Prince of the Air

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS - COUNT MAGNUS (2022)

Grave concerns for Jason Watkins as Mr Wraxhall.

IN 1863, British travelogue writer Mr Wraxhall (Jason Watkins) visits Råbäck Manor in Sweden, which was built by Count Magnus de la Gardie. Now occupied by Froken de la Gardie (MyAnna Buring), servant Gustav (Jamal Ajala) and a set of ancestral portraits, Wraxhall declines Froken's invitation to stay and boards at the local inn. Here he learns more about The Count from innkeeper Herr Nielsen (Max Bremer): Magnus was a merciless landowner who was also notorious for his Black Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, bringing something - or someone - back with him. Nielsen also recounts the tale of poachers on The Count’s lands, which resulted in one going mad and the other having the skin sucked from his face. Obsessed with this uncovering sinister world, Wraxhall visits Magnus's mausoleum, which is sealed by chains and padlocks. 

Faithfully adapted from the 1904 M.R. James story by Mark Gatiss, COUNT MAGNUS adds more layers of alchemy for its conclusion. Gatiss stands by James' ending to a point, as both feature the violent death of Wraxall, whose demise is ruled by jury to be caused "by visitation of God." In the original, the storyteller is revealed to be the man who acquired Wraxall's house, forced to demolish the property since nobody is willing to stay there. But here the narrator is revealed to be Magnus himself, his life prolonged by a deal with the devil, processing the tale from within his tomb. Before the credits we also see a modern-day young couple appear at the mausoleum, to illustrate that ages-old horror dictum, why don't you just leave such things alone ...

An illustration for Count Magnus by Rosemary Pardoe. Pardoe helmed the M.R. James related Ghosts & Scholars magazine for forty years.

Lawrence Gordon Clark originally intended Count Magnus to be the 1976 entry of the strand, before budgetary concerns and a consequent shift to THE SIGNALMAN. The soul of the text holds the half-hour together, and Watkins is perfect as the irritative researcher, suffering somewhat from an Englishman abroad syndrome (he acknowledges that the locale would be more akin to peasants, for example). It's a stoic entry in the series, with its festive notions of twisted family heritage and supernatural shenanigans, but there is too much daylight in this tale of darkness, and its locations never convince that we are anywhere near Scandinavia.

Tomorrow's Headlines Today

DOOM WATCH (1970 - 72)

DOOMWATCH (1972)

Cyberman creators Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis also spawned DOOM WATCH, a plausibly terrifying apocalyptic drama.

BETWEEN February 1970 and August 1972, the BBC broadcast three seasons of DOOM WATCH, a sobering set of cautionary tales created by DOCTOR WHO story editor Gerry Davis and medical scientist/author Kit Pedler. In the show, a Government sponsored organisation - led by Physicist Dr Spencer Quist (John Paul) - investigate ecological and technological dangers in stories influenced by contemporary cases. This "Department for the Observation and Measurement of Science" combated intelligent carnivorous rats, mind-destroying sound waves, toxic mutations and a plastic-eating virus, and a final episode - exploring permissiveness and its impact on human behaviour - was banned. This story, SEX AND VIOLENCE, courted controversy not for its subject matter but for a scene where the footage of a real-life African execution is shown. Even though the programme attempted to make the serious and valid point that watching genuine violence has a different effect on viewers than fantasy harm, the episode was nevertheless pulled by nervous executives.

DOOM WATCH was one of the first examples of environmentally conscious television, where its audience were forced to think about the consequences of unregulated commercial exploitation of Earth’s resources (it was also one of the first to kill off its star - young chemist Toby Wren (Robert Powell) - after its first season). Prescient on a number of topics, it also influenced alarmist science fiction in general, despite basic production values, gaudy fashions and typical 1970s attitudes towards women. At one point the British Government considered setting up a real-life equivalent, with Labour MP Ray Fletcher planning a Westminster committee to include Pedler among its members. DOOM WATCH itself disappointingly succumbed to that popular mantra "creative differences," after friction with producer Terence Dudley.

DOOM WATCH followed in the footsteps of QUATERMASS and DOCTOR WHO to the silver screen with a limp, despite great make-up by British legend Tom Smith.

Helmed by Peter Sasdy from a Clive Exton script, the Tigon movie version sidelines the TV regulars - Quist, Dr John Ridge (Simon Oates), computer expert Colin Bradley (Joby Blanshard) and Dr Fay Chantry (Jean Trend) - for new character Dr Del Shaw (Ian Bannen). Shaw travels to the Cornish island of Balfe (actually Polkerris) to investigate the effects of oil pollution, where only school teacher Victoria Brown (Judy Geeson) gives him any kind of welcome. It is discovered that the islanders are suffering from acromegaly, brought on from a diet of contaminated fish. This has been caused by the Navy - headed by a disinterested George Sanders - legitimately dumping radioactive material near Castle Rock, which has reacted with a failed hormone dumped by a ramshackle waste company.

DOOMWATCH adheres to its umbrella brief of shady failed science, and belongs to that subgenre of cinema - which includes THE CRAZIES and C.H.U.D. - where ordinary folk are transformed into monsters because of unorganised or callous corporations. Whereas the television programme often suffered from verbal diarrhea, in an era where the medium was still viewed in many ways as theatre rather than film, the actual DOOMWATCH movie wastes its cinematic scope and location by becoming a plodding horror. The performances are earnest, but it would have played out better as a reworked one-off TV special.

Black As Sin

POSSUM (2018)

Designed by Sydney-based Odd Studios, the titular creature is based on writer/director Matthew Holness' fear of spiders. After an original head had a more goblin-like design, found to be too emotive, a sculpture of lead actor Sean Harris lead to a blankness - similar to the Michael Myers visage - where viewers could project their own fears.

THE feature directorial debut of Matthew Holness, POSSUM is an expansion of his short story from The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease. Comma Press had the writers read Freud's theory of the uncanny, then asked them to choose a fear and provide a story (Holness combined two, doppelgängers and dummies). The film sees puppeteer Philip (Sean Harris) returning to his childhood home where his uncle Maurice (Alun Armstrong) has been living for some time, who raised him after the death of his parents. The haunted Philip revisits places significant to his formative years, as he attempts to understand the past and rid himself of his unnerving puppet, a spider with a human head and a thousand yard stare.

POSSUM draws on silent expressionist horror and English Gothic, especially THE INNOCENTS. Jack Clayton's adaptation of The Turn of the Screw shares a lot of POSSUM's foundation, namely an inherent sadness through problematic sexual awakening. This examination of trauma is expertly brought to live by performance and fractured narrative, and even the surrounding forest - with its warped branches - symbolise spindly spider legs (when Maurice attacks at the climax, he puts his fingers into Philip's mouth, providing a further nod to arachnid digits). Another plus is the score by The Radiophonic Workshop, marking the studio's first soundtrack purposely constructed for a feature film. Actually more a sound design for mental anguish, pieces include unreleased material by Delia Derbyshire.

The muted hues of POSSUM mirror the houses and surroundings of the grimmist 1970s Public Information Films. Here, Philip's visit to a school manifests into the "Stranger Danger" aesthetic.

Philip has never recovered from a corrupted innocence, with his monosyllabic speech and movement reminiscent of childlike mannerisms and anxieties. Even the rhyme, "Mother, Father, what’s afoot? Only Possum, black as soot et al," lovingly illustrated in a sketchbook, bridges the simplicity of youth to his adult existence. Harris would remain in character throughout the shoot to the point where Holness felt that he was working with Philip rather than Harris. Both lead actors only interacted with each other while filming scenes together, further enhancing the feeling of separation and tension.

Short Cuts (Part III of III)

A GUN FOR GEORGE (2011)

PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS - THE SNIPIST (2012)
COMEDY SHORTS - SMUTCH (2016)

Payback doesn't come harder-boiled than Terry 

Finch (Matthew Holness) in A GUN FOR GEORGE.

THE three shorts under consideration here are all written and directed by Matthew Holness, best known for creating the faux horror author Garth Marenghi (a character so pompous that when he contemplates praying, he prays to himself). Made by Warp in conjunction with Film4 and the UK Film Council, A GUN FOR GEORGE is a gritty change of pace for Holness, who also stars as Terry Finch, an unsuccessful writer of pulp-fiction crime novels. Via flashback, it's shown that his twin brother George was killed by carjackers. Living in a caravan near a power station, Terry attempts to cope with his setbacks by imagining himself as the character in his Reprisalizer novels, a Kent-based vigilante who ultimately acts as a form of retribution for his beloved sibling. When elderly ex-Policeman and fan Ron (Joseph Bailey) dies, Ron leaves Terry his flat, where a gun is discovered in a concealed cash box. 

Running seventeen minutes, this technically impressive piece recreates the feel of 1970s grindhouse, and is a potential DEATH WISH for the Home Counties. It also contains a fake trailer that is as pitch perfect as BITCH KILLER, Holness and Richard Ayoade's counterfeit horror film teaser from their underappreciated spoof chat show MAN TO MAN WITH DEAN LEARNER. The death of George has frozen Finch in time; also Terry cannot accept that tastes have changed, where libraries have moved on from stocking westerns and men's action stories. Finchland is where fantasy and reality merge, and we leave the character as an extremely dangerous one.

Douglas Henshall is THE SNIPIST, a short which confirmed Holness' aspiration to become a filmmaker removed from his comedic origins.

Holness' twenty-six minute entry for Sky Arts' PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS, THE SNIPIST depicts a dystopian Britain stricken by rabies. Harker (Douglas Henshall) is a lone sniper struggling to maintain his sanity, ruled over by the Ministry of Information (voiced by John Hurt). Ordered to watch and protect stranded survivors, the Snipist monitors an injured woman (Kate O'Flynn) in a farmhouse, whose arm wound may be from the surrounding barb wire or the onset of the disease. The climax makes Harker - and the viewer - question what we are actually experiencing: is this a training exercise, or the workings of an unhinged mind? 

Holness has acknowledged 1970s Public Information Films deeply affected him growing up, as THE SNIPIST opens with an alarmingly effective imitation rabies PIF; we are constantly told that "It is your fault, you allowed rabies in Britain, you are to blame,” made even more potent by Hurt, who also provided the ominous chords behind the actual 1980s AIDS Don’t Die of Ignorance campaign. Henshall gives a suitably haunted performance, mixing fear for his own survival with the overall desolation. 

"Rest in piss;" Holness plays Oswin Tow in SMUTCH, 

a self-important author who literally encounters a ghost writer.

SMUTCH, an eleven minute Sky Arts COMEDY SHORT, follows Oswin Thaddeus Tow (Holness), an embittered author who has just written his masterpiece, A Shiver at Blandwood. Tow drinks green tea for its hallucinogenic properties to aid the artistic process, but this causes regular urination. When he desecrates on the grave of Smutch - who was an aspiring writer - a black stain appears on his manuscript, and strange messages appear. His photographer Keene (Jim Howick) is accidently killed by the toxicity of his urine mixing with developing chemicals, but Father Fenton (Clive Merrison) is "sucked inside out" by the otherworldly Smutch, as Oswin himself succumbs to an M. R. Jamesian-type demise. With a knowing nod to the British horror fascination with magnifying glasses, it's all a lark, though peeing makes for a rather one-note foundation.

Short Cuts (Part II of III)

INFERNO (2001)

THE LANDLADY (2013)
SELKIE (2014)

Caroline Munro has an ornament fixation in THE LANDLADY.

AS the bombastic, blockbuster ethic of 1980s cinema developed, there was less need for supporting features. And with the dawning of the Internet, young filmmakers looked for other avenues of funding. For example, of the three entries considered here, INFERNO was commissioned by Channel 4, THE LANDLADY received funding on an Indiegogo campaign, and SELKIE turned to Kickstarter. Twenty-five minute THE LANDLADY has cult favourite Caroline Munro as the titular character, in a bitesize portmanteau with delicious EC Comics and Amicus riffs.

Four vignettes are set across four decades, each having a young female taking a room: in Munchies a hippy chick (Marian Elizabeth), in Drum Solo a punk (Zoe Grisedale), in Kitty a Michael Jackson-obsessed girl (Gina Jones), and The Visitor is set in modern day (with Sara-Jane Howard). The Landlady herself is steeped in Victorian values (and dress sense), listening to classical music on her antique radio, while enjoying tea and biscuits. And she only asks the girls to adhere to four rules: no smoking, no loud noises, no pets and no guests after midnight. Of course each rule is broken, with The Landlady leaving magic figurines which enact supernatural revenge. Munro is overtly stilted, leaving the flair to the younger actresses; in her Thriller jacket Jones is a standout in the best section, due to a greater consistency in narrative. All the technical qualities however are excellent, particularly as there is only a room and a staircase to work with.

Emily Booth brings a pinniped/human to life for her pet project SELKIE.

The other two films feature starlet and presenter Emily Booth. Paul Kousoulides' INFERNO is a twenty-eight minute masterclass of the short form, a chaotic but comedic fusion of science fiction, AI and first-person style video games. Two petty criminals Jaz (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Naz (Nitin Ganatra) - together with gangster Mr Bonecrusher (Alan Talbot) and his hoodlums - are absorbed into a new trail-blazing computer experience. Rife with STAR WARS references, Jaz attempts to save his "Princess" Laura (Booth), a Lara Croft facsimile with a preference for a very large chain gun. Within a constantly looping game level Laura hardly needs rescuing from anything, and as our "heroes" return to their own deadbeat reality, Laura destroys the London Eye with infectious glee. Actually, Booth's role in INFERNO can be seen as an extension of her two years co-hosting and co-writing Channel 4's computer game review show BITS.

The fourteen minute sombre fairy tale SELKIE is directed by Booth's brother from her original treatment. The Selkie sea creature has its roots in Celtic and Norse Myth, changing its form from seal to human by shedding its skin. The story has a typically brooding fisherman (Joseph Rye) finding a Selkie skin on the shore. Subjecting the female form (Booth) to household chores and his lustful needs, he keeps her outer tissue locked away in a trunk. Against this oppressive existence, the hybrid must reclaim her scales to escape and return to the sea. Essentially a mood piece with beautiful cinematography and haunting score, the tale opens up considerably during Booth's transformation, as the viewer shares her mental shifts and natural calling. Playing against her B-movie type Booth is wonderful, bringing the mute Selkie to life with expressive eyes and instinctive movement.

Short Cuts (Part I of III)

TAKE AN EASY RIDE (1976)
BLACK ANGEL (1980)

The opening narration to faux documentary TAKE AN EASY RIDE sets the tone: "At times you could wish the wife and kids were out of the way as you pass the mini-skirt thumbing a lift. The producers of this film wish to give you the opportunity to decide for yourselves whether hitchhiking should be banned. Is it a form of Russian roulette?" Margaret Heald looks suitably nervous.

CINEMA itself started as a short film, dictated by the amount of stock a camera could hold (around 1,000ft, which would equate to approximately eleven minutes at 24fps). Although the feature and double bills became prevalent, the notion of the short would also play a part on both an educational and entertainment level. These supporting pieces to the main event could cover public information (Will Hay and Thora Hurd extinguishing incendiary devices in GO TO BLAZES) to tantalising travelogues (TELLY SAVALAS LOOKS AT BIRMINGHAM). But there was also room for the experimental mini-drama, such as Stanley Baker portraying Edgar Allan Poe in THE TELL-TALE HEART.

TAKE AN EASY RIDE is a forty minute classic of ineptitude, dubiously mixing public information with sexploitation. Directed by Kenneth F. Rowles - who edited SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL and produced THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A HANDYMAN - the perils of hitchhiking are only the tip of the iceberg in this patchwork of stern voice over, vox pops and sleaze. Any attempt at moralising is lost in the four cautionary vignettes, which are unskillfully interwoven into 1970s cliché, poverty row production values and non acting; apparently Mary Millington tried out for a part but was turned down, which illustrates the standard on show.

TAKE AN EASY RIDE is one of the most immoral examples in a broad palette of hitchhiking film portrayals; together with the road movie, this is a subgenre with unlimited scope for capture and torture.

The main thread has Mary (Margaret Heald) and Anne (Helen Bernat) hitching to the Ashford pop festival, despite being given money to safely use the train (this land-locked event is illustrated by ITN footage of the 1970 Isle of Wight gathering). Picked up by a black-gloved man driving a convertible, the women become uncomfortable when he shows them a porn mag; a LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT-style assault then takes place by a river. The other violent tale has two female hoodlums (Gennie Nevinson and Sella Coley) steal a knife and - after an unconvincing drug deal - decide they need "a whole new scene;" this involves traveling "to the coast" and stabbing a driver for the contents of his wallet.

The unintentional highlight however is the yarn of Suzanne (Danish model Ina Skriver). "Excuse me, do you hitchhike?" asks the optimistic voiceover as she is stopped in the street; "oh yes, I used to hitch" she replies, "but it's not a pretty story." In flashback, we see our leggy blonde picked up in a Rolls Royce by swingers Alan (Alan Bone) and Margaret (Tara Lynn), ending up in a semi-consensual ménage a trois. The only glimmer of decency is portrayed by lorry driver Jock (Charles Erskine), who picks up a couple of girls (Pauline Bates and Christianne) - presumably going to the same festival - and protects them from abuse in a transport café (although he does take obligatory glances at their legs). 

Moving from set decorator on STAR WARS to art director of ALIEN and MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN, it is no wonder Roger Christian would leave an impression with BLACK ANGEL.

Making fleeting use of T. Rex's 'Bang a Gong (Get It On),' TAKE AN EASY RIDE has been dubbed the ultimate English exploitation film. Originally intended for Southern Television, Rowles's extravaganza was expanded for a sordid supporting piece on the big screen (the Soho strip footage is shoehorned in to add to the already haphazard nature). It's not as if teenage girls would have taken to viewing it in the heart of Piccadilly's raincoat brigade anyway, and overall it has all the subtleties of a sledge hammer. When Mary's mother is in a state of not knowing if her daughter is alive or dead, a Police Inspector asks "I must know if your daughter was in the habit of taking lifts, whether she went out with a man, or men, regularly." The whole sorry mess ends on a POV shot of a police car, sirens blazing as it heads off to the next instance of debauchery.

At the other end of the creative spectrum we have Roger Christian's twenty-five minute BLACK ANGEL, which was commissioned by George Lucas to accompany the release of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in the UK, Australia and Scandinavia. Shot in the Eilean Donan region of the Scottish highlands, we follow medieval knight Sir Maddox (Tony Vogel), as he returns from the Crusades to find his home rife with sickness. Saved from drowning by a mysterious maiden, he learns that she is being held captive by the evil Black Knight. A penetrative myth that captures a timeless environment with age-long decay, prints of BLACK ANGEL were lost after its initial release, but a 35mm negative was discovered by a Universal archivist in 2011 and is now readily available online. Like many this writer remembers it fondly, and its imprint remained heavy on the consciousness of many STAR WARS fans; the slo-mo fight sequence even influenced EMPIRE for its Dagobah "dream" sequence.