David J. Howe's Blog, page 21

2015 Overview

Linzi Gold and Alan Glass


2015 ... here's some thoughts ... It started with some good news for Sam’s daughter Linzi … we met by accident with a friend of a friend, the ex-drummer with The Marmalade, Alan Whitehead, who, it turned out, was acting as a music agent. He heard Linzi singing, loved her, and signed her up!  He introduced her to a brilliant producer/musician called Alan Glass, and on 1st Jan, Linzi Gold had an initial meeting with Alan Glass, and work started on creating her music. Under the guidance of Alan Glass, she has now created lyrics and melody for eight tracks, and has recorded a video for one of them (‘Killing Kiss’). She has two more tracks to record, and then we can put them all together in a debut album next year …




She parted company with Alan Whitehead mid-year, but is continuing to work with Alan Glass to complete the album.




Some of her tracks can be found on YouTube, and on SoundCloud – just search for Linzi Gold in each case to find them. We also have an EP available for sale, and a DVD of the video – check her webpage at www.linzigold.com for details of how to order them.







Sam with John Barrowman


February and we were again off to LA for the annual Gallifrey Doctor Who convention – a week of friends and parties and drinking basically. As usual we had a brilliant time, and met up again with friends like Chase Masterson, and Dean Haglund (who was on the verge of moving to Australia!). Unfortunately despite everyone’s best efforts, we weren’t able to get to meet with Clive Barker again – the week we were there, people at Clive’s place fell ill with throat infections and were called out to other cities on business … so we couldn’t make it happen. We’ll try again in 2016!




One highlight of the visit was that David finally got to see the Baxter Building – a distinctive place in Downtown LA, which was used in the film Blade Runner, as well as being the main location for the ‘Demon With a Glass Hand’ episode of the sixties series The Outer Limits. It’s an amazing place! (see howeswho.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-bradbury-building.html for pics!)





David with Jason Connery


After the news last year that we had a new kitty in the form of Jinx, sad news in March, as on the 10th, she was hit by a car on the road out front and killed instantly. We were distraught. We have decided not to get another cat as it’s not fair – that road is so dangerous and cars go down it at 90 miles an hour (even though it’s a little country lane). Even next door’s cat was killed on it, in the same way, a few months later.




We had a busy first part of the year with events in Pwllheli, Peterborough, Lincoln, London, EasterCon in London, and Wales Comic Con in Wrexham. All seemed great, and we were visiting a friend down in South Wales when the world turned on its head.




It was Sunday 3 May, and we were heading to Cardiff to see the Doctor Who Exhibition there, when David started to feel ill. A couple of miles further on, we stopped at a service station just inside Wales, and David basically collapsed. It turned out he was having a massive heart attack, and so was rushed by ambulance to Cardiff University Hospital, where he was emergency-stented and his life saved.




David was in hospital for a week, and then Sam brought him home … and so the next six months were devoted to getting better and stronger and recovering from the attack. Of course all events and travel had to be cancelled, David was earning no money from working, and so we resorted to living off what money we had saved.





David, Sam and Patricia record the 'Zombie Special' edition

of THE STONE TAPES


Thankfully David has pulled through and is now back to being hale and hearty once more. He’s on medication for life now, but as this keeps him alive, we don’t mind too much.




In the middle of all this, we also recorded Linzi’s music video, and Sam recorded the first of her monthly radio shows on SirenFM, Lincoln University’s Community Radio station. It’s a genre chat show, covering music and books and films and television and is called THE STONE TAPES after the old seventies Nigel Kneale play, The Stone Tape. It seemed suitable. We have recorded 8 editions so far, and they have all been great fun indeed.




If you want to listen, then they are all stored as downloadable Podcasts and can be found here:

southsidebroadcasting.podbean.com/category/the-stone-tapes/




David’s first event post-Heart Attack was in July, at HorrorCon in Rotherham, which was an excellently organized affair with some great guests.





Sam with Gunner Hansen


We met the lovely Gunner Hansen there, who played the original Leatherface in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and he was a nice man. We were saddened to hear that he had died later in the year.




The big event of the year was of course our Wedding. Planned since last year, it finally happened in October, and was as fun and laughter-filled as we could have hoped for … We wanted it to be all about family and friends, and we hope we achieved that.




It was also ‘Steampunk’ which meant dressing up … and the array of outfits was superb: From Uncle Brian’s ‘Ozzy Osbourne’ to corsets and Victorian Ladies aplenty, top hats and tails, and beautiful dresses and glamorous people. We had an absolute ball, and the photos reflect all the fun and laughter we had on the day.




I've put a pile of pictures on this blog here: howeswho.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/wedding-pictures.html




After the wedding, we didn’t head off immediately on honeymoon … the reason being that we had been invited to two USA conventions: Long Island Who, and Chicago TARDIS; which were two weeks apart. So we planned to head over to both, and to use the week in between for a honeymoon break. So that’s what we did, and spent an amazing time in Las Vegas …





David with some friends in Las Vegas



Sam in Vegas


We didn’t gamble, but watched, and when we did decide to spend $20 on the machines, we stopped when we had won $38 and came out ahead! We’re not daft!



At the tail end of the year, David also released another book!  This is a selection of his reviews of Doctor Who on television, and covered all of the Chris Eccleston and David Tennant years. He called it Then and Now as it represented all the reviews as published at the time, together with additional notes and comments on a re-watch this year. The book has been very warmly received, and David hopes to do a follow up volume when Peter Capaldi eventually leaves the role ...

Copies are available from Amazon as follows:

UK: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1518776000/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=0Q1DAMX857R3W6DK9CHD&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=577048407&pf_rd_i=desktop

USA: www.amazon.com/Then-Now-Doctor-Who-Review/dp/1518776000/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451578674&sr=8-1&keywords=then+and+now+howe




SAM’S WRITING




2015, and Sam finally managed to find an agent who could represent her. This is a smashing lady called Hazel Latus, who we have met with and have high hopes of working with on all manner of projects.



The books Sam has had out this year (2015) are as follows:




VAMPIRE GENE REPRINTS: Sam sold the rights to her popular Vampire Gene series of novels to Telos, and they have all been reissued with smart new covers …




The next edition, JADED JEWEL, is due for release in 2016.

JINX TOWN: This is a post-apocalyptic novel involving alien invasion, death and disaster … It’s a great read and had some brilliant reviews.




KAT OF GREEN TENTACLES: This was another in Sam’s brilliant Steampunk Adventure series. This time it’s Anne of Green Gables mixed with the Fae and a Cthulhuian monster in the basement …




All those are from Telos here: www.telos.co.uk




SHORT STORIES: Not such a good year for these due to David’s heart attack, but one that Sam did manage to complete was ‘Sabellaed’, a tribute to the author Tanith Lee who passed away this year, which was printed in an anthology called Night’s Nieces edited by Storm Constantine and published by Immanion Press. Copies available here: www.immanion-press.com/info/book.asp?id=483&referer=Hp




Another piece which finally saw light this year was the first piece for the audio publishers Big Finish, when 'Freya' appeared as part of Series Four of their Confessions of Dorian Gray series. This can be ordered here: www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-confessions-of-dorian-gray-series-04-1195




A further Kat Lightfoot story was written as a special Wedding favour for our guests. We published it as a short chapbook and it featured our wedding, and the guests, as Kat battles the forces of evil around us … great fun! We still have a couple of copies available for sale if anyone's interested: www.sam-stone.blogspot.co.uk/p/sam-stone-merchandise.html




TELOS PUBLISHING




Despite the health issues, we’ve managed to keep things moving forward at Telos, with 29 new titles coming out, plus Kindle and new POD editions of many other titles on top.




We have lots of Romance titles there now, for those who like that, as well as more horror and non-fiction titles.




For full details, check out our website at www.telos.co.uk.




IN SUMMARY




On balance, 2015 contained some superb highs – the wedding – and some dramatic lows – David’s heart attack. Overall it was good, with lots of love and laughter, but we’re hoping for a healthier 2016, with lots more fun and friends and events and good news.

Wedding Pictures

Here's some pics from Sam and my wedding in October 2015 :)

Review: The Black Cat (1981)

Lucio Fulci may be better known for his zombie fare, but he has made far more films than that, and this offering from Arrow is a Poe adaptation which was made between the heady rotting delights of Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Beyond.



It's not a bad film, but suffers a little from a lack of clarity around what is actually happening. There's a black cat (of course) which seems to have a propensity to attack those around it, scratching hands and faces and causing maximum damage for very little provocation. I think I would have had the beast tracked down and put down to be honest, but here it wanders through the plot with scarcely anyone paying it much attention until it attacks them.





The main thrust of the film follows Patrick Magee as Robert Miles, a college professor and medium. He seems to be being stalked by the cat of the title, and indeed, the creature is killing people in interestingly and slightly supernatural ways ... so Magee does indeed catch the cat and hangs it, but this then unleashes more supernatural shenanigans.  In fact, Magee is a bit of a creep here and tries to hypnotise American Tourist Jill (Mimsy Farmer) which fails due to feline intervention, and who then kidnaps her and walls her up in his house (a typical Poe trope).  She is found when the police hear a cat crying and discover that it has been walled up with Jill ...



There is a strong film here struggling to escape from the script which is vague and meandering, and perhaps is showing a few Giallo roots wherein atmosphere and event takes the place of plot and progression (ie things happen for apparently no reason).  Which is a shame as Fulci does a good job of piling on the atmosphere and Magee is excellent in the lead - his voice is very creepy and adds a lot to the feeling of dread that the film starts to build up.





The print from Arrow is very nice indeed, with good colours and great clarity, which makes viewing the film even more pleasurable. It's just a shame that the script is a little too shakey.



Among the extras are a couple with Film Historian Stephen Thrower who discusses the film and visits the locations.  The location piece is actually lovely, and it's nice to see the 'then and now' comparisons, but someone should have told Thrower not to say 'Errm' every second. It's so jarring and is very distracting.  On the studio-bound discussion, I notice that he seems to be cut every couple of seconds, perhaps to remove the majority of these 'Errms' and 'Arrrs'? But some still remain. A shame as he seems very knowledgeable about the subject ... but not a natural performer for camera.



A final note: the DVD set from Arrow also contains the film Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, but this was not provided for review.





LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:



Limited Edition boxed-set (3000 copies) containing Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key and The Black Cat
Brand new 2K restorations of the films from the original camera negatives
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original Italian and English soundtracks in mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)
Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
Limited Edition 80-page booklet containing new articles on the films, Lucio Fulci’s last ever interview and a reprint of Poe’s original story


YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY:

Through the Keyhole – a brand new interview with director Sergio Martino
Unveiling the Vice – making-of retrospective featuring interviews with Martino, star Edwige Fenech and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
Dolls of Flesh and Blood: The Gialli of Sergio Martino – a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the director’s unique contributions to the giallo genre
The Strange Vices of Ms. Fenech – film historian Justin Harries on the Your Vice actress’ prolific career • Eli Roth on Your Vice and the genius of Martino
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin


THE BLACK CAT:

Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker and Fangoria editor Chris Alexander
Poe into Fulci: The Spirit of Perverseness – film historian Stephen Thrower on Fulci’s Poe-tinged classic
In the Paw-Prints of the Black Cat – a look at the original Black Cat locations
Frightened Dagmar – a brand new career interview with actress Dagmar Lassander
At Home with David Warbeck – an archive interview with The Black Cat star
Original Theatrical Trailer






Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin

Review: The Honeymoon Killers (1969)

ARROW BLU-RAY, RELEASED 9 NOVEMBER 2015



The movie



Based, albeit somewhat loosely, on the famous real-life story of the so-called ‘Lonely Hearts Killers’ Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, who in the late 1940s murdered a number of women whom Fernandez seduced through a correspondence matchmaking service with a view to stealing their savings, The Honeymoon Killers is a unique film in many ways – at least, I don’t think I’ve ever seen another quite like it.



Shot in stark, documentary-style black-and-white, on a paltry budget of $150,000, this was the first film to be made by its stars Tony Lo Bianco and Shirley Stoler, all of whose previous acting experience had been confined to the stage; the first to be produced by television current affairs programme-maker Warren Steibel; the first to be written and directed by Steibel’s friend Leonard Kastle, who was actually a composer by profession; and the first to be shot by cinematographer Oliver Wood. In fact, Kastle was the third choice as director – the first was a young Martin Scorsese, just starting out on his career, who was fired by Steibel for working too slowly, although the small amount of material he oversaw was retained in the final edit.





The rookie status of the film-makers and the impoverished nature of the finished production means that, at times, it almost has the look of a student film project. Apparently the actors had to do their own hair and make-up, as no professional input could be afforded for this; and another pointer to the lack of finance is that, instead of a specially-composed score, the soundtrack is comprised of sections from two Gustav Mahler symphonies – the use of which, it must be said, becomes a little over-the-top and distracting at times.



However, in spite of, or perhaps because of, its poverty row trappings, the end product is strangely effective and compelling. There is a cold brutality about the way the couple’s killings are depicted, and it is no surprise to learn that at the time of its release, it was seen as an ‘exploitation film’; indeed, it was banned in Australia until the late 1980s. Over the years, however, The Honeymoon Killers has certainly acquired plenty of admirers – famed French director Francois Truffaut once famously described it as his favourite American film – and reassessing it courtesy of this new Arrow Blu-Ray release, it is easy to see why.





Blu-ray presentation



Arrow have handily packaged the Blu-Ray along with a DVD of the film (not seen for this review), making a very nice dual-format release. With a brand-new 4K restoration, the quality of the Blu-Ray picture is excellent, as is that of the original, uncompressed mono audio. There is also a generous offering of well-presented extras:



• Love Letters, a video piece by Robert Fischer featuring actors Tony Lo Bianco and Marilyn Chris and editor Stan Warnow.

• Folie à Deux: Todd Robinson, director of the 2006 remake Lonely Hearts, explores the true story of the Lonely Hearts Killers.

• Body Shaming: Todd Robinson discusses the film.

• Beyond Morality: Fabrice du Welz, director of the 2014 Belgian-French film Alleluia, explains how The Honeymoon Killers inspired him.

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw.

• Illustrated collector’s booklet (not seen for this review) featuring an extensive new essay by horror author and researcher Johnny Mains on the film and its real-life inspiration, plus archive materials.



Highly recommended.



Stephen James Walker

Writing Then and Now

I was shocked when I realised that I'd not actually written and released a book since 2011, when my horror fiction collection talespinning came out from Telos.  Time has a way of getting away from you ...



I have suggested a few titles to the BBC over the years, but unfortunately they seem to be running something of a closed shop at the moment, and anything coming in from 'outside' seems of no interest to them ... which is saddening ... but it also means that trying to do something good and cool with images and artwork is way out of the scope of an independent press - it all costs a lot to clear and to print, and then sales can be very hard to come by too - it's like a game of roulette ... you might succeed, but all the odds are all stacked against you.



Then, in May this year (which is 2015) I had an unexpected and massive heart attack, which brought me literally down to earth. I couldn't work, I couldn't really do much at all except recover. And that meant sitting around a lot and doing very little except watch television and watch the grass growing in the garden.



So, in an attempt to alleviate boredom, I decided to re-watch some Doctor Whos ... I started with Hartnell, and worked my way through the first season before getting a little restless ... there's not many monsters there you see, and the historicals have never been to my taste ... so I then skipped to all the available Troughtons and loved seeing those again ... and then I wondered whether to continue with Pertwee or move to something else.



I then considered that I had reviewed all the NuWho episodes from 2005 onwards on my Blog, and that here was a great opportunity to watch them all again, and to see if I agreed with what I had said at the time ... and what a great idea for a book!  Something which looked at Who as it was transmitted, and then was re-evaluated based on a current viewing. So that's what I did.



Starting with 'Rose' with Christopher Eccleston, I re-watched them, in order, and took in some of the special mini-episodes as well if they seemed relevant to the overall television 'story' of the show.



It was fascinating to see how the series developed, year on year, with Doctors and Companions coming and going ... Interesting to see how the Soap Opera elements which were prevalent at the start, lessened, and how the story arc idea, strong at first, again lessened.



The first volume of reviews, which I decided to call Then and Now, goes up to the end of the David Tennant era, as that seemed to be a good cutting off point. Plus, the book was getting too long!



I am currently up to the start of Peter Capaldi with my re-watch, and it's again been interesting to see overall what an impact Steven Moffat has had on the show during the Matt Smith years, with the narrative coherence slowly dropping away, and continuity, event and introspection taking the place of actual plot and adventure. Not that I see this as a good thing ... for me, the plot and 'adventures in time and space' and monsters have always been the prime focus of the show ... and the inner lives of the Doctor and his companions don't interest me ... but there you go.





I'm still enjoying the show, and like the occasional flashes of brilliance that it shows. I wish it could be more coherent and more consistent, but for that I suspect we need another sea change in the running of the show, bringing in fresh ideas and eyes to carry it forward.

For the moment, as I write this, we are in the middle of Capaldi's second season ... and I'm wondering if my opinions of these episodes will change between viewing them now, and then re-watching them in a few months time ... We shall see!



Then and Now can be bought from Amazon:



UK: BUY FROM AMAZON UK



USA: BUY FROM AMAZON USA



I should also have copies at various events I'm attending around the world ... so please come and catch me at one of them if you want a signed edition!

Review: Madman (1982)

I have to confess that I had never heard of or seen this film before ... and now thanks to Arrow, I can rectify this. It's fairly obvious from the very start where this film's antecedents lie. It opens with a group around a camp fire, telling ghost stories ... and it's very like the opening to John Carpenter's The Fog (1980)... They talk about there being the ghost of a killer in a creepy house nearby who will appear if you say his name too loud and he will then come and chop you to pieces with his axe ... and that of course is exactly what happens. It's a bunch of kids too, all at a summer camp ... and of course this brings Friday The 13th (1980) to mind as well.  Add to this a sort-of supernatural, unknown killer who cannot be killed himself, and you also have John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) as well ...



So that's pretty much what you get here. The killer is Mad Man Murz, hence the title, and he's a hulking, brute of a man with the strength of over three men! He also has claws and hairy feet and swings an axe like there's no tomorrow.





The rest of the cast are basically forgettable cannon fodder, and of course have sex with each other and get chased and slaughtered. Mad Man Murz is keeping the bodies in the cellar (Psycho (1960)) of course, and we see a line of them from skeletal to most recent - he's been at this for some time! This is reminiscent of scenes in Death Line (AKA Raw Meat 1972), and he also hangs one girl up on a hook which goes right through her chest (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)) ... it's like the film makers decided to take their favourite bits from a whole host of 1970s and 1980s slasher horror films, and make a film of their own which included it all. The only thing missing are vampires and the living dead/zombies ...





On the plus side, it looks fabulous and is very nicely directed and shot. On the minus it's slow and drags interminably in places. There's a hilarious spa bath sequence which seems to go on forever where a boy and a girl sort of chase each other around the edge of the water ...



Another plus for me was the music, which, given the inspiration to the whole thing, you won't be surprised sounds like something John Carpenter might have come up with ... and typical of films of the time, there are no explanations. Why is Murz haunting this summer camp with his axe, where are the police, and how is he seemingly getting away with all this?





There are a host of extras here too, but I get the feeling coming away from it all that this might be the only film of worth that the writer/directors actually made, and that they are still hanging onto it, looking to do a remake or something ... Much better to take all that learning and make new things!  But checking IMDB this seems to be the only film ever directed by Joe Giannone, who died in 2006, It's also Gary Sales' only writing credit (for the story, with Giannone, and Giannone also wrote the screenplay), though he at least has gone on to be First AD on many other films.



Overall it's an interesting slice of 80's slasher film. Heavily influenced by other films around it, and very derivative. For a night out with beer though, it's probably a good fun film to enjoy with others.





SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

Brand new 4K transfer from the original camera negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary with director Joe Giannone, Madman stars Paul Ehlers and Tony Fish and producer Gary Sales
Audio Commentary by The Hysteria Continues
The Legend Still Lives! Thirty Years of Madman – a feature-length retrospective documentary on the slasher classic including interviews with various cast and crew
Madman: Alive at 35 – Sales, Ehlers and star Tom Candela look back at the making of Madman, 35 years after it was filmed
The Early Career of Gary Sales – the Madman producer discusses his career in the film industry
Convention interviews with Sales and Ehlers
Music Inspired by Madman – a selection of songs inspired by themovie, including the track ‘Escape From Hellview’ from former CKY frontman Deron Miller
In Memoriam – producer Sales pays tribute to the some of the film’s late cast and crew, including director Giannone and actor Tony Fish
Original Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots
Stills & Artwork Gallery with commentary by Sales
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic James Oliver, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

Review: Doctor Who Impossible Worlds

One of the great things about Doctor Who these days is that it is popular enough to sustain the sort of lavish, large format art book which, as a publisher, I can only dream of producing.  And this year, the must have book for Christmas is Stephen Nicholas and Mike Tucker's Impossible Worlds.



The book is indeed a lavish art book, but it really needs to be seen to be appreciated fully. What impressed me first was the lovely cut-out hexagon on the cover, through which the front endpaper can be seen, printed with the TARDIS console. This sort of paper engineering costs a fortune, and the heavy stock of the cover is also of great quality ...



But onto the book itself. Stephen Nicholas has been the supervising art director for Doctor Who since the show returned in 2005, and so has access to an incredible array of designs and artwork for the show, each depicting the development of ideas, monsters, sets and spaceships which have then appeared in all their glory. Mike Tucker runs a company called The Model Unit, which specialises in detailed model work for film and television - and some of their work is so good that you would never know or realise that it was a model in the first place!  Together they have split the book into sections, each looking at a different aspect of the show: The TARDIS interior, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, other Monsters, Tools and Devices, and alien planets; and in each case, there is a brief look at some of the elements from the classic series (*Disclosure here as I helped with sourcing some of the sketches and designs which are shown*) followed by a more comprehensive and detailed look at how the new series dealt with the elements.





Thus we get gorgeous sketches and artwork of Daleks of every persuasion, showing their internals and externals, ideas for  how they open,  what variant weaponry they should have, including Davros, Emperors, Supremes, Genesis Ark, Control Rooms ... it's an impressive feat and is repeated with the Cybermen, where some of the early abandoned designs are just nightmarish ...



It's a brilliant book to flip through, to soak up the talent behind the props ... the ideas which didn't make it ...  Personally I'm really fond of an artist called Alex Fort, whose designs never seem to make it to screen, but are the most original and artistic perhaps of them all. His Cybermen and Silurians are inspired ... maybe one day we'll see some of his visions on screen.





Oh, and if all that wasn't enough, there's a folder in the back containing several full colour art prints of some of the designs - incuding of the Zygon Control Room (or something) from the yet to be transmitted episodes on television ... lovely stuff!



At £35, the book might seem expensive, but it's far more worthwhile than many of the aimed-at-kids picture books which are also being produced at a rate of knotts. Plus, if you shop around you might find it cheaper, or, next year, as with many of the other books released on the show, it might appear in a cheaper edition in W H Smith or The Works, or from The Book People ...



Top marks from me for this, then. A brilliant look at the art and concept design behind the show, highlighting just why Doctor Who is consistently one of the best looking shows on television.

Review: Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace (1967)

And so it comes to pass that every one of the known-to-exist Doctor Who episodes - with perhaps the sole exception of The Web of Fear Episode 3, which seemed to exist when Phil Morris discovered them, but which had strangely vanished when the episodes were eventually returned - has been released on DVD.



I lost count a long time ago as to how many DVDs there have been, but as far as I can tell, the first DVD to be released was The Five Doctors in November 1999 (not counting a could-be-dodgy DVD of the TV Movie which was available from Fox Video in Japan in 1996) and now, in October 2015, 16 years later, we have the final release. Of course, we thought we'd reached the end some time back anyway, but then Phil Morris discovered all six episodes of Enemy of the World and five of the six episodes of The Web of Fear, and those were also released ...





A fishy tale!

But what of The Underwater Menace ... it's not the best loved Doctor Who adventure, and it's easy to see why. Pat Troughton is still settling into the role of the Doctor (this was his third story in the role) and there are occasional flashes of the brilliance that his Doctor will come to embody. Frazer Hines' Jamie is also sidelined, this being because he joined the cast as a late decision, and so he had to somehow be shoe-horned into this story and the next (The Moonbase) before he really started to come into his own ... The main problem though are the guest actors, who are almost uniformly awful. In particular Joseph Furst as Professor Zaroff, who chews the scenery and  does his best, but the script doesn't really support him. Likewise the High Priest Lolem comes over as a very camp Christopher Biggins-type character as played by Peter Stephens (interesting that he also played Cyril in The Celestial Toymaker story), and poor Colin Jeavons as Damon has the most crazy eyebrows to contend with. Rounding out the ineffectual is Noel Johnson as King Thous, who doesn't really get to do much. There's also P G Stephens and Paul Anil as a likely couple of chancers, Catherine Howe as an Atlantean girl, as well as fish people ... it's a story with aspirations way beyond what could possibly be done on Doctor Who's budget at the time ... but at least it tried, and it does all make sense ...





'Nozzink in se Verld ken stop me now!'

The DVD extras include a Making-Of documentary where several people involved in the show recount their memories, and also, inexplicably, present-day writer Robert Shearman is also on hand ... not sure why he's there as he seems to hate the production, but there you go ... There's also the existing two censor cuts from Australia for parts 1 and 4, and those still-missing episodes are represented by a soundtrack accompanied by some of the Tele-snaps taken from the show by John Cura on transmission ... Personally I prefer these to the animations, far better to get the sense of the actual production.



Overall it's lovely to have this disk to round out the collection ... and it's interesting to note that it includes episode 2, recovered in December 2011, which was the last existing episode which had never recieved any DVD release ... so we're complete!

Phil Morris ... it's over to you :)

Review: Zardoz (1974)

Let's get the elephant in the room out the way immediately: Zardos doesn't make a lot of sense. Director John Boorman has infused with a very hippy-esque sensibility and the science fiction trappings just serve to heighten the feeling that no-one really knew what was going on, but just went with it. Once you get past this, however, the film is lush and beautifully shot, with some great ideas at play: and of course there's Sean Connery in those red trunks!



The film is actually all about Connery, playing a character called Zed, and he's in most scenes as we follow him from his life as a horsebacked Exterminator, killing humans seemingly at random, to his plan to get inside the giant floating head of their god Zardoz, whose effigy arrives through the sky and spews guns and ammo out through it's mouth.





Once inside, Zed kills the head's operator, a man called Arthur Frayn, and arrives in a place of tranquillity and peace, where humans live in comfort and are well fed and watered. But all is not as it seems, as these people are unable to reproduce, and they punish each other by enforced ageing (otherwise they live forever). So poor Zed is made the subject of a hunt, and is used for his seed, while they give him their knowledge in return (and these scenes are rather nicely done, with projected images onto the players moving to show the transfer of the knowledge and skills).





But Zed has a plan and that is to bring his fellow Exterminators in and to breach the barriers which keep them out ... and thus they arrive and kill everyone (however they want to die, so this act is welcomed).  Zed then runs off to the crashed giant head with Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) who is pregnant with his child ... and they sit there then for the rest of their lives as the boy grows, leaves them, and they crumble to skeletons and dust ...



It's a bleak ending, and provides no answers or real conclusion. But then the whole film is like that. Overlong (it's 105 minutes apparently, but feels closer to 120!), it plods majestically along, showing us scene after scene, we meet people who have no meaning ... John Alderton as Friend seems out of his depth, Consuella is all for having Zed killed until he shares his seed with her, and then she's happy to run away with him ... there's decadence and boredom for those who are immortal, and death through slavery or by the Executioners for those not inside the protected area ... A very puzzling film indeed.





As usual the transfer on this Arrow release is excellent, and the detail really helps to bring Boorman's visions to life. Connery is great as he moves through the film, and the sets and imagery is unique and often startling (if inexplicable).



In terms of extras, there aren't that many this time - maybe Arrow were limited in what could be included.









SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

New 4K digital restoration by Twentieth Century Fox, supervised and approved by John Boorman
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary with writer-producer-director John Boorman
Brand new interviews with Boorman, actor Sara Kestelman, production designer Anthony Pratt, special effects creator Gerry Johnston, camera operator Peter MacDonald, assistant director Simon Relph, hair stylist Colin Jamison, production manager Seamus Byrne, and assistant editor Alan Jones
Newly filmed appreciation with director Ben Wheately (Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England)
Theatrical trailer
Radio spots
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
Collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Julian Upton and Adrian Smith, plus archive interviews, illustrated by original production stills.

Review: Nightmare City (1980)

The 1980s gave birth to so many gonzo films, and Nightmare City is among the craziest of them all. Directed by Umberto Lenzi as a sort of pastiche on films like Zombie Flesh Eaters which were themselves drawing on George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, the film is a crazy mish mash of a zombie virus spreading across America while the army and medical staff try to work out what's going on.



It's got all the right ingredients for a great Italian horror film: bad acting, terrible dialogue, zombies that look like they have had their faces covered in honey and then plunged into a box of breakfast cereal ... oh, and it also has some 80s leotard-clad dancing girls, and lots of blood and gore ... what's not to like!



The plot, such as it is, starts when an army plane lands, and disgorges a cargo of flesh eating zombies, who seem impervious to bullets, and who slaughter all the soldiers who come to try and stop them. Filming this are a couple of chaps from a local TV station, who head back there and interrupt some sort of disco dance-off which is being recorded ... before they are all interrupted by another hoard of zombies who kill the girls (one gets one of her breasts sliced off in a moment of true pointless schlock) and anyone else they can find.





And so the film continues in this vein ... hospitals get overrun with zombies, there are zombies at a fairground who chase a couple of our heroes up a helter skelter ride (and the woman falls to her death there), there are zombies in a church, and a zombie priest who attacks our heroes with a large candle ...



In many ways, you can see possible antecedents here to more modern films. It feels a bit like Planet Terror in the schlock horror of the zombies attacking, and there's a flash of Zombieland with the fairground setting ... but really it's nothing like them, just as it's nothing much like the films which inspired it.





It's basically great fun, but you really have to disengage your brain and go with it ...



As usual on the Arrow disks, there's a host of extras. What's especially interesting is the inclusion of two different prints/transfers of the film: one which is clean and sharp but which has some bad damage to the film; and one which is not so damaged, but which is a lot softer by comparison. There's a short featurette which explains the challenges they had in trying to source the best quality print.





I loved an interview with the director in which he seems to speak non-stop for the duration, barely pausing for breath, and talking about the film, the influences, the effects, the films that came later, and the remake of it which is apparently on the cards at the moment ...



All in all, a great addition to your Blu-Ray library of rubbish Italian horror films which are so poor they are great!



SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:





Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
Alternative High Definition transfer from the 35mm reversal dupe negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original Italian and English soundtracks in mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
Newly translated subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker, Fangoria editor and Nightmare City fan Chris Alexander
Radiation Sickness – a brand new interview with director Umberto Lenzi
Sheila of the Dead – a brand new interview with star Maria Rosaria Omaggio
Zombies Gone Wild! – director, producer and actor Eli Roth on Nightmare City and the wild cinema of Umberto Lenzi
Nightmare City and The Limits of Restoration – featurette looking at the differences between the two transfers included on this release
Alternate Opening Titles
Original Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by John Martin, author of Seduction of the Gullible: The Truth Behind the Video Nasty Scandal, illustrated with original archive stills and posters 







And there is indeed a remake on the cards ... checkout the Web pages all about it here: http://nightmarecity.tv/



And the fundraiser for it is here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tom-savini-umberto-lenzi-present-nightmare-city#/story