A Short Film About John Bolton

John Bolton is a British artist known for his work, predominantly in the horror field, for British comics like 'Look In', 'House of Hammer' & 'Warrior', US comic publishers such as Marvel, DC and Dark Horse, card games publishers Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf, his paintings of vampiric ladies and, perhaps most crucially to Wyrd Britain readers, for his drawings of the ghouls in the graveyard in the movie 'The Monster Club'

The film is presented as a roughly cut documentary, fronted by Marcus Brigstocke, focussed on the first gallery exhibition of Bolton's vampire paintings.  Bolton - who appears in the film as an interviewee at the exhibition launch - is played by actor John O'Mahoney, and is shown as socially awkward and reticent of both the gallery show and the film eventually relenting to allowing Brigstock access to his studio located in the crypt of an old church at the centre of a suitably gothic graveyard.

Developed from his own fictionalised biography ('Drawn in Darkness') this mockumentary written and directed by Neil Gaiman - who's worked with Bolton several times on stories such as  'The Books of Magic' & 'Halequin Valentine' - is, in his words, "an investigation into where artists get their ideas from".  Gaiman's status as a novice film-maker works to his advantage here and the occasional clumsiness plays to both the mockumentary form and the 'unfinished' nature of the documentary and the end result is a fun, tongue in cheek tribute to Bolton and his influences that owes a debt to H.P. Lovecraft’s 'Pickman’s Model'.

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The Art Of Punk - Crass - The Art of Dave King and Gee Vaucher

A video created by the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art for a short series of videos under the 'Art of Punk' banner which also featured Raymond Pettibon's art for Black Flag and Winston Smith's for the Dead Kennedys.

Graphic designer and musician David King met future Crass drummer Penny Rimbaud and artist Gee Vaucher at college in the 1960 and later moved into the Dial House commune with them and many of the other Crass members.  Once there he designed, what became, the bands iconic logo that has adorned a milliion bus shelters and underpasses, a design that mixed a cross, the ouroboros, the Union flag, and a swastika.

Whilst this short film predominantly focuses on King and his logo it would be as remiss of me as it was of the film makers not to highlight the importance of the work of Gee Vaucher, the visual artist to the Crass music.  Vaucher's designs for the group were every bit as essential to the experience as the words and the music.  As profound as they were provocative and as insightful as they were incisive her artwork was the perfect visual catalyst to the musical storm. They provided a visual element that enhanced and deepened the listening experience and I cannot even begin to quantify the amount of time I have spent lost in her work.

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The Kraken Wakes (Radio Drama 1998)

Newly weds Michael (Jonathan Cake) and Phyllis Watson (Saira Todd) have, via his job for the English Broadcasting Company (EBC), intermittent front row seats at the beginning, middle and end of the end of human civilisation as they know it as they pursue the apocalyptic theories of the vilified scientist Dr. Alistair Bocker (Russell Dixon) with regard to the arrival and intent of the extraterrestrial visitors who have taken up residence at the bottom of the ocean.

This BBC Radio 4 adaptation of John Wyndham's alien invasion / monsters from the deep / ecological disaster classic was made in 1998 but sounds far, far older which is testament to the care of the creators but does give it quite a dated feel.  It is though a solid performance of what I personally think to be a prescient but fairly stodgy book as Wyndham weaves a slowly unfolding story of goverment misinformation and misdirection and the general public's inability to react appropriately in the face of an obvious threat.  Some narrative corners are cut, not entirely successfully, particularly in the middle when Michael 'goes on holiday', but they tell the story concisely, conclusively and enjoyably if perhaps just a touch too reverentially.

 

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The Last Laugh

First published in 1928 D.H. Lawrence's 'The Last Laugh' is the story of a manifestation of the God Pan in Hampstead on a winters night. 

Miss James and her friend Marchbank's, along with a young policeman they meet on their journey, are walking home through the snow when they experience the God's return, an event that impacts them all in profound ways.

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The Exorcism of Amy

There were only three TV shows that scared me as a kid, Assignment 4 of Sapphire & Steel (the photograph one), the shadow sitting in the armchair in the opening titles of Armchair Thriller and, when I was thirteen and off school ill, watching the Dramarama episode, 'The Exorcism of Amy', which freaked my fever riddled brain right out.

The story is partly narrated by Elizabeth (Annabelle Lanyon) an only child whose family gives a home to a troubled young girl named Amy (Lucy Benjamin - Eastenders' 'Lisa Fowler') who brings with her, Amelia (also played by Benjamin), her malevolent imaginary friend who has spoiled all her previous homes.

Made for the 'Spooky' series that preceded ITV's long running 'Dramarama' series, written by Paula Milne ('Gemini Factor') it hasn't aged as well as some of the things we feature here but appearing to be filmed in a translucent, minimalist, dreamscape complete with a nightmarish fancy dress party, a shattering sting in the tail and with strong central performances from the two girls it was certainly fun to revisit and a reminder of just how much film-makers of the time loved to terrify their young viewers.

Smith: An Episode in a Lodging House

Read by Hugh Ross for 'Book at Bedtime' in 2006 this Algernon Blackwood short story concerns a Doctor (although not John Silence) and an occult communion gone array.

The vital and materialist young doctor is disturbed in his lodgings on several escalating occasions by his enigmatic downstairs neighbour, Smith, a source of mystery to the other residents, which culminates in a terrifying midnight rescue and, perhaps worst of all, an unreturned book.

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