Reviews

Dieter Dengler is another typical subject for a Werner Herzog documentary, i.e. He is a man with an obsession, and that was to fly. Dieter was a child of World War 2 and grew up in the poverty of post-war Germany, which seemingly included eating wallpaper. He immigrated to the USA as a young man and joined the air force. He winded up being sent to the Vietnam War and was shot down over Laos on his first flight, resulting in him being captured by the Viet Cong. He went through various traumas here but winded up dramatically escaping.

Its quite a story this one and like other Herzog films, the protagonist is slightly strange, I mean the very fact we have a German fighting for the Americans in Vietnam is a pretty odd set-up to begin with! The details of Dieter's imprisonment and escape are pretty compelling in their horror and it is a crazy story overall, with his improbable escape giving it a sort of Hollywood ending (it was made into a movie after all). The focus is squarely on the personal, with little in the way of politics or considerations of the rights or wrongs of the war. I think the unbelievable slow-motion footage of the American bombing raids gives some point of alternative consideration though, given that Dieter was a pilot in the air force causing this horrendous carnage. So, you have a film which allows you to both marvel at one man's escape from a hostile enemy, while at the same time see the utter destruction the people on his side were inflicting on the very people who captured him. Its an interesting dynamic and another fascinating character study from Herzog.

This BBC teleplay, written by genre specialist Nigel Kneale has garnered an impressive reputation over the years. Like a lot of the most well-remembered BBC horror, it was initially released as a Christmas ghost story, despite not having any actual festive element. It concerns a group of scientists who purchase a large old Victorian building to be used as a research facility. It turns out the building has a long history of hauntings and exorcisms and almost immediately a ghostly presence is seen and felt. This leads the scientists to wonder if a ghost is in fact a recording stored within stone and so they set about trying to capture this using scientific methods.

The connection between science and the supernatural is the basis for this one. And it does benefit from an eeriness which many of the BBC teleplays of this era seemed to be good at capturing. I have seen this a couple of times now and I can't help feeling a little disappointed though, given the film's reputation, as while it does have some effective atmospheric moments and some interesting horror moments, it also had a few pacing problems and was often a little too shouty and stagey for its own good at times. Worth a watch if you appreciate old BBC horror though.

Familiarity of the original Flash Gordon serials would probably help in fully understanding this one as a spoof. All that being said, the humour in this superhero sex comedy is so basic, I daresay it doesn't really matter very much. After all, this one features one-eyed creatures known as Penisaurauses, rapist robots, a planet called Porno, characters called Dr Flexi Jerkoff and Emperor Wang, an Amazonian lesbian cult, power pasties and a spaceship shaped like a penis. Sophisticated humour this clearly is not. The story has Earth is being bombarded with sex rays from the planet Porno - Flesh Gordon travels there to save the day.

Seemingly there were several hardcore sex scenes shot for this which were removed just before release, which I think we can be thankful for as that would have been sure to have made this daft film worse. In the event its a film which provides enough dumb humour to ensure its simultaneously moronic and quite charming, its chock full of bad acting and, despite copious nudity, is entirely unerotic. It does have to be said though, that there are a couple of stop-motion sequences which were actually rather well done, which indicate that there was a half-decent budget invested in this one. Its overall quite good fun.

This is a pretty solid overview of Jimi Hendrix, which details his life, music and impact. A selection of famous and semi-famous folks give their opinions on the great man along the way. It also states early on that this is going to be narrated by Slash but oddly I can't recall any narration!

Like a lot of people from the classic rock era, it is pretty amazing to think that their time in the spotlight was so brief, given their massive ongoing impact. In Hendrix's case it was a mere four years - I mean from the point-of-view of today, that just takes us back to the pandemic! Things moved so much faster back in the years when rock music was still in its infancy and new musical ideas were being born every other week. Hendrix was clearly a giant in the realm of guitar playing, specifically rock guitar playing and this doc tries its best to illustrate this. There's a bit more of a focus on technical matters than you might normally expect in a music-doc but obviously, given Hendrix's guitar god like status, I guess it makes sense in this case. This stuff can be a bit dry for the more casual viewer such as myself but its more than compensated for by the music clips and details about his life. Worth a watch for those interested in the 60's music scene.

This one is a dry run from the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team who a few short years later would give us the all-time comedy classic Airplane! It takes the form of sketch comedy, which you don't really see in movies anymore. Like others in this genre, it's definitely an uneven viewing experience and unsurprisingly given the parodic nature of the thing, a number of the jokes have trouble landing now, given that the material which they are based on is off-its-time and buried in the era. Nevertheless, its very format is one of its chief strengths, given that if one sketch isn't working so well, then another is soon to replace it, ensuring that the pace is good. On that note, I would have to ay that the main weakness with this one for me for sure, was the 'Fistful of Yen' segment, which seems to have a following but, in my view, at 40mins this Bruce Lee parody seriously over-stayed its welcome, especially given that its material was not very strong. The length of this whole section creates an imbalance in the film overall, with every other segment seeming to clock in at no more that 3mins or so.

What you get here is a taste of the absurd and bad taste gags that would make up so much of the likes of Airplane! And The Naked Gun! Series. As I say, its definitely hit and miss but on occasion it can hit a home run, for example the advert for the boardgame Scot Free, which hilariously mines the JFK conspiracies. There are also fun movie parodies of the likes of Cleopatra Jones and Earthquake. Overall, this is certainly a fun, if scattershot bit of comedy.

I think it would be only fair to say that this is a somewhat scattershot documentary. Its bitty and fragmented, with little in the way of a narrative spine. This may be partly due to its genesis, where it was originally intended to be a film about the recording of Mogwai's tenth album and the associated series of small gigs in the Scottish Highlands intended to promote it. This all went to pot with the COVID pandemic but the band carried on and recorded the album which when released was in the unexpected territory of hitting the number one spot in the UK album charts. The doc sort of switches focus to this as the main drama of the film, and while its pretty impressive that an instrumental post-rock band that had been going for quarter of a century were hitting the top spot in the charts, its really only semi-interesting at best. So, the make-up of the film is essentially a sequence of Mogwai-related segments often pretty loosely connected, with a few famous and not-so-famous fans interspersed throughout with their thoughts on the band's music. I thought for a group whose music is so vivid, it might have been a good idea to have a more visual approach which could have accentuated the accompanying music but there wasn't a whole lot of that unfortunately. Funnily enough, the band themselves are almost conspicuous by their absence here, so there's little in the way of a look at their motivations or influences. What you are left with is a quite fragmented film which is more about an impression, rather than an overview. Amongst other things, there's very old clips (you know they're ancient, as Stuart has an impressive barnet!), there's a bit about the young football team they sponsored, clips from the Zidane movie, concert clips of varying quality and the rapper they were involved with in the chart battle driving around in a tank. The overall lack of urgency in the doc does mean that its pretty contemplative in nature, which does tap into the effect of much of the band's music. If you are a fan of the group, it does make for a good watch in a lo-fi sort of way.

Earlier on this year I attended all three nights of 'The Girls Aloud Show' at the Glasgow Hydro, in a section that was named the "Gift Wrapped Kitty Kat VIP Zone" (that's the standing bit encompassed by the stage in case you're wondering!). It was a bit of proper self-indulgence on my part. It cost me a small fortune to do so. It was also worth every penny.

Its only my humble opinion but Girls Aloud are the greatest girl group of all time. During the decade of the 2000's Cheryl, Kimberley, Nadine, Nicola and Sarah unleashed an unprecedented series of glorious singles which should be used in the Oxford English Dictionary as an example defining the noun 'banger'. So, it was with some excitement when they announced a big arena tour of the British Isles in 2024. It had been 11 years since they had last performed and in between times there had been the dreadful passing of Sarah Harding. This terrible event seems to have mended previous animosities between some of the girls and put everything into perspective. In the new shows there is a togetherness which was noticeably missing on the 2013 tour and the concerts were all the better for it, as this music is so effervescent and joyful, it benefits from seeing the performers loving it on stage as well.

In the event, the show that was put together was immaculate, with a setlist close to being perfect, i.e. Its banger central all the way with this one. On previous tours, the girls songs often took the form of medleys, included a disproportionate number of ballads and shared the bill with extended cover sections. This felt like the first show which fully maximised Girls Aloud strengths from start to finish. To that end, this is a set made up of all the mid and up-tempo classic singles and deep-cuts that truly define them as recording artists - the ballads (never the girls strong point) are pleasingly minimised to just two songs. But those two slow tracks are especially poignant and apt on this tour, given that the emotion of them is channelled in the direction of their missing band member. Like the other four members, Sarah was absolutely integral to the group and throughout the show, she is referenced vocally and visually in innovative ways, with the accent on celebration rather than (too much) sadness. It's a difficult thing to pull off but its done with considerable grace, love and artistry.

As a document of this live show, it has to be said that this film is quite excellent. It captures things visually as well as could be realistically expected - the only very minor criticism I could level at it would be that it didn't milk that opening, epic curtain reveal for quite long enough for my liking! But in the final analysis, this concert film showcases perfectly what is a premier division example of a pop show - we have a great group with stage presence, charisma and sex appeal; fantastic staging, which knows that in this context being ridiculous is actively good, its floating plinths to giant dresses by way of flying motorbikes all the way here; and, of course, we have a setlist of highly unique, quite brilliant pop bangers, which have aged like fine wine.

I don't think people fully realised just how loved this group was, until they went away and then came back again. The group and the audience are that bit older, wiser and, if anything, that bit more up for it than before. This concert film is a top class reminder of a great time many of us had with a cherished group of ladies.

The book by Kurt Vonnegut that this is based on is one of the great leftfield sci-fi novels. I say sci-fi but its really an audacious mix of deadly serious historical material with comedy and a sci-fi premise. This film version really is true to the spirit of the book and was praised by Vonnegut himself. If you have never actually read the source material first and go head-long into the movie, I daresay, it might seem more than a little baffling in its unorthodox approach.

The story is a fragmented series of vignettes from the life of a character called Billy Pilgrim, who has come unstuck in time, meaning that without warning he flits between different periods of his life. This includes his experiences in Europe in World War 2 where he becomes a prisoner-of-war and experiences first hand the destruction of the German city of Dresden by the British RAF, he avoids the fire storm which killed 150,000 by ironically being sheltered in an abattoir known as Slaughterhouse-Five. The whole Dresden segment is used to hammer home the evils of war, given that we witness a civilian city of Nazi Germany obliterated, showing that a nation who were committing unspeakable atrocities on a daily basis could still themselves be subject to an atrocity themselves. Other segments have Pilgrim as a middle-aged father in a loveless marriage and, most bizarrely, as a specimen in an alien zoo on the planet Trafalmadore, where he is actively encouraged to mate with a gorgeous film actress, Montana Wildhack. So the film considered the concept of time and the horrors of war, via time-travel, aliens and absurdist comedy. I am not entirely sure, I understand the full point of it all but I sure enjoyed it and appreciated its boldness and originality.

Interest in the sinking of the Titanic has hardly dwindled over the years. This TV doc taps into this further. I daresay, if you are well versed in this subject, that this film will most likely be of limited use but if not, it will offer some bits and pieces of interesting info on the subject. Its certainly a pretty cheap production it has to be said and regularly uses bits from a real-time computer simulation which you can easily access online. Aside from this there are more interesting vintage newsreels and interior photos of the ship. It's a doc which definitely gets over the line, even if it's a bit limited in some ways. What I mainly took out of it was two episodes I knew nothing about - namely, coal bunker fire which raged for days, possibly causing damage to the ship, contributing to the later disaster and the moment that Titanic almost crashed into another ship soon after setting sail! Its stuff like this which ensures this doc is kind of interesting but its most probably going to be of more use to those with more casual knowledge of Titanic, than those will well-versed knowledge.

William Hurt plays a Harvard Professor who believes that past human memories are biologically imbedded and passed on with each generation. He discovers that these memories can be unlocked when a person undergoes sensory deprivation in an isolation tank, while under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. What he does not bargain for, is the side effect where he undergoes physical changes that turns him intermittently into a primitive man.

There's shades of David Cronenberg in this sci-fi horror film which has one foot firmly in the body horror genre. But the director here is another maverick, namely Ken Russell, so to that end we have his trademark intense, colourful and blasphemous imagery, intertwined with the body horror. Needless to say, this results in a pretty weird concoction at times. But it's the bold visual ideas and general oddness which elevate this one to cult value, as the basic idea of the story isn't especially interesting all on its own. But the imagery at times is very impressive when the trip sequences kick into high gear and its this above all which defines this one and gives it its ongoing interest value.

This American TV movie is about a shy young woman with psychic powers who goes to university, where she is shunned by the top sorority house, who alternately fawn over her outgoing, glamorous half-sister, who they insist joins them. The shy sister joins a rival sorority, which is a haven for outcasts and oddballs. Before long she is the target of bullying from the girls from the snobbish sorority and you can probably guess roughly where the story is headed next.

The above synopsis along with the 1978 release date, should make it pretty obvious that this is a Carrie clone. That Brian De Palma classic really made an impact back in the day and there were several psychic powers horror movies that followed in its wake. This has to be one of the ones which most closely followed the template though, given its setting, central character and bullying theme. Its TV origins do ensure that its considerably less explicit of course and the very fact that the very brief scene involving Morgan Fairchild in a wet t-shirt seemingly caused something of a furore indicates just how chaste American telly was back in those days. But despite the obvious restrictions in content, its still a pretty successful bit of TV horror. The characters are pretty stereotypical but they still get the job done and involve the viewer. The psychic powers element is mostly reserved for the final act and its nothing too impressive really but again, it gets the job done. Overall, this is a pretty solidly enjoyable bit of TV horror, so long as you have realistic expectations.

A further note for horror fanatics - this one features Tisa Farrow as the awkward character Mouse, she would go on to gain some cult cred when she soon after starred in a couple notorious Italian video nasties, the Lucio Fulci gut-muncher Zombie Flesh Eaters and the Joe D'Amato outrage Anthropophagus.

True crime meets Nazi Germany - sounds like a recipe for success as a documentary series? Well, in fairness, it is good TV and well worth watching if you are interested in either of those two topics but it also has to at least be acknowledged that the material isn't always the best fit. The first three episodes certainly fir the remit but the final three are more questionable, with the Witch Elm murder very easily having nothing to do with the Nazis at all, while the Hermann Goering and Rudolph Hess entries most likely not murder mysteries at all! That being said, all the episodes make for interesting viewing. Hitler's bizarre and dark relationship with his niece, highly irregular and corrupt police work in the Bahamas, a psychopath prowling the streets of Berlin at the height of Nazi terror, an unknown woman found in a tree and portraits of high-ranking Nazi officials Goering and Hess. There's a lot to sink your teeth into, even if the title doesn't always fully match the content.

Writer Ira Levin's novels have been notable as a reliable source for some great films, such as Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives. The Boys from Brazil is another pretty good example, even if it doesn't quite match up to those other two earlier examples. Like the then recent movie Marathon Man, this is another thriller which features a central villain who is based around the notorious Dr Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death who conducted filthy experiments on inmates in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Unlike Marathon Man, the central character IS Mengele himself, which in a neat role reversal of that film has Laurence Olivier switch from the evil Nazi to the Nazi hunter here, replete with (extremely) over-wrought Jewish accent. By contrast, and perhaps unexpectedly, we have Gregory Peck portraying Mengele in this one.

It all amounts to an entertaining thriller with a sci-fi premise. That premise is of course the idea of neo-Nazis attempting to kick-start the Fourth Reich by creating many clones of Adolf Hitler around the world, in the form of a series of very strange teenage boys. Those mini-Hitlers are played by Jeremy Black in a very memorably obnoxious series of performances. While the sci-fi silliness ensures its not very realistic, its also this angle which gives the movie its main angle, meaning its not just another run-of-the-mill 70's Nazi thriller. Aside from that, there's a memorable tense sequence featuring Dobermans and several cameos involving recognisable actors from TV and film, including Steve Guttenberg once again entirely failing to not be a bit cheesy in a serious role as an undercover activist.

Four people arrive at a seaside mansion, which is the ancestral home of one of the party - a young man who witnessed his father murdering a woman there when he was a child. Various antagonisms exist between the characters and to make matters worse, there is a hefty inheritance at stake - isn't there always?! And will history repeat itself in the form of murder?!! Do you know what, it might just...

This very early giallo owes more to the likes of the French classic Les Diaboliques and Hammer psychological thrillers such as Taste of Fear, than it does Mario Bava's early giallo proto-types, The Girl Who Knew Too Much or Blood and Black Lace. To this end, it doesn't have a maniac on the loose scenario and instead focuses on a small cast, where the central character is so emotionally vulnerable that we are not sure if they are being driven mad or insane to begin with. It's a fairly basic and minimalistic movie in a lot of ways but it does have some visual black and white elegance and nice touches such as the mirrored room. The small cast isn't bad either with future Hannibal and Bond actor Giancarlo Giannini suitably intense as the psychologically damaged son, giallo regular Dominique Boschero a welcome presence once more as his wife, character actor of dozens of side roles Luciano Pigozzi is successfully shifty once again as the lawyer and Mara Maryl (who came up with the idea for the film!) romps about in bikinis as the resident fox. But what may define Libido most of all in giallo terms, is that the most prominent screenwriter of the genre, Ernesto Gastaldi, was given a rare opportunity to direct here. He doesn't do a bad job and the film, while a bit unexciting for the most part, does have a fairly diverting final third where events do ramp up a bit. Its no classic but it's a nice example of a very early Italian thriller.

I seem to think this West German film was one of the early forerunners of violent exploitation cinema. After all, its poster claimed it was 'the first film rated V for violence' and audiences were handed a vomit bag on entry. And to be honest, for 1970, this would quite clearly have inhabited the extreme fringes of cinematic violence. It took obvious influence from the earlier Witchfinder General but moved the material into much more definitive exploitation territory at times. Like that earlier film, the story takes place in unenlightened pre 19th century Europe, at the time of the witch trials. The story focuses on the hypocrisy of the witchfinders, who claim to be carrying out their work in the name of God but whose motivations really stem from sexually inadequacy, greed and sadism. It does consequently have a withering view of the actions of the Church during these times and does have some serious points to make despite its salacious content.

I guess director Michael Armstrong is having his cake and eating it though, as on the one hand, the torture scenes depicted here are grim and ugly and reflect what actually went on in an in-your-face educational kind of way, while on the other hand, this stuff does work wonders as pure exploitation cinema as well. Like a lot of continental period-set horror offerings, the authentic locations and costuming adds massive amounts to the feel and atmosphere of the thing. While the casting is also very good, with Herbert Lom adding weight to his role as the deluded chief witchfinder Lord Cumberland, Reggie Nalder is terrifying as his sexually deviant and scary looking predecessor Albino, Udo Kier elicits great screen presence as the apprentice who slowly begins to understand the evil he is involved in and Olivera Katarina is a sensual and empathetic presence as the woman Vanessa, who is the catalyst for much of the drama. Overall, this is a very strong and effective bit of folk horror, which is admittedly pretty unpleasant and disturbing at times but which stands up well as a more excessive sister film to Witchfinder General.

Following on from the first film in the Decline of Western Civilisation trilogy, which looked at the L. A. punk scene, this second instalment takes a look at metal, specifically the L. A. glam metal scene. Needless to say, there are some pretty obvious differences between the films. The most obvious being that the metal crowd are actively wanting fame and success, which in fairness you can hardly argue with. But there is a general vacuousness about most of the guys interviewed in this doc (I specifically say men because, quite similar to Part 1, the women here for the most part all seem FAR more level-headed and intelligent!). Future Wayne's World director Penelope Spheeris is on hand to actively encourage the stupidity of the participants with her questions, although in order to achieve this she hardly needs the interview skills of Alan Wicker, given that most of these metal-heads offer up banalities free of charge. A lot of the interviewees are guys from 'up-and-coming' bands and their confidence in future success certainly could be described as delusional, albeit they do not have the benefit of hindsight where we all know that two or three years later grunge was on the way leading to instant annihilation in what could be known as the Hair Metal Holocaust. So, in many respects this doc can now be viewed as hanging out with a bunch of people who are about to be catastrophically derailed but who are at present happily unaware of the onrushing disaster.

In amongst the interviews there are a series of live performances, all of which seemed to be terrible bands playing the same song - except for Megadeth whose thrash metal sound did somewhat stick out here like a sore thumb. Several successful artists are interviewed to varying effect, such as the aforementioned Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Poison, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Lemmy and the not-yet-known Vixen. There are occasional moments of comedy such as the band London epically failing to burn a Soviet flag or the surreal bizarreness of W. A. S. P. guitarist Chris Holmes out of his head on booze in a pool on a floating chair while his mum looks on ambivalently. There's also a super-sleazy old guy in a hat who organises a bikini contest in which several of the hair metal wannabees are the judges. Its overall certainly a mish-mash of stupidities which make up this documentary but then, the hair metal scene of L. A., with its focus on partying, must certainly be in the running to claim the title of the dumbest music genre of all time. While there are moments of manipulation in the editing in this one for sure, it nevertheless is a reasonably revealing look at this rock music scene, however, most people who watch it will understand why it really needed to be wiped out by alternative rock!

Suspicion falls on a man whose third wife dies mysteriously in his swimming pool - after all, his other two previous spouses died in odd circumstances too and he always seems to benefit financially! He escapes prison in a dubious manner and shortly after a mysterious woman pitches up in his swimming pool late one night; he winds up marrying her too. But is she who she says she is? Will she become the fourth victim? And who is that odd woman kicking about in the dead of night?

This Spanish giallo was directed by Eugenio Martin who later helmed the excellent Horror Express. He doesn't deliver a film nearly as entertaining with this one. Not that its bad or anything but the pace is slow and there doesn't seem to be a massive amount happening a lot of the time. Also, given the genre, it has to be said that there's a distinct lack of salacious content to be found here either, which always tends to enliven even the least essential giallo. The star in this one is Carroll Baker who appeared in a raft of similar old school gialli, which were less about maniacs prowling around violently picking off members of the cast and more about jet-setters plotting against one-and-other for large inheritances. This movie is most definitely of the latter category, and consequently does benefit from a certain lushness of presentation, with a pleasingly loungey score from Piero Umiliani and a visually nice look throughout. The character played by Marina Malfatti was probably the most promising overall, as she is an unhinged crazy person with a tenuous grip on reality, i.e. A pleasingly eccentric and ridiculous giallo character! On the whole, this is a solid example of the early style of this type of movie but just be aware that the thrills on offer are less excessive and more of the breezy and laid-back variety.

When it comes to most popular Italian genres - from spaghetti westerns to poliziotteschi - you can tell that they are on the downward slide when they start becoming comedies and parodying their genres. With the giallo by direct comparison, this never seemed to happen and instead the decline of the genre - which started in the late 70's - was heralded when they started making entries which were sexploitation films with giallo elements, as opposed to gialli with erotic flavour. The Sister of Ursula, similar to other examples from the period like Giallo a Venezia, was a clear example of this. Consequently, what defines it more than anything is its very explicit softcore sex scenes, which punctuate the runtime on a regular basis, with the more traditional giallo suspense aspect, a clear secondary consideration. The murder set-pieces don't dwell on the act of murder itself (given the method of murder, I can honestly say that this is a blessing) and instead rely almost exclusively on build-up (which always incorporates extended sex scenes). The story, such as it is, is needless to say a bit half-hearted. It revolves around two sisters who check into a hotel by the seaside in a pretty town after their father's death. At the same time young women in the vicinity start being murdered by a maniac with dildo weaponry.

The aesthetics of this one are dangerously close to being in Jess Franco bargain budget territory. Its far more lo-fi and lower budget than these films tend to be. The griminess of the narrative is somewhat offset by all this depravity playing out in such an attractive location (I guess you could categorise this as almost a given for the giallo genre right enough). There's a selection of odd characters populating the story, such as a drug addict, a cabaret star and a sleazy hotel owner. The mystery is very much by-the-by, albeit it does get the job done. I've seen this one a couple of times now and I can safely say that the second viewing was preferrable to the first. Once you know what this film isn't (i.e. Stylish and well crafted) it becomes a more enjoyable watch. Its not going to ascend the heights of anyone's favourite movies in the genre but as an example of a sexploitation-heavy gialli, its pretty serviceable.

This low budget quickie will always retain a footnote in cinematic history. It was the first Italian horror film of the sound era and given that nation's large significance when it comes to the cinematic horror genre, this means that this little movie sort of set that particular ball rolling. It has to be said that it could be considered historically important more than being especially good. Its hardly unique in this way though, history has shown in various art forms, that its usually not the first people who are most influential but the second or third. All that being said, this still remains a good film, especially on account of its typically beautiful cinematography by Mario Bavo. The story revolves around a series of murders, in which young women are found dead with all their blood drained; the newspapers refer to the mysterious killer as 'the vampire' and it transpires that the source of the crimes appear to involve the inhabitants of a large castle.

This one begun with Riccardo Freda as director, but he walked off the production towards the end, leading cinematographer Bava to finish the film. So, on that basis also, this is an important film, given that Bava is now considered one of the most influential directors of the genre and its here that he started that journey. I often hear mention that this one suffers from having a very by-the-numbers storyline, and while this is definitely true, it also has to be said that this is a very common deficit of even the best gothic horror movies. The Paris set story incorporates the Elizabeth Bathory inspired countess leeching blood from young women to extend her youthful appearance, alongside the less likely - but at the time popular - mad scientist plot idea. The latter sci-fi element in actual fact ensures that there are no actual vampires in this one at all, despite the title and I would definitely say that this is a bit unfortunate, as a slinky vampire woman would certainly have been preferable to a youth-giving serum and junky killer. But despite these deficits, the real joy of this one is the gothic atmosphere and attractive sets, which are photographed beautifully by Bava with impressive use of shadows and light. The great man also shows his special effects ingenuity with a couple of extremely effective transformation scenes where a woman appears to age before our eyes - an effect created solely using lighting! So, on the whole, I Vampiri has a few limitations for sure, yet is certainly worth seeking out for its visual eloquence and for being the first in the, soon to be epic, Italian horror genre.

I remember Flowered Up from back in my Melody Maker buying days and recall they were regarded as the baggy band from London, this being an angle of sorts seeing as all the rest of the groups from this genre seemed to be from the north of England. Like many they went from cover stars to a footnote extremely rapidly but I do recall the song Weekender getting some good notices and was aware of an associated promo video. This film looks at the band generally but is more specifically about the song and video. Like loads of documentaries about music history there seems to be at least some exaggeration at play in this one, as while it seems fair to say that Weekender was one of the highlights of the early 90's indie-dance culture and its video was well done, its impact was pretty underground and there's most probably an element of revisionism at play by putting it so high up on a pedestal. All that being said, it is still great that this film exists at all and that the original video is getting recognition as an impressive bit of work. There's some bits and pieces of historical context here which was interesting, such as a snippet from the Daily Star describing the band as evil or something and ecstasy as the 'killer drug'. This sort of over-the-top patter was pretty much par for the course back at the time but it is dispiriting to be reminded of it never-the-less. The doc otherwise is mainly made up of recollections of a variety of talking heads made up of band members, people from the label and famous fans. Some of this is pretty good value, albeit you will have to endure Bobby Gillespie once again appearing to be unable to string two sentences together without referring to the 'working class'. It's a resolutely lo-fi film but the film-makers have certainly managed to gather a decent mount of footage from back in the day, in order to keep things visually interesting. I would have probably have liked a little more detail on Flowered Up's overall career as well but I guess that's a minor complaint.

Overall, this one is definitely best experienced by watching the Weekender video straight afterwards. Its very nice that this doc will introduce this song and film to people unaware of it. It is a very specific and brief moment in British music culture but it's kind of an interesting one.

During the making of the documentary The Kids Are Alright, the director Jeff Stein reasoned that there was not enough good concert footage showcasing several of The Who's key songs. To that end a gig was arranged at Kilburn Theatre with an invited audience and the band duly battered through a set of Who classics, with the idea they would be featured in the upcoming doc. In the event, the footage was not actually even used and another, later concert, became the source of the live songs. This film didn't wind up being even released until thirty years later. In truth, there is something odd about watching this as a live concert film. Because of its nature, it comes across more like the band practising in front of a few thousand fans, as opposed to a gig proper. Because they weren't actually on tour, they were a bit rusty and there is no communication with the audience - the chat seems to be mainly Pete Townsend letting the director know he thinks this is all a waste of time! So, this film is basically an anomaly, where a set of unusual circumstances lead to a live performance which has an air of something off about it. Having said all that, its hardly poor stuff, with the band showcasing their high-level musical and performance skills throughout. Given the impetus for the show, the set is also loaded with big hitters too, so this isn't for those seeking deep cuts and b-sides. Sadly too, it also turned out to be Keith Moon's second last performance with the band before his untimely death. Irrespective of its unusual nature, this nevertheless is a good showcase of this dynamic rock band.

Girls Aloud...the greatest girl group ever? Let me think about it. I've thought about it...yes!

Everyone knows the story. A boy band and girl group were formed for the X-Factor precursor show Pop Stars: the Rivals, where the girls were to battle the boys to see who was the best. To say the least, it wasn't the most promising ground for great music to spring from. The result - the boys knocked out a typically wimpy effort and the girls absolutely smashed them with a tune entitled 'Sound of the Underground'. And it was absolutely brilliant. I remember at the time thinking it was awesome that such a top tune should originate from such an unpromising place as a TV talent show - it was just so unexpected that it deserved love on that basis alone. But I am also pretty sure I assumed that one hit would be it. So you can imagine my glorious surprise when they returned a couple of months later with 'No Good Advice'? With that equally awesome release I think it began to truly dawn on people that this group really could possibly be something special. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history, with Girls Aloud releasing an unprecedented series of absolute bangers throughout the rest of the 2000's. Okay, the ballads may not have been up to much but when they increased the tempo, with the innovative production team Xenomania behind them, the resultant tunes were simply top tier. If anyone was to tell you they didn't like anything in Girls Aloud arsenal of dance-pop anthems then they had to be either (a) a music snob or (b) hopelessly cloth-eared.

This concert film is especially interesting for Girls Aloud fans, as it showcases them on their first tour. They were hitting the large theatres at this stage, as opposed to the later multiple arena dates they were to soon move onto. The thing that struck me was just how assured they were on this first full live show - there's great vocals, stage presence and charisma throughout this. The songs are taken from the first couple of albums, so we are treated to quite a number of deep cuts which wouldn't be played live again, while there's a couple of very fun covers of Duran Duran and Wheatus. There's also no getting away from the fact its all very sexy too, with these five beautiful girls all sporting a series of banging outfits, while busting their moves - its ultra-toned midriffs and expensive haircuts all the way here! I reckon in this crowd, there must have been several dads who bravely and selflessly 'volunteered' to take their daughters to this show! I, for one, enjoyed literally everything about this and would consider it essential viewing if you are a fan of Girls Aloud. Cheryl, Nadine, Sarah, Nicola and Kimberley...I salute you.

Sergio Martino is easily one of my favourite Italian directors. He's most well known nowadays, of course, for his quite excellent 70's gialli but like most directors in Italy, he had to follow the trends and direct films in several of the popular sub-genres of Italian popular cinema. This was his contribution to the spaghetti western genre and what a great addition it is! Released in 1977, this one was at the very back end of the Italo-western cycle. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, it riffs on several of the important spaghetti efforts of the past and features many tropes of the genre in general. But as far as I am concerned, this is among the best the genre has to offer in the second-tier efforts.

Its story is routine enough and essentially boils down to a bounty hunter drawn into a kidnapping plot. The main character Mannaja is a pretty typical spaghetti western anti-hero, i.e. A loner with supreme weapon skills and a tragic backstory which ties him to an unscrupulous mining boss. So, the components are all quite familiar but Martino's direction is stylish and well-paced, meaning it never gets boring. There's a smattering of typical spaghetti violence throughout, such as hands being lopped off and heads being chomped by the hero's flying axe. Yes, indeed, many anti-heroes in such films have gimmick weaponry and I am not sure if a tomahawk counts as a gimmick precisely but it is certainly unusual enough to be pretty distinctive! On that subject, Maurizio Merli, who is much more associated with roles in brutal poliziotteschi crime flicks, is very good in the lead role, while John Steiner is excellent as the cold killer Voller. In total, this all adds up to make Mannaja one of the most enjoyable Italian westerns I have seen.