Anoraks Assemble

They say the geek shall inherit the Earth. I’m counting on it.

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Just a random woman who loves horror, sci-fi, and anything a bit weird.

  • The Night Stalker (1972)

    The Night Stalker is a 1972 made-for-TV movie, written by Richard Matheson and based on an unpublished story by Jeff Rice.

    The film follows reporter Carl Kolchak (the magnificent Darren McGavin) as he investigates a series of mysterious murders on the Las Vegas Strip, where all of the victims were found to be drained of blood.

    The victims’ bodies also have bite marks which, when examined, are found to contain human saliva. This revelation, along with the disappearance of blood stocks at the hospital, lead Kolchak to believe that a vampire is at work.

    Of course the powers that be do not believe him and warn him off, but Kolchak has a nose for a story and just cannot shake off the feeling that mysterious forces are at work. Eventually he is proved correct, but at what personal cost?

    When The Night Stalker was first broadcast in 1972 it set a record for the most-watched made-for-TV film, and it is easy to see why. It is just fabulous. This is mainly due to the character of Kolchak himself, a cynical, world-weary anti-hero made ridiculously likeable by Darren McGavin’s immense charm and charisma. We root for Kolchak and we want him to succeed.

    The story itself is an interesting one and the scenes along the Vegas Strip give it a sense of realism – it is very much in the here and now. Skorzeny, the villain, is genuinely frightening. He does not speak but hisses like a wild animal, and this factor, along with his make up, make him quite terrifying. There are moments when the camera focuses on his eyes, and it is actually quite disturbing and very effective.

    The Night Stalker, above all else, is fun, with a likeable lead character played by an actor with charm by the bucketload. It was followed by a sequel, The Night Strangler, and a 20-episode TV series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

    It also proved a major inspiration for The X-Files, with its ‘monster-of-the-week” format.

    The Night Stalker is an absolute gem and if you haven’t seen it, seek it out immediately.

    I don’t think you will be disappointed.

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  • The Nightmare Man (1981)

    The Nightmare Man is a four-part sci-fi / horror TV series which was first broadcast on BBC1 in 1981.

    It was based on the novel, “Child of Vodyanoi” by David Wiltshire and adapted for TV by Dr. Who legend Robert Holmes.

    Set on a small Scottish island (but actually filmed in Cornwall), a series of savage murders strike fear into the locals. After a strange craft is found on the beach, difficult questions are asked. Is it aliens, the Russians, or a secret military plot?

    Of could it somehow be a combination of all three?

    Mysterious deaths on a remote island are hardly a new thing – think of something like Island of Terror or Night of the Big Heat – but this is a little different in that it is rooted in a kind of realism of that era, with a Cold War paranoia and fear of Russia.

    Ex-army dentist Michael Gaffkin (the heroic James Warwick) is roped in to help. Along for the ride is his pharmacist girlfriend Fiona, played by the fabulous Celia Imrie.

    The special effects are absolutely fine. We see the monster’s actions from its point of view, which is actually quite effective. These scenes are accompanied by rather unpleasant slobbering noises and, disturbingly, inhuman laughter.

    Like so many BBC dramas of this era, it is low-key and slow-moving, but I do not mind this. It is also very tame in terms of what is shown on screen. I remember watching it in 1981 as an eight-year-old and absolutely loving it!

    The Nightmare Man comes from the era of The Omega Factor and The Mad Death, when the BBC took risks and showed us something a little ‘different’. I think the intervening years have been kind to the series and it holds up pretty well.

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  • The Omen (1976)

    The Omen is a 1976 supernatural horror film, written by David Seltzer and directed by Richard Donner.

    The film tells the story of an American diplomat, Robert Thorn, and his wife Katherine, who are living in Rome. She is pregnant and when she gives birth and the baby dies, the hospital chaplain convinces Robert to secretly adopt another baby whose mother died in childbirth. Robert agrees but does not tell the fragile Katherine, and they name him Damien.

    Fast-forward five years and Robert is now U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He and Katherine’s seemingly idyllic lifestyle is disrupted as, very slowly, they begin to realise that Damien is not all he seems.

    Eventually, Robert joins forces with photographer Keith Jennings (the wonderful David Warner), and they begin to uncover the shocking truth about just who, or what, Damien is.

    There was a real trend in the 1970s for supernatural horror, which was probably inspired by the likes of Rosemary’s Baby back in 1968, and it carried on with The Exorcist in 1973.

    But I think The Omen tops them all.

    For me, having Gregory Peck in the lead – an actual real-life movie legend – was the masterstroke. He plays it so serious and straight, I believe everything he says. Also, Lee Remick is so convincing as the ever-fearful Katherine. David Warner is just wonderful as Jennings, and Patrick Troughton is memorable, in a fairly brief but so important role, as Father Brennan, (complete with memorable death scene).

    Apart from Gregory Peck, the other piece of inspired casting is Billie Whitelaw who is just so completely pant-wettingly terrifying as Mrs. Baylock, the literal nanny from hell.

    The film spawned three sequels of varying quality, a prequel which I think is quite good, and a remake which is utterly ghastly.

    Why was it so popular?

    Maybe because it made the viewer question their beliefs, i.e. if the Devil exists then surely God must exist too.

    Or maybe because it’s got the coolest decapitation scene in movie history!

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  • The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

    The Day the Earth Caught Fire is a 1961 British sci-fi disaster movie which tells the story of the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously conducting nuclear bomb tests. The resulting explosions do something nasty to the Earth, resulting in floods, violent storms, sweltering heat, and an unexpected eclipse.

    On the case is drunken Fleet Street journalist Peter Stenning, played brilliantly by Edward Judd. He slowly uncovers the conspiracy, with the help of the wonderful Janet Munro as Jeannie, the sparky temp at the Met Office who is completely immune to Stenning’s charm. Leo McKern is fabulous as Bill Maguire, Stenning’s only real friend at the newspaper.

    Without a doubt, The Day the Earth Caught Fire is one of my all-time favourite films.

    The sense of realism in the newspaper office is off the scale, in no small part due to having real-life Daily Express editor Arthur Christiansen in the role of editor of the fictional newspaper. Also, the back and forth overlapping dialogue in the office feels so real. It is as though we are eavesdropping on this world.

    The story taps nicely into the Cold War paranoia of the time. 1961 saw the building of the Berlin Wall, so the whole East v. West was very much at the forefront in the minds of the public.

    The film is interspersed with real-life footage of floods and other natural disasters, which help to heighten the realism, and there are a number of quite memorable moments. The scenes of desolation in the world’s major cities are well done, as is Edward Judd walking slowly up an empty London street.

    As I’ve said already, the acting is excellent, with some wonderful supporting actors all the way down the cast list.

    It is also laugh out loud funny in parts. Val Guest and Wolf Mankowitz won the 1962 BAFTA for Best Film Screenplay, and I am not surprised in the slightest.

    This film is one of the best ever made, an absolute gem. If you haven’t seen it (what on Earth are you playing at?) then stop what you are doing and go watch it right away. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

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  • The Signalman – TV (1976)

    The Signalman is a short film which was first broadcast on the BBC in 1976, as part of the broadcaster’s ‘A Ghost Story for Christmas’ strand. It was based on “The Signal-Man” by Charles Dickens, adapted for TV by Andrew Davies and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark.

    The film introduces us to The Signalman, played brilliantly by Denholm Elliot, a lonely railwayman working his shift at a remote signal box beside the entrance to a tunnel. He encounters the Traveller who is visiting the area. The Signalman is clearly distracted by something – he even describes himself as “troubled” – and eventually admits that he is being haunted by an apparition which appears at the tunnel entrance next to his signal box.

    The Signalman agrees to meet The Traveller again the next night, when he starts his shift. But by then, the sounds of a mysterious train begin to haunt The Traveller’s dreams, and The Signalman’s fear and paranoia leads to a harrowing conclusion.

    The BBC’s ‘A Ghost Story for Christmas’ is synonymous with M.R. James stories, but I do think that The Signalman is the absolute best.

    The acting is just fabulous. Denholm Elliot is sublime as the terrified Signalman, and you just cannot take your eyes off him. Bernard Lloyd is also wonderful as the mysterious Traveller, who tries to assure his new friend that all he can do is discharge his duty and do it well. The conversations between the pair are quite riveting, interspersed with The Signalman performing his mundane daily duties.

    The whole atmosphere is one of dread. The howling of the wind, the ticking of the clock being somewhat accentuated, and, for the most part, the lack of background music, creates layer upon layer of fear.

    We just know something is going to happen, but we do not know what.

    The Signalman has a tight running time of approximately 40 minutes, which means nothing is wasted. It is absolute class and one to watch again and again.

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  • Death Line (1972)

    Death Line is a 1972 horror film starring Donald Pleasance, and featuring a cameo appearance from Christopher Lee.

    Student Patricia, and her American boyfriend Alex, are travelling on the London Underground late one evening when they find a respectable looking man lying unconscious on the stairs. After eventually convincing a policeman to investigate, they discover that the mystery man has disappeared.

    As it turns out, the vanishing man is actually quite an important person, so Donald Pleasance’s Inspector Calhoun is tasked with investigating the disappearance. He uncovers an urban legend about a group of railway workers who were trapped by a cave-in, their descendants still living below ground.

    It couldn’t possibly be true, could it?

    Death Line is actually a very very good film. The reviews for it are overwhelmingly positive, and it is easy to see why. Donald Pleasance and Norman Rossington are both excellent as Calhoun and DS Rogers. They are a very funny double act and end up providing a lot of unexpected humour.

    And believe me this humour is needed, because Death Line is very grim and also incredibly bleak. The scenes in the mutants’ lair, with the rotting remains of unfortunate commuters, does not leave a lot to the imagination.

    Apart from Pleasance and Rossington, Hugh Armstrong is ridiculously sympathetic as the lead cannibal (not a sentence I ever thought I would write). The scene where he repeatedly shrieks, “Mind the doors!” is terrifying and heartbreaking in equal measure.

    In fact, it is difficult not to have an element of sympathy with the mutant, cannibalistic underground dwellers, despite their murderous ways. There is an interesting juxtaposition between Manford – the very well-off first victim whose disappearance sparks the initial investigation – and the cannibal antagonists. It is almost a class thing, the upper class versus the exploited working class, and how the so-called ‘lower class’ is treated.

    Or maybe it is just a film about mutant cannibals killing unsuspecting commuters.

    Either way, it is a very good film, just not one I feel the need to revisit on a regular basis.

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  • Tentacles (1977)

    Tentacles is a 1977 horror / thriller / utter embarrassment, directed by Ovidio Gabriel Assonitis.

    In yet another Jaws rip-off, residents of a U.S. coastal town are disappearing in strange circumstances. Enter reporter Ned Turner, played by John Huston (I mean, come on, John Huston, what was he thinking?)

    We soon discover that the good townsfolk are being picked off by a giant octopus (I mean, obviously) and it is up to Bo Hopkins’ mean and moody hero Will to save the day. (I am not entirely sure how Will comes to the conclusion it is a giant octopus. Hopkins has a terrible habit of not opening his mouth to speak, so I might have missed the explanation).

    Anyway, chuck in Shelley Winters, Henry Fonda, some awful dubbing and a really bizarre soundtrack, and the scene is set for 90 minutes of unintentionally hilarious shenanigans.

    To be fair, there is quite a neat scene at the start when a mother leaves her child in its buggy at the waterside to go and talk to her friend. (Let’s ignore the fact that she left her kid alone). We see the buggy in the background with traffic passing along the road in front of it, obscuring our view. And then a bus passes by and suddenly the buggy is gone. It is a clever little moment, still kind of shocking even though we are expecting it. But sadly, this is as good as the film gets. There are a couple of quite hilarious moments, especially when the octopus causes absolutely carnage at a children’s boat race.

    Honestly, this is typical 1970s TV move fare and it’s awful. It has a funky soundtrack which is so out of place, especially during the moments when people are being killed by the beast.

    Acting wise, John Huston and Henry Fonda are fine, but they must have been paid an awful lot to do this. Shelley Winters (over)acts her little socks off, and Bo Hopkins is suitably heroic as Will, even though he irritated me so much by not speaking clearly.

    Once seen, never forgotten!

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  • Lust for a Vampire (1971)

    Lust for a Vampire is a 1971 British Hammer horror film, written by Tudor Gates and directed by Jimmy Sangster.

    The film, which is part two of the so-called Karnstein Trilogy, is set 40 years after 1970’s The Vampire Lovers, and tells the story of novelist Richard LeStrange, who comes to a village to do research for his books about the occult.

    He is warned about the upcoming return of the mysterious Karnstein family who live in their remote castle and prey on young virgin women.

    Obviously LeStrange thinks that it is all supernatural nonsense.

    But is it?

    Well, it is Hammer, so what do you think?

    We start off with the count and countess attempting to resurrect their long-dead daughter (quite a startling scene, I have to admit), and end with marching locals carrying burning torches.

    Typically Hammer fare, to be honest.

    The positives are that it has a wonderful Gothic look about it. The film creates a fabulous atmosphere, due in no small part to the music. Some scenes are accompanied by very evocative choral singing, which makes the film quite beautiful to look at and very haunting.

    As this is the 1970s, we have reached peak Hammer horror, with multiple boob shots, naked women, and one of the most bizarre love scenes ever.

    Basically Yutte Stensgaard (she can’t act, but clearly she’s not there for her acting ability), as she is being seduced by Michael Johnson’s pound shop hero LeStrange, decides the best way to convey her feelings of ecstasy is by making herself cross-eyed. At the same time, the whole scene is accompanied by a modern-day pop song playing in the background.

    It is unintentionally hilarious.

    Apart from Ms. Stensgaard, the acting is okay. Michael Johnson is instantly forgettable, but Ralph Bates is as reliable as ever as the creepy Giles Barton.

    It is definitely not one of the best, but an interesting example of the sexier, more explicit films of the 1970s.

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  • Doomwatch – TV Series (1970-1972)

    Doomwatch was a British sci-fi TV series which ran between 1970 and 1972. It was created by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler, who were both well known for their work on Dr. Who.

    38 episodes were made over the course of three series, but only 24 survived, and one episode has never been broadcast.

    The word Doomwatch referred to the “Department for the Observation and Measurement of Scientific Work”. It was overseen by Dr. Spencer Quist, played by John Paul, a man haunted by his guilt of working on the Manhattan Project. Joining him was Dr. John Ridge, played by Simon Oates, a man who would try to get his leg over anything with a pulse.

    More about that in a second.

    Series one also had Robert Powell as Toby Wren, whose unexpected death in the first series finale brought endless complaints to the BBC.

    The show tackled topics such as toxic waste, noise pollution and unknown viruses. These are subjects which we are so used to talking about now, but 50 years ago it must have been unusual – and quite frightening – to see this subject matter playing out on national TV.

    I think sometimes the best sci-fi writers have a gift for looking into the future and telling stories which need to be told, without perhaps realising just how important these topics are. Doomwatch was no exception, although Davis and Pedler left after series two and it is widely agreed that the show became more of a standard thriller type, and perhaps lost some of the environmental aspects which made it so unique.

    The one negative, and to be fair it is a big ‘un, is the appalling sexism and general treatment of female characters. Dr. Ridge treats every woman as a potential conquest, which, through the eyes of someone living in the modern world, is toe-curling to say the least.

    And yet, I do like the randy doctor. He makes me laugh a lot. So I find that the best way to deal with the sexism is just laugh it off and be thankful that society has changed for the better. It is not perfect by any means, but definitely better than it used to be.

    Doomwatch is typical 1970s TV – slow moving, talky, dodgy effects – but I do not have a problem with that. At its best, it was an environmental thriller, introducing the viewer to topics which probably felt very alien, but, as we know today, are very real.

    If I had been old enough to watch it at the time, I would have been quite concerned to think about what the future might hold.

  • The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

    The Satanic Rites of Dracula is a 1973 Hammer film, written by Don Houghton and directed by Alan Gibson. It stars Christopher Lee, making his final appearance as Dracula, and Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing.

    Set in 1970s London, the plot resolves around the secret service investigating apparent satanic rituals at an English country house, with the revelation that prominent members of society are somehow involved. From here, the story takes some rather bizarre turns and ends up being a curious mix of spy thriller and horror.

    I think the main problem with this film is that the plot could best be described as “thin”. Dracula doesn’t appear until roughly 30 minutes into the film (although his first scene is memorable and very well done) and Christopher Lee looks as though he can’t really be bothered and is simply going through the motions.

    In amongst the unexpected plots twists (bubonic plague, anyone?) and gratuitous female nudity – which all feels a bit grubby – Peter Cushing is as reliable as ever, with his trademark gravitas as Van Helsing.

    Michael Coles is also very good as Inspector Murray, reprising his role from 1972’s quite hilarious Dracula AD 1972. There are also nice supporting turns from the likes of William Franklyn and Freddie Jones.

    To be fair, the film does have a couple of memorable scenes, the standout moment being when Joanna Lumley’s Jessica discovers the vampire women in the basement of the mansion. This whole scene plays out as something out of a nightmare, and I think it is very effectively done.

    I do have a soft spot for The Satanic Rites of Dracula. It may be a curious horror / spy / conspiracy thriller hybrid, and absolute nonsense for that matter, but it is infinitely better than Dracula AD 1972, which was enjoyable for all the wrong reasons.