Horror Hospital (1973)

"There's no need to get so uptight about this. I'm not going to rape you."

I was expecting this to be a cheesy British horror film typical of the horror films of its era. I was wrong. It's a serious, genuinely creepy and extremely well directed work of body horror and with a heavy subtext of a generational clash between the young baby boomer generation and its jealous elders who want to get all that free love by any means necessary.

Michael Gough absolutely shines as the villainous lead, pretty much the equal of a Lee or a Cushing. It's good to see Skip Martin, although it's sad how his dwarf character is fatally bullied even by the "heroes".

I'm not saying this is up there with the best horrors, of course, but it's effectively shot, from the opening set piece of the fleeing, bloodied couple being decapitated by the blade in the car to the operation on Judy, shot from above. And the visceral horror of Dr Storm lobotomising his young victims (sex slaves?) is effectively disturbing. Incongruously there's a glam rock band at the start which is actually not bad, and even more incongruously there's Dennis Price as a camp blackmailer who meets the inevitable gruesome death that being gay in a film tended to lead to back in the early '70s.

Watching it now, in our very homebody 2020, it's also an unexpectedly charming period piece for the days of train carriage compartments, bands being called "groups" and gratuitous sex. The main character Jason may be a bit of a lecherous arse, but this film is much better than you'd expect, and well worth seeing.

The Prisoner: Free for All

"Very good technique. Where did you get him?

"The Civil Service. He adapted immediately."

I know it's been a while since the last episode. Fear not; I spent a week not watching stuff while I applied for a promotion at work (fingers crossed!) and blogged only a couple of things I'd prepared earlier since that time, and afterwards I focused on current telly first. Fear not, The Prisoner will continue until the end.

Anyway, this is clearly a Very Important Episode, as Patrick McGoohan both writes (under a pseudonym) and directs. It’s also one with a very obvious subtext. It’s election time in the Village and Number Two (Eric Portman this time) decides that this time for once, he should be opposed, and Number Six accepts the challenge, not entirely seriously, using his candidacy as an excuse to goad the council, who are essentially a rubber stamp, giving a rather magnificent speech. At first, he’s the candidate of freedom, but he’s soon brainwashed, in a delightful scene with a former civil servant. So we have the prospect of someone with ideals standing for office and immediately abandoning those ideals in favour of the vested interests of the status quo. Of course, this would never happen in reality.

Before the election Number Six finally finds a place where he can get a proper drink (hallelujah) where he finds Number Two, who in private (a rare situation) is just as jaded with the Village as he is. Number Six wins by a landslide, but turns out to have no actual power and is beaten up, while the foreign maid-cum-spy who has been with him all episode turns out to be the new Number Two. It’s a superb indictment of the perceived impotence of the democratic process and, while I’m not at all in favour of “they’re all the same” apathy, especially in the current age of populism, Trump, Brexit and other dangerous nonsense, this has some considerable bite.

All this happens amongst lots and lots of splendidly disorienting surrealism, dreamlike, druggy, and utterly 1967. It’s a truly excellent episode.