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Sunday 3 November 2024
Village of the Damned
Friday 1 November 2024
Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey
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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Sunday 27 October 2024
The Eye Of Yemanja
In this episode, written by the usuably reliable Brian Clemens (Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, Someone At The Top Of The Stairs), model Suzy (Amanda Hillwood), who has apparently never read or watched any horror, takes home an ominous carving she finds washed up on the beach. Repeatedly discounting a warning of the statue's evil intent she is soon beset by accident and injury.
NB - Eagle-eyed viewers may wish to watch out for a brief appearence by Julia Deakin (Spaced).
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Sunday 20 October 2024
The Day of the Triffids (BBC Radio 1968)
For those familiar with the novel there'll be no surprises but it's an enjoyably well mannered adaptation that's very much of the time it was written, respectful of the source material and well played with the added bonus of music from David Cain of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
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Sunday 22 September 2024
Theatre of Death
Here he plays an egomaniacal theatre director at the 'Théâtre de Mort' - a loosely disguised Théâtre du Grand-Guignol - where he is moulding a young actress with a tragic past 'Nicole Chapelle' (Jenny Till) into a star. Untrusting of both his intentions and his bullying manner are the fragile former ballerina 'Dani Gireaux' (Leila Goldoni - 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers') and her damaged police doctor 'Charles Marquis' (Julian Glover in one of his first starring roles and only a year away from becoming 'Colonel Breen') who also happens to be assisting in the investigation of a spate of murders.
Playing with Hammer-esque gothic pretentions along with hypnotism, vampirism and the occult - it even manages to crowbar in some near naked voodoo too - this is a film that never quite manages to fulfil its promises - like the murder victims it's remarkably bloodless - or make the most of the various narrative threads it hints at - everyone is just about damaged enough to be the culprit - but American director Samuel Gallu injects some nice giallo inspired stylistic flourishes and manages to hold everything together keeping us guessing as to the culprit all the way to the reveal and the final result is flawed and a little underwhelming but still an entertaining way to spend 90 minutes.
NB - at the end of the video below there's a short snippet of Christopher Lee talking about the movie.
Sunday 25 August 2024
The Department of Midnight
James Callis is Dr. John Carnack. Five years ago, his dark matter experiments led to tragedy. His redemption is working for the Department of Midnight, investigating dangerous dark matter experiments, trying to prevent further disasters. But there’s a pattern.
And it all leads back to him."
'Department of Midnight' is a new series of one act, two hander audio dramas from writer Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Crooked Little Vein, Castlevania) and newly formed production company The Bellport Theater on the Air.
I adore audio plays and so one written by one of my favourite authors revolving around the types of themes and settings we champion here on Wyrd Britain is a very good thing indeed. Warren has never been shy of celebrating his influences and the shadows of 'Doomwatch', 'Quatermass' - Nigel Kneale himself the author of numerous wonderful radio plays - and William Hope Hodgson's occult detective Thomas Carnacki loom large here and those with a familiarity with Warren's work will feel the immediate kinship here with the 'Injection' comic series he does - note the present tense, I'm ever the optimist - with Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire that plays with classic British heroic archetypes and folkloric themes.
The cast are perfectly suited, James Callis (Battlestar Galactica) has that perfectly detached post traumatic British persona that mixes duty and weariness with a barely suppressed mania and Alicia Witt (Dune) - obviously I'm only talking about episode one here - is deliciously bonkers entirely inhabiting the role of being entirely inhabitated.
It's a really strong and intriguing introduction to this world, and I'm very excited to see where they take this.
Episode One: The Cold Spot
Dr. John Carnack is an investigator for the Department Of Experimental Oversight. Responding to a whistleblower call, he arrives at a lab to discover Dr. Sylvie Bestler’s personal experiment: to see what’s on the other side of the universe. Starring James Callis and Alicia Witt.
Episode Two: Jack in the Box
John Carnack’s old friend is being kept in a plastic cell. There’s a contamination issue. He tripped over something when he discovered his employer’s body. But Carnack is concerned that something darker is going on…Starring James Callis and Gildart Jackson.
Episode Three: Song to the Siren
On the death of Carnack’s mentor, her daughter asks him to examine the death scene. They find out too late that she died of very unnatural causes. Starring James Callis and Adrianne Palicki.
Episode Four: The Red House
The university bought a derelict house out in the middle of nowhere for this experiment. When Carnack arrives to shut them down, everyone thinks he’s crazy, but he knows what the Red House really is. Starring James Callis and Nolan North.
Episode Five: The Devil Runs Out
A routine examination of a dark matter lab turns into a race against time, as Carnack is forced to pursue a face from his past intent on human sacrifice. Starring James Callis and Brett Dalton.
Episode Six: Judgement
In the season one finale, John Carnack faces the board of the Department of Experimental Oversight, interrogated by a prosecutor. Now he must be held accountable for his actions. And for the sins of his own past. Starring James Callis and Carla Gugino.
All six episodes are included in the playlist below.
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Tuesday 13 August 2024
The Kneale Tapes
There're some serious omissions - 'Beasts', 'Murrain' - that need to be discussed in a future more comprehensive exploration of his work but with contributions from fans like Mark Gatiss, Jeremy Dyson, Kim Newman along with some great archive footage of Kneale and his wife, the writer and illustrator, Judith Kerr, it's an easy and affectionate tribute to one of the people who defined what we think of as Wyrd Britain.
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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Monday 5 August 2024
Parallel Worlds: A User's Guide
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Sunday 28 July 2024
Home
"I'm about to reach out and touch the infinite"
Adapted by director Richard Curson Smith from J.G. Ballard's short story 'The Enormous Space', Anthony Sher stars as 'Gerald Ballantyne' who decides to cut himself off from the outside world and live off the contents of his house.
We follow Gerald through his slow transformation / degredation via his video diary and in the more traditional manner as he destroys many of the trappings of his former life, navigates hunger and as the house expands and reveals it's hidden dimensions to him.
"Are you on drugs, Gerald?"
Obviously Ballard has a fondness for using buildings as microcosms - as in High-Rise - and there is an obvious ecological metaphor here as Gerald voraciously consumes the limited resources of his 'world'. Essentially a one man play - peppered with occasional visits from the outside - Sher is fantastic as the deteriorating Gerald, pragmatic in the face of hunger, fearful of intrusions from the terrifying outside world and astonished by the revelations being presented to him. It's a performance that elevates what is already a bold and artful creation made with love on an obviously limited budget that Curson Smith has simply to great effect allowing us to share, at both first and second hand, Gerald's experiences.
NB - I'm not much for trigger warnings but cat and worm lovers beware.
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Sunday 14 July 2024
Wyrd Britain is 10
We are 10!
Thank you to everyone who has supported Wyrd Britain over the last decade.
With 845 posts and over 2 million views on the blog and countless posts on social media it's been a busy 10 years.
Thank for reading, thank you for donating, thank you for buying from the shop and from the label, and thank you for being part of a vibrant, positive and supportive community both here and over on the Facebook and Instagram pages.
It's been quite a trip.
Here's to the next 10.
Stay wyrd lovely people.
Die, Monster, Die!
It is however a fairly pacey romp that never really takes a breath and is often quite pretty to look at and, provided you don't think too hard about the plot, makes for a fun, and all too rare, Lovecraft adaptation.
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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Thursday 6 June 2024
Starve Acre (trailer)
'Dark and sinister forces invade an archaeologist's home as he investigates a mythic folklore about an ancient oak tree on his land.'
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Saturday 1 June 2024
Shoreline Ritual
Shoreline Ritual comes with the enigmatic note that it...
might be a narrative.
A cautious exchange.
A bridge between here and there.
It could be about strange occurrences along the coast,
or old dreams, loss and the sea.
It feels fragile, nebulous, adrift and elegant.
It's a spell cast into the wind, a message carried by the waves and it's mesmerising.
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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Thursday 30 May 2024
The Garden of Time
4th Estate
Recently used as the theme to the cavalcade of shallow excess that is the Met Gala this promotional chapbook (heralding a new series of reissues) of Ballard's short story - originally written in 1962 - of the death of beauty amidst the inexorable advance of the masses and their crass consumerist ways was a delightful read.
The story of a husband and wife holding back the inevitable by plucking the flowers of time from their garden in a knowingly futile attempt to delay the advancing hordes. These immaculate but anachronistic lovers, with their elaborate clothes, beautiful music, and perfectly curated collections, fearful of change and trapped in the amber of an unchanging, untainted, romanticised past, are eventually swamped by the advance as time marches ever on, trampling all before it except, perhaps, love.
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Sunday 26 May 2024
The People That Time Forgot
Directed, as was 'The Land..', by Kevin Connor - who also sent McClure to both Atlantis and 'The Earth's Core' - this one is every bit as flawed and fun as it's predecessor. The story is flaccid, the dinosaur effects are risible and the cast are poor (except McClure - I won't have a word said against McClure) with Wayne being boorish and bullying and an unlikeable lead, Douglas overplaying her role, Walters and Rimmer acting as comic relief and Gillespie providing the cleavage.
Written by future 'Amtrak Wars' author Patrick Tilley it's a pretty by the numbers adaptation that was the last gasp of the Amicus studio but when I was a kid Doug McClure was my absolute favourite and to this day his three Amicus monster movies rank amongst my favourites although I'll admit this one is solidly in third place.
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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain