The Thirteenth Reunion

A female journalist who works on the 'woman's section' of a magazine is sent on an assignment to check out a new diet club which uses controversial methods. A man she befriends there winds up dying soon afterwards in an accident. Before long she discovers that there is a strange arrangement between the funeral house where his body has been sent and the health farm she is investigating.

The Thirteenth Reunion is the second episode in the 'Hammer House of Horror' series and is a definite improvement on the opener, Witching Hour. It was directed by Peter Sasdy who helmed earlier Hammer feature films, such as the impressive Countess Dracula. This one works mostly due to its mystery/thriller set-up which ensures that the plot is quite intriguing throughout. A sinister atmosphere is maintained quite well as we get nearer and nearer to the truth of what dark secrets underlie the strange arrangement. I think the very fact that the script incorporates a weight watching organisation into the plot of a horror story makes it fairly distinctive as it's hardly the norm. Towards the end we discover that the macabre events all stem from a high profile plane crash, the fallout of which is somewhat disturbing. And it all ends on an agreeably dark note. Once again, Hammer have assembled a decent cast, with James (Trainspotting) Cosmo as a particularly nasty diet coach who berates a poor overweight woman in a memorably uncomfortable scene, Warren (A Clockwork Orange) Clarke is underused as the early victim and Gerard (Extras) Kelly is a young suspicious funeral house worker who initially raises questions about the strange events unfolding.

THE THIRTEENTH REUNION is an odd little episode of HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR because I think it's the only story which isn't supernatural. The storyline concerns a female reporter whose new story is a new-fangled diet club where the participants are subjected to ruthless condemnation by their diet coaches. Soon enough the reporter discovers something more sinister is going on when people start turning up dead and a local funeral home is involved...

I wanted to like this a lot, but I'm afraid the suspense just wasn't there for me, despite the presence of Hammer veteran Peter Sasdy as director. The mystery is never particularly mysterious and the storyline feels a bit bloated despite the short running time, and it doesn't help that the lead characters are rather unsympathetic. Still, there are early roles for James Cosmo (GAME OF THRONES) and Warren Clarke, and the scene in which Cosmo has a go at a dieting woman is unintentionally hilarious.

The second episode in the series is directed by a veteran (albeit a latter-day recruit) of Hammer Films. Again, while hardly outstanding, this is a more than adequate effort – even if, for the most part, the narrative follows a mystery-thriller pattern rather than outright horror. Then again, the studio has had its fair share of films in this style and, in any case, the final revelation is horrific (if not exactly unpredictable) – truth be told, it's more 'shocking' than most of their now rather quaint films! The casting is modest but nonetheless effective: Julia Foster overacts somewhat (particularly when supposed to show bewilderment) as the reporter heroine covering the goings-on at a newly-established diet clinic, Dinah Sheridan (best-known for her role in GENEVIEVE [1953]) is her newspaper editor, Gerard Kelly the young funeral attendant who alerts Foster to his employers' extra-curricular activities (which she discovers have a connection with the clinic), and Warren Clarke (Dim from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE [1971]) gets a nice role as an ill-fated patient who befriends Foster but ends up getting the wrong sort of raw deal!

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!

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.