NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021#9: Reviews of Conjuring the Plastic Surgeon (UK 2021), Dinosaur Hotel (UK 2021), Familiars (UK 2021), Evie (UK 2021), Shepherd (UK 2021) and Seagull (UK 2021)

Conjuring the Plastic Surgeon aka Doctor Carver (UK 2021: Dir Louisa Warren) In Warren's latest we enter the murky world of plastic surgery and the perils of desiring the perfect body. Chelsea Greenwood plays Tonya, a model who, despite being 24 and beautiful, is dropped by her agent for being too plain; her photographer forces himself on her in return for pushing her career. Tonya feels that a nose job would give her more modelling opportunities. So a surprise call, offering her and three other girls free cosmetic surgery, feels like a dream come true. Tonya's boyfriend Dan thinks it's all too good to be true, but it doesn't stop Tonya heading off to the 'Look Perfect Agency' (which is basically the same house used in lots of Warren and producer Scott Jeffrey's films).

There, greeted by the cold aloof Alex (Danielle Scott), who appears to be running the show, she meets the other willing participants: Dina (Julia Quayle) who wants liposuction as a way of holding on to her man; Belle (Amanda-Jade Tyler) the oldest of the party, looking for some Botox work; and glamour model Peppa (Sofia Lacey) who wants breast augmentation.

Things start to go a bit off when Alexa asks them all to participate in a supernatural ritual, the result of which, following the usual summoning by mirror, is the manifestation of, as far as I can work out, a demonic plastic surgeon (Zuza Tehanu). We've already seen the surgeon at work in a prologue and it ain't a pretty sight. The ladies' desperation for free, normally expensive treatment makes them blind to the oddness of their surroundings, the increasing horror they face and the Doctor's unorthodox procedures!

Needles pierce flesh, fluids ooze and there's a general air of nastiness to the proceedings here which is quite unusual in Warren's films; Peppa's operation is particularly distressing. As a meditation on the horrors of surgery and the extent to which women are either 'forced' into such procedures or bring it on themselves it works well, and the surgeon, with his mangled face and straggly hair, is an effective villain.

Warren has said before that she makes two types of films: vaguely silly creature features, and more serious subjects. Conjuring the Plastic Surgeon is definitely in the second category; and there's already a sequel in the works.

Dinosaur Hotel (UK 2021: Dir Jack Peter Mundy) One of five films made by Mundy this year, and like Amityville Scarecrow before it, scripted by Shannon Halliday and produced/edited by Scott Jeffrey for his 'Jagged Edge Productions' company.

Mundy sets his stall out right from the get go in a prologue where a couple of women, already looking bruised and bloody, face off against a CGI dinosaur and a talking sphere. What's going on? All will be revealed.

Sienna Woods (Chrissie Wunna) is a struggling single mum of two, still grieving the loss of her husband. She gets a phone call telling her that she has been selected for a competition she applied for; she's to be a guest at somewhere called 'Dinosaur Hotel', "where the impossible is possible and all bets are off in the ultimate challenge". There's a prize of £100,000 for the winner, which we later understand means 'the last person to stay alive'. Struggling with what to do with her two kids while she's away (played by Wunna's own offspring, recalling an old phrase about not putting your daughter (or son) on the stage, so appalling are they), she decides to take them with her. Big mistake. 

Upon arrival Sienna meets the other contestants including Zara (Charlotte Greenwood, Dragon Fury), Laura (Sofia Lacey, Conjuring the Plastic Surgeon), Sam (Kate Sandison, Cannibal Troll) and Jenny (Nicole Nabi, Medusa). The floating sphere mentioned earlier is a device that dictates the rules of the game and monitors the action; it tells them that there can only be one winner. The sight of the first dinosaur, on the roof of the hotel - actually it's a youth hostel, and we know this because there are bunk beds - is announced by some soaring Jurassic Park style strings (which won't be the only time that movie is referenced; a couple of later scenes are direct steals, right down to the lighting). Sadly because of the budget the CGI beasts are distinctly sub par; of necessity most of the creatures roaming around the hotel are quite small and slightly more effective than their poorly animated full size brethren. 

The real brains behind the enterprise is the Games Master (Alexander John) and of course, as we've already seen in the prologue, he has no intention of paying the prize money to anyone; there will be no final girl here. So for the rest of the film, sit back and watch computer generated dinosaurs running after screaming women (and children) and try to guess who's going to be next for a 'saur snack. 

This of course is fairly pedestrian stuff, leavened with some lovely exterior photography and a location that at least attempts to look like a hotel (although I do think that Mundy could have removed the sign off the front door telling hostellers that the venue was closed for a private function ie a film was being made there).

Familiars (UK 2021: Dir Michael Munn) Familiars is Munn's fifth feature and fourth 'Fantastic' genre piece, although I confess that I've not seen any of his previous work. And although there's no denying the work he's put into this film, I'm not likely to be rectifying that any time soon.

When happy clappy Sarah is murdered in the woods - the latest in a string of victims, all who have evidence of burn marks on their bodies - the detective in charge of the investigation, Sutton (Munn), has a fleeting vision at the murder scene of a cowled figure with Sutton's face who exhales CGI flies.

Sarah's twin sister, anxiety suffering Emma (Jasmine Hodgson) experiences additional debilitating panic attacks, brought on by the grief of her sister's violent death, and the frustration of not knowing who did it. This can only be relieved in two ways; firstly by having regular chaste and clothes on sex with boyfriend Sam (Michael Howard) and secondly visits to a local medium, Rebecca (Holly Nicol) to get the answers she desperately needs.

While the psychic consultations provide some comfort for Emma, and eventually visitations from Sarah, they also seem to ramp up the threat of danger, ostensibly from Sutton, who appears to Emma in her dreams. But the truth of who killed Sarah and now threatens Emma is far less prosaic than a rogue policeman, as she's about to find out.

Familiars is a perfect storm of not very good things which together make it a well intentioned failure. With the exception of Hodgson the 'local' acting is generally pretty poor, which in itself isn't a massive problem; the other issues are an overambitious and increasingly confusing story coupled with (I'm guessing lockdown restricted) effects which look cheap and nasty (especially in the fiery climax). Possibly the most interesting aspect of the film was the rather accurate depiction of the anxious state (some animation showing Emma's fast beating heart actually worked quite well). Munn is a man of faith, which shows in the moralising 'don't dabble in the darkside' themes and the rather leaden songs - he's a Christian songwriter too. I don't fault the passion he put into this film; I'm afraid it's just not very good.

Evie (UK 2021: Dir Dominic Brunt) Outside of his Paddy Dingle character in the long running soap Emmerdale, for nearly a decade now Dominic Brunt has been building up a CV directing modest but effective regionally focused fright flicks, mingling the mundane with the terrifying. It’s been a while since his last, 2017’s Attack of the Adult Babies, a bizarre, surreal but blistering attack on the class system made, apparently, as an angry riposte to a major film deal that fell through at the last minute.

Evie sees a return to the more prosaic character setup of his earlier films. The titular Evie, when we first meet her, is a young girl playing on a beach (co-director Jamie Lundy’s daughter Honey) with her brother Tony (Danny-Lee Mitchell-Brunt, the director’s son), seemingly happy and carefree. Wandering among the local caves, she finds an amulet (from which she is afterwards inseparable) and has an unspecified encounter with something - or someone - which afterwards leaves her sullen, taciturn and increasingly volatile.

Twenty three years later we meet Evie as a grown woman (Holli Dempsey), dissatisfied in a dead-end insurance job and seeking - and failing - to find a connection with the opposite sex courtesy of a series of one night stands. In fact the only solace Evie achieves, other than chats with a workmate friend, is in alcohol; the intervening years have seen Evie taken into care and, finally, spat out into the world of adults. Is it the system that has failed her, or is she just spiritually doomed?

Her brother Tony (now played by Jay Taylor) makes contact with her, desiring to reconnect. Their reuniting is a trigger for Evie to confront painful memories of childhood, and to face the truth of what happened that day on the beach.

I’m not sure whether it was the result of pandemic filming conditions, a paucity of available time or maybe a lack of confidence with the subject matter, but Evie is, in this reviewer's opinion, Brunt’s weakest film. Plot turns feel forced and unnatural (in contrast to the authentically remote and credible production design) and Dempsey’s adult version of the haunted Evie fails to convince. The background myth of the selkie (a seal like creature from Celtic and Norse mythology with the ability to change into a human) is atmospheric in itself, but rather leadenly applied; for most of its running time Evie is a downbeat drama which finally and rather bluntly resolves itself into a horror movie. I could see what Brunt was trying to achieve but that intention got lost, making this for the most part an awkward and unfulfilling movie.

Shepherd (UK 2021: Dir Russell Owen) Now I really liked director Russell Owen’s last film, 2020’s sci fi opus Inmate Zero, and this enigmatically made horror drama follow up is a production of equal quality, if slightly less satisfying than his previous outing.

Tom Hughes plays Eric, a man whose wife Rachel (Gaia Weiss) has died in a car crash while pregnant. A bereft and barely functioning Tom, haunted by images of the crash and the baby he will never hold, heads north, first to the parental home in Scotland where his mother (Greta Scacchi) wants nothing to do with him, and then deeper into the mountains, to take up a job as a shepherd.

He is shown round the ramshackle accommodation that goes with the job by local boat owner Fisher (Kate Dickie), a woman with only one good eye (eyes will feature heavily in this film) who looks like she’s never left her home village. Curiously as part of the accoutrements she leaves for him is a blank journal (he later finds similar books, presumably completed by previous occupants of the house, which suggest that his predecessors had all lost their mind). “Escaping or running?” asks Fisher. She also tells him that “something’s haunting you, Mr Black, I can see it”.

If Tom was hoping to escape his fears, he finds that his new location has actually compounded them; a scribbled message in one of the journals reads “She’s a witch, she’s here” and visions of a gnarled creature are the least of his problems. A nearby lighthouse offers a different but equally powerful set of terrors. As Tom becomes more and more disorientated in his temporary home, it seems like something there wants him.

The issue I had with Shepherd was that everything looked too polite and mannered, from the designer scuffing of his Scottish home (which I could never believe wasn’t a set) to the visions which seemed almost elegantly interspersed. Some of the imagery is effective – a field of crucified animals, stripped of their carcasses, startles – but the ending was well telegraphed and I couldn’t reconcile the force of the supernatural happenings with the rather mundane upshot. Beautifully photographed, yes, but strangely uninvolving.

Seagull (UK 2021: Dir Peter Blach) It’s rather pushing it to see this first time feature by Danish born director Blach, shot in the gloomy environs of Folkestone, as anything but a domestic drama, despite its rather tenuous fantastic elements.

Centring around two grandparents, Jeff (Adam Radcliffe) and his disabled, alcoholic wife Janet (Jessica Hynes), their daughter, feisty Violet (Rosie Steel) and granddaughter Lily (Miranda Beinart-Smith), disruption to an already unhappy family unit comes in the form of Jeff and Janet’s long lost daughter Rose (Gabrielle Sheppard). For the last eight years Rose has been living on a beach, her home a makeshift tent which finally catches fire and is destroyed; so, with a masked folk-horror figure in tow, she decides to return to her former home and reconnect with Violet, who in reality is her daughter. But Rose has revenge on her mind too, courtesy of an event that occurred eight years earlier.

Even with the presence of the usually great Jessica Hynes this is thin stuff. Populated with actors whose inexperience makes the film appear hesitant where it should be emotionally powerful, its biggest crime is that it makes no sense either as a drama or a more abstract piece of magic realism. None of the characters are developed and the whole project feels under-rehearsed and, well, unfinished. Not very good at all, although shots of the Kent coastline are very atmospheric.

Supermarket Sweep # 25: Reviews of Cynthia (USA 2018), Paranormal Prison (USA 2021), The Haunting of the Mary Celeste (USA 2020), The Last Exorcist (USA 2020), Demonic (Canada 2021) and The Last Inn (USA 2021)

Cynthia (USA 2018: Dir Devon Downs, Kenny Gage) Best summarised as a kind of slapstick version of the 1974 mutant baby saga It's Alive, Cynthia is a movie probably best seen with a crowd.

Michael (Kyle Jones) and his wife Robin (Scout Taylor-Compton) are a young couple trying for a baby via complicated (and expensive) in vitro fertilisation treatments, all the way from China (because they're on a budget). The situation is putting a strain on their relationship, so it's a relief when Robin falls pregnant; initially it's thought that she's expecting twins, but it soon transpires that it's one foetus and a large fibroid cyst, discarded by the medical staff when the baby is born. 

But the cyst is far from a load of dormant tissue, and before you can say Basket Case or It's Alive the little beggar - the 'Cynthia' of the title - is laying waste to the hospital staff while growing at an inordinate rate; there's also a normal daughter but really no-one is that interested in her. 

Genre regulars Robert Le Sardo, the late Sid Haig and Lynn Lowry (as a modern day wet nurse) are all present and correct, and the mostly practical effects feel like something that Joji Tani aka Screaming Mad George (remember him?) would have concocted back in the 1980s. The script, by the creation 'Robert Rhine' (you better look it up, I don't have the space to explain here) develops the wicked humour of his successful 'Girls and Corpses' magazine. It ain't subtle and, despite the light tone of the movie, its subject matter is pretty gritty; definitely not recommended for those trying to start a family. 

Paranormal Prison (USA 2021: Dir Brian Jagger) Jagger's debut 'found footage' feature comes down with a nasty case of firstfilmitis. An Idaho prison with a dodgy reputation, operating as a tourist attraction until recently closed, is the focus of the action; the authorities blame structural problems as the reason for its closure, but others suggest more supernatural reasons and a cover up.

A YouTube group of paranormal debunker investigators, called 'The Skeptic (US spelling) and the Scientist' is led by the enigmatic Matthew (Todd Haberkorn), the owner of the channel, whose ratings have nose dived. He's hoping things will pick up again when the group are offered the opportunity to spend the night in the prison. They are the last such group to be allowed access as the whole building is to be demolished to make way for an apartment complex; 17 film crews have covered the location before, without results; so no pressure then.

So, armed with a variety of bits of equipment (including a machine which lights up blue in the presence of ghosts) the group wander around the prison, while the individual members have direct to camera personal history moments, and the history of the prison inmates is disclosed. 

Like a number of films about paranormal explorations (and their TV counterparts) the hope is that the location will do all the dramatic heavy lifting. And while it is indeed an impressive place, and Jagger wisely leaves the running around screaming to the final reel, Paranormal Prison drags terribly for most of its running time, not helped by the rather clumsy visual and audio effects which punctuate the proceedings. "This is bullshit!" one character opines, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

Haunting of the Mary Celeste (USA 2020: Dir Shana Betz) A group of researchers headed by the almost crazily driven Rachel (Emily Swallow) heads to the Azores to, once and for all, clear up the mystery of the disappearance of the ship the 'Mary Celeste' in the area back in 1872. Accompanied by her two assistants, Grant (Dominic DeVore) and Cassandra (UK's Alice Hunter with a shaky Australian/US accent) they want to scientifically debunk all of the existing theories about the boat, whose crew mysteriously disappeared all those years ago, and get to the truth. Rachel's opinion is that the ship's occupants got sucked into a rift in time, and can still be reached.

Shaft himself, Richard Rountree, is Tulls, the salty captain who helps Rachel and her team out when their boat doesn't materialise, so it's all aboard his trusty rig and into uncharted waters, their equipment a mix of scientific instruments and actual objects from the original ship. Out at sea the engines give up and Tulls's assistant, Aldo (Pierre Adele) sustains an injury; he later disappears. Stranded at sea, other unexplained things begin happening on board, and it looks like whatever happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste is about to repeat itself within Tulls's craft.

This is a rather downbeat haunted house story whose low budget doesn't really allow for anything exciting; at 74 minutes things feel a little rushed and undercooked at the confusing climax; the restrictions of the setting (basically a boat) also fail to build up the required tension. It's telegraphed pretty early on that Rachel has a sad secret, and much of the narrative revolves around this, but overall this is rather uninvolving stuff. I think the critic whose review contained the words 'Genuine Terror' mistakenly included the letter 'T'.

The Last Exorcist (USA 2020: Dir Robin Bain) Could the possession of a human being pass on through generations, asks a shouty exorcist, Father Peter Campbell in a TV broadcast in Rome, moments before he's blown to smithereens courtesy of a robed suicide bomber? 

Epileptic religious observer Jo (Rachele Brooke Smith) and her boozy, druggy older and therefore rather more secular sister Maddie (Terri Ivens) are distraught at the news, as Father Peter looked after them when their mother died. When I say 'looked after' I mean 'accompanied him to exorcisms'; they clearly had a bit of a tough childhood. Onto the scene comes Brother Marco (Danny Trejo), who knew their mother, and feels that they will need his help. And they will, as mum was a possessed soul, and now it's transferred to Maddie! Jo recognises the signs - her mum began drinking heavily as the devil entered her heart, which is exactly what Maddie is doing - but we know things are going very wrong when Maddie stares at a man who's been hassling her, causing him to burst into flames, and goes all low level Carrie in the local good old boy bar.

And then everything gets weird. Maddie ends up in the psych ward, abused by Daniel, a devilish orderly with a fondness for snakes. Jo's epilepsy gets worse but she manages to ordain as a priest, and her first robed up job is the exorcism of her sister, complete with martial arts moves and ritual phrases like "I love you sister!". Start with the easy jobs, why don'cha?

The Last Exorcist is a hoot. It plays like a church funded movie, and everyone's pretty awful in it, including Trejo who looks plain awkward (Ivens gives good possession though). I quite liked the 'possession is hereditary' idea but Bain mangles the storytelling and the script is unbelievably atrocious. Avoid. And I mean avoid.

Demonic (Canada 2021: Dir Neill Blomkamp) Blomkamp's first foray into horror was rather coolly received by punters when it did the rounds of festivals early this year.

Carly (Carly Pope) is estranged from her mother Angela (Nathalie Boltt) who, Carly believes, is in prison for murder following her arson of a fully occupied care home. Her ex boyfriend tells Carly that Angela is in fact in a clinic, comatose; she has all her mental faculties but is unable to move. On visiting the facility, called Therapol and renowned for cutting edge medical technology, Carly meets two men who have developed a way for her to be inserted into a VR world where she can communicate with her mother. Not that Carly wants to do this; she hasn't spoken to Angela in years, and the first virtual meeting is understandably spiky.

But what is supposed to a safe process is the beginning of Carly's nightmares. The clinic persuade her to have another VR conversation, but Carly finds real life and the VR world blurring. She also discovers, courtesy of her resourceful friend Martin (Chris William Martin) that her mother's badass attitude may just have something to do with her being possessed.

Blomkamp's aim here is to tell a possession story with enough narrative tics to differentiate it from the usual genre efforts. The problem is that there are too many of them, and most feel like McGuffins, sleights of hand that just stick out in their awkwardness. Demonic (even the title is borrowed) brings to mind a lot of different films, and indeed starts to feel like watching a number of different movies. The scares are well signposted and noisy rather than frightening, and the creature reveal at the end is quite the anticlimax. Despite the money spent on the thing, and a fine central performance from Pope, Demonic is one of those films you struggle to remember the day after viewing it.

The Last Inn (USA 2021: Dir David Kuan) An online summary of the films of David Kuan includes the following: "The task of directing a film is not at all easy since the director must be attentive or attentive that everything is fulfilled as planned and, if it is not, make important decisions for the course of the project. David Kuan has managed to create wonderful films despite the inconveniences that arise in all the shoots and that is worthy of admiration." Well we'll be the judge of that.

And we're not off to a good start when the movie's opening credits tell us that the movie was 'Derected by' Kuan. But really that is the least of the film's problems.

Relentlessly chipper Laura (Emily Hall) crashes her car into a tree while driving at night in the mid US; she'd swerved to avoid a figure in the road. When she comes to at the wheel the following morning she has no idea where she is. Unable to solicit passing help (why it's as if other drivers can't see her) she comes across a sign directing her to 11 Misty Road and an imposing building in the shape of a huge, abandoned hotel, whose sign reads 'Welcome to the Lawst Inn'.

Inside she meets the hosts, Mr and Mrs Lawst. Mr L wants her to leave but the lady of the house is more accommodating. Laura learns that the whole area has been abandoned following an epidemic. Which doesn't account for how the proprietors are still living. Or are they (see where I'm going with this)? Despite the hotel being supposedly empty, she meets some other occupants of the place; Steven (Walker Barnes) and young couple in love Nicole (Tristan Cunningham) and Peter (Jamel King). Oh and Britney (Zarema Akmalove), a young woman of the gothic persuasion who, with her young son, never leave their room. But it's not long before Laura realises she is unable to leave the hotel, and is forced to watch a horrible chapter of the house's history being played out in front of her.

The Last Inn is, and I don't know how else to put this, putrid. All the cast either sound like, or are, dubbed, and their voice over artists are people who don't seem to be able to read a script properly, much less act; this casts some shade on the quality of the original actors too. Inexplicable things happen, like a charred ghost girl screaming 'Get out of my house!' for no apparent reason, and Mr Lawst disclosing his penchant for chopping up dead bodies. It's all underscored by a soundtrack that sounds like shopping centre elevator music, and there is so much bad CGI that I became convinced that everything I was looking as was green screen created (most was filmed at the massive Hangdian World Studios in China, which may explain the movie's lack of place and atmosphere). Very, very bad.

A Centenary of Fantastic Films - 1921 #1 The Phantom Carriage aka Körkarlen (Sweden 1921: Dir Victor Sjöström)

Swedish director Victor Sjöström is possibly best known as stubborn old physician Professor Isak Borg in Ingmar Bergman's insightful and insular 1957 masterpiece Wild Strawberries aka Smultronstället. One of Sjöström's 44 acting credits, he also has a role in 1921's The Phantom Carriage. This was his 24th feature, made three years before he made the movie from his homeland to Hollywood at the request of Louis B. Mayer; he'd lived in the USA for six of the first seven years of his life, after his father relocated there.

Many of the director's early works before The Phantom Carriage are now lost. This film, like two of his earlier movies prior to this one, was based on 'Körkarlen' aka 'Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!', a 1912 novel by Selma Lagerlöf. Lagerlöf was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature: she had sold the movie rights to her unpublished works to Swedish Cinema Theatre, a company who in 1919 merged with Filmindustri AB Skandia and continued operations as Svensk Filmindustri AB. This period of Swedish cinematic history produced a wealth of output which found international popularity (The Phantom Carriage was a huge success both in and outside of Sweden) and was a cited influence on the work of Ingmar Bergman, born three years before this movie was released.

The film is set on New Year's Eve: Sister Edit (Astrid Holm), a member of the Salvation Army (the movement had been present in Sweden since the close of the 19th Century), is dying of consumption. She makes a last request to summon a man called David Holm (Sjöström) to her bedside. 

Holm is a drunk who has abandoned his wife Anna (Hilda Borgström) and their two children. When we meet him he's in a graveyard with two other drunks; he regales them with a story, told to him by his friend Georges (Tore Svennberg), that the last man to die on New Year's Eve is cursed to drive the carriage of death for the next year, collecting the souls of the newly deceased in the service of The Grim Reaper. Georges was the last person to die before the previous New Year was ushered in.

Edit's friend Gustavson (Tor Weijden) finds David and asks him to return to Edit's house; he refuses and, in a disagreement with the other drunks, David is slain just before the bells of midnight. The cart of death arrives for him and David takes over the reins from the previous driver, who is of course Georges.

The cart of death in The Phantom Carriage 

Before David takes up the job for the next year, in a series of flashbacks Georges reminds him of the consequences of his dissolution (ironic in that it was Georges who introduced the formerly upstanding David to the demon drink): how David mistreated his wife and children, leading them to walk out on him; the spells in prison; how he similarly led his brother astray, his sibling killing a man in a moment of drunkenness.

The previous New Year's Eve, riddled with consumption himself, David had drunkenly attended a Salvation Army 'pop up' mission at which he had met Edit, who looks after him, "never giving a thought to the germs she had inhaled". Edit sees David as someone worth saving, but he seems beyond hope, exclaiming: "I'm a consumptive, but I cough into people's faces, in the hope of finishing them off. Why should they be better than us?" Even her attempt to reunite David and his wife ends in disaster.

George takes David by force to meet Edit. Initially she is unable to make him repent, but David, increasingly wracked with guilt, eventually prostrates himself at her bedside, and Edit dies. Finally George takes David back to the house where Anna, living with her kids, has decided to end all their lives. This provokes a sincere outpouring of grief from the wayward husband. Georges, satisfied of this repentance, releases David's soul back into his body; alive again, he is just in time to race home and stop his wife from her actions, and they reconcile.

While The Phantom Carriage is at its heart an old fashioned morality tale - man descends to drunkenness, refuses help and finds last minute salvation - and is clearly in debt to Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' in both time of the year and moral message, it remains a refreshingly modern looking film. The story within story flashbacks effectively break up the narrative, and while the superimposition effects may not be as impressive today, at the time they were extraordinary, particularly in that they were incorporated into the action rather than seen as stand alone gimmicks. Some still have the power to move: a scene where death picks up a body from the bottom of the sea, or walks into a house to claim the soul of a man who has just shot himself, remain powerful.

The themes of the film were remarkably topical. In Sweden at the time of filming alcohol misuse had accelerated to such a rate that, from 1919 onwards, every Swedish citizen was given an alcohol ration book which controlled how much booze they could buy each month. And following the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 - 1920 Tuberculosis (or consumption) remained a big killer in the country, particularly of younger men.

The novel would be filmed twice more. In 1939 French director Julien Duvivier made The Phantom Wagon (original title La charrette fantôme) and then nearly twenty years later in 1958 Arne Mattsson adapted the novel again in Sweden under its original title Körkarlen.

You can watch The Phantom Carriage here. 

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #8: Reviews of Curse of Bloody Mary (UK 2021), The Ghosts of Borley Rectory (UK 2021), Ghost Tale (UK 2021), When the Screaming Starts (UK 2021), The Ghost of Winifred Meeks (UK 2021) and The Curse of Humpty Dumpty (UK 2021)

Curse of Bloody Mary aka Summoning Bloody Mary aka Bloody Mary (UK 2021: Dir David Gregory) Indie creature features with Scott Jeffrey and his ilk behind the lens can feel a little formulaic. In the by now familiar prologue that launches us straight into the action, staff members Francine (Chrissie Wunna) and Ben (Stephen Saley) are fighting a supernatural creature called 'Bloody Mary' at a health spa (in reality a youth hostel in Yorkshire). Ben stops to smash a mirror, hoping to halt the advance of the creature, but karks it instead.

We meet four young women, reuniting for a weekend at the very same health spa: Elena (Antonia Whillans), journalist Morgan (Beatrice Fletcher), Kate (Sofia Lacey) and pregnant Dani (low budget fright flick scream queen Sarah T Cohen with a terrible strap on bump). They're here for a wellness weekend, and particularly for Elena and Dani to heal old wounds as a result of a bit of love rivalry back at school. Francine, who we saw in the prologue, is the rather distracted owner of the facility, and the girls seems to be the only guests; perhaps Francine's twitchiness has something to do with the fact that the mirror, responsible for Bloody Mary's appearance, is still front and centre in the lounge.

Morgan finds a book partly written in Latin which includes the legend of Bloody Mary. Francine later tells them the legend of Mary, a witch who, after losing a child, killed young girls and used their blood to resurrect her dead baby. Burned at the stake, she vowed that if anyone should say her name in front of a mirror three times she'd come for them. Francine encourages the girls to have a go, and as soon as the deed is done skedaddles out of the building. "I did everything you asked" she says to no-one in particular.

So yes the familiar setup transitions from friendship drama to a fight for life, as 'Bloody Mary' comes looking for victims who, when they are in the creature's thrall, are depicted via a red filter. I probably don't need to mention that the friendship rifts heal, there's a final girl, and the movie rather abruptly ends with footage of said FG being sick out of a car window. Nice.

The Ghosts of Borley Rectory (UK 2021: Dir Steven M. Smith) Despite the UK's rich history of haunted houses, it's perhaps surprising that few of them have gained any wider fame outside those with a direct interest. Perhaps this is why independent filmmakers have repeatedly returned to the subject of Borley Rectory, reputedly 'the most haunted house in England'. The fact that the claim was made by Harry Price, a now largely debunked psychic investigator who had attached himself to the legend of the Rectory for three decades, is telling: Price worked hard to keep the property's supernatural flame alive - and profiting from writing about it - even after it was destroyed by fire in 1938.

This is director Smith's second bite of the Borley cherry; his first, 2019's The Haunting of Borley Rectory, was set in 1944 after the building has burned to the ground. Ghosts is set in 1937, shortlly before the fire occurred, and as such serves as a prequel to the events of the first film. Although it's not that simple; Price's infamy at the Rectory had been established in the 1920s, so the events in this movie are based on his return to the place for a second attempt to record paranormal activity. Here Price (played by Toby Wynn-Davies, giving us a spook hunter considerably more well mannered than the real thing, if accounts are to be believed) has returned to occupy the building for a six month rental and to prove, scientifically, that the spirits he believes occupy the Rectory actually exist. 

In this endeavour, and in the interests of objectivity, he's joined by a small number of supposedly independent witnesses including the real life characters Reverend Lionel Foyster (Julian Sands), his wife Marianne (Leila Kotori, a woman around whom previous supernatural activity had been focused), journalist Charles Sutton (Colin Baker), landowner Basil Payne (Christopher Ellison) and medium Estelle Roberts (Toyah Willcox, excellent as ever). Although based on real events, Price actually invited 48 observers to his sojourn in the Rectory, but that's low budget filmmaking for you. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the movie is that, although in real life Price's experiments came to almost nought, there is actually a proper (demonic, thanks James Wan) ghost nun, who seems to tease the ghost hunter by appearing to everyone except him. 

Smith's film is a distinct improvement on his previous Borley outing; production values are pretty good and there is some fine attention to detail (Smeetham Hall in Essex makes a pretty good stand in for the demolished Rectory). As you would expect there is a lot of talking in the movie but, unusually, this doesn't slow the film down too much; Wynn-Davies's compelling performance holds things together and his supporting cast, for the most part, deliver the goods more than adequately. Quite how much we're able to engage with a lead character (Price) and a setup that have both been comprehensively disproved is another matter.

Ghost Tale (UK 2021: Dir Katherine King) Peter (Daniel de Bourg) and his partner Laura (Johanna Stanton) are at the end of the road together. They've purchased a house for quick sell on, but now they're splitting up and managing the sale while clearly finding it difficult to be in the same room together. Peter shows round a mysterious character called Mr Blake (Edmund Duff) who's interested in buying but then promptly tells Peter that "this is not a happy home" and disappears. Even stranger, the photograph of a young girl appears in the bedroom of the house. Peter thinks that the photo may be that of Emily, who lived across the road. The occupants of that house fled earlier, unable to remain because they thought their house was haunted.

Peter and Laura do some internet sleuthing, finding references to Blake and their house, and also the mystery of a ghost girl, who "peers through the curtains looking for the person that killed her." The couple agree not to stay but find themselves mysteriously locked in the bedroom; the ghost girl is coming for them. 

At first King's first feature feels slightly awkward, until you realise that it's Peter and Laura's unwillingness to be with each other that causes that discomfort for the viewer. Ghost Tale is a bit of a love story in reverse; the couple realise what they've lost by being thrown together in adversity. Bizarrely, almost all of the drama takes place while they are locked in a bedroom of a house they do not call home. Whereas other movies would open events out, King bravely keeps her leads locked in a small space while things happen around them and the 'onion skin' of the story is gradually unpeeled.

This is an unusual, ambitious film that won't be for everyone, but King (whose previous shorts are worth checking out on Vimeo here) is an interesting filmmaker and Ghost Tale's black and white photography and unusual atmosphere stays in the memory; thematically and stylistically it reminded me of the movies of Richard Mansfield. Which is a very good thing.

When the Screaming Starts (UK 2021: DIR Conor Boru) Boru’s spirited first comedy feature, a cheeky titular riff on the 1973 movie And Now the Screaming Starts! (but with no narrative connection to that film) finds Norman Graysmith (Jared Rogers), a Louis Theroux type video journalist, shadowing serial killer wannabe Aidan Mendle (Ed Hartland) as he prepares to perpetrate mass murder across London.

Mendle takes his craft seriously; he has a collection of knives and guns, reads Poe aloud while wearing a raven’s head, and has it in for the neighbour’s cat, Richard, who he accidentally shoots.

Mendle decides to take the Charles Manson route to deadly mayhem, all lovingly recorded by Graysmith; with his serial killer loving partner Claire (Kaitlynn Reynell) (whom he met attending the aftermath of a hit and run accident), he interviews and assembles a ‘family’ of would be maniacs, including a restaurant critic desperate to taste human flesh; she doesn’t make the shortlist. Aidan houses the motley crew he’s put together in a disused warehouse, and trains them in preparation for their first slaughter, the target unexpectedly turning out to be the wealthy family of one of his disciples, posh Amy (Octavia Gilmore). But Aidan lacks Charlie’s charisma; before long there’s infighting among the group, leadership challenges, and the wheels come off his plans for notoriety. Can he regain control and get his murderous scheme back on track?

For the first half of the film, When the Screaming Starts is an amiable and occasionally funny movie very much in the observational mode of a lot of contemporary TV comedy (favourite line: “Too IRA?” Aidan asks as he models one of the ‘looks’ he’s planning to wear on his murder sprees, a balaclava and combat jacket outfit).

So the first slaughter, when it arrives, is somewhat jarring and authentically nasty; sadly from here on in the movie loses its focus, as if, having set up its shtick, Boru doesn’t really know what to do with it. There are some interestingly satirical observations on power and leadership, and a fine turn from Gilmore as the mean as a snake Amy, but interest quickly faded for me after a promising start.

The Ghost of Winifred Meeks (UK 2021: Dir Jason Figgis) Figgis's slow burn ghost story (originally just called 'Winifred Meeks' with the title changed by the UK distributor) is a change of pace for the director. Perhaps aided by his partnership with producer/paranormal journalist John West, both have dug deep into their lifelong love of MR James and the BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas to deliver something that definitely taps in to those vibes (my partner, who isn't a big fright movie fan, looked in at what I was watching and asked "is this an old TV show?" which, hopefully, is the effect intended).

Lara Belmont is Anna James, a writer seeking a bit of alone time to work and distance herself from her failed relationship with ex David. She finds a place in Suffolk, Sea View House, in the middle of the country near the sea, and sets up home. She's working on the latest of a successful series of teen crime novels, and initially the change of environment seems to kick start her creative juices. But before long she senses that she's not alone in the house. Anna thinks she sees a strange woman in the garden, but can't be sure because of occlusions in the window glass. Strange figures begin to invade her dreams, which prompt her to uncover the history of the house and the tragic figure of Winifred Meeks, a former occupant. Isolated at the property, her emotional vulnerability seems to attract the restless spirit.

So it's probably best to get this out of the way: The Ghost of Winifred Meeks is a very, and I mean very, slowburn movie. Little happens for the first half of it, and James remains an elusive character to read; her interactions with her parents on the phone are pleasant but no more, and she is (undertsandably) in no hurry to patch things up with her philandering ex. She seeks isolation but this renders her vulnerable to the angry spirit of Meeks. Like the (male) victims of the stories of M R James, whose intellectual curiosity backfires on them, Belmont's writer is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you don't get on with Belmont's Anna then you may not like the movie, but I found it an absorbing if sometimes frustrating piece, which effortly captured the spirit of the genre TV drama.

The Curse of Humpty Dumpty (UK 2021: Dir Scott Jeffrey) Make that written, produced and directed by Scott Jeffrey. Yep, one of the key figures in low budget Indie Brit horror is back with yet another of his features made or released this year; and this just might be one of his best.

British Fantastic Films regular Nicola Wright is Wendy, a 50 year old mother of two who is becoming increasingly forgetful and confused; she's also having scary dreams which may actually be flashbacks to the past. Daughter Liz (Sian Altman) is worried for her mother and recommends that Wendy leave her flat in the city and move back to the family home in the country. The aim is that she'll be looked after by Liz and her sister Hazel (Antonia Whillans), who can't see what the fuss is about with their mother and thinks that Liz is being overprotective. Wendy's husband has long split the scene, leaving his family after being accused of adultery. Or so we're told.

No sooner are they all home than they receive a visit from Beryl (Danielle Scott), the sister of Wendy's ex. She's still suspicious about the sudden disappearance of her brother, and also keen to stake a claim on the property.

Shopping in a local bric a brac shop, Wendy comes across a gruesome looking lifesize Humpty Dumpty doll. Although they don't buy it, all are surprised to see the toy slumped on their doorstep when they return home. The arrival of HD in their lives seems to be a trigger for Wendy's increasing mania and vivid recollections of previous violence, including dreams about the toy murdering other people, transformed into a hideous monster with rows of jagged sharp teeth. As Wendy's mind deteriorates, she begins to recall the past; and her role in previous events.

The combination of almost soap opera drama and horror, which is a mainstay of many indie Brit Fantastic films, often feels a bit forced; not so with Jeffrey's film. Much of this is down to Wright's incredible performance as Wendy, her Alzheimers twisting all of her memories and, eventually, the ability to recognise people (the combination of this terrible illness with horror elements was also a feature of Jonathan Zaurin's excellent 2021 feature Wyvern Hill). The HD figure is truly disturbing, perhaps more so in that the audience is never sure whether it's real or not. Sian Altman is also excellent as the distressed Liz; indeed the whole cast are thoroughly convincing in their roles. Sure the poster may look like The Curse of Humpty Dumpty is another generic creature movie (and the title doesn't help either) but the movie itself is far better than that.