Short Sharp Shocks Vol 2

For anyone who was thrilled by last year’s release of SHORT SHARP SHOCKS Vol 1, this seasonal 2-disc Blu-ray release of Vol 2 must come as a bit of a shock (no pun intended)! Whereas Vol 1 boasted by and large truly creepy and unsettling shorts, skilfully brought to the screen by individuals who understood the genre, there is unfortunately precious little on this Vol 2 compilation which shocks. In fact, here we are offered a peculiar mix consisting of crime quizes, public information films, a silly music video and well-meant short films which fail to deliver the much-anticipated thrills and chills!

Lets start with Disc 1 and here we have two QUIZ CRIMES (No 1 and No 2 by Ronald Haines, 1943 and 1944 respectively) and television viewers are invited to beat master sleuth Detective Inspector Frost at his own game. Can you solve the case of the golfing-holiday murder or the affair of the slain showgirl? No? Then how about the case of a Soho kidnap or the botched boarding house murder? The whole thing is atrociously acted, the ‘sets’ look recycled and our eagle-eyed and clever Detective Inspector delivers his conclusions with all the enthusiasm of a zombie. This may have been entertaining stuff for TV-viewers back in the 1940’s but by nowadays standards it simply seems too old-fashioned for its own good.
Next up comes a public information film from 1946 (THE THREE CHILDREN) aimed to freak out neglectful post-war parents, however, although there’s a tiny twist towards the end (that’s the twist which should deliver the sharp shock) the whole thing is confusingly and clumsily executed and it simply misses the mark.
Ok, next one. Director John Gilling’s 40min short ESCAPE FROM BROADMOOR (1948) has all the right ingredients and yet… We have a respected director (Gilling carved out a reputation for himself as the director primarily of Hammer Horror classics) and we have a young John Le Mesurier in one of his earliest on-screen parts – here playing Pendicost, a violent psychopath who has escaped from the Broadmoor high-security psychiatric institution. Hunted by the police he talks a former accomplice, Jenkins (Tony Doonan), into breaking into a house in which Pendicost had committed his earlier crime – the murder of a servant girl (he managed to escape the death penalty by giving evidence against his partner in crime). Reason why Pendicost returns to the scene of his crime is his knowledge that a safe containing valuable bling is in the house. However, just as he and Jenkins are hard at work a mysterious woman (Victoria Hopper) appears seemingly out of nowhere – even mocking the two robbers. Who is she and can Inspector Thornton (John Stuart) shed light on these strange goings on? Given the fact that it was directed by John Gilling (his first outing as a director) it shouldn’t surprise that there’s a supernatural element involved and it’s fair to say that cinematographer Cyril Bristow came up with some very atmospheric photography. Despite the occasionally eerie atmosphere this short suffers from a rather slow pace – making the whole thing wooden and static at times.

MINGALOO (1958), directed by Theodore Zichy, the son of a Hungarian aristocrat, is a curate’s egg and no mistake – involving a Chinese clockwork dog with a sinister secret that comes to haunt all those who set eyes on the animal. Once again this could have been a scream but as it turns out it’s merely mediocre (though still worthwhile watching if only for ‘historical’ reasons). Either way, Mingaloo looks too likeable to be scary and I want one for Christmas (or Halloween)!
Last we have the one and only SCREAMING LORD SUTCH camping it up in this utterly tasteless (and actually rather offensive) music video from 1963. The wokesters and feminists won’t like Lord Sutch’s video in which he performs his biggest (perhaps his only) hit JACK THE RIPPER, looking more like a cartoon ghoul and with a bevvy of beauties about to be slaughtered smiling at the cameras in an alluring rather than an alarmed way. Well ok, this was 1963 and a long time before the world became p/c mad.

On to Disc 2 the first short film (although it’s actually almost one hour long) is FACE OF DARKNESS from 1976, directed by Ian F.H. Lloyd. It represents another missed opportunity if ever there was one – this really could have been something but clumsy editing, lacklustre performances and a convoluted plot do nothing to save this from pressing the ‘fast forward button’ (unfortunately this reviewer had to sit through it, so you don’t have to). Lennard Pearce plays Edward Langton, a right-wing politician out to avenge his wife’s murder which happened some years ago and for which the killer did not receive the death penalty. In his quest to reinstate capital punishment Langton goes to lengths unheard of… involving the resurrection of a malignant medieval spirit (David Allister) or heretic if you will via means of ancient texts and old maps which steer Langton to an unmarked grave somewhere deep in the woods. The ‘kiss of life’ (now this really is an unsettling scene!) quickly restores the spirit to full glory and, dressed in 1970s attire, he visits a school playground in Battersea where he assembles a group of school kids around him, pretending to be a magician whose big white box contains a secret (the secret being a bomb!). He urges one of the schoolgirls to open the box though not before he vanishes as quick as he appeared. Luckily we only get to hear the ensuing explosion though Langton, thanks due to the unspeakable carnage, achieves his goal as various members of the public, including the dead girl’s mother Eileen (Gwyneth Powell) discuss re-instating the death penalty… As already mentioned, this really could have been something and not only do we have a clever idea but a flashback sequence in which the heretic is condemned to death by the Holy Inquisitor (John Bennett). Despite all of this the film verges on the confusing side and the acting doesn’t help though maybe this is the director’s fault.

THE DUMB WAITER (dir. Robert ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ Bierman, 1979) has nothing to do with the famous Harold Pinter play. Instead this 18min short comes pretty close to fulfil the ‘short, sharp, shocked’ promise though offers no real conclusion. Perhaps that’s not important. A young woman called Sally (Geraldine James) finds herself stalked by a mysterious man (John White) whom we never see in full, in fact we mainly just see his black gloves. Quite why he’s after Sally is something we never find out and neither does she… Following her from work he first chases her along the streets in his car, trying to pull her out of her own car at a red light stop. Exhausted and understandably scared once at home in her apartment she rings her boyfriend (whom we also only get so see very briefly) asking him to come over for company to which he replies he’ll be there in about twenty minutes. After the call she decides to run a bubble bath, this makes little sense… her calling her fella instead of the coppers… I mean, who would run a bath knowing that in about twenty minutes the doorbell will ring? While trying to relax in the bath her stalker almost succeeds climbing through the little window in the bathroom though luckily Sally spots him in time and pushes him off the ledge. Not one for giving up the stalker then enters her apartment via the building’s dumb waiter (used to dispose household waste). Just as Sally, towel wrapped around her, runs along the passage to answer the front door (her boyfriend now waiting in front of it) the intruder is ready to strike… This is where the film ends, with Sally’s shocked face in freeze-frame mode.

HANGMAN (David Evans, 1985) is another public information film which is so patronising and laughable it’s almost an insult to peoples’ intelligence! Here, a masked executioner with a thick Cockney accent demonstrates how easily industrial accidents on building sites can happen… like, a builder downing a couple of pints during his lunch break before climbing up on the scaffold and then losing his balance in a drunken stupor… really!
The last film is the 1986 ‘experimental’ half hour short THE MARK OF LILITH in which Zena (Pamela Lofton), a black lesbian filmmaker, is researching how, over centuries, pagan goddesses devolved into demonic figures – all the while drawing parallels with the way society treats black and lesbian women (this was made in 1986 remember). When she meets white and bisexual vampire Lillia (Susan Franklyn) who leaves her onscreen colleague Luke (Jeremy Peters) for Zena a bizarre relationship ensues… This short is a real mess and Polly Gladwin, Bruna Fionda and Isiling Mack-Nataf clearly lacked any direction or concept to come up with something that is worthwhile and engaging. It all feels and looks like it was made by film students and the constant academic waffle distracts from the actual horror elements. Still, if the ‘Screaming Lord Sutch’ video ended Disc 1 on a decidedly ‘anti-woke/anti pc’ note than ‘Mark of Lilith’ surely is woke-a-go go.

Bonus includes various interviews, illustrated booklet plus new sleeve artwork.