Short Sharp Shocks Volume 4 (1948 - 1980)

        It's time yet again for the BFI to dig deep into the vaults and provide us with a two disc Blu-ray collection of short subjects of a disquieting nature. Some of these played in cinemas, while others were seen on TV (and, in the case of the public information films, repeatedly) while a few are 8mm amateur pieces. I've reviewed all the volumes in the series so far and if you want to refresh your memory of what has been featured previously you can click on the following links:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Right! Let's see what we get this time around:

Disc One

The Fatal Night (1948)

Puse (opera singer Lester Ferguson) accepts a bet from his friends Cyril (Leslie Armstrong) and Tony (an impossibly young Patrick Macnee) that he can't spend the night in the haunted room of Tony's aunt's house. Soon Puce is alone, but a copy of the London Mystery Magazine is on hand to provide entertainment, and before you can say 'film within a film' we are watching the story of 'The Phantom Footsteps' in which two Victorian sisters inherit a house in London, spend their first night alone there, and encounter horror. The story may be over but the night is not for Puse who encounters horrors of his own, although the ultimate horror awaits his two friends.

THE FATAL NIGHT isn't bad at all, even if the storytelling is a bit convoluted. Director Mario Zampi builds a fine sense of suspense in a few key scenes and the whole 50 minute endeavour feels like a superior forerunner of anthology TV shows like Night Gallery or Tales of the Unexpected. Oddly enough, it was remade (nowhere near as effectively), as The Gentleman From America, a 1956 Season One episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Death in the Hand (1948)

After a bit of a slow start this one's really good fun and will have fans of Amicus films wondering if it inspired Milton Subotsky's framework story for his 1965 DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS. Five people are in a train compartment on the way to London. One is a palm reader and slowly we discover the lifeline of everyone in the carriage stops at their current age. What can they do? Is the train going to crash? Is it all just nonsense? Some very nice model work plus a cast that includes John Le Mesurier keeps this one tense and it's capped off by a decent little ending, too. 

Strange Experiences (1955 & 1956)

        Where would the Short Sharp Shocks series be without a couple of entries sufficiently dated and just downright odd to make your jaw drop just a little bit? This time we get two 'strange tales' narrated by Peter Williams - Hallowe'en Party and The Laughing Clown, both lasting about three minutes each.

Night Ride (1967)

Denis Meikle is most well known for his excellent history of Hammer Films, recently republished in a new edition. Here he writes, produces, directs and co-stars in a 19 minute home made 8mm movie in which three ne'er do wells attempt to steal money from an eccentric occultist who lives in a remote mansion. Needless to say it all goes horribly wrong. Highly imaginative and well wrought on a minimal budget, and the BFI have thoughtfully provided subtitles for the bits that are a bit muffled.

Mirror Mirror (1969)

An amateur 16mm piece, this time from the Eastbourne Cine Group. A man buys a make of mirror that was presumably freely available in the 1960s as the exact same one hung in the Probert family house for years (perhaps I should have stared into it longer). Looking into this one reveals a case of murder in Victorian times, one that has a neat, witty resolution that I'm not going to reveal here.

Extras on disc one include Mario Zampi, Jr talking about his father (10 minutes), John Attfield discussing NIGHT RIDE in which he plays the occultist (17 minutes) and four minutes of behind the scenes and outtake footage from NIGHT RIDE, as well as still galleries from THE FATAL NIGHT and DEATH IN THE HAND.

Disc Two

Scarecrow (1972)

In the drought-stricken Ireland of 1931 one farmer tries to stop crows from eating his crops with disastrous results in this 17 minute dialogue-free short that's big on texture and period detail if rather slight on plot.

Red (1976)

Goodness me what's this? Naked Gabrielle Drake tied to a dining hall table with leather straps in the presence of Mark HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR Wynter and Mr Roy from The Basil Brush Show? In a film that channels both Hammer Horror Gothic and Norman J Warren-style exploitation? Written and directed by Astrid Frank from Val Guest's 1973 AU PAIR GIRLS and who also appears in this as a nearly-topless serving girl? I haven't even mentioned Ferdy Mayne yet but hopefully connoisseurs of mid-1970s British X-certificate cinema will already be terribly excited at the prospect of this. 

        Ferdy is a wandering artist who happens across a country house in which the only other guests are three travelling troubadours. After they sing a terrible song Ferdy falls asleep and dreams (or does he?) of some right old SATAN'S SLAVE-type ritual sex and murder. RED played as the support feature to DAMIEN: OMEN II amongst others. Audiences must have wondered if they'd wandered into the wrong screen. And possibly the wrong cinema. Definitely a highlight of the set.

Sanctum (1976)

The most experimental film of the set may likely be the most challenging film for many. Winner of the IAC (Institute of Amateur Cinematographers) top prize in 1976 this 8mm film without dialogue looks at one man's obsession with religious iconography while being haunted by his own guilt. I think. The film has a new score by 'The Begotten' which is described as outstanding by the press release, although some may consider its wall to wall soundscape of electronic wheezing, farting and grinding something of a challenge to get through. 

Play Safe (1978)

Two public information films, consisting of 'the one with the frisbee, the child, and the power station' and a longer ten minute one on electricity featuring an animated owl that will remind some of a certain Inside No.9 episode.

Black Angel (1980)

Roger Christian's highly atmospheric epic fantasy short

(it runs about 30 minutes) made an impression on a generation of youngsters when it was shown as the support picture to THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in British cinemas. Many will have now caught up with it on YouTube but if you haven't, or if you fancy having this gorgeously shot, atmospheric piece of epic fantasy in a decent transfer then here it is, and thanks are due to the BFI for giving us an official version for our libraries. Familiar character actor Tony Vogel (who also starred in BBC1's 1979 Dick Barton series) plays a knight who returns home only to find his castle plundered and everyone dying of a strange disease. Eventually he meets the Black Angel of the title and has to face him / it in a duel. 

Disc two has two excellent extras. Astrid Frank discusses her life and career and the shooting of RED (18 minutes) while Roger Christian has a lot of interesting things to say about BLACK ANGEL and his relationship with George Lucas (22 minutes). There's also a stills gallery. The first pressing of the disc comes with a booklet featuring writing on each film as well as an essay by Sarah Appleton on NIGHT RIDE, and a short piece on The Begotten.  

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 4 is out in a two disc Blu-ray set from the BFI on Monday 13th October 2025

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 3 (1951-1985)

The BFI provides another welcome release in their series of strange, eerie, and occasionally positively eccentric short subjects that were intended for the nation's cinema screens back in the day. Like volumes one and two, we once again have a two disc set with a number of subjects from across those decades. So let's take a look at what we get this time:

Disc One:

Return to Glennascaul (1951)

Orson Welles suffers a spot of actor's block on the set of his OTHELLO and sets off for a bit of a drive in his car. He picks up a man having car trouble and then relates to us the story the man told him about picking up two female hitchhikers who took him back to their place. Oscar nominated for best short subject that year, RETURN TO GLENNASCAUL is a slight but entertaining enough tall tale which I'm not going to spoil for those who haven't seen it.

Strange Stories (1953)

Two short stories in 45 minutes, the first related by Valentine Dyall as he drives John Slater to the railway station and telling of the story of a man named Bartleby (the always watchable John Laurie) who applies for a job at a solicitors specifically because it has been there for a hundred years. The second is related by Slater after he has missed his train. This one's an entertaining mini-romp as a murderer and his wife try to escape justice by getting on the slowest boat ever to Tasmania. Familiar faces amongst the cast include Helen Horton (as the wife) whose other credits include PHASE IV, ALIEN, The Benny Hill Show and Dick Emery. What a CV. 

Strange Experiences: Grandpa's Portrait and Old Silas (1956)

Two very short (three minutes) and extremely slight weird tales which are worth watching for entertainment value. 

Maze (1969)

The only film in the set that may have you scratching your head, MAZE is 12 minutes of a camera following different people around London and documenting their interactions. And that's about it.

Extras on disc one include a fascinating seven minute piece from Vic Pratt about the company that made STRANGE STORIES, while director Bob Bentley discusses MAZE (and does explain it) in a piece that lasts longer than his film did.

Disc Two:

Skinflicker (1973)

A grim and intense forerunner of the found footage subgenre as three 'everyday normal people' - a teacher, a nurse and a parks gardener (played by Henry Woolf who was appearing in children's educational programme Words and Pictures around the same time) travel to the remote country home of 'a public figure' and proceed to kidnap him, brutally beating his wife and child in the process, before bringing him back to their London lockup where they torture and eventually kill him. The whole thing is recorded on a mixture of super 8mm and grainy 16mm footage with plenty of to camera commentary by the kidnappers that makes for an unsettling 44 minutes.

Broken Bottle (1973) and Don't Fool Around With Fireworks (1973)

Where would these discs be without a couple of public information films designed to wedge themselves into your brain in an attempt to deter you from, in these cases, leaving broken glass on the beach and throwing a firework in the face of a pretty girl.

The Terminal Game (1982)

This 33 minute piece is all about the sinister world of computers, and an evil tech company that's been rumbled by someone who has died under mysterious circumstances. His colleague follows in his footsteps and discovers he has to play an early 1980s text adventure game. After that it all gets a bit confusing but at least there's a decent music score from HAUNTING OF JULIA's Colin Towns

Wings of Death (1985)

Originally shown before Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET during it's UK release from Palace Pictures, WINGS OF DEATH features Dexter Fletcher as a young man spending a disgusting, hallucinatory and occasionally seriously creepy night in a boardinghouse. The 20 minute short is actually all about drug misuse, something that 1985 audiences had no trouble picking up, but the rocket-breasted mother and the bit where Dexter pulls off the top of his skull to reveal his brain certainly evoked a response back in the day.

Extras in disc two include three featurettes of about half an hour each in which the respective directors (Tony Bicat, Geoff Lowe and Nichola Bruce & Michael Coulson) discuss SKINFLICKER, TERMINAL GAME and WINGS OF DEATH. Composer Colin Towns talks about the score for TERMINAL GAME and there's behind the scenes footage and an image gallery for WINGS OF DEATH. Finally, the set also includes a 34 page booklet featuring new writing on all the films included in the set. 

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 3 is out from the BFI on their Flipside label as a two Blu-ray set on Monday 9th October 2023

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 2 (1943 - 1986)

 

Here we go again with another pick'n'mix sampling of what British cinema has had to offer in the way of short subjects over the years, all of them with the accent on the macabre. Like the first volume, which I covered here and in which I talked a little bit about why these productions existed in the first place, a variety of different types of programme fillers have been included over two discs. So let's dig in and see what the BFI has put together for us this time.

Disc One

Quiz Crime No.1 and Quiz Crime No.2 (1943 and 1944)

We kick off with some jolly japes as you the audience get to play detective in four mysteries (two per 18 minute short). Antiquated clues and even more antiquated accents all add to the fun of these charming little pieces which are more enjoyable than any more modern attempt to ridicule them ever could be. I wonder if there were any more.

The Three Children (1946)

Proof that British public information films were capable of being grim way before the 1970s (and rather atmospheric, too) here's this little three minute short. I'll leave it to you to discover the subject matter, but that chap up there doesn't look very friendly, does he?

Escape From Broadmoor (1948)

The escape has already happened by the time this one is underway, and psychopathic burglar-cum-killer John Le Mesurier is busy plotting his next heist, which involves his return to the country house where he killed a maid. The first half of this 38 minute short gives us the backstory, the rest is all atmosphere and gradually weirder goings-on, until we reach the climax of this, the first in a proposed series of 'Psychic Mysteries'. The first directorial credit for John Gilling (Hammer's THE REPTILE, PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, THE MUMMY'S SHROUD) who does everything he can to wring atmosphere out of his limited resources.

Mingaloo (1958)

The one truly laughable short in this entire set comes courtesy of co-writer (with Anthony Page) and director Theodore Zichy (who gave us PORTRAIT OF A MATADOR and DEATH WAS A PASSENGER in Volume One). Zichy signs his work as if it's great art. It's certainly great something. "Of its time" is probably the kindest way to describe MINGALOO, a film that manages to cram in a number of inappropriate elements in its first few minutes, including three men in brown face makeup. The female lead's voice is a special effect all to itself and the way she is treated by the male lead is, again "of its time". The plot is some slight stuff about an artist dreaming up a model of a dog that criminals then want to use for drug smuggling. However, in amongst all the amateurishness we get one decent, almost Lovecraftian dream, sequence involving a giant idol and a tiny girl, so it's worth at least one watch.  

Jack the Ripper (1963)

Screaming Lord Sutch gurns for England in this very early example of the pop video.

Disc one contains no extras.

Disc Two

The Face of Darkness (1976)

Lennard Pearce plays a right-wing MP whose wife was murdered by an extremist group. He's pushing to get a bill through parliament that will bring in identity cards and see the return of hanging. To improve his chances of success he uses ancient texts to find the burial site of a man excommunicated in the 1400s. He digs him up and the now revived 'Undead' plants a bomb at a local school before proving to be rather less controllable than the MP had hoped. There's a decent idea here but THE FACE OF DARKNESS tries way too hard to be taken as both arty and complex when it fact it's a very straightforward story. As a result it all comes across as a bit pompous and silly. If you're a fan of 1970s UK cinema (which of course I am) then it's of interest, but others will wonder how something like this ever ended up on the first half of an exploitation programme (in this case as the B feature to William Fruet's DEATH WEEKEND). 

The Dumb Waiter (1979)

A mini British 'stalk 'n' slash' as the man who has been sending Geraldine James threatening phone calls tries to break into her flat. Director Robert Bierman, who  went onto make the delirious Nicolas Cage-starring VAMPIRE'S KISS (1988) does a decent job of maintaining suspense in this one and it's a pity he didn't get the chance to make his own WHEN A STRANGER CALLS-style slasher.

Hangman (1985)

It's time for some good old public information film fun in this 17 minute short demonstrating some of the potential hazards to be encountered on building sites. Unlike 1978's BUILDING SITES BITE which was made to be shown in schools, HANGMAN is aimed squarely at the builders themselves, even if the titular lead comes across a bit like a Monty Python character in black garb and mask. Fans of Jon Pertwee-era Dr Who will enjoy the spectacle of Stuart Fell falling 30 feet, and the end credits reveal he was the stunt coordinator for the entire film.

The Mark of Lilith (1986)

This one's firmly at the art house end of the spectrum, examining the history of monstrous women in folklore and myth while at the same time giving us a storyline about a lesbian film-maker getting involved with a female vampire. By far the most 'art school project' of the films presented here, kudos to the BFI for ending this set on something a bit different, but it won't be to everyone's taste. 

Extras for disc two include interviews with FACE OF DARKNESS director Ian FH Floyd, DUMB WAITER director Robert Bierman, and MARK OF LILITH directors Bruna Fionda, Polly Biswas Gladwin and Zachary Nataf. There are also image galleries for those three films, as well as Putting on the Ritzy, a short piece which celebrates the history of the cinema where MARK OF LILITH was filmed. Add in a booklet and new artwork by Graham Humphreys and this is another fascinating shorts package from the BFI. Let's hope we get a Volume Three.

SHORT SHARP SHOCKS VOLUME TWO is out from the BFI in a two disc Blu-ray set on Monday 25th October 2021

Short Sharp Shocks (1949 - 1980)

 

If you went to the cinema in the UK up to the mid 1980s you may well have ended up watching a British short film before the main picture. This was because of a ruling that a proportion of every cinema programme shown in the UK had to include British content. It was funded by a levy on cinema tickets and the intention was to help fund British movie-making and keep the industry going. It all came to an end in the 1980s when the Thatcher government stopped it.  Many of the films were of the 'Why I Love Birmingham' (thanks Telly Savalas!) or 'Billy's Time Bike' variety, but some were weird, a few were strange and every now and then you'd get something that was outright horror. For an excellent summation of the British short horror film I'd recommend Darrell Buxton's monograph that also goes by the title Short Sharp Shocks. The very last short film I remember seeing at the cinema was Martin Holland's SUPERHERO (1982) starring Koo Stark, which played as the UK support to FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V A NEW BEGINNING during its release in October 1985. SUPERHERO isn't on this new set from the BFI (because it took place mainly in a comics shop and wasn't horror at all) but a whole collection of interesting and disturbing shorts are. So let's see what we've got here:

Disc One:

Lock Your Door (1949) and The Reformation of St Jules (1949)

These are less short films and more 'Jackanory-style' talking-to-camera pieces as author Algernon Blackwood tells an imagined audience two of his spooky stories within the comfort of his (presumably studio) study. It's rare to have any kind of record of authors of this period performing their own work and these provide a valuable record of one of the genre's most important practitioners doing just that. 

The Tell-Tale Heart (1953)

Welsh acting god Stanley Baker plays Edgar Allan Poe, reciting the title story within the confines of a gloomy garret and filmed in crackly black and white. Thought lost for many years, this twenty minute piece is this result of restoration work on a print from a private collection.

Death Was A Passenger (1958)

Terence Alexander boards a train and recognises a nun who helped him escape the Nazis under similar circumstances during the war in this rather slight tale directed by 'Zichy' (first name actually Theodore). Easily the least of the films on the set so if this is one of the first you watch don't worry, they do get better.

Portrait of a Matador (1958)

And this one *is* better in a kind of early proto-Twilight Zone / Amicus kind of way. Why is painter David obsessed with the portrait he painted of matador Manuel during a trip to Spain? Is it because Manuel hated it, died as a result of bull-fighting injuries but before he did swore he would have revenge on David for depicting him in such an unflattering manner? Most notable to BritHorror fans for appearances by Sandra Dorne (Richard Gordon's 1963 DEVIL DOLL) as the one who causes all the trouble and Hammer actress Yvonne Romain (billed here as Yvonne Warren) who plays Manuel's sister.

Extras on disc one include a a couple of interviews with Kate Lees of Adelphi Films,  one on the history of the company and another about the rescue of THE TELL-TALE HEART.

Disc Two:

Twenty-Nine (1969)

Graham Baird (Alexis Kanner, best known for appearing in the last three episodes of The Prisoner) wakes up in a strange bed wearing strange clothes. He gradually starts to piece together what happened over the last twenty four hours. Or does he? By the end of this one I still wasn't sure exactly what had happened. This one boasts an interesting cast, including Justine Lord who was in The Prisoner episode The Girl Who Was Death along with Kanner, Robert Lang, and Yootha Joyce as a prostitute. 

The Sex Victims (1973)

When lorry driver Jack Piper (Ben Howard, who plays the man who wants to rob Peter Cushing at the end of FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE) sees a naked woman on horseback on a lonely country road, his relentless pursuit of her leads him into the world of the supernatural. The subject matter of THE SEX VICTIMS would have benefitted from less perfunctory direction (imagine what Jose Larraz could have done with this idea) but nevertheless there's the feel of Celtic myth or Greek tragedy to this one, which despite an intrusive and rather annoying 1970s music score still manages to evoke a sense of adult fairy tale in its proceedings. Felicity Devonshire (from the opening titles of Graham Stark's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN DEADLY SINS) plays the girl and there are roles for Jane Cardew (THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW) and Alun Armstrong (from far more reputable stuff than any of the above).

The Lake (1978)

Barbara (Julie Peasgood from HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS) and her boyfriend Tony (Gene Foad) spend a sunny afternoon having a picnic near a lake where a man killed his entire family before disappearing. As with his 1981 Machenesque feature length horror THE APPOINTMENT, director Lindsey C Vickers manages to conjure a gradually mounting sense of dread using virtually no resources at all with this one. When's THE APPOINTMENT going to get the BFI flipside treatment, then?

The Errand (1980)

After working for cult UK directors Pete Walker and Norman J Warren, screenwriter David McGillivray's first project post 1978's TERROR was this short SF-horror crossover. In a near-future a soldier at a specialist training facility (Edward Kalinski from FRIGHTMARE) is sent on a special mission. But when he is almost killed he finds it difficult to obtain help. Finally the truth behind why he was sent into the field is revealed.

Disc Two's extras include a lengthy interview with the irrepressible David McGillivrary who offers an engaging career overview with elements that will be familiar to many, especially those who have read his book (he leaves out the spicier bits, naturally). There's also an interview with Julie Peasgood (18 minutes) and another with Peter Shillingford covering his career in British cinema as both cinematographer and producer. Finally there are image galleries for TELL-TALE HEART, THE LAKE and THE ERRAND, script galleries for THE LAKE and THE ERRAND and the original short story of the latter. The first pressing also comes with a booklet featuring new writing on the films from Vic Pratt, William Fowler and Josephine Botting. 

Short Sharp Shocks is out in a two-disc Blu-ray set from the BFI on Monday 23rd November 2020