Torture Garden

1967s 'Torture Garden' was the second of the Amicus portmanteau movies and, to these eyes at least, the worst of the seven. Starring, at the insistence of the American money men, Burgess Meredith and Jack Palance, and consisting of several stories by 'Psycho' author, Robert Bloch (who also adapted them), it's a hammy and bloodless affair.

With a framing device based around a carnival sideshow where, for a price, 'Dr Diablo' (Meredith) provides an extra scary experience for a group of punters allowing them a look through the shears of 'Atropos' (one of the Fates) at "things that can be". The "things" they see involve a homicidal psychic cat, a jealous piano, movie robots and Edgar Allan Poe and, with the exception of the last one, they are all as daft as they sound.

Meredith is in full 'Penguin' mode here hamming it up terribly, and I've never been an admirer of Palance, although he is at least playing somewhat against type here.  Peter Cushing is relegated to a supporting role in the Poe segment and there are several Brit stalwarts like Michael Ripper and Maurice Denham striving valiantly too rescue the thing but the stories are weak and, whilst I've always liked how Amicus strove to present their stories with a more contemporary and even transatlantic setting in contrast to Hammer's gothic trappings this one feels both too American and not American enough.  As always with these anthologies though the stories are quick and director Freddie Francis always had a masterful eye but this is one of the those movies that is worth watching more for it's place in history than for it's merits.

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NEWS: First UK showing of 'The Human Centipede (Complete Sequence)' plus meet and greet with Laurence R Harvey.

From the late 80s through the early 90s I worked in a comic shop in Cardiff. It was a good time for comics with lots of cool stuff being published and lots of fun people reading them and as such the shop became a bit of a hub.  One of the group of friends who used to congregate in the shop was a student at Cardiff Uni called Laurence Harvey.

After we all went our separate ways in about 93  it was fun to occasionally see Laurence appear unexpectedly on TV, as the little green man on Saturday morning TV show 'Live & Kicking' or as a trainspotter on an advert for something or other, but nothing prepared me for the joy of being told to watch the trailer for 'The Human Centipede 2' and seeing my old friend front and centre and soon to be assaulting sensitive sensibilities across the globe.

Anyway, this Thursday - 19th June at Cultplex, Manchester, M4 4HF Interference Films are hosting a screening of the newly edited together four and a half hour cut of 'The Human Centipede (Complete Sequence) with a meet and greet beforehand with Laurence.

From their Facebook page:

INTERFERENCE FILMS PRESENTS: THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (COMPLETE SEQUENCE)

For the first time in the UK, Interference Films is proud to present The Human Centipede Trilogy on the big screen, back to back (to back, to back, to back....)

We will be screening the 'Complete Sequence', which is all three films stitched together to create one four and a half hour cut! Director Tom Six has stated that the 'Complete Sequence' aka 'The Movie Centipede' is the definitive version to watch and who are we to argue? Uncut and with extra scenes, this is a truly special event and one that will not be repeated!  

Intetference Films is super excited to announce that the legend that is  LAURENCE R HARVEY, will be making a guest appearance at our screening of The Human Centipede 'Complete Sequence'! Laurence will be available to meet and greet prior to the screening (autographs £20) and is also going to be introducing the film!  

TICKETS & FURTHER INFO AT: 

https://cultplex.co.uk/Cultplex.dll/WhatsOn?f=519112

If you go, say hi from me.

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The Twelve

Liz Hyder
Tom de Freston (illustrator)
Pushkin Press

"We are the echo in the cave, the footsteps that follow you in the dark, the shadows in the trees.
We are fur and feather, bark and bone. We are light and dark. Earth and sky. Sun and moon. We are as one…"

When Kit's younger sister disappears from the world on the winter solstice with only Kit and a young boy named Story remembering that she ever existed the two kids team up to work out what happened and find theselves pawns in a game played by cosmic entities that could end the world.

Hyder has produced a lively romp across time and Tenby with it's feet firmly set in folkloric fantasy territory with one little toe - probably the left one - stretching into Nigel Kneale territory with echoes of 'The Stone Tape'. There's also a real commonality here with Susan Cooper's, 'The Dark is Rising' series, more in the nebulous realms of 'feel' than in the more tangible realms of narrative or concept and that's no bad thing because that's what got me to pick the book up in the first place, along with de Freston's stunning cover art.

Hyder has a quick and lively style that made it a quick and thrilling read but there were a couple of instances where I felt the story could have been tightened up a little but that's a small quibble as what we have is a fun, slightly old fashioned, adventure filled with ancient magics  and if, like me, you're a fan of the aforementioned Susan Cooper's venerable series then this will definitely be right up your megalith lined alley.

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NEWS: Object Z on Blu-ray

I got a heads up recently - thank you, W. - that the BFI is issuing the first series of  the Quatermass inspired 1960s sci fi, 'Object Z'.  

"A mysterious mass – known only as Object Z – is discovered by Professor Ramsay (Ralph Nossek) as it hurtles through space, threatening earth with destruction. As society erupts into a riotous state of panic and extremist political factions attempt to snatch control, the world’s nations must unite to find a solution - in the face of potential Armageddon. Scientists June Challis (Margaret Neale) and Robert Duncan (Denys Peek) alongside television producer Peter Barry (Trevor Bannister) become embroiled in the race to find answers - but time is running out."

I've never seen the series and the place where I first read about it, 'The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama - An Encyclodepia' - ironically, also published by the BFI - completely spoilered the ending but it's got a solid reputation amongst those who have and hopefully the second series will follow.  

The Blu-ray is released in September - more info here - but if you want to get a taster, you can watch the first episode is below...

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NEWS: Pre-Order Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground

Fundamental Frequencies are now taking pre-orders for 'Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground' a retrospctive of favorite tunes played at the early 90s 'Telepathic Fish' chill-out afterparties.

From the press release:

Documenting the sights and sounds of South London’s seminal Telepathic Fish ambient parties. Hosted by Chantal Passamonte (aka Mira Calix - RIP), David Vallade, Mario Aguera and Kevin Foakes (aka DJ Food) - collectively named Openmind. With the help of Mixmaster Morris (The Irresistible Force) and Matt Black (Coldcut), they put on some of the earliest chill out events in London. 

The selections featured here are all personal favourites that were played at the Telepathic Fish parties during the 90s. Picked and arranged by Mario, David and Kevin who combed their collections for key pieces they associate with the time and Chantal’s music tastes. Over a hundred tracks were selected, totalling nearly 11 hours of playing time, before being whittled down to the essentials by the trio, forming a snapshot of their world back in the day.  

The album is released digitally on August 25th with the double vinyl following on September 5th.

Taster tunes and pre-orders can be found at the Bandcamp page here - 'Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground'

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NEWS: Quatermass 2 Ltd Collector's Edition

Hot on the heels of their recent 'Quatermass Xperiment' release Hammer are now taking pre-orders for Nigel Kneale's alien invasion masterpiece 'Quatermass 2'.

As with the other release it's a mouth wateringly enticing selection bursting at the seams with extras.

From the website (and subject to the possibility of change)...

This limited collector's edition comprises:

• Five discs in a stylish digipak, including two UHD and three Blu-ray, with the Hammer content duplicated across both formats. The BBC content is presented in Standard Definition on Region B formatted Blu-ray disc.
• Three iterations of Quatermass 2: the widescreen 1.66:1 UK Theatrical Version, the fullscreen 1.37:1 As-Filmed Version and the widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical Version re-titled Enemy from Space.
• Additional German and Italian audio for all three versions. English, French, Italian, Spanish and German subtitles on all versions of the film.
• Rigid inner box featuring new artwork by cult favourite artist Graham Humphreys.
• Double-sided poster of original one-sheets.
• Eight art cards featuring facsimiles of the original US cinema lobby cards.
• 176-page booklet featuring new and reprint articles and reproductions of original publicity.
• 60-page comic featuring a reprint of the comic strip from legendary 1970s magazine The House of Hammer.

The discs feature:

• The Legend of Nigel Kneale: Enemy from Space. Toby Hadoke continues his investigation into the truth behind the legend, in part two of a brand-new two-part documentary.
• Doubling Down: Uncovering Quatermass 2. A close look at the making of Quatermass 2, with contributions from Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk.
• Quatermass II: All six episodes of the landmark 1955 BBC serial.
• Man of Action: Author and Hammer expert Stephen Laws and author/biographer Derek Sculthorpe examine the life and career of Brian Donlevy.
• Quatermass Crew: Candid reminiscences from the making of Quatermass 2 with 3rd assistant director Hugh Harlow and special effects assistant Brian Johnson.
• A Question of Character: Nigel Kneale famously hated Brian Donlevy’s performance as Quatermass. Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk offer their own perspectives.
• Quatermass and the Hammer Experience: Interviewed by Ted Newsom in the early 1990s, Val Guest discusses the films he made for Hammer.
• Val Guest 2003 interview from original UK DVD release of Quatermass 2.
• Reviving Quatermass 2: A look behind-the-scenes at how the new 4K restoration of Quatermass 2 was made.
• Original trailers, foreign titles, Super 8 cut-down version and the original BBFC censor cards for Quatermass 2.
• Extensive image gallery of stills and publicity material, alongside tracks from James Bernard’s score.
• New commentary with actor and comedian Toby Hadoke, Nigel Kneale’s biographer Andy Murray and Stephen R. Bissett, artist and film historian.
• New commentary with writer/academic Brontë Schiltz and author/producer Jon Dear.
• Archive commentary with director Val Guest, recorded for laserdisc in 1998.
• Archive commentary with writer Nigel Kneale and Hammer expert Marcus Hearn, recorded for laserdisc in 1998.
• Archive commentary featuring sections of both laserdisc commentaries, edited for DVD in 2003.
• Archive commentary featuring documentarian and Hammer expert Ted Newsom, recorded for Blu-ray in 2019.
• Archive commentary with filmmaker and Hammer expert Constantine Nasr and writer/producer Dr Steve Haberman, recorded for Blu-Ray in 2019.

The booklet features:

• New article on the making of Quatermass 2 by Bruce Hallenbeck.
• New article by Andrew Pixley where he takes a look at the production of the second BBC series and its impact on the viewing public.
• New article by Andy Murray that takes a look at that most complicated of relationships: Nigel Kneale vs 1950s Sci-Fi.
• Archive article from Picturegoer magazine where Edith Nepean visits the Danziger’s Studios during the filming of Quatermass 2.
• New article from writer Stephen Laws, who takes a personal look at Brian Donlevy and his place in the pantheon of Quatermass actors.
• New article from Jon Dear, who investigated why New Towns are often portrayed on film and television as sinister monuments to trauma.
• Archive interview with Barry Lowe, who featured in both Quatermass films as well as several other Hammer productions
• New article by Hammer expert Wayne Kindey, who unpicks the differences between the TV series, the draft scripts and the final film.

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NEWS: Two new books from Broodcomb Press

Peninsula publisher Broodcomb Press have two new titles coming in late June / early July which are available for pre-order now. 

R. Ostermeier - You’re Only As Happy As Your Saddest Child 
"...collects tales that first found a home in collections and journals elsewhere, together with three new stories and 2024’s strictly limited novella Rumsy Schoolchildren. Steeped, as ever, in peninsular folklore, these nine tales are unsettling and filled with disquiet." 

And

David Oyston - Poems from the Sideshow
"David Oyston’s memoir of his early life in Riemann’s peninsular travelling show, by turns shocking, experimental and moving. An anomaly in the Broodcomb Press list, The Sideshow opens up an ill-lit door to one of the shadowier realities of life on the peninsula."

Broodcomb publisher J.M. Walsh has produced a fascinating body of work over the last few years and I'm sure these will continue that trend and these may almost certainly be for you.

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Bad Bad Jo Jo

Roy Dotrice plays 'Kayo Hathaway', egomaniacal author of a hugely successful comic strip called 'Bad Bad Jo Jo' - about a giant, murderous white supremacist and his manipulative mother - who, on the eve of going into tax exile decides to accomodate two fans. 

We've featured several episodes from 'Tales of Unease' here before, a series that attempted to unsettle rather than terrify and in this instance it certainly succeeds.  Dotrice is fantastically vile and the two fans - Richard Pendrey & Ian Trigger - are wonderfully crazed as the episode grows ever darker and Hathaway gets what he gave.  Be warned though, you will feel sorry for the poor little dog.

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The Poor Ghost

‘Oh whence do you come, my dear friend, to me,
With your golden hair all fallen below your knee,
And your face as white as snowdrops on the lea,
And your voice as hollow as the hollow sea?’

‘From the other world I come back to you:
My locks are uncurled with dripping drenching dew,
You know the old, whilst I know the new:
But to-morrow you shall know this too.’

‘Oh not to-morrow into the dark, I pray;
Oh not to-morrow, too soon to go away:
Here I feel warm and well-content and gay:
Give me another year, another day.’

‘Am I so changed in a day and a night
That mine own only love shrinks from me with fright,
Is fain to turn away to left or right
And cover up his eyes from the sight?’

‘Indeed I loved you, my chosen friend,
I loved you for life, but life has an end;
Through sickness I was ready to tend:
But death mars all, which we cannot mend.

‘Indeed I loved you; I love you yet,
If you will stay where your bed is set,
Where I have planted a violet,
Which the wind waves, which the dew makes wet.’

‘Life is gone, then love too is gone,
It was a reed that I leant upon:
Never doubt I will leave you alone
And not wake you rattling bone with bone.

‘I go home alone to my bed,
Dug deep at the foot and deep at the head,
Roofed in with a load of lead,
Warm enough for the forgotten dead.

‘But why did your tears soak through the clay,
And why did your sobs wake me where I lay?
I was away, far enough away:
Let me sleep now till the Judgment Day.’

- Christina Rossetti 

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The Landlady (audio drama)

Originally published in the New Yorker magazine and then reprinted in 'Kiss Kiss', Roald Dahl's third short story collection published in 1960.  Adapated both for 'Tales of the Unexpected' (Series 1, Episode 5) and in this instance for a BBC Radio 4 series of Dahl adaptations from the aforementioned collection.

Narrator Charles Dance introduces the tale of Billy Weaver (James Joyce) who after arriving in Bath to start a new job takes lodgings at a guest house where the two other names listed in the guest book seem oddly familiar but first it's time to take tea with the eccentric Landlady (Doreen Mantle - 'Dirk Gently').

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NEWS: Sarob Press to publish 'Ghostly Quarters' by C.E. Ward

Coming in late May / early June from Sarob Press is a new collection of ghost stories by C.E. Ward.  This, his sixth collection published by Sarob, features four previously unpublished stories - 'Promenade Walk', 'Some Episodes of a Family History', 'Where His Feet Pass', & 'Warlock’s End' -

From the publisher's blog...

Sarob Press is spookily delighted to present a new volume of ghost stories by C.E. Ward. Stories of dark deeds, supernatural evils, weird black magic and of terrible and dread-filled ghostly vengeance. C.E. Ward is, possibly, one of the most Jamesian of authors writing today (he is a life-long admirer of M.R. James and of all things darkly supernatural and ghostly), and his stories are replete with well researched historical detail and a brooding, chilling and (dare I say again) ghostly atmosphere… so here are four wholly original and all new lengthy tales (the four ‘quarters’) to best enjoy, perhaps, late at night (preferably, if one’s eyes allow, by candlelight, before a roaring log fire and with a glass of something rather particular to hand).

Ordering details can be found on the publishers site via the link given above.

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NEWS: Zagava to issue David Tibet (Current 93) 'The Night Is Eating Us All' stamps and postcards

Publishing house Zagava are set to issue a sheet of stamps and a set of postcards featuring David Tibet's 'The Night Is Eating Us All' artwork.

Musician and artist David Tibet is a key figure in the UK post-industrial music scene with links to musicians such as Psychic TV, Nurse With Wound, and Coil. Over the past 40 years he has formed and run various record labels and publishing houses such as Durtro, Jnana, and Ghost Story Press through which he has released his own work - mostly under the Current 93 guise - as well as music and writings by, amongst others, Antony and the Johnsons, Tiny Tim, Sand, Robert Aickman, Count Eric Stenbock, Ron Weighell and Thomas Ligotti.

The 15 stamps are presented on a single 24x18cm perforated sheet of stamp paper.

The 13 16x11cm postcards will be printed on finest card stock and presented in a semi-transparent envelope.

Pre-orders are being accepted now at the Zagava website here.

You can find a short documentary on Tibet and his artwork here.

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Waiting for Gorgo

A good pun should never go to waste.

Deep in the bowels of the Ministry of Defence lies a secretive government department identified only as the "DMOA". Just what the DMOA does has been lost in the annals of time - all that is known is that it's the last line of defence protecting London from total destruction.

Written by M.J. Simpson, directed by Benjamin Craig and starring Geoffrey Davies (Vault of Horror), Kelly Eastwood and Nicholas Amer it's an affectionate and award winning short film paying homage to the classic British monster movie from 1961, Gorgo. 

Visit the website here - www.waitingforgorgo.com/

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NEWS: Egaeus Press publishes 'A Mythology of Masks' by Stephen J Clark

Out now from Egaeus Press is the new collection of stories from Stephen J. Clark. This collection, illustrated by the author, includes eleven stories, ten uncollected and one previously unpublished.

From the publisher...

[These] stories present a familiar world beneath which flow relentless, malevolent and unknowable forces. Souls desirous or foolhardy enough to scratch at the surface are liable to be lured into ritualistic games, or confronted by ancient conspiracies and treacherous cabals. Myths lie hidden behind many masks.

Stephen J Clark is an artist and author whose striking artwork has appeared in numerous journals and, notably for us here, graced the Tartarus Press complete collection of Robert Aickman’s strange tales.  'A Mythology of Masks' is Clark's fifth book following three novels - 'In Delirium’s Circle' (Egaeus Press, 2012), 'The Feathered Bough' (Zagava, 2018) & 'The Mirror Remembers' (Zagava, 2024) - and a collection of novellas -  'The Satyr and Other Tales' (Swan River Press, 2015).

Ordering information for the new collection can be found here.

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Troll Bridge

Adapted from the 1991 short story of the same name written by Terry Pratchett for 'After the King: Stories In Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien' - published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Tolkien's birth - this short film made by Snowgum Films finds Cohen the Barbarian (Don Bridges) and his talking horse (Glenn Van Oosterom) heading off to battle a bridge troll.  However, instead of fighting the two fall into reminiscing about the changes in the land and their dissatisfaction with this new (disc)world they find themselves in.

The film-makers make good use of their crowdfunded budget and the scenery is suitably epic and Cohen is suitably decrepit. The animation of the trolls is understandably limited but not to the extent that it mars what is a sympathetic and enjoyable glimpse of the Discworld.

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