Continuing my look through Volume 2 of the ‘Short Sharp shocks’ boxset. We have ‘Mingoloo’ a…frankly bizarre piece that is probably the complete opposite of a ‘Short Sharp shock’ (unless the shock is how much the writer/director had only contempt for women) but is strangely surreal enough so as to he compelling.

The plot? A sculpture awakens from a strange dream where he’s compelled to create a statue of a dog in a Asian art style. While investors visit the studio, one of them spots the sculpture, assumes the artists apprentice made it and essentially tries to schmooze the statue out of her for nefarious purposes.

It’s basically a 20 minute borderline screwball comedy that most reminded me of the old Harry Enfield sketch ‘Women: Know your limits’ only, while Harry Enfields sketchs were super self aware and mocked that kind of attitude. This was VERY sincere in its opinion that women SHOULD only be there to support men and be pretty. Which I still can’t quite believe was still a thing as late as the late 50s…

The direction and cine are basic, but fine enough. There’s a fair few continuity errors across the board with this one. But it’s so daft that I actually kind of can’t hate it too much. Given everything I’ve seen in Volume 1 and disc 1 of Volume 2 so far…its actually one of the more standout pieces…I know that’s not saying much, but it is…I think it’s almost certainly worth catching at least once just to laugh at for how regressive it is as a work.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/mingoloo/

I don’t trust any film that ends with an extended text crawl from the writer/director basically saying ‘who do you believe out of these 3 unreliable narrators, each of which has a fanciful reason as to why their story is wrong…The End.’

What a waste of time. A UK attempt at noir that’s staler than a 3 day past sell by baguette and sloppier than Oatmeal on dairy day.

Jesus…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/escape-from-broadmoor/

What If ‘Carnival Of souls’ was a PIF? Well! If you’ve ever wondered that, firstly…what?, get some help. But secondly! This! This is what it would be! The road safety equivalent of ‘Dark and Lonely Water’ This short warns that 3 children a day are taken away by a terrifying spectre that is death.

I think it’s terrific, ahead of its time and genuinely spooky. Great stuff!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-three-children/

I’m gonna keep it brief. It had pretty much the same issues as Quiz Crime #1 but here at least the mysteries made a *little* bit more sense and *could* probably actually be solved without directly being told some blurry bollocks in the background of one shot was the key to all of it.

I also preferred the detective in this one over the first…he seemed a bit more charismatic and invested.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/quiz-crime-no-2/

Kicking off volume 2 of the ‘Short Sharp shocks’ series from the BFI, I was quite hopeful that ‘Quiz Crime #1’ would be a bit of a lark.

Essentially a ‘whodunnit’ narrated to you by a detective who cracked the case! A thrilling quasi new years treat!

Unfortunately; ‘Quiz Crime’ is a silly thing, that doesn’t play by the rules. What do I mean? Well…prepare to have a 81 year old set of mysteries spoiled…because lord knows you won’t get them yourself.

The first case was one of a man who was found dead and stripped of belongings in the woods. Our detective goes to the Inn he was supposed to have checked into to speak to the bar keeper. Who denies the man ever arrived and invites you to check his room.

Our detective scours the room, plays with some golf clubs, and then arrests the barman and charges him with the murder! How were we supposed to crack the case?! Well! In the room the detective enters, in the background, is a table laid out ready for supper. The detective notes that the golf clubs delivered to the room are for a left handed golfer. And therefore HOW could the barman have KNOWN to set the table for a left handed person IF the victim DIDNT attend the bar!

(Literally, they expect you to have picked up on a blurry background detail that never actually gets brought up to crack the case…)

The second case is an actress who is murdered before her play is set to begin. This time around, I ignored the clues and just picked the first man the detective spoke to…7 minutes later with NON of the clues really making sense…I was right….these were terrible…a nice idea…but terrible.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/quiz-crime-no-1/

I gotta head out for a bit. I’ll review this when I get back. I just had to log it now because this goddamn movie is SO forgettable, I’d likely forget to log/review it if I didn’t set myself a note and log it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/santas-castle/

And finishing off volume 1 of the BFI’s ‘Short, Sharp Shocks’ set is ‘The Errand’ a film that very strongly reminded me of the work of Norman J. Warren for some reason…only, without the sensationalist streak that made me appreciate Warren as a film maker.

The plots pretty standard. It’s another ‘runaround’ Short featuring a soldier sent by his officer to retrieve a note from a discreet location, on arriving he’s met by a sheepish woman who nervously hands him the letter, but on leaving the location both the woman and a man wearing goggles and black face jump him and leave him for dead.

What follows is 10-15 minutes then of our soldier slowly dying and the tension is in whether he can still deliver the letter AND figure out what’s going on.

And…its fine…a little dull honestly…but fine. I liked the direction, cine and tone of the piece. But the script and performances really let this one down in a big way. With an ending that’s both predictable and uninspiring…one I may revisit in future as it does have some compelling direction. But far from an essential watch.

As for Short Sharp Shocks volume 1? It’s a difficult one honestly, a lot of these films don’t deserve to rot away in an archive somewhere. Some really DO deserve to be seen! But I feel like this set is a bit misleading as a lot of these films barely have any sharp Shocks…most of them arnt even really that Short either…but then, I think a boxset called long, conveluted, sleeping aids wouldn’t have sold as well…hopefully volume 2 picks up the pace and meets the brief.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-errand/

A slightly grubby offering from the short sharp Shocks boxset, ‘The Sex Victims’ is a fine enough way to kill 37 minutes…but it’s not only one of those movies where, if you think about the ending for more than a minute, the whole film falls apart. And it REEKS of toxic masculinity.

The plot follows a 70s truck driver, looking to get his end away who, while on a new route, gets accosted by a gorgeous naked woman riding a horse.

Our driver thinks nothing of it, until the next time he runs the route it happens again. And this time the woman seems to know his name and act a little inviting.

Our driver (who can also ride horses) decides to find the nearest stables to the route and, if you couldn’t have guessed the owner of the stables is non other than our beautiful naked woman…now fully dressed and in ‘professional’ mode.

And what follows is a near enough 10 minute ‘prey being stalked by big macho man’ runaround in the woods, as our lady turns up in lingerie and our man becomes ever hornier. With a twist you’ll probably get almost immediately honestly…

Kind of predictable and a little icky by 2024 standards, I don’t really have any flaws perse for this one…its just kind of average for the 70s…though, it did give me a great idea for a horror movie called ’70s man’ in which a stereotypical chauvinistic sexist 70s man is transported to the modern day and chases women for ‘nookie’…a genuinely haunting concept.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-sex-victims/

Another entry for the ‘Short Sharp Shocks’ collection. And this one’s probably been the strongest entry so far (or, if nothing else, the one that actually fits the remit of the short sharp Shocks set)

The plot follows a young couple fresh out of university, who’ve bought a house in their childhood village, with the aim of renovating it and turning it into a family home.

However, while they were at university, the previous owner went mad, murdered his wife, children and all the livestock on the land, and then vanished.

While celebrating with a picnic in a nearby field, the couple begin to realise things may not be as serine as hoped…

I won’t say this one is anything remarkable, for 70s contemporary horror it’s pretty standard fare. But it does manage to create a real sense of ominous foreboding and while I think your milage may vary. The resolution is just unsettling enough to leave a lasting impression. I enjoyed this one…I could see it playing ahead of something like ‘Don’t Look now’ or maybe the original ‘Evil Dead’ as a kind of palette cleanser.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-lake-1978/

Disc 2 of the first volume of the ‘Short, Sharp Shocks’ set opens strong with ‘Twenty Nine’ a VERY 60s psychological thriller of sorts, following one Graham Baird, a 29 year old chap who wakes up in an unfamiliar apartment, with no memory as to how he got there. Slowly, as he explores the apartment he finds mementos that help him piece together his night, eventually leading him to his worst fears.

This was really well put together in my opinion, a very stylish production, that, while maybe not the best written in the world from a dialogue standpoint, was fantastic at leading the audience through its plot lines in a way that keeps you guessing right up to the end. The twist itself is satisfying and while I wouldn’t exactly say this was a ‘sharp shock’ its a slow burn piece that pays off satisfactorily.

The direction and cine are superb, the soundtrack is poppy with football chanting littered throughout giving a white noise effect.

Colour me impressed! It was an enjoyable half hour or so, and I look forward to rewatching it in future and seeing all the more subtle moments I missed that give the game away ahead of the formal reveal.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/twenty-nine/