However the short films which make up the feature compensate for the drab interiors by being, for the most part, a lot of fun; the budget was apparently £10,000, most of which, I would guess, was spent on costumes. The individual stories, which apart from using the hotel as their base - and having generally supernatural subject matter - don't have anything in common, is a plus as it's the variety of shorts on offer that makes The Haunted Hotel zip along nicely.
Travelling between the 1940s and the present day, the portmanteau highlights include: a hotel regular enjoying one last dance with the ghost of his late wife; a horror writer having a breakdown and encountering local beastly legend Black Shuck; a 'Horror Hotel' whose ghostly staff members are incompetent; and a helpful spirit who comes to the aid of a young girl about to be taken advantage of.
As a postscript, since the film was made the hotel has re-opened, although sadly it seems that little has been spent on redecorating. If you look the place up on Trip Advisor the customer reviews are scarier than anything in The Haunted Hotel, and some of the visitors' photos show rooms in much the same state as when filming took place.
It's the 1970s and parapsychologist Barun Rai (Priyanshu Chatterjee) has been summoned to Corvid's Head, an American town that looks very like the UK (that's because it is). The reason for his presence is a rash of deaths, with various menfolk taking their lives by jumping off a cliff.
Meanwhile two newlyweds have just bought a house on the same cliff. Harmesh (Sid Makkar) and his wife Soumili (Nyra Banerjee) instantly fall in love with their impressive new home, but it's not long before Soumili finds an old book in the basement and there are signs that the house may be haunted. A visiting priest tends to agree when he's attacked by a swarm of bees (yeah I know). Rai and his investigating assistant Sukhbir (Aakash Shukal, wearing an oversized wig that has to be seen to be believed - and please forgive me Mr Shukal if that was your own hair) uncover the reason behind the haunting; a jilted fiancée (genre regular Ayvianna Snow) who swears vengeance on all men from beyond the grave. Can they exorcise the spirit before more men's lives are sacrificed?
Apparently the original running time of the movie was two and a half hours, apparently designed to be shown on Indian TV in 20 minute bursts. The resulting digest is a still overlong 120 minutes, but in its mix of loopy plot twists and batshit visuals (think a sort of Bollywood Garth Marenghi's Darkplace) you're unlikely to be bored; just confused. As Rai, Chatterjee is a laconic, cigar chewing chap with no discerning sense of humour, a quality much needed when dealing with the nonsense he encounters. The story might be hoary but you'll stay for the VFX which are over the top, often unnecessary, and quite wonderful. The end credits of the movie (and just look at the size of the technical cast, including an 'Insect developer') tell us that Barun Rai will return; quickly please, Mr Bhattacharjee!
Two years later Wright returned with an (overly) ambitious movie, also with science out of control at its core. Deep in the country a number of disappearances are leaving the authorities, and local news channels, baffled; the discovery of bodies suggests an end to the mystery, but things are just hotting up.
A young bride to be is kidnapped on the day of her wedding. Elsewhere a single mother, alcoholic because of abuse from her father, has her baby taken from her by shadowy figures. Two male friends are having a blokey getaway, their destination a bondage festival called 'Sick Club'. Another parent becomes distraught when both her daughters go missing at a playground.
What links these characters isn't clear, but may have something to do with an old man called Doctor Jones, an operations room which is directing the action, and a historic series of experiments during the Cold War, involving children being subjected to protein modification tests.
The film is called Torture for good reason; a number of the indignities foisted on the captured people are pretty unpleasant. Sadly the word can also be used to describe some of the performances in the movie; it's a messy old film, with narrative strands all over the place and only a partial explanation offered. This may well be what Wright was aiming for (there's a definite nihilistic nod to Romero's 1973 movie The Crazies here) but it makes the whole thing very disjointed, and there wasn't enough style in the thing to create tension or, it has to be mentioned, sustain real interest.
Five unrelated people, each with their own traumata, sign up for a weekend retreat at the home of a Hypnotist (David France) with an excellent reputation. Triggered by a trance state induced by their host, we witness their phobias one by one. Andy (Justin Courtney) has entomophobia, a fear of insects (a particularly disturbing scene in which a large number of cockroaches - and spiders - crawl across his naked torso). Nicole (Julia Florimo) has prigophobia; a fear of choking. Wesley (Paul Law Beaumont) has agrizoophobia; a fear of teddy bears. Amy (Nansi Nsue) has masklophobia (as the word suggests, a fear of masks). And finally Mickey (Christopher Miles) has trauma stemming from being an abused child who narrowly escaped death; this is depicted via a very weird scene showing adult Mickey's head on a child's body, emoting in a crib.
Nothing else in the film really matches these scenes in terms of horror; the rest is taken up with the increasingly controlling behaviour of the Hypnotist, who gradually reveals his real motive as some kind of collector of souls, while at the same time forcing the five to confront the basis for their fears. DiM is an at times very creepy extended short, claustrophobically directed and with convincing performances from all concerned.
You can watch Darkness in Mind here.
An imminent and unscheduled visit from China's emperor, who has heard of and is interested in the project, forces Novak to rush the rest of Jones's development, installing an upgrade which has an unfortunate side effect; instead of simply updating the AI's operating system it sits alongside it, creating two minds, one benevolent, one malevolent.
Elsewhere in the city's Red District - a sort of Philip K. Dick futuristic sleazepark - Suza (Jade Bulmer), another robot, is trying to give her pimp boss Ivan (Keith Hyland) the slip. It's inevitable that Jones and Suza will come into contact with each other as they navigate the Merseyside mean streets.
'No Droids Allowed' reads a sign on a cafe; not only are our robots in conflict with each other but there's a world of AI mistrust out there (seems things haven't changed then). Cunningham's movie has more than a whiff of paranoia about it. Developed from a 4 minute short film into a feature, this one so nearly didn't make completion (you can read about Cunningham's many and varied struggles here) but I'm really pleased it did. Look, J1S isn't particularly original but the sheer passion involved in creating a world which is familiar but different has paid off. There are elements of Blade Runner, The Terminator and Manga in the film, but there's a very human side to things too. Bohdi and Bulmer are both great and there's real pace to the editing. I liked this a lot.
You can watch Captain Callum Explores the Universe here.
