The Thirteenth Reunion

This episode caps the entire anthology for me. It has genuine horror, thrills, spills and spooky moments to please the most hardened horror fan. Brilliant turns from all the cast, from a very youthful Gerard Kelly to the ever genteel Richard Pearson who for one departs from his usual 'old buffer' roles to a sinister and evil old gentleman. Careful use of locations, mainly in and around Hammer's former HQ of Bray and Windsor add to the atmosphere, especially that the production team showed the patience in this episode to allow for clear skies above so unlike on some other episodes in the anthology, there is little disruption from aircraft noise as Bray/Windsor were very much on the Heathrow flight path as there is in a few other HHoH episodes. Where some episodes fall flat or get swallowed up in trying to be overwhelming in the 'mindtrip' themes of madness or breakdown, this one stands alone and could well have been/Should be a standalone film under the Hammer banner....

Ruth is a journalist for a female magazine and gets hold of a new miracle diet from an organisation calling itself Think Thin . After the death of a friend called Ben in a car crash one of the funeral directors Andrew who buried Ben visits Ruth and tells her there's something amiss at work and also something that ties in with the Think Thin organisation

This is a fairly efficient episode of THE HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR . It's not exactly ground breaking but in its defence it doesn't contain any supernatural elements which makes it fairly credible . Okay it's not realistic drama but as a standard mystery thriller it just about works . The main problem is that once you know what is at the centre of the mystery involving the funeral directors and Think Thin the cat is let out of the bag and the impact is gone on repeat viewings . It also might work better if there's a fashionable diet in the news . The 13th Reunion was broadcast a few years before the F plan diet and if the cult of dieting had been in the news perhaps this episode might have been better remembered

One interesting aspect is the casting of a couple of Scottish actors in pivotal roles . One is James Cosmo who made a career playing ginger haired Scottish hard men and it's amusing seeing him reducing a dieter to tears " Have ya looked in the mirror recently ? No wonder your husband is working late " . The other actor is Gerard Kelly who would find fame in Scotland playing Willie Melvin in the long running Scottish sit com CITY LIGHTS and he gives a very understated performance here

Ruth, the reporter of the women page of a magazine, is assigned by her editor to participate of a ten weeks course of a new weight organization called "Think Thin". In accordance with the letter of a reader, the system would be very masochist and depressive, destructing the self-esteem of the patient. Ruth makes a friend in the course, and he dies in a car crash. In the funeral, an employee of the funeral house discloses weird events that are happening in his job. In her investigation, Ruth finds dark and macabre secrets.

Although being predictable in a certain moment, I liked very much this short story of "Hammer House of Horror". This film is very well played and directed, has many outdoors scenes, very unusual in Hammer's movies, and is very dark. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A 13a Reunião"("The Thirteenth Reunion")

The first of three episodes directed by Peter Sasdy in this series, "The Thirteenth Reunion" is an acceptable if slightly overlong horror-drama, with a surplus of recognisable faces that service a storyline that doesn't quite add up.

Ruth (Julia Foster) is a journalist tasked by her editor to investigate a controversial diet technique called Think Thin. At her first meeting she meets Ben (Warren Clarke) who has been attending for a while and they hit it off, but on the way back from their first date he's run off the road and dies. At the funeral, Ruth is approached by Andrew (Gerard Kelly) who works at the funeral home and who suggests that all at Think Thin is not above board.

It's funny, watching these anthology style shows that the pool of actors is such that people are reappearing. I'd seen both Warren Clarke and George Innes in recent episodes of "The Frighteners" I'd watched. This episode had a number of other recognisable actors, including James Cosmo, who still is in high profile projects in 2020, and Gerard Kelly who was a regular on TV until his untimely death in 2010. Julia Foster has the most to do in this one, piecing together the various threads of this story into one complete picture.

And that's perhaps my issue with this episode, it feels like three tangentially related stories pushed together in an attempt to form one, but it makes less sense the more you think about it. The storylines involving the undertakers and the stately home do sort of fit together, but why the Think Thin aspect is involved is less clear, as you'd think that their objectives would be against what the others want? (Sorry if that sounds vague, I'm trying to write without spoilers). An OK episode that struck a nice tone, particularly towards the end, but is perhaps a little longer and disjointed than it really ought to be.

This is yet another memorable episode of the classic Hammer TV series that illuminated our Saturday nights back in the final months of 1980.

This time, the action centers on young Fleet Street journalist Ruth (nicely played by the likable Julia Foster) - who's tasked with enrolling at a private slimming clinic in the countryside, in order to track her progress for the paper's women's page.

Ruth soon finds that the clinic's methods are a little unorthodox and, after a man whom she befriends on the course dies in mysterious circumstances in a car crash, finds herself investigating a local funeral parlor - along with a rather skeptical young employee of said parlor who suspects things aren't what they appear to be...

This story plays its macabre theme well, and keeps the viewer guessing right until the end. Julia does a fine job as Ruth - looking to step up her journalistic career - and we also see a fairly early appearance from Scottish actor James Cosmo.

Despite some rather dodgy 'day for night' filming at one point, the story progresses well - and the conclusion is genuinely shocking and surprising. All in all, an original and memorable story that does a new take on the usual horror themes - and one that ultimately leaves a nasty taste in the mouth!