister rather than a footsoldier.

Still, the film might have held a few surprises for mid-seventies audiences, like the vintage colour footage. Had I gone to see it, I'd have also been unaware about the female workforce called into munitions factories and heavy manufacturing. There's footage of squads of all-African-American troops that counters most war movies' all-white casts. And I'd not seen any newsreel of the Japanese-American citizens being moved to internment camps, before even now.

The version I saw on YouTube is ten minutes short of the (default) 90 minutes running time mentioned on IMDB, and I'm curious if there's any mention of the concentration camps in the original. Another huge difference from the portrayal of the war nowadays. The bombing of Hiroshima is also reduced to one distant shot. Instead, you learn more about which movie stars went to war...

So... All This and World War II works as a quick overview of what happened, for the impatient, and many of the songs interplay well with the images - the allies landing at Normandy against 'Life In A Day' is tremendous. This also teases up some of the great war movies, and the cover versions hold a great many surprises for fans of 70s rock and pop.

But 'I Am The Walrus'. Really? Ask if they'll play that at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial and see what happens to you...

Here's an original trailer...

Movie Location - The Chemosphere House

(seen in Body Double (1984), The Outer Limits (1963))

Retro-futuristic architecture is even more fun to visit if it's appeared in a movie. This octagonal house, built on a single stilt, looks too visually interesting to be true. I thought it might even have been a special effect, when I saw it in Body Double. It certainly looks like it's been drastically enhanced by matte painting in this grab...

Brian De Palma's sexed up reworking of Hitchcock's Rear Window certainly intends that we're more interested in what the occupier is looking at out of such a structure. With a view of half of Los Angeles, one window catches Craig Wasson's attention, as it provides a steady stream of nudity, sex and violence...

Body Double also stars Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry and, Frankie Goes To Hollywood! An explicit, sexual thriller, De Palma attempts to outdo Dressed To Kill and give his critics the finger at the same time. It's most famous for a ridiculous murder weapon, more fearsome than a chain saw but barely portable...

In the 80s, I'd originally assumed that De Palma was the first to use such a great location, and that it was also a relatively new building. I was in for a surprise when watching the second series of the original The Outer Limits. 'The Duplicate Man' episode had used it first, twenty years earlier, with a tale of a psychotically violent, escaped alien prisoner, the Megasoid...

Yes, that's a Megasoid...

Honestly, it's more fearsome in the story, (primarily a take on the dangers of cloning). The episode also shows the lift that allows access to the house from ground level.

The design inspired the look of Sam Rockwell's house in the first Charlie's Angels movie (2000) - but updated it with a more futuristic look.

The Chemosphere House was built in 1960, designed by architect John Lautner. It's also been called 'the flying saucer house', despite the angles. The unusual design partly inspired by the need to build on a 45-degree slope! Besides looking great, the views from inside must be glorious.

Our recent trip to Los Angeles involved driving over the Hollywood Hills a few times. Near the Universal City Overlook, an official observation point on Mulholland Drive, there's a turning for Torreyson Drive along which you can find the Chemosphere. Its single stilt now largely obscured by trees.

Here's the location on Google Maps, note the Chemosphere is bottom left. But obviously have a little respect, it's still a privately-owned house.

And here's a well-illustrated article with more spectacular views of the house...

(Top photo and last two photos taken by Mark Hodgson and David Tarrington.)

ABSENTIA

(2011, USA)

With an underpass, you can be scared of the dark any hour of the day

Horror fans were twittering about this at a parade of film festivals, so I took a look when it hit the UK, watching it completely cold. This hazardous method of finding recommendations normally means that I regularly fall for orchestrated hype, often ending up with very average or predictable horror, mainstream or otherwise. But this time it paid off - I knew nothing about Absentia, but as a result it was full of surprises, as a story and as a production.

Tricia is young and pregnant, still posting 'have you seen?' flyers seven years after her husband disappeared. There are many similar posters around, but mostly for pets. Her younger sister, Callie, comes to stay just as the missing husband is legally declared dead. Callie takes up jogging near the house, cutting through a pedestrian tunnel as part of her circuit. On one run, she encounters a barely alive guy lying across the floor of the underpass. She can't understand what he's saying. When she returns with the police, he's gone. Things also start getting weird around their house. Soon, it'll be them calling the police for help...

Besides piling on the scares, Absentia is refreshing in trying hard to 'do different'. Tricia is pregnant, but that's not central to the plot. In the same way Duane Jones was picked as the lead for Night of the Living Dead but just happened to be black. Courtney Bell plays Tricia, but just happened to be (very) pregnant. (Can't wait to see how the kid turns out...).

The central mystery keeps you guessing and even character details are dramatically revealed rather than telegraphed. Also, the same way The Descent unnerves you with claustrophobia before hitting you with the supernatural, Absentia starts with the agonising limbo when someone you know disappears without a trace. Shocks and scares quickly kick in, but without immediately revealing the cause...

We've only recently watched the first Paranormal Activity (2007), which was as high in suspense as it was in bad acting and lame-brained character motivation. For all the build-up, I expected more than one decent scare. The franchise also does a disservice to other films shot on video. They expect the audience to agree that you can still 'tell' whether you're looking at video or not and that video still looks slightly rubbish. Absentia used video for budgetary reasons, but made it look as good as possible. I honestly thought I was watching a mainstream movie. It's therefore irksome that Absentia is less well known, was made for far less money, but scared me a hundred times more.

In fact it was made on a ridiculously small budget. IMDB lists it as $70,000! What? I had no idea. Usually I can spot ultra-low-budget horror because it looks shit, the acting's shit, and the story is... too. Which is why I avoid the zero-budget projects - because they're not even technically proficient. Absentia disproves my rule-of-thumb, demonstrating that a good script, careful camerawork and good acting can cost very little.

This is out on DVD in the US and UK, but hasn't yet hit blu-ray. I'm hoping that when Mike Flanagan's next film Oculus hits, Absentia will get an upgraded release.

Intrigued by the location, an opportunity to visit it came two weeks later. Here're our location photos.

Movie location - Kenilworth Avenue tunnel!
(seen in Absentia (2011))

Coincidence (or was it LoveFilm) popped Absentia through the letterbox a week before our holiday trip to Los Angeles. I started watching it without even knowing where it was set. Sufficiently impressed, knowing we'd be in the neighbourhood, I wanted to go check it out in person.

Typically Los Angeles, but a low camera angle (and smog) can hide those tell-tale hills

An interview with the director gave some rough clues about where it had been shot, a walkway under Highway 134 somewhere in Glendale. In LA, I narrowed down the possibilities using Google Street View... Then it was into the hiremobile, and away!

Jogging tribute - homagercise

Screengrabs in hand (from the trailer), we squinted down the dead end streets along Pioneer Drive to find the actual Absentia tunnel. This is also where director Mike Flanagan was living at the time - he filmed the action in his own home and around these streets).

The location wouldn't make you look twice in the daytime, but inside the tunnel, it's seriously underlit. The contrast between Californian sunshine and near-darkness also freaks out electronic cameras like the iPhone...

Facing my fear, I cautiously walked through. Thankfully there were no homeless people lying around inside...

The other side... (the North end)

Now got to go through again, to get back to the car...

This Google Map pinpoints the location. The circular car turnaround in front of the tunnel makes a good landmark. Remember this is purely a residential area - so please respect the neighbourhood and watch out for parking restrictions. And please don't grab any joggers by the ankles.

My review of Absentia is here.

(Location photographs by David Tarrington and Mark Hodgson. If you've seen either of them recently, contact the police station at Glendale, California, where they're still registered as missing.)

THE LOST WORLD

(1925, USA)

Dinosaurs attack! The seminal story and 1925 movie

This month marks the centenary of Arthur Conan Doyle's story 'The Lost World' completing its first ever run as a serialised story in The Strand magazine. It was also published as a complete novel that same year. 1912 also marked the birth of Edgar Rice Burrough's characters Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. What an extraordinary year!

While Conan Doyle is far more famous for writing the many Sherlock Holmes stories, also published in The Strand, he wrote four further stories for The Lost World's Professor Challenger. But none of them proved as riveting as his trip into the Amazon rain forest in search of a lost explorer and living prehistoric animals...

While people and dinosaurs had been thrown together in short films, mostly for comedy effect, the 1925 adaption of The Lost World was feature-length and took Doyle's suggestion seriously. That dinosaurs could survive to meet men in modern times, on a remote Amazonian plateau cut off from its surroundings, with a similar climate to the era when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

The story starts when Professor Challenger returns from a disastrous expedition without any evidence to present to the scientific community. No one believes he has seen living dinosaurs and they therefore refuse to finance another expedition. It's only the possibility there's still a survivor stranded on the plateau that encourages a newspaper editor to put up the money. Challenger is joined by a sceptical professor acting as an expert witness, the daughter of the missing man, a young reporter representing the newspaper and an adventurer in love with the daughter. Two bickering scientists and a love triangle!

Soon we see the party arrive at the foot of the huge escarpment, and witness prehistoric birds flying high over the summit. The only access to the summit is to climb up a pinnacle of rock next to it, then fell a tree to form a primitive bridge. No sooner have the expedition crossed onto the plateau, than their only means of escape is cut off. Trapped in The Lost World, they soon discover that there are more than just pterodactyls living there...

The plot structure roughly resembles the later King Kong (1933) with its series of deadly foes, climaxing with a gigantic animal being brought back to meet civilisation... In the book it's a pterodactyl, but the movie upgrades that to a far more spectacular brontosaurus. The ensuing chaos also makes this silent movie, via King Kong, the early forerunner of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla and every other giant monster on the loose...

King Kong also recycles scenes such as the log bridge, and the 'reeling in' of a rope ladder, as well as the 'monster stand-off' fight scenes. Crucially, the dinosaurs of The Lost World were also brought to life by Willis O'Brien's elaborate stop motion animation, without which King Kong wouldn't have been possible. Even during the making of The Lost World, the producers filmed enough subplots to make an entirely live-action movie, if the dinosaur special effects didn't work out.

More recently the story, and indeed the title, echoed throughout the Jurassic Park movie series. Pixar's Up (2009) also has this wonderful, visual quote from The Lost World and its spirit of adventure.

The possibilities of this story now seem far-fetched. But in 1912 and 1925 the Amazonian rain forests were largely unexplored. Now viewed as a fantasy, the fun is in seeing what creatures our heroes encounter and if the special effects stand up. Like King Kong, the matte paintings and composite work (that combines the images of people and modelwork) remain impressive. But the stop-motion animation is quite varied in quality. Willis O'Brien couldn't possibly do ALL the animation, and other less-experienced animators had to help with the huge number of ambitious trick shots. Another time-saving (cost-saving) method appears to be the use of two-frame animation, resulting in jerkier movement. The allosaurs move far less smoothly than the brontosaurus.

The long-necked brontosaurus model is all the more impressive because of its ability to 'breathe'. I particularly love the scenes of it moving around in mud. How do you animate mud? Incredible. Note also the nasty, tiny, gory details. Like the pteranodon picking apart a pig that's still alive...

With the creatures also interacting with water and fire, O'Brien is pushing the possibilities of his animation techniques to their limits, as well as some jaw-dropping 'crowd' scenes. This was all great practise for the even more elaborate set-pieces in King Kong.

Oh yes, there are humans too. After Professor Challenger, Wallace Beery remained a familiar face in twenty years of talkies. Here he's less recognisable under a beard. A tall brawny figure, he's certainly more fearsome than the diminutive Claude Rains (of the 1960 remake).

Lewis Stone plays the amorous adventurer Sir John Roxton. He has a similarly strident role in a pith helmet, opposite Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932).

Romantic interest Bessie Love, here acting her heart out, eventually moved from America to London, but never stopped acting. You can also see her in Children of the Damned (1964), Vampyres (1975) and Tony Scott's The Hunger (1983)!

Which to watch?

Because of expired copyright, this is now a 'public domain' movie, and almost anyone with a print or a mastertape of The Lost World can release their own DVD. So what are the best versions out there?

The Lost World (1925) has survived the decades despite much abuse. It was cut down in 1929 for re-releases, the subplots cut out to maximise the action. It was also completely filleted for just the dinosaur footage for educational use. I first saw a very short version (ten or fifteen minutes) at London's Natural History Museum around 1970. For a moment, it looked like an old newsreel of an actual expedition!

For decades, the only existing prints were of the 1929 one-hour cutdown version, which I first saw on a VHS release. I then upgraded to the laserdisc version from Lumivision which was the best available quality print restored by the George Eastman House. I upgraded again with one of the first DVDs I ever bought, also of the Lumivision version. Although 63 minutes long, it shows what was originally left of the film, with what looks like original colour tinting and film faults. This version also includes several even earlier experimental dinosaur short films animated by Willis O'Brien.

Then, in the early 1990's a major haul of extra footage was discovered, including an almost complete print from Czechoslovakia. This was all compiled and restored by David Shepard and Serge Bromberg and released on DVD by Image Entertainment. This adds in as much new footage as possible, and importantly corrects the frame rate, (it would have been filmed around 18 to 20 frames per second). This slows the action down to look normal and realistic, the resulting running time is 92 mins. There's also 13 minutes of dinosaur animation footage, thought to be unused out-takes.

With a debate raging over how much of the footage should have been reinserted (there's no way for certain knowing how the first version was actually assembled), George Eastman House also made a rival restored version. This can be found on the 20th Century Fox release of the 1960 colour widescreen Irwin Allen remake of The Lost World (cover art above) included as a bonus feature! It's actually on a separate DVD.

But here the frame rate runs fast, as if the print was projected at 24 frames per second, resulting in people running around too fast, and making the dinosaurs look more like models. Roughly the same assembly of scenes, but it's sped up to a running time of 76 mins. Some of the film elements used are in better shape and more restoration has been done on them. But the colour tinting is very heavy and some scenes play too dark, obscuring the detail. This version also elects to keep the language of the blacked-up manservant in the original, insulting 'who dat dere' spellings. This DVD also includes the 13 minutes of out-takes.

Image Entertainment DVD (Shepard restoration) - note the position of the background: the camera is stationary

The Fox DVD (Eastman House restoration) exactly the same moment

These two restorations present some scenes in slightly different orders, not that it hurts the story. But what I didn't realise, when viewing them side by side, was that sometimes two different angles had been shot, but only those involving actors. Why they'd use two cameras on the actors, but apparently not on the special effects, is confusing. Alternate takes have also been used by the two versions in some scenes, noticeably those with wildlife.

I'd definitely recommend the Image Entertainment disc, though slightly rougher looking in places, for the smoother running speed and less heavy-handed tinting.

The full story on the Bromberg/Shepard restoration is in Video Watchdog #75 - it includes a complete rundown of the recently reinstated scenes and what's still thought to be missing. Plus an extensive interview with David Shepard.

My favourite version of the book is 'The Annotated Lost World', heavily illustrated and full of insight into the origins of Conan Doyle's story.

Animals attack - the making of ROAR...

I was half-interested in The Life of Pi, once again drawn in by the promise of 'a true story' of a man trapped with a wild animal in a rowboat at sea, with Ang Lee directing. But the trailer put me completely off it, because of the overuse of a CGI tiger, completely sapping the elements of danger and wonder.

Obviously there are many sharp and pointy reasons why actors and even stunt performers won't interact with tigers. But a large part of the spectacle, for me, is seeing wild animals. Real ones.

The illusions of actors and wild animals in the same scene has been achieved with every special effect in the book. Split screen (Bringing Up Baby), full body animal suits (Gorillas In The Mist) animatronic replicas (Jaws), the animal's trainer doubling for an actor (Live and Let Die)... all usually in quick cuts. The lure of long and complex camera moves achievable with CGI leaves us staring at a fake shot for far too long. I'm not interested in how amazing the CGI replica is, I want to see how amazing a tiger is.

Real lions investigate real actors - that's entertainment!

My apathy towards fakey CGI has been coincidentally countered by my enthusiasm for a 1981 film that took far too many risks. No faking in these scenes, only that these animals aren't wild, so much as mildly tolerant of humans, sometimes. I'm not saying that we should throw actors to the lions, (tempting though) but it's far more entertaining.

It's risky for an actor to be confined with huge predators in small spaces. But Roar is precisely that from start to finish. With the entire cast not doubled by stuntpeople, and not just one wild animal, but over a hundred...

ROAR

(USA, 1981)

Tigers, in Africa?

A lion conservationist in Africa, fighting for funding, has to leave his lodge to capture two escaped animals before the local poachers kill them. But while he's away, he misses the arrival of his family, visiting for the first time. His wife, two sons and teenage daughter are unaware that he shares his home with a hundred lions and tigers...

The story is slack, with several long set-ups and few payoffs. But I started enjoying it as a series of spectacular set-pieces with a family of mad people who actually lived with lions. Roar barely works as a narrative and many of the performers aren't very experienced actors, but it's no more staged than the True Life Adventures that Disney used to sell as 'documentaries'.

Director/producer/actor Noel Marshall (left) about to get bitten

The action is literally jaw-dropping. Only slightly less foolish than shooting Jaws with real sharks. An early scene has a delegation of potential investors arriving at the lodge. The lions and tigers get riled up and one jumps in a small boat with two guys in it and the whole thing sinks in seconds. Shot for real.

The scenes of people surrounded by big cats makes the lion tamer of the circus shows look really, er, tame. We get more lions, more people and no cages.

My favourite scene is when the family arrive and don't notice the lions sleeping around the grounds. Inside, they spot a leopard in the house and panic, their screams attracting dozens of lions who immediately charge inside as well. The following chaos as everyone tries to avoid a houseful of lions is brilliantly and dynamically shot, tightly edited into a unique and extended nightmare chase. Rooms full of lions, a whole pride charging upstairs together, tigers jumping in through windows... quite astonishing.

Exciting, amazing, cute... but the amount of accidents and injuries sustained by the cast and crew makes this an extended 2.35 widescreen YouTube 'look at that!' clip, or a lost episode of Jackass.

I missed Roar in the cinema, only recently seeking it out after seeing Tippi Hedren, the star of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and Marnie (and subject of this year's The Girl), in conversation. She talked about her charity project, a preserve for unwanted big cats. From the name, Shambala, and even after watching Roar, I assumed that the preserve was somewhere in Africa. Not at all, it is in fact just outside the city limits, just north of Los Angeles. If I'd read the book before our recent holiday, we'd have dropped in for a tour.

Impressed by the film and curious about the IMDB comments about injuries, I bought Tippi's 1985 book The Cats of Shambala, which is all about the fascinating eleven-year project to make Roar. A story which would make a far greater 'film about the making of a film' than Hitchcock.

In the late 60s, while on location in Africa, Tippi and her then husband Noel Marshall, a movie producer, saw an abandoned game warden's lodge that had been taken over by a pride of lions. The image inspired the two of them to make a film. Noel, who was working as an executive producer on The Exorcist tried to put a deal together while Tippi started collecting lions!

Through the early 1970s, she welcomed unwanted lions and tigers into their Beverley Hills home, mostly unwanted pets and cubs from zoos that couldn't afford to expand. Living with the animals, the family were aiming to become so familiar with them that they wouldn't be attacked when it came to filming.

Ex-circus elephant Timba destroying a boat

After a few accidents, like when lions escape and roam the local residential streets, the family and their 'pets', moved to a large enclosure in Soledad Canyon, not far from where 60s TV series Daktari was filmed (now available from Warner Archives). The idea was to landscape the barren land, planting it with trees to look more like Africa, and building a purpose-built lodge for all the lion action scenes. With the extra acres of land, Tippi and Noel could also take in dozens more rescue animals, including a giant circus elephant. The new animals were written into the script, as were any unusual habits of the lions.

Having accumulated 132 lions, tigers, leopards, cougars and jaguars, filming began in 1976. By this time, Tippi's daughter Melanie Griffith was also getting high-profile credits, helping the publicity of this multi-million dollar production, made outside of the studio system.

Melanie Griffith getting bitten

But the shoot was plagued by disasters: including the compound being damaged by a brush fire, and a flood that washed away cages, hundreds of trees and part of their set. A few escaping animals (we're talking huge male lions) were tragically shot down by panicking police officers.

Several entire camera crews walked out when members of the cast were injured on set, including Tippi breaking a leg, Noel and Melanie receiving nasty bites. Several closer calls and the near scalping of their cameraman made them think the production was cursed. Or maybe they'd bitten off more than they could chew (sorry). The weeks Tippi spent filming the gruelling attack scenes in The Birds were a walk in the park compared to her injuries and heartbreaks making Roar.

Jan De Bont, with 200 stitches

The cameraman whose scalp had to be stitched back on was Jan De Bont, shooting his first American picture. He survives to go on to work on Cujo (1983), Die Hard (1988) and Basic Instinct (1992), before his brief run as a director that started with Speed (1994) and Twister (1996). Even after that mauling, he completed shooting the picture over the next few years. Respect! It's his coverage that makes the footage so exciting. Tight camera moves shot from close to the action. Too close!

Disasters, injuries and problems with financial backers delayed the film's completion until 1981, by which time 'animal attack' movies were old hat and studios weren't interested in what they saw as an animal-oriented family film. (Times have certainly changed to where we're lucky to get anything but). As a result Roar didn't get released in US cinemas, only in a few countries including the UK, Japan, Germany, Italy and Australia... It was then lost in the huge glut of variable quality VHS and home video releases. I have to say, the poster art I've seen didn't do them any favours either.

Roar wasn't a box office success, and Tippi and Noel's marriage broke up after a decade of stress. Impressively, Tippi stuck with the Shambala reserve and continues to round up and take care of unwanted big cats as a registered charity. The main 'set' and shooting location of Roar is still out there and running tours, thirty years later.

The book, 'The Cats of Shambala' could easily be retitled 'The Making of Roar -the Movie' as it details the project from start to finish, with many photographs of the key players, human and animal. It's an easy but engrossing read, Tippi's love for the animals is clear, as are her keen observations of their behaviour. Lots of hot tips about how not to get attacked by lions. Out of print, secondhand copies are easily available through online stores and eBay.

The movie is still independently owned and proceeds from Roar DVDs continue to help fund the Shambala preserve. The website is here.

More behind-the-scenes photos are in this Flickr account, including shots of the fire, the flood and some of the scars!

If you're near Los Angeles, here are details about visits and tours around Shambala.

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) - Roger Corman's colour-coded Poe

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE (1958) a choice of DVDs

THE HITCHER (1986) - road movie, horror movie

LUCKY LUKE (2009) - Jean DuJardin, hero of the wild west

Everything JAWS in the Black Hole...

BLADE RUNNER - thirty years later, to the day

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959) - now on Blu

THE SPACE CHILDREN (1958) - rare Jack Arnold sci-fi now on Blu

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) - creepy, paranoid, body horror

GYO: TOKYO FISH ATTACK! (2012) - Junji Ito anime adaption

CORMAN'S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL (2011)

TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972) - 40 years old and now on Blu-ray

Man of a Million Faces - Martin Landau in conversation

MY AMITYVILLE HORROR (2012) - a documentary about Daniel Lutz

ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR II (1976) - a history lesson with The Beatles

Filming Location: BODY DOUBLE - the Chemosphere House

ABSENTIA (2011) - the tunnel of horror!

Filming Location: ABSENTIA (2011) - creepy Glendale

A hundred years of THE LOST WORLD (1925) - and the three best DVDs

ROAR (1981) - lion and tiger mayhem... for real