drthorstenkrings

Horror High is typical drive-in fare from the 70s. Cheaply made, gory and sleazy. The story is not very original. But that's not really the point of a shlockfest. It is simply not well executed. The film takes forever to get really started and even then it is slow moving and predictable. The sound is not very good.

Raumpatrouille is one of the few masterpieces of German television. The writing is very good, the acting is superb and the special effects are amazing for the time. It is one of the few shows that really re-imagines the future completely. When I rewatched it as an adult I recognized the sub text. The future they are living in is clearly a dictatorship. So there is a lot of German soul searching going on: McLane is of course the noble German officer who remains decent in spite of the dictatorship he lives in. For a long time the distinction between the Third Reich and the war was a conservative narrative in Germany. That is essentially what is being shown here.

The second half of the film is pure suspense worthy of Hitchcock. It made the term rabbit boiler enter the English language. What doesn't work for me is the character development. She turns into an emotionally instable psycho after having been portrayed as an independent and strong woman. He on the other hand is actually a rather nasty piece of work and is then transformed into the victim for whom we are supposed to feel sympathy.